It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on advertisers. Brands in certain industries like travel have had to cut their spend entirely. Others blocked content related to the virus, which significantly reduced their reach. And nearly all marketers had to pivot their strategies to reach people isolating at home and adjusting to this new normal.
While the global outbreak has brought many challenges, it’s also presented many new and unexpected windows of opportunity. In July, we conducted a survey to better understand the effect of COVID-19 on advertisers.
Here are some major trends that we discovered.
An overall increase in sales
People haven’t been afraid to spend while quarantining. Consumers have increased purchases across certain categories while shying away from others. And the channels through which they buy have seen major shifts.
Since COVID-19, 62% of marketers have seen an overall increase in their sales, because consumers are buying more of what they sell during this time.
- Based on our responses, the advertiser category that has seen the largest majority increase in sales is Technology, Software, and Computing.
- This statistic remains constant with another recent analysis led by LiveIntent, written by Jessica Muñoz, which reported a 460% increase in conversion rates for Technology and Computing advertisers during COVID.
But this is not the case for all marketers.
- Around 38% of marketers have seen a decrease in their overall sales, reporting that consumers are actually buying less of what they sell during this time.
- The advertiser categories that have been affected the most are Retail and Travel.
As people shelter in place, marketers have understandably seen an increase in sales from online stores and a decrease in sales from brick-and-mortar stores.
- 51% of marketers have seen an increase in sales from their online stores, while 19% have experienced a decrease in sales from their brick-and-mortar stores.
- A recent report by eMarketer, written by Andrew Lipsman, forecasts that “US ecommerce sales will rise by 18% to $709.78 billion, while brick-and-mortar retail sales will experience a historically significant decline of 14.0% to $4.184 trillion.”
A shift in advertising investments
Those changes in sales and consumer spending have prompted marketers to shift their advertising investments. This way, they can meet changing audience behaviors and shift funds as needed to keep their businesses running.
Since COVID-19, 80% of marketers have increased their advertising investment.
- An article by Shane Schick on Marketing Dive states that video-conferencing software brands under the Technology, Software, and Computing category saw a spike in ad spend to $45 million.
But 20% of marketers have decreased their advertising investment to reallocate their marketing budget to meet other business needs.
- A trend report by MediaRadar specifies that between April and June of 2019, US department stores averaged $11.6 million per week on ad spend. Since COVID-19, ad spend from the retail category from April to June only averaged $2.1 million per week.
A growing interest in certain channels
Marketers have a range of channels to choose from – email, display, video, search, social, and more. As consumer habits continue to evolve and budgets are reworked during these uncertain times, advertisers are responding by increasing investments in their most valuable channels.
B2B brands are especially focused on increasing their investment towards email and programmatic display, video, and native.
- 73% of B2B marketers are increasing their investment towards email.
- 45% of B2B marketers are increasing their investment towards programmatic.
D2C brands are especially focused on increasing their investment towards paid search and paid social.
- 45% of D2C marketers are increasing their investment towards paid social.
- 42% of D2C marketers are increasing their investment towards paid search.
A look towards the future
Beyond COVID-19, advertisers are exploring various strategies to ensure they can continue acquiring and retaining customers. With the death of the third-party cookie on the horizon, many are also searching for solutions that can help them gather first-party data and build owned audiences.
- 75% of marketers are interested in reassessing their advertising investment across channels after COVID-19.
- 65% of marketers want to prioritize their customer acquisition and retention strategies after COVID-19.
- 43% of marketers will reassess audience-targeting solutions to replace third-party cookies after COVID-19.
- B2B brands are prioritizing their customer-acquisition and retention strategies, while D2C brands are prioritizing their advertising investment across channels.
The post July customer pulse survey: How COVID-19 has affected advertisers appeared first on LiveIntent Blog.