The cost of mobile acquisition : how the market behaves, while Black Friday is approaching?

Black Friday this year takes place on 27th of November in many countries (in France it’s previewed to be on 4th of December). Usually, this period of big sales goes along with increased mobile media buying costs. 

 

This time, Addict Mobile gives an update on the costs of mobile acquisition of the advertising market. This is even more interesting to analyze, since a slight decrease of CPM in some countries during the reinforcement of Covid related measures.

The analysis focuses on Facebook only.

 

France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK

What about the countries that saw a slight decline in the average CPM in late October/early November, following the announcements by different governments?

 

In fact, it started to rise back around 9th of November. The increase even accelerated from 14th of November. Overall in these 6 countries, which therefore follow a classic Black Friday approach, we see CPMs increasing by 15% compared to August.

   

 

U.S. and Canada, the elections delayed the increase of CPM

 

Black Friday in these two countries usually affects the most their acquisition costs, although this year’s elections have delayed the increase of CPMs.

 

 

In Canada we see a classic pattern of increasing CPM that starts from August. Although it looks like it is a little bit stagnated in October, it still continues to gradually increase.

In the U.S. the situation is quite different from the usual (including the last year as well) and the answer is simple: the Presidential election.

• The CPM increases sharply (+136% between 1st of August and 27 th of September) until two weeks before the Election Day, when, it decreases for the first time (-42% between 17th and 20th of October).
• On Election Day, the CPM is at its lowest point (8.3€ on 4th of November UTC+2 or 3 in the U.S) before rising rapidly (+57% between 4th of November and yesterday).

This decrease observed before and during the elections can be explained by 2 factors:

• From 27th of October, Facebook blocked the possibility to create new ads related to politics in the run-up to the election.
• Brands may not have wanted to be associated with this political topic and have slowed down their investments.

After 3rd November, the CPM returned to its normal level and started gradually increase along with the approaching Black Friday date. The CTR also increases proportionally, which shows that users are clicking on the ads again.

 

CPI and CTR

Overall, the CPI follows exactly the same trend as the CPM.

 

 

 

Contrary to the CTR which has remained in constant increase since August but does not sufficiently compensate for this increase in the CPM.  This would mean that users are still more inclined to see and click on ads.

On the other hand, we don’t see any difference in behavior between Facebook platforms or OS.

 

CPMs will be very high in the upcoming days, whether it’s confinement or not

• Like every year, CPMs will be very high in the upcoming days, whether it’s confinement or not. Keep this in mind, when you analyze your results.
• Also, remember, that Black Friday is a period when in-app conversion rates are higher compared to the rest of the year, as we observed 1 year ago.
• It will be interesting to see how the CPM evolves in France taking into consideration the postponed Black Friday.