Google continues to be the dominant force in search ad spending in the US, according to a new report published by eMarketer.
Google now commands 73% of all US search ad spending, which is far ahead of its nearest rivals Amazon (12.9%), Microsoft (6.5%) and Verizon Media Group (2%).
Competitors harbouring hopes of playing catch-up in the near future will be disappointed to hear that Google will remain the undisputed king in 2020 and 2021.
The study noted that it expects Google to lose only 2% of its market share during the next two years.
Amazon will remain in a distant second place, but its ad revenue share is expected to grow to 14.3% next year and 15.9% in 2021, which represents a small but steady rate of growth.
In contrast, Microsoft will see its share fall to 5.9% in 2020 and by a further five basis points to 5.4% in 2021.
While Amazon is not a traditional search hub like Google and Bing, it continues to see large spikes in spending.
The study said that Amazon’s ad business has attracted massive increases in ad spending as advertisers are able to reach audiences through interest-based signals – product queries – and in a context where they are ready to buy.
Search ad spend on the whole continues to grow at a fast pace.
Total spend is expected to climb by 17.3% in 2020, but growth will then ease to 13.8% in 2021, 8.7% in 2022 and 7.5% in 2023.
By that time, search spend advertisement is tipped to surpass $86bn.
