• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 15, 2014

Marketers spent 22% globally on search engine marketing in Q3 2014, per a report released Wednesday. In the U.S. that equates to 4% year-on-year, but in Europe marketers spent 32% more. Great Britain rose 8% during the same time. Smartphone paid-search traffic will take the biggest chunk of budgets in 2015. This year's increase per search engine varied widely -- but in sometimes unexpected ways.

The Adobe Digital Index Q3 Digital Advertising report found that while Google still holds the title of being the dominant engine to refer traffic, with more than 25% of all non-app visits to Web sites, but Bing produced the highest referred revenue per visitor to retail sites from search and social non-app traffic.

Google still leads in click-through rate growth, up 14% year-on-year at a lower cost per click of 4% compared with the Bing Yahoo network at 8% and 12, respectively.

Sid Shah, Adobe director of analytics for advertising solutions, said Google holds about 70% market share and the Bing-Yahoo network about 30%. "We're finding the automotive and the retail sectors are doing well and increasing the amount spent on advertising," he said.

Overall, during the third quarter in 2014, marketers spent more on Google Shopping Ads performing paid-search ads by 35%. Shaw expects marketers to invest more in Shopping Ads in Q4 -- becoming 25% of Google search spend within a year, up from between 15% and 18%. Shah attributes the jump to maturity and campaign changes in Merchant Center and AdWords, making it easier to bid on specific ad types.

Search engine marketing spend will grow between 10% and 25% during the coming year. Trends show that macroeconomic data such as weather and unemployment stats will integrate with search targeting. Mobile traffic continues to increase. Shaw estimates that 40% of all paid-search traffic will come from smartphones in 2015. "It will be interesting to see how Google, Bing and Yahoo show the value of mobile traffic," he said. "More traffic means CPCs will decline."

Google still holds the title of being the dominant engine to refer traffic. In Q3, the engine referred more than 25% of all non-app visits to Web sites, but Bing produced the highest referred revenue per visitor to retail sites from search and social non-app traffic, per the report.