Paid social spending skyrocketed in Q4 2020 into Q1 2021, and is expected to continue on that trajectory with a year-over-year growth projection of over 20%.
Throughout the pandemic, advertisers were forced to heavily rely on e-commerce experiences for their customers, which flooded the social platforms with ad dollars and greatly increased competition in the industry. Cost per click (CPC) on Facebook and Instagram increased 36% in 2020.
One emerging trend is that today, brands are taking ownership of their e-commerce experience in new and innovative ways. It can be as simple as shifting sales from traditional retail partners or Amazon over to their own O&O website. We’ve also seen retailers continue to expand into developing entire virtual social shopping experiences. Not only does this offer a seamless and customizable experience for their customers, but it also offers more visibility into and control over paid media performance data.
With the ability to clearly track results back to paid social campaigns and target more effectively, we can expect that brands will rely more heavily on these platforms to drive measurable sales, which will continue to increase competition within the landscape. Utilizing paid social campaigns and engaging content places more of a focus on a full funnel media approach.
One way to differentiate brand messaging and increase ad recall within the paid social space is to activate video placements, a format that has continued to gain traction across all social platforms. For example, Facebook in-feed video ad spending increased nearly 30% last year. As we continue to see with our clients, activating video placements is an effective way of communicating brand messaging and capturing customer attention.
If you want to get ahead of the market and fuel your business by activating strategic paid social campaigns, connect with us via email at [email protected]!
Written By: Mallory Horn, Director, Paid Media
