Breaking down monthly trends across digital channels by industry category
This analysis builds on the Monthly Paid Media Snapshot to look at changes in spending and ad prices by industry category. As with any benchmark, your results may vary, but we hope this provides more context for you as a marketer as you navigate the ups and downs of your program’s performance.
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 decreased 1% in September, while average CPC increased 3%
With overall spending moving so little, no individual industry category saw more than a 10% spending swing in either direction. Within those boundaries, Hobbies & Leisure saw the largest spending increase, while Health saw the biggest drop.
CPC was a bit of a different story, in that ad prices increased for every category except for Apparel. Not surprisingly, both Hobbies & Leisure and Home & Garden saw some of the largest price hikes, as both of these categories also had higher-than-average spending increases. Family & Community, Health, and Beauty & Personal Care have all staked out an average CPC of more than $1.50, the highest in the analysis.
Paid Search
Overall paid search spending grew 3% in September, while average CPC dropped 2%.
Paid search saw more variation in performance by category than retail media. Computers & Consumer Electronics and Sports & Fitness grew the most, with the tech category topping out at a 25% increase over last month. Travel & Tourism and Jobs & Education were both down, although these two categories saw ad prices go in opposite directions. However, both fell under the diagonal reference line, which indicates that click volume also dropped from August levels.
Jobs & Education once again led the way in terms of actual CPC at $4.32 per click, and also boasted the biggest month-over-month increase. The trio of Travel & Tourism, Finance and Vehicles all had middle-of-the-pack prices clustered between $0.80 and $1.00, and all dropped around 15%
Social Advertising
Overall, paid social spending increased 9% in September, while average CPM grew 9%.
Clearly, the Apparel and Finance categories were big drivers of that growth, with spending in the former up 60% over August and the latter increasing by over 25%. Of the categories large enough to be named in our analysis, Jobs & Education was the only one where monthly spending retreated.
Also contributing to spending growth is the fact that all of our named categories saw CPM increase from September to October, led also by Apparel. This could herald a return to year-over-year increases in CPM after they came in lower for Q3.
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.
