Retail Search Ad Spend Shifted from Text to Shopping Ads on Desktop

This report certainly is not going to be taken very positively by those retailers who spend a big money on their Google text ads and get a good stack of their revenue by running these ads. Shopping ad growth continues to cannibalize text ad spend on the desktop. Retail spends shifted significantly from paid search text ads to paid search shopping ads on the desktop this Black Friday weekend compared to a year ago.  

According to a report from paid search insights firm AdGooroo, a Kantar Media company, from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, advertisers spent $8.9 million on Google's desktop text ads across the keyword set analyzed in the US this year compared to $15.4 million in 2015. This report is based on analysis of 2,500 top retail product keywords. On the other side, Product listing ad spends on the desktop increased from $2.9 million in 2015 to $9.6 million during the period in 2016. That’s a total spend of $18.5 million in 2016 compared to a slightly lower $18.3 million a year ago.  

Pic Credit: Kantar Media Company

Amazon led the pack in terms of click share from text ads on Google's desktop, garnering 6.3 percent of clicks over the weekend. Walmart accounted for 8.1 percent of desktop product listing ad clicks for the period.