Report: Google Shopping Ads Dominate Retail Search Spend

No matter how you slice it, Amazon.com is currently dominating the retail space. In fact, Amazon accounted for almost 50 percent of all e-commerce sales last year. As a result, retailers should be doing all they can to take advantage of every possible opportunity to find success. One way they’re doing this is by leveraging Google Shopping ads known as Product Listing Ads (PLAs), which have quickly become the most popular ad format for retailers. These ads are so popular that their spend has far eclipsed that of text ads.

To dive deeper into this trend, we at Adthena, an artificial intelligence-powered search intelligence platform, recently released a report called The Rise of Google Shopping. For the report, we analyzed Google Shopping ad spend in 40 million ads across more than 260,000 U.S. and U.K. advertisers in the first quarter of 2018. The report details some of the ways that Google Shopping ads are impacting today’s retail landscape.

Here’s a closer look at some of the key findings from the report.

Google Shopping Ads Account for 80% of All Search Spend

From desktop to mobile, the data shows that Google Shopping ads are now the most attractive units for retail advertisers. And, in terms of search, they’re instrumental in setting the stage. So far this year, Google Shopping ads have driven 76.4 percent of retail search ad spend. In addition, our study discovered that this percentage of search spend generated more than 85 percent of all clicks.

Mobile PLAs Drove Nearly 40% of All Search Ad Spend

For retail advertisers in the U.S. and U.K., the shifting of search ad spend into mobile PLAs has changed the search landscape. Our analysis found that mobile PLAs comprise 38.6 percent of a retailer’s total search ad spend. PLA mobile campaigns also received about 42 percent of all clicks in retail search advertising. What’s more, Google shopping ads on mobile drove 79 percent of device ad spend and win 87.2 percent of clicks. Retailers advertise on more search terms for mobile PLAs than any other in the U.S., suggesting that there’s been a slightly greater adoption of mobile PLAs in the U.S. than the U.K.

Fashion and Apparel Retailers Use Google Shopping the Most

Fashion and apparel advertisers based in the U.S. were the most dedicated users of Google Shopping ads. In fashion and apparel, ad spend amounts to 36.9 percent. And in consumer electronics in the U.S., this figure is 48.4 percent. The equivalent Google Shopping figures on desktop were 47.7 percent and 37.6 percent, respectively. In addition, PLAs fueled just under 85 percent of all search ad spend in the category, winning nearly 90 percent of all clicks.

For leading retailers, scaling and optimizing existing Google Shopping campaigns will be a major focus for 2018, as the industry streamlines the iterative testing of new keywords, ads and bidding strategies.

Ashley Fletcher is the vice president of marketing at Adthena.