Perhaps not surprising to most, but a new report from eMarketer has shown that retailers in the US are upping their spending on digital ads again this year. The budgets of US retailers in mobile advertising is estimated to have increased by about 15.7% year over year, reaching $9.5 Billion for 2013. This is on top of last year’s almost as impressive growth of 14.5%
Approximately 23.5% of the total digital ad budget will be spent in November and December, attempting to get shoppers to make those Christmas purchases online. As has always been the case, the Christmas shopping season is absolutely critical to virtually all retailers, which is why the advertising budgets are so high. Attempting to compete with all the other brands this time of year can send the costs for advertising up quite significantly.
Over the past year, however, there have been quite a few new advertising opportunities open up, so that may help to keep the total price for advertising at a much more reasonable level. Facebook has greatly improved their ad options this year, adding in the extremely effective ‘in feed’ ads. Twitter has also grown their advertising. Of course, many other significant sites have also jumped into, or expanded, their digital advertisement space this year.
The exact prices and other information about how marketers spent their massive holiday digital ad budgets will be quite interesting to see as reports come out. As a growing number of people do more of their shopping online, digital advertisements are only expected to grow. Whether the brands are attempting to get people to make a purchase online, or using digital ads to drive people into their stores, they are betting big on the online advertisements.
With $9.5 Billion in digital ad spending this year, retailers are clearly expecting some significant returns on that investment. The report expects that eCommerce retail sales in the US will reach $263.3 Billion this year, marking a 16.4% increase over 2012. Brands that market themselves well will have plenty of opportunities for big profits.
