Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – June 2022

Spending and Pricing Trends Across Paid Search, Social Advertising, and Retail Media

Daily spending across digital channels barely budged from May to June, with retail media up 1%, paid social showing no change, and paid search down 1%. The largest share of accounts saw daily budgets increase month-over-month in retail media and paid search, while a plurality of paid social accounts cut spending. None of this moved the needle at the overall level, however.

Search CPCs (+3%) and social CPMs (+5%) were both up slightly over the previous month in aggregate, while retail media CPCs dipped by 4%. At the account level, social CPMs were more likely to be up than down, while retail media and paid search were most likely to stay the same.

How do you measure up? Check out these benchmarks to see if your programs are on par with your industry peers or if you’re ahead or behind the curve.

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 – June 2022

Methodology: For these benchmarks, only Skai accounts with spend above a minimum threshold for the previous three months are included. As of April 2022, spending benchmarks use average daily spend to control for longer and shorter months. Please note that the selection criteria used here are different from the Skai Quarterly Trends Report, which can sometimes lead to different results from the two analyses.

Paid Search spending

Overall, average daily spending in paid search dropped 1% from May to June.

• 35% of paid search accounts spent +10% or more per day in June versus May, compared to 29% who spent -10% or less (+6% differential)
• 6% of accounts spent +50% or more per day in June versus May, compared to 3% of accounts spending -50% or less (+3% differential)

Paid Search CPCs

Overall, the average cost of a click in paid search advertising rose 3% from May to June.

• 31% of paid search accounts paid +10% or more per click in June versus May, compared to 21% who paid -10% or less (+10% differential)
• 3% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in June versus May, compared to 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (+2% differential)

Social Advertising spending

Overall, average daily spending in social advertising did not change from May to June.

• 33% of paid social accounts spent +10% or more per day in June versus May, compared to 40% who spent -10% or less (-7% differential)
• 12% of accounts spent +50% or more per day in June versus May, compared to 11% of accounts spending -50% or less (+1% differential)

Social Advertising CPMs

Overall, the average cost of a thousand impressions in social advertising rose 5% from May to June.

• 42% of paid social accounts paid +10% or more per thousand impressions in June versus May, compared to 21% who paid -10% or less (+21% differential)
• 7% of accounts paid +50% or more per thousand impressions in June versus May, compared to 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (+6% differential)

Retail Media spending

Overall, average daily spending in retail media advertising increased 1% from May to June.

• 40% of retail media advertising accounts spent +10% or more per day in June versus May, compared to 31% who spent -10% or less (+9% differential)
• 8% of accounts spent +50% or more per day in June versus May, compared to 3% of accounts spending -50% or less (+5% differential)

Retail Media CPCs

Overall, the average cost of a click in retail media advertising decreased 4% from May to June.

• 17% of retail media advertising accounts paid +10% or more per click in June versus May, compared to 33% who paid -10% or less (-16% differential)
• 0% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in June compared to May, versus 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (-1% differential)

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 Quarterly Trends Reports hub.

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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