In the UK, Google still holds the lion’s share of search ad revenue. However, the eMarketer report now shows that Amazon could dominate in the next few years. Currently, Google is still the leader in search advertising, but its net revenue has registered a drop with about one percent since 2018, as found in the report. Between now and 2021, the search engine could lose about 2 percent of its points in search ad revenue.
Over the next two years, the report shows that only Amazon could gain in search ad revenue share. Last year 2018, it overtook Microsoft to take the second position in terms of the largest search ad seller. According to the new report, the overall search advertising spending may grow by 18 percent. Google is projected to have a market share of about 73 percent by the close of 2019. By 2021, the shares may see a drop of 71 percent. Through 2023, search ads may hold less than 43 percent shares.
Why Google is Hard to Break
Google has a deal with Apple, whereby it pays for the ad traffic produced by the users. Historically, Google has been good at monetising its paid search traffic. If it monetises its search traffic more, it could bid more to pay for its place as a default search engine. This could be possible, given that the search ad king has more data and advertisers competing for its ad slots.
Each year, new statistics show that shoppers start their product searches on Amazon. It could be easy to tell why. First, the ecommerce service provider has what is estimated to be 100 million members, prompting them to use the platform as their search engine for lower prices and quick shipping. Google would hope that all these shoppers start their search on its engine. Could the idea of Amazon taking out Google be overrated?
Well, first, Amazon sells products. Because it does not offer home and business services, the total number of searches is limited. Also, not every brand depends on Amazon. It means that potential buyers who may start their search on Amazon may still end up on Google. More so, Amazon gets most of its traffic from Google. The search ad king also accounts for close to half of all paid traffic originating from most browsers.
Despite the growing Amazon market share, Google still holds the top digital advertising platform. On both mobile devices and the desktop, users will not remove google as the primary recipient of their search inquiries. This is especially true due to the chrome browser and Android OS which are default to Google.
Searchers also tend to choose the search giant over other engines even when there is an option to make others the default. In the future, eMarketer projects voice search ads in search advertising, while platforms such as Pinterest could benefit from visual search ads. Unforeseen and abrupt changes will certainly come, and it could be the case with ad search in the UK. Although the competition is tough, Google seems to be ready to keep dominating the search ad space.
