Advertisers in the flowers and gifts sector spent more than $15.4 million on Google AdWords desktop and tablet search in Q1 2014, “averaging a healthy 4.24 percent click-through rate and $1.66 average cost per click,” according to research from AdGooroo.
Within the flowers and gifts category for desktop and tablet targeting, AdGooroo said most advertisers paid an average of $4.70 for keywords like “flowers,” “flower delivery,” “flower,” and “florist”. Even branded terms were competitive, AdGooroo said. A branded term for the domain Flowers.com owned by FTD had 72 advertisers in Q1 2014.
But there’s no denying which brands had the most aggressive strategy for paid search ahead of Mother’s Day. Leaders in spend for the flowers and gifts category for desktop/tablet were 1800Flowers.com, ProFlowers.com, and FTD.com – all floral wire service companies comprised of networks of local florists.
ProFlowers.com showed more than 23.5 million desktop and tablet impressions in Q1 2014, while 1800Flowers.com saw 23 million impressions and FTD.com saw 13.5 million impressions.
When it came to mobile, AdGooroo examined a subset of the top 50,000 keywords in mobile search; in the flowers and gifts category, 1800Flowers.com and ProFlowers.com took the top two positions, with FTD.com in fourth.
ProFlowers.com and 1800Flowers.com also maintain the top two positions for product listing ads (PLAs) impressions, with 12.4 million PLA impressions and 9.4 million impressions, respectively.
AdGooroo pointed out that half of the top PLA advertisers during Q1 2014 were non-floral companies.
“In the PLA list but not present in either the Top 10 Desktop/Tablet or Mobile Search advertisers are premium fruit and gift retailer HarryAndDavid.com (8.4 million impressions), gadget and gift seller Hammacher.com (6.6 million impressions), GiftTree.com (5 million impressions), GourmetGiftBaskets.com (4.1 million impressions), and VermontChristmasCo.com (2 million impressions), which offers gifts for various holidays,” AdGooroo said.