Research by eMarketer has revealed how the US search advertising landscape is evolving. Search ad spending in the country is growing strongly, with this being driven by mobile ad placements. Mobile ad spend will grow by almost 25% this year, whilst spending on desktop- and laptop-based placements is set to decline. Mobile now well and truly dominates search advertising, with 70% of all search ad spend in the US set to go on mobile this year. This figure is predicted to reach 80% in 2021. When it comes to which search engines Americans are using, Google comes out on top. According to a separate report from Merkle, 89% of search ad clicks that took place in Q2 2016 were on Google. Keyword targeting remains the core method that search advertisers are using, but an increasing number are also turning their attention to other targeting methods, such as location and demographic-based methods. Looking at where search marketing is headed, the report predicts that voice search, visual search and digital assistants will play a big part in the future direction of the industry.
