By the end of 2012, tablets and smartphones are to make up between 16 and 22 per cent of all paid search share, according to a report by the Macquarie Group. The study, which used data provided by Efficient Frontier, found that mobile spend is currently 6.5 per cent of all search spend, 2.7 times higher than a year ago.

Jonathan Beeston, global marketing director for Efficient Frontier, says: “Weve every reason to expect that in the UK well see a similar explosion of growth, but around 6 – 9 months behind the US.”

Tablets took up 43 per cent of the mobile device spend share between August to October 2011, with 77 per cent of all mobile traffic coming from tablet devices. Tablets now make up half of all click share on mobile devices, while conversion rates on tablets are now comparable to that of desktop search.

The study also recorded usage patterns for desktop, mobile phones and tablets across the day. As seen in the infographic (click to enlarge) all devices start to show increased usage at 8am when people start their day. However, in the evenings, the patterns, are different. Mobile phones peak first at 7pm, followed by desktop at 8pm, and then tablets at 10pm, illustrating the different usage of each type of device.