The price Google charges advertisers when users click on ads dropped for the second quarter in a row in the three months to March, providing advertisers with a better return on investment for their search marketing, the company says.

Cost per click (CPC) on Google dropped 6% on the previous quarter and decreased 12% year on year.

Google attributed the decrease to foreign exchange rates and the growth of cheaper mobile and tablet search advertising.

Earlier this week Adobe predicted that total search spend on mobile and tablets could reach up to 15 to 20% of all search spend by the end of the year in the UK.

Larry Page, Google CEO, said to analysts today (13 April): “If anything, lower CPCs give better return on advertising spend: it’s a lower cost so a better return on investment for advertisers.”

Google maintained that despite the drop in the value of its CPC, it had another “great quarter”, with revenues up 24% year on year to $10.65bn (£6.7bn) in the period. Profit rose 60% to $2.89bn (£1.8bn).

Revenue from the UK totalled $1.15bn (£721m), representing 11% of Google’s total revenue in the quarter.