Report: Paid search spending starts year with a bang

Atlanta—This year's first quarter exhibited strong growth in search ad expenditures worldwide, with spending up 30.3% compared with the year-earlier period, according to marketing technology company IgnitionOne Inc.

The company's “Global Online Advertising Report” found the Yahoo-Bing search combination at its strongest in almost two years, with a 46.4% increase in search ad spending worldwide in the first quarter year over year. Spending on paid search ads on Google grew 26.6%.

In the U.S., Google retained its lead, with 78.8% of all search ads spending; the Yahoo-Bing combination garnered 21.2%.

IgnitionOne's study tracked more than 82 billion impressions and 1.9 billion clicks on Google and Yahoo/Bing search networks and other networks from January through March.