• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 7, 2018

iProspect released a Paid Search Trends report for the second quarter in 2018, analyzing the drop in click-through and strong engagement rates.

The cost per click rose 6% in the quarter from the start of the year, a trend iProspect tracked in previous years. The agency noted that while Google continues to dominate search, Bing market share climbed in the quarter, making up 27% of overall search impression volume.

Bing’s market share rose 22% YoY, from 22% to 27%. Comparing that with Google, Bing’s CPCs are 27% higher and their CTR is 39% higher.

Mobile drove 57% of the search traffic share and many verticals saw a quarter-over-quarter increase in CPCs in the second quarter. Overall, mobile took 49% of investment share.

As more advertisers opt into mobile, iPropect sees CPCs consistently rising each quarter, with mobile up 8% YoY. Desktop investments dropped 1% YoY in the quarter, the report notes a traffic increase of 4% due to a 5% decrease in CPC.

Shopping investment also continues to rise across advertisers, with costs up 18% since Q2 2017. The industry should see added upticks as marketers prep for the holidays.