One of the main formats that retail businesses plan to increase their advertising spend in this year is mobile. This is likely to be money well-spent, considering that a majority of the more than 1,000 US retail business decision-makers surveyed for a report [download page] from Feedvisor say that mobile ads drive the greatest ROI.
Helped along by the pandemic, 8 in 10 digital minutes in the US were spent on mobile. This, along with the belief of 63% of respondents that mobile ads lead to the greatest ROI, has led to 61% of brands planning to increase their ad spend in mobile this year.
Brands are also investing in other digital formats that have proven to drive ROI. Desktop and video, which were cited as formats that drive the greatest ROI for 60% and 58% of respondents, respectively, were also formats where a large percentage of brands intend to increase ad spend this year (video: 60%; desktop: 57%).
Advertising on Amazon
The pandemic has also led more brands to advertise on Amazon, with some 88% advertising on the platform in 2020. This is an increase of 21% over 2019, when 73% of brands were advertising on Amazon.
Before the pandemic, eMarketer estimated that Amazon would account for close to 10% of US ad dollars by 2021. This more recent report shares that brands are now allocating more of their digital media spend on Amazon (28%) than they do on Google (22%) or paid social (23%). Some 85% spent at least $40K on Amazon advertising per month last year, up from 65% who did the same in 2019. And, every one of the respondents reported seeing the value in Amazon ads, even though 64% said that Amazon customer acquisition costs are higher than other channels.
Overall, Feedvisor found that about half (51%) of third-party (3P) brands saw a return of 7 to 10 times on their investment, and 46% of first-party (1P) brands saw returns of 4 to 6 times on Amazon advertising.
Q4 2020 data from Tinuiti clients shows that Sponsored Products accounted for 80% of total ad spend on Amazon. And, spend in this area looks to have its rewards. Some 56% of respondents said that Sponsored Products ads drive the greatest return on ad spend (RoAS). While this is flat from last year (55%), it’s Amazon DSP (demand-side platform) that has seen the largest increase in brands that are seeing RoAS. About half (51%) of those surveyed said that DSP drove a high RoAS in 2020, compared to 37% who said the same in 2019.
Brands are also using advertising on Amazon to achieve goals across the funnel. Indications early on in 2020 showed a move toward top-of-funnel objectives for those advertising on the platform. However, Feedvisor found that a large percentage of brands were advertising on Amazon to not only drive brand awareness (68%), but to also acquire new customers (65%), drive sales (60%) and gain market share over competitors (54%).
The full report can be downloaded here.
About the Data: Findings are based on an online survey of 1,000+ US retail business decision-makers fielded between December 2020 and January 2021.
