The 2022 advertising platform of choice for UK online retailers was Meta. Data released by Juni, the financial platform built for ecommerce, has shown that 65% of UK ecommerce 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.
The battle of the platforms
While the rise of Retail Media Networks launched by the likes of Asda, Boots and Tesco are predicted to revolutionise the UK advertising landscape, Juni’s data shows that social media platforms still play a key part in the overall campaign mix.
On the Juni 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 ecommerce 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.
Ad spend seasonality
At the start of the year, Juni launched credit specifically to help ecommerce companies scale their media buying. 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%).
Samir El-Sabini, CEO and Co-Founder of Juni, said: “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.”
The data used is based on a sample of 130 UK ecommerce companies using Juni’s platform.
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