• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 5, 2013

U.S. retailers spent the most on paid-search ads during the holiday weekend, with an emphasis on mobile devices.

Smartphones rose 542% year-over-year (YoY) during the four-day weekend, peaking at more than 1000% growth on Thanksgiving Day. The cost per click for smartphones also grew 134%, compared with the 2012 holiday weekend, all per the IgnitionOne mid-quarter report highlighting a strong Thanksgiving weekend for digital marketing across search and display.

Overall, impressions rose 40% compared with the 2012 shopping weekend, but clicks only rose 4% YoY.

Backing into the weekend, U.S. retailers spent 32% of budgets on Cyber Monday, 18% on Sunday, 11% on Saturday, 24% on Black Friday and 15% on Thanksgiving Day. Surprisingly, retailers spent 71% more on Thanksgiving Day compared with the prior year.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday also played an important role for display advertising. Conversions resulting in sales rose 20% on Black Friday and 32% on Cyber Monday compared with last year, per the report. Retailers saw a bigger jump in conversions, with a 52% increase on Black Friday and a 79% increase on Cyber Monday YoY.

Other programmatic display metrics improved as well, with a 49% YoY increase in impressions for Black Friday and a 55% increase for Cyber Monday. CPMs decreased YoY at the same time -- down 73% for Black Friday and 77% on Cyber Monday.