Dive Brief:
- For the second year in a row, and only the second year ever, search advertising is predicted to decline — this year by $1.4 billion, according to eMarketer.
- Mobile search's popularity is on the rise, so advertisers are following consumers and taking ad dollars with them. Mobile ads only bring in about one third of the price of those on desktop, so companies with a stake in both are still in financial risk.
- Google, the far-and-away leader, won't be hurting, as its search ad revenue is expected to drop $770 million while its mobile ad revenue grows by $1.76 billion.
Dive Insight:
This situation is due in large part to the undervalued worth of mobile search ads. On the whole, mobile ads don't bring in the revenue that desktop ads do, even though the user base is increasingly mobile. The solution is either to increase the volume of mobile search, find other avenues of ad revenue, or wait until the market values mobile search to the same extent as desktop.
