Our Q2/23 Digital Commerce Spend Report brings you data-driven insights and analysis on spending patterns within digital commerce to help companies identify trends, optimise investment and inform strategic decisions. Download the report here.
Q2 saw some movers and shakers in our ranking of preferred ad platforms. Google remains the reigning platform, SMB digital commerce companies grew their ad budgets, and Snapchat makes a surprise entry with a spike in spend.
“Our data shows that UK ecommerce businesses are both diversifying and reducing their advertising spend as businesses gear up for the peak shopping season in Q4,” said Samir El-Sabini, CEO and co-founder of Juni. “With Black Friday and Christmas approaching, ecommerce businesses are likely reducing overall ad spend to invest in inventory to hedge against inflation.”
SMB digital commerce companies had a massive growth in spend on Meta and Google, increasing their average investment by 59.2% and 50.4%, respectively. They’re also the driving force behind increased spending on TikTok, helping it become the third most popular platform.
Mid-market digital commerce had a similar strategy. Average spend on Google went up by 37% compared to Q1 this year. Meanwhile, spend on TikTok grew by a huge 58% and Pinterest by 53%. Digital agencies took a cautious approach and reduced their spend on most platforms, with Google receiving a notable 25% reduction. For digital agencies, the winner here was Microsoft, with more funds diverted to the platform in Q2/23. Budgets here increased from 0.11% in the first quarter to 1.1% this quarter.
Meta’s years-long reign ended last quarter when Google took the top spot. This quarter, Google kept the first position and increased their share of our customer’s wallets with 51.8% of their budgets. Facebook came in second place with 39.2% of spend but remains the UK’s ad platform of choice.
Google kept the crown and remained the preferred platform for digital commerce businesses. SMB digital commerce companies are driving investment in Google Ads, with a drastic 50.4% increase compared to last quarter, while Mid-market companies followed the trend with 37%. In comparison, digital agencies reduced their spend by 25%, choosing to invest in other platforms instead.
In Q1/23, card spend with Meta has decreased by 11% compared to the previous quarter. However, this trend hasn’t continued. In Q2, Meta maintained its spend at 39.2% of budgets, compared to 39% in Q1/23. But, this is despite SMB digital commerce making a significant 59.2% increase in spend on Meta in Q2.
As with last quarter, UK businesses spent the most on Meta, although the amount they’re allocating is decreasing.
TikTok took third place with a 2.5% share of advertising budgets. This was driven by a significant increase in spend from Mid-market businesses of 58%. Meanwhile, Digital agencies invested 3.7% of budgets here, growing from 2.5% last quarter.
Microsoft advertising takes fourth place, with 1.9% of spend, showing only a slight decrease from 2.1% last quarter. Digital agencies diverted more funds to the platform in Q2/23. Budgets here increased from 0.11% in the first quarter to 1.1% this quarter.
Snapchat made an unexpected entry to the lineup, coming in fifth place with 0.53% of advertising budgets. This showed a growth of 14% in total volume versus Q1/23. Again, Digital agencies were big spenders here, increasing investment in Snapchat by 75% compared to Q1.
UK digital commerce businesses chose to invest 52.3% of their ad spend with Meta, continuing the trend from the past few years. But, it could be about to change. Spend at the end of Q4 2022 was 59%, so this quarter shows a significant drop.
In comparison, Sweden and Europe spend most of their budget on Google ads, with 58.5% and 63.8%, respectively.
Instead of dealing with different platforms and currencies, receipts and invoices, and arguing with banks over spend limits, you can make running ads easier with Juni. With automatic receipt generation, real-time spend insights, Google Ads invoices auto-pulled into your account, and your dedicated Juni inbox for receipts and invoices, keeping track of your payments is simple.
You can also boost your cash flow with credit, cashback and more to help you fund ad campaigns and unlock revenue growth.
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Insights in this report come from analysing thousands of aggregated and anonymised transactions on Juni cards. SMB digital commerce represents companies with <50 employees. Mid-market digital commerce represents companies with >50 employees. Digital agencies reference both digital marketing and advertising agencies as well as affiliate marketing companies. Quarter-over-quarter comparisons consist of customers who have been active with Juni over the two quarters. Year-over-year comparisons consist of customers who have been active with Juni over that entire 12-month period of time. Numbers were compiled and analysed on a quarterly basis.
This article was updated January 2024
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