Global Online Advertising Grew 10%, While CTR Rose and CPC Fell in Q3 2011

According to IgnitionOne’s “Global Online Advertising Report: Q3 2011,” global online advertising spend grew 10 percent year-over-year in the third quarter. Meanwhile, separate data from Marin Software shows that advertisers increased click-through rates (CTR) while reducing their cost per click (CPC) during the quarter.

U.S. paid-search spend grew 7 percent year-over-year in the third quarter and 4 percent quarter-over-quarter, according to IgnitionOne. This compares to growth of 6 percent year-over-year and 3.5 percent quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter of 2010.

In Europe, paid-search spend grew 20 percent year-over-year, but slowed down with each month in the quarter, from 42.5 percent in July to 19.1 percent in August to 3.5 percent in September.

Google claimed 81.6 percent of all search-advertising spend in the third quarter, while Yahoo-Bing claimed 18.4 percent of search advertising spend.

Retailers increased their search-advertising spend by 22 percent year-over-year, but conversion rates declined 15.7 percent and the average order values fell 5.1 percent, according to IgnitionOne.

Impressions in display advertising rose 58.0 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, while spend increased 21.0 percent and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) fell 23.4 percent.

“Display continues to experience healthy growth as more advertisers increase their investments, namely in display advertising sold via real-time bidding (RTB),” the report noted. “CPMs on RTB display are also declining as more inventory floods the market, making it an increasingly more cost-effective channel for advertiser’s budgets.”

According to Marin Software, click volume in the third quarter rose 22 percent year-over-year, while CTR rose to 1.95 percent from 1.38 percent in the same period in 2010.

CPC settled in at $0.71 in the third quarter, unchanged from the second quarter but down from $0.89 in the same quarter last year.

Marin Software reported that CTR for Google was 2.46 percent in the third quarter, up from 2.13 percent in the second quarter and up from 1.57 percent in the third quarter of 2010.

CPC for Google was $0.74 in the third quarter, down from $0.77 in the second quarter and down from $0.90 in the third quarter of 2010.

CTR for Yahoo-Bing was 1.55 percent in the third quarter, up from 1.43 percent in the second quarter but down from 1.73 percent in the third quarter of 2010.

Meanwhile, CPC for Yahoo-Bing was $0.74 in the third quarter, down from $0.78 in the second quarter and down from $0.83 in the third quarter of last year.

Sources:

http://www.ignitionone.com/en/press/q3-online-advertising-growth-gives-rise-cautious-optimism

http://www.marinsoftware.com/downloads/Q3_2011_benchmark_whitepaper.pdf