Google maintains its position as leader in search advertising, with net revenue dropping less than one per cent since last year.
According to a report from eMarketer, Google will net more than 73% of US search ad spending this year. Google is forecasted to lose only 2 percentage points in search ad revenue share between now and 2021.
As shown in the chart above, Amazon is the only company projected to gain search ad revenue share over the two years. Amazon surpassed Microsoft in 2018 to become second-largest search ad seller in the US.
“Amazon’s ad business, for example, has attracted massive increases in ad spending because advertisers can reach audiences via interest-based signals—product queries—and in a context where they’re ready to buy.”
Search ad spending is growing overall, with search outlays projected to rise by almost 18%. Similar increases will continue through 2021. As predicted by eMarketer, search advertising will hold on to just less than a 43% share of the total digital market through 2023.
Looking ahead, eMarketer believes the future of search advertising may include voice search ads, while visual search ads could take off on platforms like Pinterest.