
by Laurie Sullivan, Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Marketers scrambling to understand mobile search campaigns once thought it easier to build and launch an app. Now, when it comes to investing budgets in search on mobile, many have begun to quicken their pace.
Mobile spending will rise 95% this year to account for 20% of all digital budgets spent on ads, and 5% of total media ad spend, according to a report from eMarketer. The research firm released findings that show 21% of search budgets will go toward mobile this year in the U.S., rising to nearly 60% of all dollars spent on mobile by 2017.
Total U.S. search budgets will reach $19.6 billion this year, including desktop and laptop, mobile phones, tablets and other connected devices. Mobile search will take $4.3 billion this year, $6.6 billion in 2014, and $9.3 billion in 2015.
eMarketer expects that 51.5% of all spending on mobile ads will go toward search, compared with 44.8% for display ads like banners, videos and other formats. Display formats continue to grow at a faster clip compared with search -- but not fast enough to overtake search spending by 2017, according to the report.
The increased investments in mobile search campaigns have begun to give smaller search marketing agencies an edge.
Silicon Valley PPC Associates works with more than 70 clients managing about $175 million in annual spend. It generated 70% year-to-year growth supporting clients like GoPro, 23andMe, OpenTable, Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, and RentTheRunway.