The Latest Trends in Digital Marketing | Cyber 5, Paid Search, Twitter – The Catalyst

Share:

Welcome to the Catalyst, your one-stop shop for the latest trends in digital marketing.

This month’s episode will discuss November’s top digital marketing news, including Cyber 5 results, shifting trends impacting paid search, and what to make of Elon Musk’s Twitterverse drama.

Cyber 5 Recap

October Spending Setting the Stage for Holiday

• During October, personal consumption expenditures, which measure consumer spending, rose 0.5%, even accounting for inflation. Specifically, retail sales rose 1.3% MoM. The PCE price index, the feds preferred way to gauge inflation, also rose 0.2%. But in some good news, American paychecks increased 0.7% MoM and 0.4% with inflation. So what does all that mean? Consumers came into November with slightly more money to spend, no significant changes in inflation, and a healthy appetite and habit of spending.

2022 Cyber 5 Performance

• These October trends translated to relatively modest sales growth during the Cyber 5 shopping period, starting Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Ecommerce revenue was up 4% YoY for the Cyber 5 holiday weekend, with sales totaling $35B. Growth on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was modest but still positive, around 2%, and Cyber Monday was the big winner with 5.8% growth. Relatively high inflation means fewer purchased goods, but these were still decent results and better than they could have been.  

The Highest Performing Shopping Categories During Cyber 5

• Toys, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods, and apparel (all categories geared towards gifting) were the top sellers. The gifting category leading the pack during the holiday season makes sense. Still, there was some early-season trepidation that people would buy more for themselves and do a bit less gifting this year. Purchases here were driven by discounts, with toys and electronics seeing prices slashed by 34% and 25%, respectively. There could still be some self-gifting, but toys being the top category points to present purchasing.

Cyber 5 Discounting

• Regarding discounts, 89% of retailers offered sales, according to Digital Commerce 360’s check of the top 100 retailer’s websites. 66% offered free shipping, which continues to spin the fly-wheel, keeping the shipping benefit at the top of consumers’ demands. Customers want it, likely initially motivated by Amazon Prime, more retailers offer it, and then consumers begin to expect it, and the cycle continues.  
• Looking closer at those discounts, 36% of the top 100 offered a sitewide sale. With inventory levels inflated and retailers pushing to close out the year with positive revenue growth, more brands were willing to cut prices across their entire selection to boost top-line sales as high as possible.
• Another call-out comes from looking at the top 55 online retailers’ differences in strategy year-over-year. 96% offered a discount for Cyber Monday this year compared to 89% last year, and while both years seem close to maxed out, that’s still 8% growth and means that only two retailers didn’t discount this year. On top of that, the number offering sitewide promotions jumped from 24% to 41%, which is a 71% increase and shows the type of position these brands were in to get rid of excess inventory across all product categories and increase conversion rate as much as possible.

Adlucent’s POV on Cyber 5

• We saw some interesting trends in our data that helped support these stories and added a bit of additional insight. Our top retail clients saw a 6% decrease in clicks, a 14% increase in click-through rate, and a 14% increase in average order value (AOV). Based on this data, consumers were shopping around less as they could find their first choice in gifts easier than last year. And that the heavy discounting drove larger cart sizes and a propensity to splurge on a more expensive version of an item because of the savings they were receiving.

Buy Now, Pay Later + Cyber 5

• This year, there was a considerable influx of buy now, pay later (BNPL) orders during the holiday week. Between the week before Thanksgiving and the Cyber 5 week, BNPL orders increased a massive 85%. As consumers were staring down their Christmas lists and tallying their budgets, this short-term lending option became a way to stretch those budgets further and keep buying when they probably otherwise wouldn’t be able to.  

• There’s still a lot to be seen regarding whether we’ll see any increase in delinquent payments from this behavior and what that will mean for the actual BNPL firms and their nosediving valuations. Still, for retailers, this continues to be a way to seal the deal with consumers. When zooming out a bit, Kantar reports that BNPL still only ranks in the top 3 critical shopping factors for 8% of consumers, but that is up 33% YoY and doesn’t seem to be going away.

Paid Search Performance During Cyber Five

Paid search reportedly saw strong growth over Cyber 5, with revenue gains out-stripping the average. Search dominance is slowing but will continue to grow in 2023 and beyond. 

Paid search will go from 28.5% to 29.5% of total media spending next year. It is predicted to grow YoY in spending by 12.9% to $111.80B, putting it over $100B for the first time (assuming 2022 finishes at forecasted levels and not above).

Google continues to dominate but is being chased hard by Amazon and even non-traditional platforms like Instagram and TikTok. There were several headlines recently about 40% of people aged 18-24 starting their search on these social platforms rather than Google. But keep in mind that Google released this stat amid several monopoly investigations currently being carried out against the tech giant. While this trend is real and worth watching, especially as Google is desperately trying to make search more visual and keep its lead, this stat is worth taking with a hefty grain of salt.

Almost ⅔ of shoppers start their product search on Amazon. However, this stat does not tell us whether shoppers are looking for a specific product or just starting their buying journey. While it’s true that Amazon dominates when consumers are looking for a particular item, that’s where consumers still start on Google by an overwhelming majority. 

In these instances, social platforms are gaining the most ground with their more visual formats and consumers. Younger generations are more trusting of the curated recommendations they see from friends and influencers they’ve specifically chosen to follow and add to their algorithm. 

Here, Google is making the most significant changes to compete, implementing innovations like shop the look, trending products, and the new page insights tool aggregating reviews, ratings, and product pros and cons on one page.

Should I Advertise on Twitter?

Last but not least, Twitter. Elon Musk’s take-over of Twitter has produced a near-infinite number of reports about issues at the social media platform coming from all angles. Staff departures, an advertiser exodus, content moderation changes, technical challenges, rumored feuds with Apple, and even growth in active users have all been recent news stories.   

The worst might be behind us, as Amazon and Apple report plans to resume advertising if Twitter makes essential security updates. However, it is still worth giving the platform a very short leash and keeping a close eye on any campaigns you’re currently running if you still are. If you are not running on Twitter but have been considering it, it might be worth keeping that card close to your chest for a while longer. Consider waiting until the platform can prove to be a more stable source of relevant consumer engagement without the brand safety and technical risks seen during the transition.

Conclusion

We are constantly sharing the latest in digital marketing news to help you better inform your marketing efforts. Stay tuned and subscribe to our performance marketing blog today so you can be the first to know when the next one drops. 

Are you interested in taking your digital marketing strategy to the next level? Let’s Chat.

Citations:

www.adweek.com
www.insiderintelligence.com
www.digitalcommerce360.com
www.insiderintelligence.com
www.reuters.com

Brad Costella

Brad is a Senior Director of Strategy at Adlucent. He is a strategic, data-driven, solutions-focused marketing leader with 10+ years of experience in omni-channel digital marketing and customer acquisition. He has a passion for turning insights into actionable strategies that improve real world outcomes for advertisers and customers. He believes that success comes from finding and striking the sweet spot where customer's needs intersect with a brand's value and goals.