As the slow recovery from the impact of Covid-19 begins, the effects the pandemic has had on all aspects of life and business are becoming more apparent.
Staying at home has cost some businesses, while others who had existing digital platforms or pivoted to develop these grew and thrived.
The push to online spending has sky-rocketed, impacting the economics of online retail enormously. But it’s not just at the consumer spending end of the equation where this shift has made its mark. From a digital marketing perspective, the huge shift to online shopping has skewed digital marketing spend significantly too…
One clear example is the amount of marketing spend attributed to Amazon Advertising – as retailers have looked to the online retail giant as a highly-effective marketplace to sell to the growing online shopping audience, the average amount invested in paid marketing on the platform soared by around 30%.
The net impact of this ‘gold rush’ for Amazon inventory is that it’s driven up the Cost Per Click and therefore acquisition cost for retailers by around 5% per transaction.
Similarly, ad spend across other marketplaces and social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, SnapChat and Twitter rose by 31% year-on-year in March 2021.
Consumers demanding brands ‘step up’ into the space between digital and real-world
In the sponsorship space, the hunger to return to real-world events has driven up the demand for sponsors to dedicate higher budgets to events in order to ensure they take place. Consumers in both the UK and USA indicated in a recent survey that they ‘expected brands to focus on sponsoring teams and leagues in order to help sporting communities’ and would ‘keep an eye’ on how brands reacted to the pressure.
User acquisition in FinTech Apps pays off
The AppsFlyer June 2021 report revealed that download of FinTech Apps rose by almost 130% in the UK between the start of 2020 and the end of the first quarter of 2021. The reason? Stay-at-home clients are looking for new ways to interact with financial institutions, market platforms, investment platforms and more.
As a result of this growth, and also a contributory factor in this growth is the amount of money being invested by FinTech companies to acquire new subscribers and users. A staggering $3-billion has been ploughed into aggressive user acquisition strategies, resulting in 29 of the top 40 FinTech apps experiencing at least a 20% increase in downloads.
What’s to come for the rest of 2021?
According to Forbes.com, digital advertising will continue to grow at a faster rate than traditional advertising with an estimated overall growth around 10%, with the UK predicted to have the second highest growth rate globally, behind India.
What does this mean for online businesses?
Quite simply, if you’ve not yet considered how, where and why to spend money on digital advertising, the time to do so is now. Although the market is highly competitive, consumers are looking for brands that stand out, connect with them in an authentic manner, and offer genuine value.
It sounds obvious but it’s vital that your digital marketing strategy is well-planned, well implemented, properly tracked and reported on and delivers a very clear goal to your business.
In a nutshell, you can’t afford not to be in the mix, but be sure you know how your campaign will set you apart from your competitors.
To find out more about digital marketing campaigns and how to set them up, measure and track them and learn from the return data, contact one of our digital marketing experts on 01223 550800 or info@realnet.co.uk.