Marin Software Research Reveals Amazon's Rapid Rise and Increased Q2 2018 Search Spend

SAN FRANCISCO, July 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marin Software, a leading provider of digital marketing software for performance-driven advertisers and agencies, today released research findings from its global Q2 2018 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report. As search spend continues to grow from increased clicks and CPCs, Marin Software's report identifies eCommerce as another channel quickly gaining traction thanks to increased spend on Amazon.

Marin Software presents its full research, results, and takeaways  in an interactive format that allows viewers to review and analyze ad spending trends by region, industry, and publisher. Key findings include:

• Search Driven by Clicks and CPCs: 13% year-over-year growth in search spend was driven almost equally by increased click volume and rising CPCs, with the average global CPC increasing from $0.80 in Q2 2017 to $0.85 in Q2 2018.
• Amazon on the Rise: Amazon captures approximately 20% of digital budgets for Marin clients active on that channel. Sponsored Product Ads represent 79% of that spend, with Headline Shopping Ads representing the remaining 21%.
• Social CPCs Up, CTRs Down: While social CPCs increased by 3% since last quarter, averaging $0.184, CPMs ($3.07) and CTRs (1.67%) dropped slightly from Q1 2018. This difference may relate to recently enacted privacy regulations and increased consumer awareness of highly publicized data breaches—each potentially reducing overall consumer ad engagement on social channels.

"While Google and Facebook continue to be the most prominent channels for digital ad spend, we're now seeing more and more early adopters experimenting with Amazon's ad offerings," said Wes MacLaggan, SVP of Marketing at Marin Software. "Amazon has essentially become a massive search engine for consumers far down the purchase funnel and we're eager to help advertisers increase their presence on this important channel in quarters to come. This is a really exciting time to be involved in the digital advertising space, and I'm looking forward to exploring Amazon's impact on the marketing landscape in 2018 and beyond."

To create its Q2 2018 Digital Advertising Benchmark Report, Marin Software aggregated data from customers who invest billions of dollars in combined annualized ad spend on paid search, social, mobile, and eCommerce.  Marin Software only includes those advertisers active on its platform for the past five quarters, measuring key performance indicators on a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis, and removing any outliers with significant YoY or QoQ changes.

About Marin Software
Marin Software Incorporated's (NASDAQ: MRIN) mission is to give advertisers the power to drive higher efficiency and transparency in their paid marketing programs that run on the world's largest publishers. Marin Software provides enterprise marketing software for advertisers and agencies to integrate, align, and amplify their digital advertising spend across the web and mobile devices. Marin Software offers a unified SaaS ad management platform for search, social, and eCommerce advertising. We help digital marketers convert precise audiences, improve financial performance, and make better decisions. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices worldwide, Marin Software's technology powers marketing campaigns around the globe. For more information about Marin Software, please visit www.marinsoftware.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, statements regarding Marin's business, research, and product capabilities. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to, our ability to grow sales and marketing capabilities, retain and attract personnel, develop and release new features, increasing competition in our market, fluctuations in our operating results and inability to forecast financial metrics, and other general market, political, economic, and business conditions.

These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value, and effect as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent report on Form 10-K, recent reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K which Marin Software may file from time to time, all of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Any of these risks could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release reflect Marin Software's expectations as of July 17, 2018. Marin Software assumes no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to update, any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

SOURCE Marin Software

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