by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, September 28, 2017

Consumer behavior continues to shift. Many will reach for their smartphones to find a movie theater, street address or other unknown gem. Some will search on the keywords “near me” to find the Thai restaurant they didn’t know existed nearby.

Overall, 71.5% of the U.S. population — or 85% of internet users — will run an online search query at least once per month in 2017, with eMarketer estimating marketers will spend about 13% more for a total of nearly $37 billion to reach them.

Searches on smartphones also continue to grow. Even if smartphone internet users do not visit publisher sites, nearly three in five will run an online search query “regularly” this year, up from less than half in 2015.

As search matures, advertisers continue to spend on the media, which is growing by double digits in the U.S. as consumers move from the desktop to mobile devices. Search ad spend will rise nearly 25% this year, even as spending on desktop and laptop-based search declines.

eMarketer estimates that in 2017, advertisers spent nearly two-thirds of U.S search ad dollars on mobile — up 70% — then rising to 80% by the end of 2021.

Overall, advertisers will spend more on mobile. In fact mobile ad spend in the U.S. will grow about 22% this year to $57 billion. eMarketer estimates Google will take 33.1%, or nearly $19 billion, of all U.S. mobile ad dollars this year. Facebook will follow with nearly 27% or $15.3 billion.

The rise in mobile ad spend in the U.S. will also lead to the rise of total digital ad spend — about $83.00 billion, up 15.9% compared with 2016. Digital will represent 40.5% of total media spending in the U.S.

This year, advertisers will spend a total of $205 billion for digital and traditional media — up 5.2% compared with 2016, eMarketer estimates.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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