The spends for both are up for both the quarter and the year. Ad impressions increased
27% YoY and clicks were up 16%, however both metrics were down QoQ by more than
5%. Overall CTRs for social were down about 10% YoY.
For search, total paid search spending is up nearly 20% from June to July with
impressions up 66% YoY and clicks increasing by 49%, however overall CTRs were
down 11% compared to last year.
"In the world of paid media, the second half of the year is looking to be more a reaction
to, versus continuation of, the first," said Chris Costello, Senior Director of Marketing
Research, Kenshoo. "As marketers made strategic choices in response to the realities
of the COVID-19 pandemic or related to the changing socio-political climate, they pulled
back ad spend, but as they adapted to the 'new normal', those ad budgets returned in a
big way...With the holiday season kicking off soon, marketers ended Q3 at a solid
launching point for that seasonal push to reach consumers.
More data from Kenshoo
can be accessed here
One interesting trend in the social space is that of live events. As many marketers
pivoted away from in-person live events because of the rigors of social distancing, many
turned to social networks to get that 'live' feeling. According to Sprout Social more than
65,000 social accounts have posted about live social networking events - leading to just
over 1 billion impressions for those events.
There have been more than 18,000 posts about movies, 14,000 regarding political
rallies, and nearly 6,000 messages about concerts. Zoos, museums, and aquariums,
faced with no crowds over the usually-busy summer months, instead turned to live
feeds of some of their animals to keep people engaged with their purpose. There has
also been a resurgence of the drive-in theatre, where friends and families gathered to
be socially-distant-together.
Drive-in theatres, according to Sprout's data, received 28% more mentions on social
media this summer than last. People also turned out to listen to concerts and ballgames
in their cars and even drive-in political rallies in the lead-up to the US Presidential
Election.
"When we filtered the drive-in listening data to look only at rallies, we found that this
topic received, on average, 29.6 engagements per message--which is 81.2% more
than the average for the drive-in conversation as a whole. And the majority of those
engagements are coming straight from Washington, D.C.," write the report authors.
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