NEW YORK, April 1, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IgnitionOne, a global marketing cloud leader, released its Q1 2015 Digital Marketing Report today, highlighting trends and data for digital marketing across search, programmatic display, social and mobile. The report is the latest in the longest continuous and comprehensive study on SEM and Digital trends. The Q1 report highlights the highest year-over-year (YoY) growth in U.S. paid search spend in three years at 26%. This is the third-highest percentage growth in a quarter reaching back six years. Mobile devices, of which smartphones showed an 81% YoY increase in spend, was the major factor in driving this growth.
Programmatic display continued to expand with major marketers and their agencies, growing 36% in spend YoY with Facebook's Exchange (FBX) ads contributing to the growth with a 46% increase.
Digital marketing figures are released quarterly by IgnitionOne, which manages more than $1.5 billion in digital spend and tracks over $30 billion in revenue for its customers.
Key findings in the report:
- Strongest search spend growth in three years – U.S. paid search spend grew 26% YoY in Q1, following a Q4 that was the best growth for 2014. Credit for this growth includes the improving economy and the growth of mobile.
- Mobile search growth high but continues to normalize – U.S. spending growth for tablets is up 39% YoY while phones spend is up 81%. IgnitionOne also uncovered an increase in mobile impressions (up 26% for phones; 24% for tablets). Yahoo!/Bing's update to Enhanced Campaigns has contributed to some of this growth.
- Yahoo!/Bing grow market share for third straight quarter – The Yahoo!/Bing network grew its U.S. search market share in Q1 to 26.9% of spend vs. Google's 73.1%. This continues to be the highest market share for Yahoo!/Bing since before the Search Alliance was founded and is the lowest share for Google since Q3 of 2008.
- Programmatic display grows – U.S. display spend was up 34% in Q1 as compared to the previous year. Display saw a decrease in impressions of -18% YoY, which can largely be attributed to the huge drop in Facebook impressions due to their reduction of the number of ads shown.
- Facebook more than triples eCPM – Bringing their FBX eCPM almost on par with display ads on Google, Facebook's spend grew by 46% while reducing impressions by 90% YoY.
- Mobile display continues to explode – IgnitionOne data reveals total mobile display business growth in Q1 YoY, with impressions up 85% and spend up 143%.
"While many have claimed Google is in decline, that is clearly not happening based on this data. Digital marketing continues to grow and Google is growing with it," said Will Margiloff, CEO of IgnitionOne. "However, Google is not the juggernaut it used to be. It faces stiff and unyielding competition on all fronts of their vast multifaceted business in ways it hasn't experienced for many years. It remains to be seen whether or not they can regain their previous momentum."
This report is the latest in a series of reports from IgnitionOne, reviewing trends across the online advertising landscape. This and previous quarterly reports can be downloaded in full at http://www.ignitionone.com/thought-leadership/.
About IgnitionOne
IgnitionOne is a global marketing cloud leader. The company's Digital Marketing Suite (DMS), with a powerful data management platform (DMP) at its core, simplifies life for marketers by providing an integrated suite of solutions that significantly improve digital marketing performance across all devices. The DMS encompasses algorithmic media management across channels such as search, programmatic display, mobile, email and social; advanced data management; user scoring, lead optimization and website personalization. With a global footprint of over 450 employees in 17 offices across 10 countries, IgnitionOne is one of the largest independent marketing technology companies in the world.
IgnitionOne currently scores over 300 million users monthly in 75 countries and powers more than $30 billion in revenue each year for leading brands, including General Motors, CenturyLink, Bridgestone, La Quinta and Fiat, as well as advertising agencies such as 360i, GroupM and iProspect.
For more information, please visit http://www.ignitionone.com, follow the company on Twitter @ignitionone or visit the blog at http://www.digitalmarketingsuite.com.