Ad management platform Marin Software released findings from its Paid Search Quarterly Benchmarking Report (available here) which indicates a 20 percent year-over-year increase in paid search advertising spend.

Marin examined 800 large-scale advertisers from its Global Search Index and found not only that search spend increase, but click-through rates also rose (12 percent) compared to the same quarter last year. Overall cost-per-click remained the same.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of data was that on Google, advertisers saw a decline in impression volumes in the second quarter. Advertisers managed to increase click volumes on an annual basis however, suggesting that either search marketers are improving efficiency or Google modified its algorithm for matching ads to queries. It is likely a combination of both.