Have paid search click-through rates risen since this time last year? According to data collected in quarter 3 of 2016 yes! In fact, it’s reported that click through rates have risen a whopping 38%!
One of the main reasons CTR’s have increased could be in part to Google killing off the right-hand-side ads in February of this year. Another reason could be Google’s new extended ads which allow advertisers to add more content to their ads. These extended text ads accounted for 29% of search spend during the month of September.
Another major advertising trend seen in the past few months includes online retail advertisers increasing their use of specialized product-focused ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google which could also be leading to an increase in click through rates.
Social media advertising and video advertising has increased dramatically especially on mobile. In fact, click-through rates on social ads are up 21% since last year and social ad spend directed at mobile has increased by 61% with mobile devices now accounting for 70% of all paid social clicks. In search, mobile spend and clicks are up 39% and 48% respectively since last year. Mobile now accounts for 35% of all search spend and 43% of all clicks!
It is no surprise that mobile is beginning to take over clicks as more and more people search for goods and services through their mobile device. Google know this information and is using it to continually upgrade their algorithms. In fact, Google has recently announced that they will begin to separate mobile search index from desktop in the near future.