Digital Marketing Report - Q4 2012 - Key Findings

Sep 12, 2026

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Digital Marketing Report analyzes Q4 2012 performance across paid search, organic search & social, comparison shopping engines, and attribution. Paid search spend rose 19% year over year on Google while Bing spend grew 54%, with mobile contributing 20% of paid clicks. The report highlights shifts in mobile traffic peaks during the holiday season, changes in tablet mix, and efficiency differences across device types. Attribution findings show an average of 4.3 marketing touches per order, while 75% of orders rely on a single channel touch.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time7 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Paid Search Marketing

Organic Search & Social

Comparison Shopping Engines

Attribution

Holiday Trends

Strong Start and Finish to the Holiday Season

Mobile Roughly a Quarter of Search Traffic Around Thanksgiving and Christmas

About RKG & Methodology

Digital Marketing Report 􀁦Q4 2012 2 Table of Contents 3 4 5 11 15 17 19 Executive Summary Holiday Trends Paid Search Marketing Organic Search & Social Comparison Shopping Engines Attribution About RKG & Methodology [info@rimmkaufman.com](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ |](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ rimmkaufman.com](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ |](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[rkgblog.com](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ |](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[@rimmkaufman](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman) 3 Executive Summary Paid Search Marketing 􀁦Google paid search spending rose 19% Y/Y in Q4, a slight deceleration for our sample, but in line with Google’s official Q3 revenue growth. Ad clicks rose 14%, CPCs rose 3% . 􀁦Bing search spending rose 54% on 39% higher clicks and 11% higher CPCs. Bing faced weak 2011 comps and had made strides throughout 2012 to improve its once restrictive ad serving logic. 􀁦Mobile drove 20% of paid clicks and 15% of paid search spend in Q4. Mobile CPCs edged up relative to desktop and tablet spending increased 189% Y/Y, outpacing smartphone spending for the seventh quarter in a row. Tablet clicks outpaced smartphone clicks for the fourth quarter in a row. 􀁦The iPad’s share of tablet traffic slipped to 84% by the end of Q4. Kindle Fire models held a 5% share, but delivered a 54% lower ROI than iPad. Windows 8 tablets failed to gain traction. 􀁦Google Product Listing Ads generated 28% of Google non-brand clicks in Q4. PLACPCs remained 26% lower than CPCs for competitive text ads. Organic Search & Social 􀁦iOS 6 defaulting to secure search resulted in 10% of organic search traffic being seen as direct by analytics packages. 81% of iOS 6 visits did not pass a referrer. 􀁦Nearly 20% of organic search and direct visits were mobile in Q4. iPad delivered 7.3% of visits, followed by the iPhone at 6.7% and Android devices at 5. 2%. 􀁦CPMs for the Facebook Exchange were less than half those of the average display ad. Revenue Per Click was 25% higher. Comparison Shopping Engines 􀁦Comparison Shopping spending increased 14% Y/Y in Q4, excluding costs associated with Google PLAs. 􀁦Amazon Product Ads commanded 25% of CSE spend and were the largest traffic driver among paid engines. Attribution 􀁦Shoppers had an average of 4.3 marketing touches per order in Q4, up from 3.5 in Q3. At the same time, however, 75% of orders involved touches from just a single channel. [info@rimmkaufman.com](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ |](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ rimmkaufman.com](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ |](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[rkgblog.com](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[ |](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman)[@rimmkaufman](info@rimmkaufman.com | rimmkaufman.com |rkgblog.com |@rimmkaufman) Strong Start and Finish to the Holiday Season 11/4/2012 11/18/2012 12/2/2012 12/16/2012 12/30/2012 Y/Y Paid Search Revenue Growth by Week 􀁦Holiday revenue growth proved very spiky in 2012 as changing consumer behavior and an extended post-Thanksgiving shopping period weighed heavily on Y/Y performance stats. After a fairly slow start to Q4, revenue growth accelerated around the long Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend as shoppers once again shifted their spending to earlier in the season to take advantage of strong holiday promotions. Growth eased up in early December before spiking to nearly 50% in the final week before Christmas. Mobile Roughly a Quarter of Search Traffic Around Thanksgiving and Chri

FAQs

What were the main paid search spending and click trends in Q4 2012?

Google paid search spending rose 19% year over year, with ad clicks up 14% and CPCs up 3%. Bing spending increased 54% alongside 39% higher clicks and 11% higher CPCs.

How did mobile influence paid search during Q4 2012?

Mobile drove about 20% of paid clicks and 15% of paid search spend. The report also notes two holiday-season peaks around Black Friday and just after Christmas.

What does the attribution section say about marketing touches and channel usage?

Shoppers averaged 4.3 marketing touches per order in Q4. However, 75% of orders involved touches from only a single channel.

Sep 12, 2026

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