Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – March 2021

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

For those of you who are looking for signs that the advertising industry is coming out of the pandemic—congratulations! Marketers really picked up the pace in March. Whether it was greater volume, higher unit pricing or some combination of the two, spending increased across digital channels for many advertisers when compared to February.

For marketers, the new year means a new budget and new strategies to try. Then, by the end of February, practitioners have two months’ worth of campaign data to analyze, giving them a more definitive picture of how those new budgets and strategies are working in the real world. This clarity brings the confidence to make decisions on where to hit the gas and where to tap the brakes across their programs. 

March is also the last month of the quarter—and because many companies put a heavy emphasis on quarterly reporting, while others might take a “use it or lose it” approach to quarterly budgets—the third month of each quarter offers marketers a final opportunity to positively impact their performance before the books close. 

Before you go all-in on your Q2 plan, you might want to 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 – March 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

Search budgets clearly picked up in March, with more than half of accounts spending more than in the previous month.

• 54% of paid search accounts spent +10% or more in March versus February, compared to 20% who spent -10% or less (+34% differential)
• 17% of accounts spent +50% or more in March versus February, compared to 3% of accounts spending -50% or less (+14% differential)

Paid Search CPCs

With the largest segment of search advertisers seeing no change in click prices from February to March, the growth in spending is coming from increased click volume.  

• 37% of paid search accounts paid +10% or more per click in March versus February, compared to 24% who paid -10% or less (+13% differential)
• 3% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in March versus February, compared to 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (+2% differential)

Social advertising spending

Nearly half of social advertisers increased spending in March, with a very large segment of advertisers growing budgets by 50% or more.

• 47% of paid social accounts spent +10% or more in March versus February, compared to 35% who spent -10% or less (+12% differential)
• 20% of accounts spent +50% or more in March versus February, compared to 10% of accounts spending -50% or less (+10% differential)

Social advertising CPMs

The price of one thousand impressions increased for nearly two-thirds of social advertisers, making prices a key driver to higher spending levels.

• 64% of paid social accounts paid +10% or more per thousand impressions in March versus February, compared to 11% who paid -10% or less (+53% differential)
• 11% of accounts paid +50% or more per thousand impressions in March versus February, compared to 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (+10% differential)

Retail Media spending

Two-thirds of Retail Media advertisers spent more in March compared to February, reflecting the breakneck pace of growth of the channel.

• 67% of retail media advertising accounts spent +10% or more in March versus February, compared to 19% who spent -10% or less (+48% differential)
• 26% of accounts spent +50% or more in March versus February, compared to 3% of accounts spending -50% or less (+23% differential)

Retail Media CPCs

Click prices for Retail Media ads were stable to slightly higher in March, which means the spending growth was largely a combination of both pricing and volume.

• 43% of retail media advertising accounts paid +10% or more per click in March versus February, compared to 19% who paid -10% or less (+24% differential)
• 4% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in March compared to February, versus 2% of accounts paying -50% or less (+2% differential)

Check out more resources from Skai

Come back in May for our next monthly trends post. 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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