Digital Marketing Snapshot 2024 Q1

Skai Quarterly Trends Infographic

Spending up across channels in Q1, with a majority of advertisers increasing budgets year-over-year

Higher ad prices played a role in growth across retail media, paid search and paid social while higher ad volume also factored into retail media and paid social.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Spending increased year-over-year (YoY) in all channels even as quarterly spending dropped sequentially with the end of holiday seasonality.
Over 50% of accounts increased channel spending by at least 5% over Q1 of last year and two-thirds of retail media advertisers spent more YoY.
As retail media spending has grown and prices have risen, attributed sales have kept pace, resulting in no change to ROAS for the channel.
Even as spending has more than doubled YoY, adoption of Performance Max campaigns has slowed since the pre-holiday jump from Q2 to Q3 of last year.
Reels placements across both Facebook and Instagram grew much faster than overall Meta spending and reached 10% of total spending in Q1.
SPENDING UP OVER LAST YEAR AND DOWN FROM LAST QUARTER
Spending increased year-over-year (YoY) in all channels even as quarterly spending dropped sequentially with the end of holiday seasonality.
MOST ADVERTISERS SPENT MORE IN Q1 THAN LAST YEAR
Over 50% of accounts increased channel spending by at least 5% over Q1 of last year and two-thirds of retail media advertisers spent more YoY.
RETAIL MEDIA SCALES UP SMOOTHLY
As retail media spending has grown and prices have risen, attributed sales have kept pace, resulting in no change to ROAS for the channel.
PERFORMANCE MAX MAXES OUT?
Even as spending has more than doubled YoY, adoption of Performance Max campaigns has slowed since the pre-holiday jump from Q2 to Q3 of last year.
REELS GAIN SHARE ACROSS META ECOSYSTEM
Reels placements across both Facebook and Instagram grew much faster than overall Meta spending and reached 10% of total spending in Q1.
FOCUS ON COMMERCE

COMMERCE YOY SPENDING GROWTH ACROSS CHANNELS

Paid social saw a very large increase in designated product ads, persisting even after the holiday season.

PRODUCT AD PRICING ACROSS CHANNELS

Seasonal price “premiums” receded across channels, with retail media moving the least just as prices in that channel grew the least in Q4.

COMMERCE AD EXPANSION AND EVOLUTION

Share of the newer shopping placements dropped for both Google and Meta after the holidays, while Amazon DSP held steady compared to last quarter.
CORE TRENDS