Facebook Ad Spend Doubles in a Year

Kenshoo infog croppedQuarterly global spend on Facebook advertising grew by 114 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q2 2015, twice as fast as a year ago, according to the latest data from in agile marketing software firm Kenshoo. Mobile phone and tablet ad spend is up 167 per cent YoY and together they now account for 63 per cent of total paid Facebook budgets, up from 51 per cent last year.

The data is presented in a new infographic, Kenshoo Digital Marketing Snapshot: Q2 2015, highlighting key quarterly metrics and benchmarks for paid search and Facebook advertising based on 550bn impressions, 9.5bn clicks and $5.5bn in advertiser spend through the Kenshoo Infinity Suite.

In paid search, the research reveals that quarterly spend increased by 10 per cent YoY, fuelled entirely by growth in mobile ads (71 per cent) and tablet ads (4 per cent), while desktop search spend decreased slightly (down 2 per cent). Mobile devices are playing an increasingly bigger role in search advertising, accounting for 38 per cent of spend (a 37 per cent YoY rise), 44 per cent of clicks, and 34 per cent of advertiser revenue.

“Both paid search and social are showing healthy increases in spend and clicks, with social obviously showing the much faster growth as it’s a far younger market,” said Rob Coyne, Kenshoo’s managing director for EMEA. “Existing social advertisers are ramping up spend and getting better results in terms of click volumes despite fewer available impressions, while new social advertisers are also entering the market. Mobile has been the key driver of growth in both search and social, with 36 per cent of revenue from advertiser sales now coming from mobile phones, up from 16 per cent last year.”

Total clicks from Facebook advertising increased by 129 per cent over the year on top of 64 per cent fewer impressions, demonstrating that marketers are becoming more savvy at driving clicks on (and engagement with) social ads. Facebook advertisers have also enjoyed a dramatic 535 per cent rise in clickthrough rate (CTR) as they adjust, adapt and take advantage of changes in the structure and available inventory of paid social publishers.

You can see the Kenshoo Digital Marketing Snapshot: Q2 2015 infographic here.