PPC Statistics for 2023

The past few years have been a roller coaster for businesses, and many are looking for fast, effective ways to get their brand, products, and services in front of qualified audiences.

One of the most efficient ways to do this is through pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. PPC ads have become a critical component of digital strategies. PPC is a form of digital advertising whereby a digital ad is presented to internet users based on a formula of terms entered into a search engine. 

These ads appear alongside, atop, or below organic search results relevant to whatever the user is searching for. Companies bid on different variations and combinations of search terms to appear for and measure the cost-per-click (CPC) for each conversion driven by their ads. 

Are you interested in learning more about PPC stats and how consumers and businesses alike use paid ads? Here are 120+ PPC statistics you need to know:

Do users recognize paid ads?

• 90% of internet users see Google ads (Websitebuilder)
• 65% of buyer-intent keywords are paid clicks (MARKINBLOG)
• 46% of Internet users can’t readily tell the difference between pay-per-click advertising and links returned organically from searches (MARKINBLOG)
• 75% of users click on ads to find authentic and relevant information (Curvearro)
• 75% of people say paid ads make it easier to find what they need (WebFX)
• 77 percent of the respondents said they’re confident they can recognize search advertisements in the results (Clutch)
• More than 50 percent of people between the ages of 18–34 can’t differentiate between an ad and an organic result on Google (Search Engine Land)
• 57.5 percent don’t recognize Google ads. 34.8 percent recognize them but don’t click on them, and 7.7 percent recognize paid ads but do click them (Search Engine Land)
• Only 1% of consumers actually have a negative appreciation of PPC advertisements (Marketing Expertus)
• People aged 18-24 have 75% of the attention span of the 65+ demographic when it comes to watching Facebook ad videos (SmallBizGenius)

How often do people click on paid ads?

• 63% of individuals said they’d click on a Google ad (Askmedigi)
• 33% of users click on a paid search ad (GoRemotely)
• Text ads are the most popular with 49% of users clicking them (Search Engine Land)
• 49 percent of people said they click on text ads; 31 percent on Shopping ads; and 16 percent on video ads (Search Engine Land)
• About four times as many people are more likely to click on a paid search ad on Google (63%) than on any other search engine – Amazon (15%), YouTube (9%), and Bing (6%) (Clutch)
• Google Ads results receive 65% of the clicks that started with buying keywords, while organic results only receive 35% (Askmedigi)
• PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors (Unbounce)
• In a survey of 506 people who said they have clicked on a paid search ad in the past month, 75% said the ads make it easier to find the information they’re looking for, and they’re most likely to click on ads that answer their questions (Clutch)
• 70% of consumers say it’s important to include directions and a call button in ads (Social Media Today)
• 49 percent said they click on text ads; 31 percent on Shopping ads; and 16 percent on video ads (Clutch)
• 63 percent said they’d click on a Google ad, while just 15 percent said they’d click an ad on Amazon, 9 percent on YouTube, and 6 percent on Bing (Clutch)
• Video ads are clicked 73% more than display banners (Sativant)
• An average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads per month (Websitebuilder)
• 52% of online shoppers who click on or view paid advertisements call that advertiser right after browsing  (SmallBizGenius)

Marketing world & search engine results

• In 2016 an Adobe representative remarked that of their digital marketing research …76% of people feel that marketing has evolved 60 years in the past 3 years (Craig McConnel) 
• Search engines drive 93% of all website traffic (Omnicore)
• 53% of users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load (SmallBizGenius)
• 90% of people haven’t made their mind up about a brand before a search (Review 42)
• More than 36% of all clicks to American advertisers come from overseas (Google Economic Impact)
• 66% of buyer-intent keywords are paid clicks (Wordlead)
• 90% of consumers say they trust online reviews (MARKINBLOG)
• By 2022, 82% of all business and consumer Internet traffic will come from videos, up from 75% in 2017 (Single Grain)
• The top PPC search engines in order are Google, Yahoo, and Bing (MARKINBLOG)

More and more people rely on “local”

• “Near me” searches saw a 500% growth between 2016 and 2018 (Atomic Reach)
• 46 percent of Google searches are seeking local information (Atomic Reach)
• Nearly 30 percent of searches for something in a specific location will result in a purchase (Valve+Meter)

How people use Google to search in 2023

• 62% of all core search queries in the United States are generated by Google (Statista)
• Google sees an average of 83,787 searches every second of the day (Internet Livestream)
• Consumers make more than 160 billion searches per month on Google alone (Valve+Meter)
• Google has 92.96% of the global search engine market share in September 2019 (SmallBizGenius)
• 95.88% of Google searches are four words or more (Statista)
• 67% of clicks go to the first 5 search engine results (Zero Limit Web)
• 95% of search traffic goes to the first page of search results (Digital Synopsis)
• Google Ads’ Display Network reaches 90% of internet users via 2 million websites (SmallBizGenius)

How people use other search platforms in 2023

• $1 million is Pinterest’s expected ad revenue in the U.S. in 2020 (eMarketer) and 64% of Pinterest users described the platform as a place to find ideas, products or services they can trust (Pinterest)
• Bing handles 6 billion searches per month (99firms)

The emergence of voice-based search

• By 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice-based (Single Grain)
• By 2022, 50% of consumers will be using voice shopping (Single Grain)
• By 2022, voice commerce sales will reach $40 billion (Single Grain)
• Voice search will account for half of all the searches by 2020 (Marketing Expertus)

The overwhelming majority of Americans own some type of cell phone, and of that 81% own smartphones with internet capabilities. 

Digital marketers have seen a slow but steady transition from searches on desktop and laptop computers to those done on mobile devices. As many Americans shift their reliance from computers to phones, digital advertisers need to take notice:

• Search advertising on mobile is expected to reach $22.8 billion in 2020 (Statista)
• $146 billion is how much mobile advertising spend will reach by 2023 (Statista)
• 90% of mobile owners conduct mobile searches (eMarketer)
• 70% of all paid search impressions are on mobile (Mobile Marketer)
• 52% of PPC clicks come from mobile (WordStream)
• 95% of paid search ad clicks on mobile is driven by Google (WebFX)
• Google is responsible for 67% of smartphone search traffic and 94% of organic traffic (Net Market Share)

Turning mobile ad impressions into conversions

• 91% of smartphone owners made a purchase after seeing a relevant ad (Review 42)
• 76 percent of people who search for something nearby on a smartphone will visit a business within one day (Valve+Meter)
• Of all mobile customers, 70% call their target business directly through Google Ads (SmallBizGenius)

• 32% of companies use PPC to sell products directly to consumers (WebFX)
• 65% of small to mid-sized businesses have a PPC campaign (WebFX)
• 72% of companies haven’t looked at their ad campaigns in over a month (Neil Patel)

How much do businesses spend on PPC advertising?

• Companies spent $106.5 billion on search advertising globally in 2019 (Statista)
• $161 billion is the amount display advertising accounted for in 2019, making it the largest ad spend share (Statista)
• $132 billion is how much search advertising spending is projected to grow worldwide by 2022 (Statista)
• $46 million is how much search ad spending accounts for in the U.S. in 2020 (Statista)
• The US retail industry spent $27.58 billion on digital advertising in 2019 (Curvearro)
• Small businesses using Google Ads spend $9,000 – $10,000 monthly (GoRemotely)
• The average yearly cost of PPC is between $108,000 and $120,000 (SmallBizGenius)
• 80% of marketers now allocate at least some ad budget to search, social, display, and remarketing ads (Social Media Today)
• 40% of businesses would like their PPC budgets to be bigger (SmallBizGenius)
• 64% of brands are planning to increase their PPC budget in the next 12 months (State of PPC)
• 39% is how much paid search accounted for in advertisers’ budgets (Search Engine Journal)
• 50% of programmatic display ad spending went to banners, video, and other display ad units across social networks in 2019 (eMarketer)
• 85% of total digital display ad spending in 2020 is projected to be programmatic advertising (eMarketer)
• 16% of advertisers’ budgets is display advertising (Search Engine Journal)

How big are search platforms getting thanks to pay-per-click advertisements?

• 96% of brands are spending money on Google Ads (State of PPC)
• Google Analytics is the top SEO tool used by marketers (Hubspot)
• Google Ads is currently the biggest provider of search advertising on the market (Statista)
• For every $1 spent on the Google Ads platform, brands make up to $2 on average (GoRemotely)
• $8 for every $1.60 spent is what businesses earn on average with Google Ads (WebFX)
• $1.16 is Google’s average CPC (WebFX)
• 96% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising (Curvearro)
• Google and Facebook still hold the largest share of total U.S. digital ad spending, with 37.2% and 22.1% (AdAge)

Search engines and social platforms are serving up more and more ads to potential customers each year. With the seemingly exponential growth of paid ads on these platforms, businesses must be seeing excellent returns to justify the ad spend, right? 

• 74% of brands say PPC is a huge driver for their business (State of PPC)
• 79% of marketers say PPC is hugely beneficial for their business (Hanapin Marketing)
• $162.03 is the average ad spending of an internet user in the U.S. in 2020, up 10% from last year (Statista)
• Consumers spend 10 percent more money in a store if they have clicked on the retailer’s Google search ad before visiting (Valve+Meter)
• 80% is about how much search ads can increase brand awareness (WebFX)
• Remarketing increases conversion by 70% (Marketing Expertus)
• Google Ads alone reaches a network of more than 2 million websites and applications (Valve+Meter)

Average conversion rates on PPC ads

• Click-throughs from PPC results convert at a 1.5 times higher rate than their organic counterparts (Atomic Reach)
• Leads from search engines have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (ex. cold-calling, direct mail, etc.) have a 1.7% close rate (Junto)
• 65% of advertisers say their company’s use of shoppable images within search will increase in 2019 (Search Engine Journal)
• Retailers can raise conversions by 16 percent when they include cross-device data (Valve+Meter)
• The most effective PPC channels are text ads, remarketing, and mobile (Valve+Meter)
• 32% of advertisers say that video is the most effective social ad format, followed by image ads at 26%, Instagram Stories at 23%, and carousel ads at 19% (Search Engine Journal)
• When paused, 89% of search ads are not replaced with organic clicks (99firms)

Conversion rates for social media & mobile app ads

• 65% of B2B companies have acquired customers through LinkedIn ads (WebFX)
• 91.69% of social media advertisers opted for Facebook (99firms)
• The average CPC for Facebook ads is $1.72 (SmallBizGenius)
• Facebook’s medium CPC for the first quarter of 2020 was $0.78, a 2.6% decrease since Q4 2019, but a 4% increase YoY (AdStage)
• Instagram saw a median CPC of $3.35 in the 1st quarter of 2020, an increase of $1.82 from the previous quarter, while the majority of advertisers recorded median CPCs between $3.00 and $3.50. That equates to a roughly 118% increase from the fourth quarter, but a 93% decrease year over year (AdStage)
• Twitter’s median CPC in the first quarter of 2020 was $0.58, which was up $0.32 cents from the fourth quarter of 2019. Similarly, their CPC was up 47% year over year (AdStage)
• Only 4% of social marketers in the U.S. are using TikTok (Business 2 Community)
• $935 billion is what mobile apps are projected to generate in revenues for 2023 via paid downloads and in-app advertising (Statista)

Conversion rates for Google Ads

• 80% of all companies focus on Google Ads for PPC (WebFX)
• Google’s display campaigns reach more than 80% of the global internet audience (99firms)
• 98% of advertisers rate Google as the most trustworthy with a 4 or 5 out of 5 on the trust index (Search Engine Journal)
• The average click-through rate in Google Ads is 3.17% for the search network and 0.46% on the display network (WordStream)
• 84% of advertisers who use paid search are currently using or planning to use Google’s new responsive search ads (Search Engine Journal)
• The average cost-per-click across all industries in Google AdWords on the search network is $2.69. The highest cost-per-click is found in the legal industry, while the lowest cost-per-click is found in the dating and personals industry (Valve+Meter)
• The highest average click-through rate in Google AdWords is found in the dating and personals industry, while the lowest click-through rate is found in the legal industry (Valve+Meter)
• While the average click-through rate for PPC advertisements is only 2 percent, the average click-through rate for the top paid result on the screen is almost 8 percent (Valve+Meter)
• The average CTR is higher with Google Ads than with Bing Ads. A paid ad on the first position on the first page of Google has a CTR of 7.11% (99firms)
• Paid ads have an 11.38% CTR on Google (Askmedigi)
• Google ads experienced a first-quarter median CPC of $1.28, an 8.5% increase from the previous quarter but an 8.2% decrease year over year (AdStage)

Covid-19 has changed the way many companies do business. From trimming budgets and furloughing or laying off employees, to ramping up production to meet growing demand, no two businesses have had identical experiences during the pandemic.

Business management and office supplies, non-profits, medical advertisers, as well as beauty, skincare, and gifts have all experienced a positive increase in PPC engagement during the pandemic.

Business management and office supplies during Covid-19

• Overall, business management searches grew by 23% since February 23 (Wordstream)
• Searches for office supplies increased by 90%, paid search ad clicks increased by 35%, and search conversion rates increased by 41% (Wordstream)
• Packing and shipping supplies more than doubled their search ad conversions (up 123%) and search ad conversion rate (up 107%) (Wordstream)

 Non-profits PPC during Covid-19

• 10% increase in search ad impressions (Wordstream)
• 23% increase in search ad conversions (Wordstream)
• 20% increase in search ad conversion rate (Wordstream)

Medical advertisers seeing strong spike in performance during Covid-19

• 5% increase in search ad clicks for medical supplies (Wordstream)
• 24% increase in search ad conversion rate for medical supplies (Wordstream)
• 34% increase in search ad clicks for pharmaceuticals (Wordstream)
• 47% increase in search ad conversion rate for pharmaceuticals (Wordstream)

Retail and beauty PPC advertisements during Covid-19

• Skincare has seen a 3% decrease in search CPC, a 21% increase in search CVR (Wordstream)
• Spa care has seen a 20% decrease in search CPC, a 41% increase in search CVR (Wordstream)

Miscellaneous industry PPC ads impact during Covid-19

• On-demand media has seen a 102% increase in search ad conversions (Wordstream)
• Searches for cards and greetings have seen a 15% increase in conversion rate (Wordstream)
• Searches for gift baskets have seen a 30% increase in conversion rate (Wordstream)
• Searches for floral arrangements have seen a 43% increase in conversion rate (Wordstream)
• Real estate listings and agents have seen a 15% increase in CPC but a 25% and 30% decrease in CVR, respectively (Wordstream)

Which industries have PPC ads that have been negatively impacted by Covid-19?

On the flip side, Covid-19 has negatively impacted thousands of businesses across the United States. Many have struggled to stay afloat as customers and conversions are on the decline.

Travel and tourism

• 41% decrease in air travel conversion rates (Wordstream)
• 44% decrease in cruise conversion rates (Wordstream)
• 49% decrease in travel booking serves conversion rates (Wordstream)
• 50% decrease in vacation packages conversion rates (Wordstream)

Bars and restaurants

• Restaurants have seen an 18% decrease in ad impressions (Wordstream)
• Restaurants have seen a 59% decrease in search CVR (Wordstream)
• Bars have seen a 26% decrease in search ad impressions (Wordstream)
• Bars have seen a 57% decrease in search CVR (Wordstream)

Live entertainment

• 24% decrease in search volume (Wordstream)
• 30% decrease in conversion rates (Wordstream)

Conferences

• 33% decrease in conversions (Wordstream)

• In 2019 approximately 25.8% of global internet users were using ad blockers (Statista)
• Google took down 2.3 billion bad ads in 2019 (Search Engine Land)
• The average PPC salary in the US is $49,941 per year (PayScale)
• The average PPC salary has increased by nearly $2,000 compared to 2019 (Websitebuilder)

Interested in having an agency take over your Paid Media and PPC marketing strategy? Check out our Paid Media services to learn more or contact us now!

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