Desktop search revenues accounted for 38 percent of 2014’s U.S. digital advertising sales that totaled $49.5 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) annual revenue report.
The research also found that while mobile saw the biggest percentage increase since 2013 – a 76 percent growth to $12.5 billion, up from $7.1 billion– desktop search represented the biggest digital ad spend at $19 billon, up from $18.4 billion from the previous comparable year.
Search from desktop also accounted for 37 percent of Q4 2014 revenues, down from 41 percent in Q4 2013. Decline in its overall share is attributed to the growth in mobile and mobile search, which was bundled together in the mobile category for the purpose of this report. Non-mobile search revenues totaled $5.3 billion in Q4 2014, up 5 percent from Q4 2013, when search totaled $5 billion.
Other highlights from the report include:
- Social media advertising also saw flourishing returns, according to the research, totaling $7 billion in 2014, up by 57 percent over 2013’s total of $4.5 billion.
- Display-related advertising revenues in 2014 totaled $13.5 billion, an uptick of 5 percent over $12.8 billion in 2013.
- Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, totaled $3.3 billion in full year 2014, a 17 percent increase over revenues of $2.8 billion in 2013.