Google retained its dominant global search engine market share lead in Q4 2012 with 86.5% share of spending, 93% share of impressions, and 67.7% share of clicks, as advertisers increased their spending on the search engine by 13% year-over-year, details Covario [download page] in a new report. The study, which covers activity for its clients, consisting primarily of global high-tech and consumer electronics firms, reveals that the Chinese search engine, Baidu, accounted for “an incredible” 23% of all global clicks, despite holding 5% share of spend and impressions. Baidu enjoyed a 52% year-over-year increase in advertiser spending, while the Yahoo Bing Network also saw a healthy 23% increase. The Yahoo Bing Network captured 7.6% global market share in spending and 7.4% share of clicks for the quarter.
Global keyword pricing trended in different directions for the major platforms on a quarter-over-quarter basis, but were up by some margin universally on a year-over-year basis. Google’s average cost-per-click (CPC) increased by 12% year-over-year to $1.33, while Yahoo-Bing’s inched up 1% to $1.08. Yandex saw a more rapid rise of 29%, to $0.45, while Baidu’s average CPC grew by 10% to $0.22.
Looking at the mobile space, the report reveals that 64% share of mobile search spending was for tablets, compared to 36% for smartphones. That’s a reversal from last year, when smartphones accounted for 56% of mobile spend. That same trend towards tablet search spending was recently noted by IgnitionOne with regards to the US paid search market.
About the Data: Covario’s quarterly Global Paid Search Spend Analysis is based on the spending patterns of its customers, which consist of high-tech and consumer electronics firms that are global advertisers and leverage paid search advertising in more than 45 countries globally and on many different search engine platforms.