Retailers, consumer electronics and technology firms collectively spent 17% more on paid search ads during the second quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to an analysis by search marketing agency Covario Inc. The spending analysis is based on the global paid search spending of Covario’s clients.

Firms spent 41% more on paid search in the Asia-Pacific region during the quarter, the largest percentage increase of any region. Paid search spending in the United States and Canada grew 15%. Paid search spending in Europe grew 2%. Covario attributes the low increase in Europe to continued economic pressures on the region. Covario also revised its annual paid search spending forecast for Europe downward from 15%-18% to 9%-12%. It did not revise its annual global forecast of 18%-22% growth because of the rapid rise in paid search spending in Asia-Pacific.

“Asia-Pacific is where the major opportunities for paid search exist,” writes Charles Gaylord, Covario research analyst, in the company’s quarterly paid search spending report. The company does not provide dollar figures in its analysis.

The cost per click in Q2 did not change when measured on a year-over-year basis, but per-click costs did increase 6% from Q1 while the number of clicks also declined 1%. This suggests keyword price increases are at the root of paid search spending growth during the quarter compared to Q1, Covario says.

Google Inc. continued to command the largest portion of global paid search spending during Q2, 86%. Yahoo-Bing took in 7% of paid search revenue,Chinese search engine Baidu, 6%, and and Yandex, a Russian search engine, and all others the remaining 1%.