Mobile ads accounted for 88 per cent of social spending and 54 per cent of search spending in Q3 2019, according to the Q3 2019 Quarterly Trends Report from marketing technology firm Kenshoo, released today.

Kenshoo’s numbers are based on its own advertiser pool, with 15 consecutive months of performance data taken from a population of over 3,000 advertiser and agency accounts across 40 vertical industries and over 150 countries, spanning Google, Microsoft, Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo! Japan, Verizon Media, Amazon, Apple Search Ads, Pinterest, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and the Facebook Audience Network. The resulting sample includes more than 500bn impressions, 13bn clicks and $5.5bn in advertiser spending.

Social spending increased 32 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), while social impressions increased 36 per cent y-o-y, though social clicks increased by just 4 per cent y-o-y. Paid search spending increased 7 per cent y-o-y, while paid search impressions increased 29 per cent y-o-y and paid search clicks increased 15 per cent y-o-y.

Product ads remain a critical tool for Kenshoo advertisers in the eCommerce vertical, accounting for 39 per cent of Q3 search spending and 37 per cent of Q3 social spending. Advertisers that devoted less budget to direct response (DR) objectives spent more on Instagram in Q3; those who spent no money on DR spent 20 per cent of social budgets on Instagram, while those who spent their full budget on DR allocated only 7 per cent to Instagram. Over the last six months, Pinterest spending per month has increased nearly 30 per cent.

“As has traditionally been the case, Q3 served as the quiet before the holiday storm for social, paid search and ecommerce advertisers,” said Chris Costello, senior director of marketing research for Kenshoo. “That said, all three grew year-over-year as advertisers laid the foundation for the heavy Q4 push. Instagram, video and product ads remained the social darlings, serving as key drivers for growth in the channel, while shopping campaigns and mobile keywords once again drove paid search growth. For eCommerce advertisers, one big, two-day sale in July drove overall spending for the month to levels just shy of last November, which sets the table for another new high going into the holidays.”

You can download the full report here.