The price of digital ads has skyrocketed – here’s how to counteract it

Why is this happening?

There is no one simple answer as to why these prices are rising across the board – rather, the increase is as a result of a number of factors:

• Newer advertising platforms, like TikTok, are experiencing significant price volatility as demand increases with no established benchmark pricing
• Apple have recently implemented changes to ad targeting and privacy policies, which is making it increasingly difficult (and expensive) to reach audiences on social platforms including Facebook
• Growing investment in connected TV is pushing more money into YouTube, driving up ad prices

How significant are the price increases?

While fluctuation continues, Insider has reported that Meta’s cost per thousand (CPM) increased by 61% YoY, reaching an average CPM of USD $17.60. Meanwhile, TikTok’s CPM increased by a huge 185% YoY, peaking at an average CPM of USD $9.40. Google also saw programmatic display CPMs increase by 75% YOY, while search ad cost-per-clicks (CPCs) were up by 14% YOY. Amazon has also seen notable CPC growth for their sponsored products offering, up 14% YOY.

What can I do about it?

As more advertisers continue to pour their marketing dollars into paid social and digital formats, it’s likely that we won’t see price stabilization for some time. Rather than settling for less, brand marketers can focus on two adjacent areas where significant savings can be made, which can be used to reinvest into your digital marketing:

1. Creative adaptation

Aside from the CPM or CPC cost of digital advertising, content production can be one of the most significant areas of spend in your digital marketing campaigns. New product shoots, editing and producing of TVC masters and hiring of talent can all quickly add up, which, when coupled with rising ad prices, can easily blow your marketing budget out of the water.

Instead, adapting existing creatives with new messaging can be a sure-fire way for brands to reduce marketing costs while continuing to create quality content. Consider whether you have a TVC where your product can be switched out to a new version using CGI, but the remaining content remains the same, or whether you can bring brand messaging up-to-date by including a new voiceover or caption?

Dynamic content optimization allows you to make small changes to your content and deliver it to targeted audiences with impact. Whether you want to change your tagline or slightly switch the focus product, DCO can produce thousands of iterations of the same asset templates using real-time contextualised data, making your message more relevant to your audience.

You may be surprised at how quickly and effectively brand-new creative assets can be created simply by making some small tweaks to what you already have available.

2. Reducing, reusing and repurposing

Consider whether you can reduce the need for new content, by reusing and repurposing what you already have. Don’t fall into the trap of needing to come up with a brand new creative idea each week. If your product range remains the same, you likely have creative assets from previous marketing campaigns that didn’t get the love they deserved.

Dive deep into your previous campaign analytics to understand what performed well, what didn’t, and what could be used again. For example, brand marketing campaigns that stand the test of time could simply be reused to reinforce the messaging. Similarly, product campaigns that were targeted at a particular audience or demographic could be retargeted to a new audience to ensure that you get more mileage out of your existing assets.

For your brand to continue performing at its peak throughout a turbulent economic landscape, marketers must stay on top of their marketing activities to ensure every single dollar is working for them, whether that’s by A/B testing creative assets or CTAs, or through smart repurposing of content to mitigate the need for new creative production. Working with a skilled production partner can help you identify areas for cost saving throughout the marketing ecosystem, ultimately helping ensure your marketing campaigns become more efficient, more impactful and more effective.