Kenshoo’s report indicates mobile ads are a key part of the holiday marketing strategy for brands and retailers as shoppers shift their online buying to smartphones and tablets. Lower-priced mobile shopping ads pushed down the average search cost-per-click (CPC) by 8% on Thanksgiving and 10% on Black Friday from a year earlier. Those declines are consistent with a trend seen in Q3 2018, when the average CPC for search advertising fell by 15%, Kenshoo said. E-commerce search advertisers boosted their Thanksgiving spending by 20%, exceeding the 16% increase for Black Friday, to reach shoppers looking for early deals.
