Search advertising is expected to reach $190.5 billion in global spending in 2024, compared to $164.6 billion in 2022.
But Pay-per-click (PPC) is not only search. The advertisement model, while mainly mentioned with search, also works on video ads, displays, image ads, and paid socials.
PPC Statistics 2023 -2024 (Highlights)
Source: Wordstream
According to Google, PPC has an ROI of 200%. This means you will get a return of $2 for every $1 spent on a click.
The average cost per click for all industries and various social platforms is $2.59. For a small business, this could mean spending $10,000 per month on PPC campaigns.
This isn’t something you should dive into without researching the key PPC statistics.
- 33.3% of the world’s population buys something online.
- 65% of people click on ads if they are already searching for something to buy.
- 59% of shoppers look up a product first before making a purchase in-store or online.
Keeping shoppers behavior in mind, ad spending on search will reach $118.20 billion in the US in 2023. This is completely in line with the total advertising revenue in the US, which was $209.7 billion in 2022. Brands willingly spend the amount because PPC ads can increase brand awareness by 80%.
Of which, over 50% of paid clicks are transferred from mobile devices. Another 40% of online consumers trust ads displayed in search results.
The most common and preferred PPC campaign platform is Google. This is followed closely by Facebook, Instagram, Bing, and YouTube. Quora and Reddit get the least amount of interest from PPC advertisers. In fact, Apple gets more ads than these forums.
Both of these platforms have the lowest amount of active monthly users, so it’s understandable why advertisers don’t consider these platforms. Users on these platforms also have a lower chance of making a purchase, especially from ads.
They are here to get answers to a question or debate with someone. Availing a service or buying a product is the last thing on their mind.
And this is mostly how PPC works. It’s not meant to convince you to buy a product you don’t need but to get the right brand and product to you when you are ready for it.
PPC Revenue Statistics 2023 – 2024
When it comes down to it, pay-per-click generates more revenue than spending.
The ad spending is projected to grow by 8.69% by 2027. 75% of advertisers have the mindset to increase their ad budget next year.
This would not have happened if they were not getting the returns they were expecting.
Google had an ad revenue of $224.47 billion in 2022. This is solely from the 58% of the search advertising market Google had complete ownership over. In comparison, Amazon’s digital revenue was $37.7 billion in 2022.
Overall, mobile is the most effective way to reach customers via search ads. Mobile apps generated $935 billion in revenue in 2023 from in-app advertisements and paid downloads. Right now, the search advertising market stands to spend $231.80 by 2027 on mobile ads.
Since 60% of all searches happen on a mobile device, it stands to reason customers will click on your ad the most. Getting clicks is half the work done.
If they have the money to spare and the product aligns with what they want, your conversion rate should stay strong.
PPC Stats 2023: Google Ads Statistics
Almost all PPC campaigns start with Google ads. 98% of advertisers have a campaign on Google search running year-round.
In comparison, the second most chosen platform for PPC ads – Facebook- has the attention of 76% of marketers.
- The average cost per click on Google ads is $4.22.
- The average cost per lead on Google ads is $53.52.
- The cost per lead has increased for 91% company, with every company facing an average of 20% increase.
Google ads have a conversion rate of 7.04% and a click-through rate of 6.11%. The click-through rate, notably, had an increase of 3% from 2022. Meanwhile, the conversion rate has decreased by 10% across 91% of industries.
We are living in unstable economic times. People don’t feel comfortable ordering even a slice of Pizza without wondering if it’s compromising their monthly budget.
Is it surprising that the cost per lead is increasing while the conversion rate is slowing down? People can’t afford to buy or get a quote for a service even when they want to. The ads have to be so flashy, customers don’t feel they are wasting money on something unaffordable.
Cost per lead especially increased for career & employment, arts & entertainment, and real estate at 52%, 50%, and 40%, respectively.
On the other hand, a higher click-through rate indicates people do want to buy, they are just hesitant. The click-through rate is your chance to turn the negative conversion statistics into positive ones.
You need to entice them with ad copy which can blend in more effectively as organic.
For example, the arts and entertainment industry has the highest CTR at 11.78%. Yet, it is also the one with the highest increase in cost per lead. It is possible the positive CTR has led to the value of the arts and entertainment industry increasing, which is a good sign.
Sports and recreation have a CTR of 10.53% via search, while the travel industry’s CTR is 10.03%. In contrast, legal services and home improvements have the lowest CTR at 4.76% and 4.80%.
The difference in CTR could be simply occurring from user intent. A person searching for arts, sports, or travel may be on the lookout for a venue.
Someone looking for products tends to scroll past more, as they are bombarded with 30 options per page on desktop and 15 on mobile.
Plus, users can tell whether they want to click on the product from the virtual on the search page.
If you are in career and employment, finance, or real estate, a good alternative to creating PPC campaigns on Google is Bing. These industries have a conversion rate of 6.81%, 5.57%, and 5.13% on the Microsoft search platform.
As searches are primarily conducted on the desktop on Bing, as opposed to Google, Bing gets the attention of consumers who have a longer decision-making process.
PPC stats 2023- 2024: Facebook Ads Statistics
Source: WordStream
Facebook has a click-through rate of 0.90% on ads across all industries. Meanwhile, the average cost per click across all industries on Facebook is $1.72.
Not a bad number, considering the average conversion rate is 9.21%.
If you are in the apparel, travel, or retail business, your cost per click is significantly lower at $0.45, $0.63, and $0.70, respectively.
If you were to release ads on consumer service or home improvement, your cost per click would be $3.08 and $2.93, which is among the highest.
But just because the CPC is low for apparel and travel does not mean you should not have a well-planned budget. These are also industries with high audience reach and you could end up targeting people who won’t ultimately convert.
Although, it is still better than running ads in the finance industry, which has a cost per click of $3.77. It’s better than doing it on Google, maybe, where the CPC for the same industry is $50.
Overall, if we compare the conversion rate to CPC, the fitness industry has the highest returns at 14%.
Could this have something to do with Facebook’s total ad reach?
Facebook has 43.2% female users and 56.8% male users.
While the preference for fitness content may not have anything to do with their gender, it does have something to do with their age.
Facebook’s largest audience is 25 to 34 year olds at 29.6%.
- 508 million users are 18 to 24 year olds, making for 22.6%.
- 35 to 44 year olds are the third highest Facebook audience, accounting for 19%.
These are typically the ages at which you start caring more about your body and its habits. Even if half of us don’t end up following through, we do have a gym mat or two at home.
Similarly, education, real estate, and healthcare have high conversion rates.
When you are choosing which platforms to target your ads on, you have to take into account the user base of the platform.
Compared to other social platforms, Facebook also has a high Gen X audience. The conversion rate for B2B lead and legal is also pretty high at 10.63% and 5.60%.
Overall, though, Facebook has a high conversion rate across all industries, falling behind only YouTube and with a lower audience reach.
YouTube Ads Statistics 2023 -2024
59% of advertisers ran a PPC campaign on YouTube in 2023. The number is lower than Bing, which had the attention of 60% of advertisers. Normally, you would expect YouTube to get more preference than Bing.
Because even though the former is a video platform and the latter is a search engine, YouTube has 2.5 billion monthly active users. Bing’s reach is way lower, getting 1.2 billion monthly visits at most.
Source: Kepios
A possible explanation for this is the medium itself.
You can re-run the same ad you are running on Google to Bing. However, YouTube PPC ads have to be video ads.
While some banner ads are available on the YouTube homepage, most people don’t pay attention to them. YouTube’s biggest conversion happens from video ads- both from the homepage and the ones which appear before a video you intentionally clicked on.
YouTube also has a lower click-through rate of 0.65%. This is 2.18% lower than Bing, which has a CTR of 2.83%.
When you are set on watching content, you are unlikely to click on an ad before it, even if it shows you a product you like. Most people skip the ad long before it can get to the interesting part.
The exception is the 33% who click on a YouTube ad because they see a brand name they are familiar with.
But, since it’s an audio-visual medium, it stays in their mind long enough for them to search for the item later.
YouTube has a higher conversion rate than both Google and Bing for this reason. The average conversion rate on YouTube video ads is 12%. This is 2.94% for Bing and 7.04% for Google.
Yet, the average cost per click on YouTube is $0.49. Advertising on YouTube itself doesn’t cost you as much as the pre-production stage does.
It’s the cost of hiring actors, writers, and renting a studio, which increases the cost per click on YouTube long before advertisers set it up.
The largest age group on YouTube is millennials from 25 to 34 years old, at 20.7%. This amounts to a total of 522.5 million users.
- The next big age group is 35 to 44 years old, who you might consider older millennials. They make up about 422 million of YouTube’s ad audience.
- Gen Z, between 18 to 24 years old, are 379.7 million YouTube users. They make up 15%.
- 303 million users fall into the Gen X category, which means people aged from 45 to 54 years old. They are about 12%.
As far as demographic distributions go, YouTube has one of the most even number of users.
If we go by distribution by country, Indians land as the highest number of YouTube users at 467 million. The US, which has the second highest number of YouTube users, has half of India’s number with 246 million users.
Yet, most of pay per click revenue on YouTube does not come from India. The higher sales come from the US and Brazil. Though, India does contribute a good portion from sheer reach alone.
Pinterest Ads Statistics 2023
Pinterest is one of the most underutilized PPC platforms, with only 15% running a campaign. Which is a shame since, according to Pinterest, the ROI is the same as Google ads of $2 per $1 click.
In turn, the conversion cost on Pinterest is 2.3x less than other social media platforms. Retail brands also get 2x more returns on Pinterest than other socials.
Pinterest users open the platform with the desire to shop. They aren’t on the platform to check up on a friend, talk to strangers, or even doom scroll.
Pinterest is an aesthetic marketplace. Users are looking for ideas on what to wear or how to decorate the room. If they find an item they like, they are quick to click on the product link.
Of course, Pinterest has its limitations.
Pinterest only has 445 monthly active users. It’s the least popular platform amongst the giants of social media, winning only over Tumblr. The users are also primarily Western, with the United States accounting for 84 million of them.
Source: Statista
The only Asian country among the top Pinterest users is Japan, of whom only 6.93 million are on the platform monthly.
If your target audience is in a non-western country, you won’t get much return out of Pinterest, much less impression. But if your main customer base is in the US or Brazil, you will have access to a specific, interested buying audience.
Your chance of winning customer favor also increases if you are selling home decoration products, wallpapers, fashion clothes, or, oddly, coffee machines.
You will also have better luck targeting women, be it clothes, jewelry, or books. 79.5% of Pinterest users are women, while 17.6% are men.
Source: Kepios
Pinterest also has an overwhelming number of younger audiences, with 35.6% falling in the 25 to 24 age range. The next big number is Gen Z, 18 to 24 year olds, who count up to 52.6 million users.
Millennials and Gen Z may not be the biggest spenders compared to Gen X, but they do shop more often. It’s a matter of getting exactly what they are looking for in front of them.
How Many People Click on Ads in 2023?
According to Wordstream, 64.6% of people click on Google ads. 49% are likely to click on a text ad.
In general, people have a 4x more chance of clicking on an ad on Google than any other search engine such as YouTube, Amazon, or Bing.
This comes down to the volume of searches Google gets in a day. If most people see the ads on Google more than anything, it’s what will attract them.
Another survey from Clutch proves 75% of users click on ads in general, whether it is on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. They do this for a simple reason, despite recognizing it to be an ad.
They got the information they wanted with ease, as paid searches are usually among the top 3 results on a search page.
Source: Clutch
As these are mostly paid search statistics, the numbers could look different for ads on social networks.
Overall, when it comes to paid search advertisements:
- 77% are confident they can recognize paid search results.
- 33% click on paid search because they get direct answers to their queries.
- 26% click on a paid ad because the brand name is recognizable.
Video ads get the least clicks at 16%, which makes sense since people don’t always have the time to watch a video. Simultaneously, banner ads get the most clicks on Amazon at 26%.
19% click on a paid search because the title, image, or description grabbed their interest. Even when people are aware it’s paid, people click on ads if the ad can meet one of two conditions.
The ad has to be either informative or entertaining.
Your paid ads won’t get much eyeballs if they aren’t in the top 3 results or appear as a product listing on the right. In fact, sponsored product listings get 19.6% of clicks.
The harder you make your ad for people to find, the more your cost per lead increases.
PPC stats 2023-2024: Final Thoughts
There is a misconception that paid ads deter clicks. Most statistics prove it’s not the case.
While people are more likely to trust the result from organic search, they do click paid ads even when they recognize it to be sponsored.
Most consumers don’t care for the source of the information as long as the content itself is genuine. While a word-of-mouth advertisement would naturally mean higher conversion, if they have a mind to buy, they will.
What you need to do is get the product to them via ad when they are in the mood to buy. Pinterest is the biggest example of how effective timely PPC can be with its high conversion rate, even with a low reach.