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This Valentine's Day, you're probably leaving the office to enjoy a romantic dinner at a trendy new restaurant with your sweetheart or perhaps going home to a bottle of wine and heart-shaped pizza with your girlfriends. No matter your post-work plans this Valentine's Day, the real Valentine all marketers and advertisers should all be falling in love with is Google.
In 2016, Google reached $57.8 billion in total digital ad revenue globally, a 9% increase from the previous year, according to eMarketer. Google owns 30.9% of the total digital ad revenue worldwide. Historically the Google.com search page was users first point of interaction with the platform. However, today we're seeing a shift from desktop to mobile preference.
According to Google, "more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the U.S. and Japan" as of May 2015. This past year, the percentage of shopping-related Google searches done on a mobile device has risen by 30%. In total, Google owns over 55% of all search ad revenue globally. While Google doesn't break out its official revenue numbers by desktop and mobile, eMarketer estimates that 51% of that search revenue in 2016 was mobile, likely to reach 63% by 2018.
This data tells us two things...
All advertisers and marketers have some sort of relationship with Google. However, we all know that in any relationship, it's important to keep things fresh. What worked years ago may not in the present. So if your Google advertising strategies have gone bland, consider how the following brands have strengthened their relationships with Google.
All of you retail advertisers out there, consider Adore Me's, women's intimates e-retailer, Valentine's Day strategy and success in February 2016. The brand wanted to use Valentine's Day as the perfect time to grow their user base, specifically through increasing app installs, and increase sales. They decided to create a Google Search app campaign for the Adore Me mobile app, targeting customers with relevant keywords for Valentine's Day. As a result, the brand saw a 4x higher in-app conversion rate, a 60% lower CPI (cost per install), and a 30% increase in sales within four months.
If you're in the automotive industry or just want to blow this Valentine's Day out of the park by buying your sweetie a new car, consider this success story about Nissan UK. Buying a car is a huge journey. It begins with a large amount of time spent on discovery. Car buyers start with a search. After an extensive amount of research, people usually come to the dealership with the car they want to buy in mind. AdWords allows Nissan to map a car buyer's journey and reach them in their moment of intent. Google AdWords allows Nissan to look as deep as what keywords are driving people into the dealership. As a result of enlisting the help of AdWords, Nissan has seen a 6.04% conversion rate on in-store visits from search clicks on mobile, and a 25 Pound ROI.
Google's advertising opportunities are expansive, with opportunities for all types of industries, campaigns, and company sizes. In our case, Google is the perfect platform to search for, as an example, those last minute gift ideas for your significant other. Take the data below as you will, but clearly this time of year lights a fire under people differently. Regardless, Google has you covered! And as you make those Valentine's Day searches, pay attention to how brands are reaching out to you. You may just get ideas for your next Google ad campaign!
Check out our latest report, The Future of Advertising, to learn more about advertising today!