eMarketer expects a drop of 8.7% and 14.8% in the first half as the pandemic intensifies.
With marketers slashing budgets search ad spending in the US could drop by 20.2% to 29.4% YoY in Q2 of 2020. A previous forecast had expected search to grow by 14.4% in 2020, but the pandemic has upended the projections.
While keyword bidding is expected to arrest massive price-drops in search, its position at the lower end of the funnel will be a pain point. Some companies have already frozen their marketing activities due to the current uncertainty.
Big tech is expected to take a beating as well; a Cowen & Co. estimate said Google could see a loss of $28.6 billion in 2020. Concurrently, Amazon has reduced its Google search ads budget to avoid driving extra demand as it is already experiencing product shortages.
[2 minute read]