Search advertising is one of the original digital ad formats, with the first search auction taking place many years ago. From a global perspective, search holds by far the largest share of digital advertsing budgets, with neary half of the total pie but in Belgium it’s not the case yet.
Discover our latest whitepaper about Search in Belgium and abroad.
Overview about the various headings of this whitepaper
The rise of mobile search
One of the many ways that search advertising has evolved over the past few years is its shift towards mobile devices. This follows shifts in consumer search activity. Today, 40% of search advertising revenues come from mobile search clicks, and the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon as an increasing number of global consumers are not just mobile first, but mobile only.
Search spent is highly concentrated
Only thirteen global markets have more than $1bn in search advertising spend, so market scale quickly drops off beyond the top global markets.
Search: a key component of Advertiser’s Budgets
Advertisers know that Search generates leads and business, and that’s why they continue to pile money into search advertising.
The future of search
– Over the past couple of years, there has been a key shift in search dynamics: the rise of no-click searches.
– Search is more and more decentralised and goes beyond Google. As technology evolves, so does the way people find and connect with the things that matter to them. Google remains King (for now at least) but alarmingly for our Sovereign, parts of its ream are under siege. It’s crucial that brands keep up with what’s happening across the search kingdom and form strong alliances with these ‘invaders’ – in these complex times, backing one horse is not an option.
– Transactional search
Amazon has overtaken Google as the place people
start when searching for a product to buy online
– Informational search
Google has confirmed that 20% of search queries on its app and Android devices are voice
searches. Meanwhile, a recent study predicted that by 2019, 20% of all smartphone interactions
will take place via virtual personal assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa and Cortana. Of
these, only Google Assistant takes its results from Google, with the other three using Bing.
– Voice search: search is a tool for consumers to discover information and streamline the workings of their lives. It’s about convenience, and finding out what is needed right now, as fast and as easily as possible. With the rapid transition to mobile devices, voice search has gained in appeal and convenience. Within five years, the majority of searches will be executed through voice rather than text.
– Visual search: Products like Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and Bing Visual Search are harnessing those visual signals for consumers. This is at the least an automatic image search.
-Search and Social, better together