Monthly Industry Snapshot – October 2024

How to read these charts

There are two charts for each channel. The first bubble chart shows month-over-month (MoM) changes in ad pricing–average cost per click (CPC) for paid search and retail media and average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for paid social on the x-axis and MoM changes in ad spending on the y-axis. For example, a bubble in the upper right quadrant of the chart means both price and spending increased. The size of the bubble does not reflect anything except the overall channel having the larger bubble in each instance.

The diagonal line indicates spending changes that are completely described by the change in pricing. Bubbles above the diagonal mean that ad volume—clicks for retail media and paid search, impressions for paid social—grew faster than pricing, while bubbles below the diagonal mean that volume grew slower.

The second chart in each series shows actual CPC/CPM by category for the current month and the previous month. Bubble size, again, simply differentiates the overall channel value from the individual categories.

Retail Media 

Overall, retail media spending grew 12% in October, while average CPC increased 7%.

The two clear standout categories from a growth perspective were Home & Garden and Computers & Consumer Electronics, well beyond the pack in both CPC and spending growth. Nearly every category saw increases in both pricing and overall spend, but a handful of categories grew slower than the channel average. Hobbies & Leisure grew investment despite lower cost per click.

It’s becoming a three-horse race for premium price levels, with Family & Community out in front, but Beauty & Personal Care and Health following close behind. Beauty & Personal Care saw the biggest percentage increase of those three categories. Apparel was the lowest-priced category in our analysis, while again, Hobbies & Leisure was the only category that saw a CPC decrease.

Paid Search 

Overall paid search spending grew 3% in October, while average CPC increased 2%.

Half of our industry categories in search aligned closely to the diagonal reference line, which means that the change in monthly spend is mostly described by the change in cost per click, with a cluster of categories increasing in price and bumping up spend in nearly equal proportion. The rest of the categories were all to the right of the diagonal, which means prices went up and clicks went down. In most of these cases, category spending declined month-over-month, with the exception of Health and Beauty & Personal Care.

Jobs & Education continues to be the most expensive category per click, topping out with a CPC of $4.68. More categories saw CPC go up than down, led by Health with a month-over-month increase of 23%. Travel & Tourism had the largest decline in price, dropping by 10%.

Social Advertising

Overall, paid social spending increased 4% in October, while average CPM decreased 3%.

Only a small number of categories qualify to be broken out in social, and they all occupy a somewhat unique space in our visualization. Three of the four quadrants are represented, with most categories increasing spend even as half of those saw lower CPM. Only Health came out with lower spend and lower pricing, but we can infer that impression volume increased due to its position above the diagonal.

As with paid search, Jobs & Education was the most “premium” category for social, with a CPM approaching $10. This category also had the biggest month-over-month increase, and Food & Groceries was the only other category that cost more in October.

Check out more resources from Skai

Come back next month for the most up-to-date data. Until then, you can dive into more of our research via our Skai Research Center or Quarterly Trends Reports hub.

And please visit the Skai blog and Whitepaper Library for ongoing insights, analysis, and interviews on all things related to digital advertising.