Chinese search engine Baidu’s share of global paid search clicks continues to grow, according to [download page] Covario’s latest analysis of pay-per-click advertising by its enterprise technology, consumer electronics, and retail clients. In Q2, Baidu accounted for 27% share of all clicks (up from roughly a quarter in Q1), despite capturing only about 7% of all spend. Google dominated with 86% share of spend, while accounting for a relatively smaller 62% of clicks. Both of those latter figures were unchanged from the first quarter – as Baidu’s slight gain in share of clicks and spend came at the expense of Yahoo-Bing. Indeed, as of Q2, it appears from the study that Baidu now commands slightly more spending than Yahoo-Bing.
Of course, that spending is largely local to the Asia-Pacific market, where advertisers hiked their Baidu budgets by 71%. (A new study from CNZZ, reported by Search Engine Watch, suggests that Baidu held 65.7% market share in China in June, compared to 3% for Google and about 1% for Yahoo and Bing.)
Overall, spending on Baidu grew by 22% year-over-year and 70% quarter-over-quarter. By comparison, spending on Google was up by 13% year-over-year, while investments in paid search on Yahoo-Bing grew by 23%.
Global keyword pricing trended up again in Q2, increasing by 10% quarter-over-quarter and by 24% year-over-year. Looking at the major search engines, CPCs on Google increased by 13% year-over-year (and 16% quarter-over-quarter), Yahoo-Bing’s average CPC declined by 24% year-over-year, while Yandex CPCs were down 47% and Baidu’s were up 42%.
Other Findings:
- Overall search ad spending among Covario’s clients increased by 23% year-over-year in Q2.
- Spending and click-through rate (+27% year-over-year) growth was offset by the 24% rise in CPCs, leading to a slightly decline (-1%) in click volume.
- Mobile advertising spend increased by 39% quarter-over-quarter and by 132% year-over-year, a trend also noted by IgnitionOne. According to Covario, tablets accounted for 60% of mobile spend, down from 64% in Q1. Smartphones and tablets now account for 16% of global spend among Covario’s clients.
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.
