Cost-per-click for Google product listing ads (PLAs) jumped by 80% year-over-year during Q4 2013, all the while maintaining a relatively steady ROI, according to an Adobe Digital Index analysis of almost 7 billion paid clicks. It’s the latest data set to show a rapid rise for PLAs, which Adobe says now generate more paid search clicks than Yahoo Bing for some retailers.
According to Adobe, retailers who use PLAs and standard text ads saw roughly 22% of their paid search clicks come from PLAs during the Q4 2012-Q4 2013 period, edging the share seen from Yahoo Bing (20%). (Standard Google text ads generated the remaining 58%.)
Here are some Q4 2013 PLA highlights from recent studies concerning paid search:
- According to IgnitionOne, US advertisers who used PLAs increased their Q4 2013 spending by a massive 618% year-over-year (with that high growth likely due to a small base to begin with). CTRs for product listing ads outperformed comparable rates for PPC ads for the duration of the quarter.
- Kenshoo’s retail clients upped their spending on product listing ads by 138% year-over-year in Q4, achieving a return of $8.84 for every dollar spent.
- RKG reports that PLAs accounted for 42% of Google non-brand ad clicks. Compared to non-brand text ads, PLAs had an 18% higher ROI and a 59% higher conversion rate.
- According to The Search Agents, PLA spending grew by 165% year-over-year in Q4, while impressions were up 83% and clicks 98%. Almost 1 in 4 PLA clicks occurred on a tablet (16.1%) or smartphone (8.2%), up from just 4.2% share a year earlier.