How EU ecommerce boosted ad spend this Black Friday

With Black Week over for another year, we take a look at how EU ecommerce businesses scaled their ad spend, which were the ad platforms of choice, and how strategies compared to their counterparts in the UK.

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EU ecommerce made a surge in spend

Ecommerce businesses across Europe and the UK significantly upped their ad spend this year to try and capitalise on high customer demand this peak season.

In the lead-up to Black Friday, European ecommerce businesses made huge investments with 115.7% growth in ad spend year-on-year. In comparison, UK online retailers increased ad investments by 43.7% compared to the same period last year.

“During the tougher economic climate, we have seen ecommerce businesses substantially boost their advertising spend, recognising Black Friday as a pivotal opportunity for sales and business expansion. In the coming weeks and months, businesses will hopefully reap the rewards and evaluate if they made the right strategic investments for success while setting themselves up for 2024,” says Samir El-Sabini, our Co-founder and CEO.

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Google grows in popularity in the EU

While businesses in both the EU and the UK are scaling their ad budgets, their spend strategy is very different.

As we saw in our article on UK ad spend, Meta won the battle for Black Friday ad spend in the UK with a 65% share of wallet in November, which was a 20% gain from its share last year.

Meanwhile, Google’s share of ad spend fell from 26% in November last year to 22% this year.

Ecommerce in the EU had a different strategy, and Google was the platform of choice. They dedicated 55.2% of their budgets to Google in November, which was almost a 22% increase from last year. Meta’s ad share was 38.4%, which was a similar amount to last year.

“For ecommerce businesses, the choice of ad platforms is a crucial factor in order to connect with new customers and retain loyalty. This year, European ecommerce businesses chose to put more of their trust and budgets in Google while the UK maintained a preference for Meta,” says Samir.

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Amazon sees hesitant adoption

Amazon Ads has gained significant growth in the UK, but European businesses have been more incremental in allocating their budgets there.

Amazon is gaining a bigger share of budgets each month in the UK and made a dramatic increase year-on-year, from 2% in November 2022 to 10.6% in the same period this year.

Unlike the UK, EU ecommerce businesses have been hesitant to experiment with Amazon, with businesses only allocating 2.46% of their total ad budgets there.

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Scale your spend with Juni

Successfully managing your cash flow is a challenge when you factor in seasonality, but having the right tools and spend insights can help you to control your cash flow, as well as make smarter decisions this Black Friday and beyond.

Juni can give you a unified view of your funds, multi-currency business accounts, corporate cards and unparalleled insights and analytics – all in one place. If you need an extra boost to your bottom line, our fast, flexible financing for everything from media buying to paying suppliers can help you extend your runway. See availability for your country.

By centralising your spend management, you can save valuable time and have the information you need to manage your cash flow at your fingertips.