Major social media channels see 40% increase in ad spend this quarter
A 40% increase from Q2 to Q3 in ad spend occurred for major social channels Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest fueled in large part by new targeting capabilities like Pinterest tags and enhanced audience targeting.
At the same time, Kinetic has seen Instagram spending grow to represent 20% of all the money its advertiser clients spend on Facebook advertising. While this is just one company, it's still incredibly high and probably a harbinger of where spend could be going as Instagram continues to perform, the study suggests. Kinetic Social is a social advertising services company -- they help brands and agencies buy ads across Facebook, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), Twitter and Pinterest. This report covers what only Kinetic's clients spent in the 3rd quarter of 2016.
Remarkably, Pinterest engagement campaigns are up by 300% this quarter. Pinterest website click campaign spend tripled this quarter although the study reports a 40% drop in CPM and CPC on website click campaigns compared to the prior quarter. Twitter continues as an ideal mobile channel, the report suggests, with 93% of video views on Twitter, making it a major performance driver this quarter.
Overall, mobile placements have dramatically outperformed desktop placements for both CPC and CPA metrics, the research suggests although they continue to represent only about 60% of overall investment as some advertisers continue to struggle with cross device and cross platform ROI measurement.
According to the study, Facebook ad spend increased 50% from quarter to quarter, with better targeting results due to a rise in CPM. Mobile ads across Facebook and Instagram, including video ad units make up more than 75% of retail ad spend, demonstrating the increase shift to mobile ad purchases among consumers.
"We're seeing Pinterest's advertising platform mature. As they continue to roll out new tools for advertisers, we anticipate it will become an even more important channel for sharing visual assets and appealing to consumers, especially for retail advertisers," said Kinetic Social CEO Matt Gilbert. "Our advertisers have increased their spending on Instagram in large part because it performs. Taken together with Facebook, the two networks are a powerful way to connect with consumers using a variety of targeting signals."