Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – January 2021

Spending and Pricing Trends Across Paid Search, Social Advertising, and Ecommerce Channel Advertising

And we’re off!

After the massive spending at the end of the year for the holidays, the beginning of a new year will always see less investment from digital advertisers in aggregate. There is less demand, which can lead to less competition, lower prices, and less spending overall.

As the new year starts and marketers begin implementing their new budgets and strategies after the intensity of the holiday begins to fade, an overall drop in spending isn’t a good or bad thing. It just is. With ad prices dropping, channel practitioners across Paid Search, Social Advertising, and Ecommerce Channel Advertising can buy efficient impressions for their investment and try out creative changes without breaking the bank if they don’t pan out. 

Take a look at last year, for example. According to monthly data extracted from the Q4 2020 Skai Quarterly Trends Report, spending from December 2019 to January 2020 declined by 32% for Paid Search, 20% for Social Advertising, and 42% for Ecommerce Channel Advertising.

This year is looking to continue the trend on average, although not for all advertisers. In our continuing monthly series, we look at just how many advertisers on Skai saw both their ad spend and their ad prices rise, fall or stay the same as we flipped the calendar from 2020 to 2021.

How do you stack up?

This is a continuation of our monthly paid media snapshot series. As with any benchmark, your mileage may vary, but we hope this provides a bit more context for you as a marketer as you navigate the ups and downs of your program’s performance.

Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – January 2021

Methodology note. For the purpose of these monthly benchmarks, only Skai accounts with spend above a minimum threshold for the previous three months are included in this analysis.  

Paid Search spending

With the holiday season behind us, the overall trend was for paid search budgets to shrink, although just over one-third of advertisers did see an increase.

• 35% of paid search accounts spent +10% or more in January versus December, compared to 45% who spent -10% or less (-10% differential)
• 12% of accounts spent +50% or more in January versus December, compared to 16% of accounts spending -50% or less (-4% differential)

 Paid Search CPCs

As seasonal price premiums dissipated, more than half of advertisers saw their search CPC drop last month.

• 22% of paid search accounts paid +10% or more per click in January versus December, compared to 52% who paid -10% or less (-30% differential)
• 4% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in January versus December, compared to 3% of accounts paying -50% or less (+1% differential)

Social advertising spending

A decrease in monthly spending was much more common for social advertisers last month than an increase.

• 30% of paid social accounts spent +10% or more in January versus December, compared to 58% who spent -10% or less (-28% differential)
• 17% of accounts spent +50% or more in January versus December, compared to 28% of accounts spending -50% or less (-11% differential)

Social advertising CPMs

Social ad prices were down last month for an overwhelming majority of social advertisers.

• 9% of paid social accounts paid +10% or more per thousand impressions in January versus December, compared to 84% who paid -10% or less (-75% differential)
• 4% of accounts paid +50% or more per thousand impressions in January versus December, compared to 10% of accounts paying -50% or less (-6% differential)

Ecommerce channel advertising spending

More than half of Ecommerce advertisers saw spending decline in the first month after the end of the holiday season.

• 32% of ecommerce advertising accounts spent +10% or more in January versus December, compared to 57% who spent -10% or less (-25% differential)
• 13% of accounts spent +50% or more in January versus December, compared to 22% of accounts spending -50% or less (-9% differential)

Ecommerce channel advertising CPCs

The majority of Ecommerce advertisers paid less per click last month than the previous month.

• 14% of ecommerce advertising accounts paid +10% or more per click in January versus December, compared to 60% who paid -10% or less (-46% differential)
• 1% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in January compared to December, versus 3% of accounts paying -50% or less (-2% differential)

Check out more resources from Skai

Come back in February for our next monthly trends post. Until then, you can dive into more of our research via our Quarterly Trends Reports hub and our COVID-19 Marketing Resource Center.

And please visit the Skai blog and Research & Reports page for ongoing insights, analysis, and interviews on all things related to digital advertising.

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