Significant Mobile Growth Drives Digital Marketing in the Second Quarter of 2015

The 'year of mobile' is finally catching up to reality, according to new research.

Savvy marketers have joined the digital bandwagon, optimising their strategies and advertising to align with consumers' increasing reliance on digital channels, but what are the best ways to reach customers when the number of available touch points only seems to be growing?

SEE ALSO: How Can You Evolve Your Marketing Strategy for the Digital Era?

New research by software company Kenshoo, shows that mobile is one safe bet in today's digital world as marketers have reached more consumers via mobile devices in the second quarter of this year.

The study shows that mobile (phone and tablet) year-over-year (YoY) spend has increased 167 per cent for paid social ads and 37 per cent for paid search.

In total, mobile comprised 63 per cent of paid social spend (up from 51 per cent last year) and 38 per cent of paid search spend (up from 31 per cent).

Chris Costello, director of marketing research for Kenshoo, said: "For many years running we've heard 'this is the year of mobile,' and reality has caught up to the hype.

"Advanced marketers have truly begun to understand how to achieve efficiencies across devices and channels to generate increased revenue and ROI.

"Continued growth in spend and decreasing costs show marketers and consumers alike finding value in highly relevant ads, no matter their preferred channel or device."

Noteworthy, cost-per-click (CPC) for social and search declined quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) (-12 per cent and -4 per cent respectively) and YoY (-7 per cent and -5 per cent respectively), showing greater efficiencies across channels and devices.

On the plus side, social clicks increased 45 per cent QoQ and 129 per cent YoY, and social click-through rate increased 44 per cent QoQ and a massive 535 per cent YoY.

Paid search clicks increased 9 per cent QoQ and 17 per cent YoY, while said search click-through rate decreased 4 per cent QoQ yet increased by a slight 4 per cent YoY.

Regionally, in the Americas, smartphone spend and clicks increased 77 per cent and 79 per cent YoY respectively. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa smartphone spend and clicks increased 46 per cent and 52 per cent YoY respectively. And in Asia Pacific Japan smartphone spend and clicks increased 69 per cent and 68 per cent YoY respectively.