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Mike Fuentes
Google still dominates in mobile ad revenue, but it has some fast-growing competition.
- Richard Brandt, Contributor
Google may be the world's online search advertising powerhouse, but in the narrower (and fast-growing) segment of mobile search advertising, it's encountering some powerful competition. The difficulty is that, right now, it's difficult to figure out exactly who that competition is.
A new study from eMarketer.com concludes that Google's share of mobile search ad spending dropped to 68.5% of the total in 2013, down from 82.8% in 2012. Where did that market share go? Mostly to the category that eMarketer is calling “Other” — at least for now. That category captured 22.9% of mobile search ad spending in 2013, up dramatically from 5.4% in 2012.
When it comes to search ads on mobile devices, “Google is not expanding as much as you think they should, given their strength in the desktop,” said Cathy Boyle, senior analyst, mobile at eMarketer.
The Other category is dominated by mobile apps, some of them downloaded by the device owners and some of them pre-loaded into their new devices by their service providers. Some examples include metasearch apps such as Kayak, job search apps such as Indeed, ecommerce apps such as Amazon, and contextual apps such as Shazam. All of these companies charge advertisers for search listings.
People are thinking about search differently on their mobile devices. They may not automatically go to a search engine or their browser as they might on a computer. They may be out shopping, then call up their Amazon app to do some price comparisons. Or they may be in a new town and call up their Yelp app to search for a nearby restaurant based on their GPS location. Often, the results they tap on are paid ads.
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