By the Numbers...Social & Search's Newest Returns

Paid search or social media?

Marketers question where to spend their advertising dollars and for good reason, as they not only have to generate a return on investment from their paid media activities, but they also have to combat the challenges of the different channels (e.g. ad blockers for paid search, rising costs on social, etc.).

Kenshoo, which accounts for nearly $350 billion in annualized client sales revenue across social, search, mobile and display advertising, recently released digital marketing insights from Q4 2015, which highlights the changing landscape of social and search advertising.

For starters, social media advertising has a large year-over-year (YOY) increase in spend (50 percent) compared to paid search's 8 percent YOY increase. While ad dollars are finding their way to social, there's been a 21 percent YOY decrease in social impressions. In the following areas, however, social ads are performing well:

- Social clicks increased 30 percent YoY

- Social click-through rate increased 64 percent YoY

When it comes to paid search, impressions have increased 12 percent YOY, as have clicks (32 percent YOY) and click-through rates (17 percent YOY).

For more insights, check out the infographic below: