U.S. search ad spend is expected to fall by as much as 15 percent during the first half of this year, or between $6 billion and $8 billion, eMarketer stated Thursday in an updated forecast.
"We believe travel advertisers will decrease search spending most sharply, and media and entertainment industry search budgets will be severely trimmed as well," eMarketer stated. "Search is a lower-funnel ad channel that’s typically geared toward driving conversions, including in-store, and many of those conversions can’t happen right now because of quarantines, inventory shortfalls and related problems."
Unlike in other channels, prices will also likely remain relatively stable, despite the demand drop. Industries outside of travel, media and entertainment are also expected to trim search spending, but "keyword bidding means there likely won’t be as large a drop in pricing for search ads as there will be for display," eMarketer states.
Search ad spend for the second quarter will see an even steeper decline between 20 percent and 29 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the forecast.
Search is by far digital advertising's biggest money maker, with Google representing 75 percent market share in the U.S., according to eMarketer. For the first half of 2019, search advertising generated $26 billion, or about 47 percent of ad spend across all digital channels.