Key Takeaways From the Skai Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report

With digital ad spending projected to surpass that of traditional media this year, where did digital marketers place their bets in the first quarter? The Skai Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report has the answers!

A new year represents new beginnings for marketers—and new budgets. Whereas Q4 is all about fueling what works and closing the year strong, Q1 can provide room for experimentation. It also ushers in an expected decline in spend from the full-court press that is the run up to the holiday season. With online spend overtaking offline spend for the first time this year, following the trends across search, social, and Ecommerce in the Skai Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report gives marketers valuable insight into how ad dollars are shifting overall.

Skai Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report Key Findings

Paid search dominates

Still the biggest channel in digital advertising, SEM year-over-year (YoY) spend increased 11%, while clicks and impressions increased a healthy 25% and 35% respectively.

Paid social is maturing

Marketers went all-in on Instagram in Q1, increasing budgets 44% vs Q1 2018. This helped drive social spending up 27% YoY. With the wide variety of engaging, visually-rich ad formats in social—including Stories Ads, Carousels, and Video—advertisers were able to diversify their formats for maximum impact. Video played the biggest role, with the format earning 44% of all social advertising spending in Q1.

Ecommerce is the momentum leader

While social may be maturing, Ecommerce Channel Advertising—led by Amazon Advertising—is again the fastest growing channel in digital, with no signs of slowing down. Spending on Ecommerce Channel Ads grew 84% year-over-year and marketers are expected to continue their investments here in 2019.

Apple Search Ads are a big focus

Since launching on Skai Apps in Q3 2018, spending on Apple Search Ads across all Skai advertisers on the platform increased 89%.

With over $6 billion dollars in annualized marketer spend represented in our research, the Skai Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report unpacks all of the data in several useful formats. For the complete story, be sure to check out:

• The full report
• The interactive infographic
• The in-depth webinar

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