Chris "Coz" Costello, Senior Director of Marketing Research @ Skai
Spending and Pricing Trends Across Paid Search, Social Advertising, and Retail Media
With the holiday season in full swing, average daily spending and ad prices rose across all channels.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Skai retail media advertisers increased spending by at least 10% per day in November, along with 54% of paid search advertisers and 48% of social accounts. Paid search saw the biggest increase in ad pricing, with cost-per-click (CPC) up 12% overall and half of the advertisers in the channel seeing click prices up by at least 10% over October.
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 – November 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 increased 42% from October to November.
- 54% of paid search accounts spent +10% or more per day in November versus October, compared to 19% who spent -10% or less (+35% differential)
- 23% of accounts spent +50% or more per day in November versus October, compared to 3% of accounts spending -50% or less (+20% differential)
Paid Search CPCS
Overall, the average cost of a click in paid search advertising rose 12% from October to November.
- 50% of paid search accounts paid +10% or more per click in November versus October, compared to 17% who paid -10% or less (+33% differential)
- 9% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in November versus October, compared to 2% of accounts paying -50% or less (+7% differential)
Social Advertising spending
Overall, average daily spending in social advertising increased 25% from October to November.
- 48% of paid social accounts spent +10% or more per day in November versus October, compared to 31% who spent -10% or less (+17% differential)
- 23% of accounts spent +50% or more per day in November versus October, compared to 11% of accounts spending -50% or less (+12% differential)
Social Advertising CPMs
Overall, the average cost of a thousand impressions in social advertising rose 8% from October to November.
- 46% of paid social accounts paid +10% or more per thousand impressions in November versus October, compared to 20% who paid -10% or less (+26% differential)
- 7% of accounts paid +50% or more per thousand impressions in November versus October, compared to 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (+6% differential)
Retail Media spending
Overall, average daily spending in retail media advertising increased 34% from October to November.
- 63% of retail media advertising accounts spent +10% or more per day in November versus October, compared to 22% who spent -10% or less (+41% differential)
- 29% of accounts spent +50% or more per day in November versus October, compared to 4% of accounts spending -50% or less (+25% differential)
Retail Media CPCs
Overall, the average cost of a click in retail media advertising rose 9% from October to November.
- 43% of retail media advertising accounts paid +10% or more per click in November versus October, compared to 20% who paid -10% or less (+23% differential)
- 4% of accounts paid +50% or more per click in November compared to October, versus 1% of accounts paying -50% or less (+3% 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.
