5 killer stats to start your week

1. Big brands hike programmatic budgets

Programmatic ad spend by the world’s biggest brands has hit a high despite widely publicised concerns about brand safety and transparency.

Budgets are expected to be up by 11 points from 17% of total digital media investment in 2016/17 to 28% in 2017/18. Mobile and video in particular will benefit from increased investment, with 87% of respondents set to increase spend in mobile and 68% in video.

Alongside the rise in spend, marketers are pushing for changes to address concerns around transparency, with 41% saying this is a major priority for 2018.

And with GDPR due to come into force in May, 83% of respondents see compliance as a priority for 2018. However, only 10% say they have already ensured their programmatic activity is fit for purpose post GDPR.

The study is based on responses from 28 companies spending in excess of $50bn globally on marketing communications.

Source: WFA

2. Brits spend £1.6bn a year on impulse purchases via social media

About 47% of Brits make impulse purchases via social media on a monthly basis – with the average user spending £318 a year.

Of those, 65% regret their purchases and one in seven confess to ‘financial upgrading’ (buying something more expensive than they’d planned) and 37% wish they put the money toward reaching their savings goals instead.

Half of Brits claim social media has no impact on their spending habits, but more than half fell short of their savings aspirations in the last 12 months.

And almost a quarter (24%) of users have made a purchase as a direct result of something they have seen on social media.

Source: Post Office Money

3. Facebook use declining among younger audiences

Facebook use among young adults and teens is declining with just 2.2 million, or 71%, of people aged between 12 and 17 using the platform. That is a decline of eight percentage points since August.

A drop is also expected for the 18 to 24 age bracket. This year, 83% of social network users aged 18 to 24 are expected to use Facebook but this figure is forecast to fall to 81.5% by 2021.

The number of total Facebook users in the UK will reach 32.6 million, or 86.2% of the adult population, in 2018.

Leading the charge for younger audiences is Snapchat. In 2018, close to 43% of UK social network users will log onto Snapchat, more than double its penetration rate from three years ago. Instagram will be used by 49.8% of adult internet users, while Twitter will be used by 33.4%.

Source: eMarketer

4. Email’s ROI increases, despite concerns about testing and GDPR

Email marketing’s return on investment is on the rise, with ROI increasing from £30.03 for every £1 spent in 2017 to £32.28 this year.

While 50% of marketers are now confident they can accurately calculate this ROI figure, just 19% believe they can determine the lifetime value of an email address to their business.

However, when it comes to email testing, 19% of marketers say their organisation has no competence at all, with a further 15% saying they don’t conduct any tests on the emails they send to customers – almost double the 8% last year.

And with GDPR about to come into force, 36% of email marketers feel positive about the impact it will have on their email campaigns, while 43% feel negative.

Source: DMA.

5. Premium editorial sites outperform social media for long-term memory encoding

A new study claims that left brain memory encoding – which processes words and detail – is 42% stronger when people view ads on premium editorial sites than when they see the same ads on social media sites.

While right brain memory encoding – more emotional and global aspects of processing – is strong for both premium sites and social media, ads on premium sites generate a 9% stronger response.

Results also show that ads seen in a premium context are viewed for longer (17%), create 29% higher engagement and generate greater levels of left brain (42%) and right brain (9%) memory encoding than ads on social media.

The research took into account long-term memory encoding, engagement and emotional intensity and was conducted on 139 people aged between 18 and 60.

Source: News Works and AOP