Meta dominates UK e-commerce advertising space, but top spot under threat
The 2022 advertising platform of choice for UK online retailers was Meta, according to research by Juni.
This is based on a sample of 130 UK e-commerce companies using the firm’s platform.
65% of UK e-commerce ad spend went on Meta owned networks Facebook and Instagram, 22.9% on Google and 4.3% on TikTok in 2022.
However, Facebook and Instagram’s position has eroded over the year, falling from 70.5% in January to 60.9% in November.
While the rise of retail media networks launched by the likes of Asda, Boots and Tesco could have a major impact on the UK advertising landscape, Juni’s data shows that social media platforms still play a key part in the overall campaign mix.
On its platform, TikTok has made significant gains in the year, displacing the likes of Amazon (1.4%), Pinterest (0.5%) and Snap (0.4%), to become the UK’s third most popular platform for e-commerce ad spend.
TikTok’s overall market share is 4.3%, peaking in July (10.1% of overall spend) and June (8.7%), though Juni is witnessing some contraction as we close out 2022.
Google suffered a dip in market share in August, dipping to 16.4%, but climbed to 25% in November, suggesting a resurgence during key retail moments.
November was the month which saw the highest advertising spend, claiming 16% of the year’s total investment so far (second week 4.7%, third week 4.2% and fourth week 3.6%), followed by April (12%) and May (10.5%).
In November, British online retailers focused 61.3% of their monthly budget on advertising, a 167% increase on January’s ad spend level.
As gifting season continues and new year sales are around the corner, Juni predicts holiday ad investment in December will be slightly above that of November’s. The current leading platforms for December ad spend are Meta (68%), Google(28%) and TikTok (1.8%).
“In early 2022, we launched credit to help UK e-commerce companies fund ad campaigns to unlock revenue growth. We’re seeing high levels of ad spend across our platform, with our data showing where and when online retailers are choosing to invest their marketing budgets, ” says Samir El-Sabini, CEO and Co-Founder at Juni.
“It's clear that companies have been testing what the best platforms are for them during certain key retail moments. As we enter 2023 amid a challenging economic climate, where businesses choose to spend their marketing budget will be brought into even sharper focus.”
“It will be important to become more selective than ever on brand and channel investments. To sustain growth next year, businesses will need to manage a balancing act of the right mix of online and offline marketing and distribution.”
Continue reading…