BENCHMARK REPORT Q4 2018 Are you paying too much for a click on a Facebook ad? What’s a good conversion rate on LinkedIn? These questions are top-of-mind for marketers tasked with generating leads in any industry. At AdStage, we believe data should be used to drive decisions that will grow your business. To help you set the benchmarks for success, we’ve aggregated data from 13.3 billion impressions and nearly 136 million clicks powered by the AdStage platform. We used this data to find network-specific benchmarks for paid search and paid social. Our benchmark report includes AdStage data from the following ad networks: Google Ads Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Bing In addition to benchmark data, you will also find trend analysis and insights from business leaders in this edition of the AdStage Benchmark Report. To stay current on the most recent trends in paid marketing and to receive the latest news about major digital ad networks, follow us on Twitter @adstage and subscribe to our popular newsletter. If you are interested in learning more about how AdStage technology can help your organization drive higher results for you paid marketing efforts, contact us at [email protected], Q4 2018 Benchmark metrics are representative of AdStage customers whose ad accounts are in USD currency. We make no claims that our benchmark metrics are indicators of a network's performance at large. Customers’ ad account metrics are summarized at daily intervals. These summaries are further aggregated to determine the median performance at monthly and quarterly intervals. Step 1 date account_id clicks impressions spend Sum metrics for each day 2018-12-01 1234xxx 13 2336 76.83 across all ad ∑ 2018-12-01 2345xxx 15 713 41.069 accounts 2018-12-02 7890xxx 9 1014 65.559 ∑ 2018-12-02 6789xxx 7 133 10.85 Step 2 date clicks impressions spend ctr cpc cpm Calculate metrics using 2018-12-01 28 3049 117.90 0.0092 4.21 38.67 the day totals 2018-12-02 16 1147 76.41 0.014 4.78 66.62 Step 3 date ctr cpc cpm Find the median Q 2018 0.012 4.50 52.65 value for the time period FACEBOOK 6 7 10 13 INSTAGRAM 16 LINKEDIN 20 TWITTER 24 GOOGLE ADS 28 GOOGLE DISPLAY NETWORK 32 YOUTUBE 36 BING ADS 40 TRENDS 44 INSIGHTS 52 RESOURCES 60 06FACEBOOK Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median In Q4 2018, we analyzed over 4.5 billion ad impressions and over 67 million clicks for Facebook News Feed ads. Median CPC continued to chart up, but only by 2 cents, ending Q4 at the most expensive it’s been all year. Key Takeaways ● CPC increased by 3.6% since Q3 2018 ● CPC increased the same, by 3.6% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPM 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Of the 4.5 billion ad impressions and over 67 million clicks analyzed for Facebook News Feed ads, median CPM jumped slightly – 15 cents – from last quarter and is down a lot – $4.45 – compared to the same time last year. Key Takeaways ● CPM increased by 0.7% since Q3 2018 ● CPM decreased by 34.8% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CTR 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Median CTR for Facebook News Feed ads clicked up 2% from last quarter, but is still way down from Q4 last year, where it landed at 2.4%. Key Takeaways ● CTR increased by 1.4% since Q3 2018 ● CTR decreased by 38.7% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median In Q4 2018, we analyzed over 197 million ad impressions and nearly 2.7 million clicks for ads in Facebook’s Audience Network. Median CPC increased 4 cents from last quarter, is up 16 cents from where it ended Q4 last year. Key Takeaways ● CPC increased by 10.5% since Q3 2018 ● CPC increased by 61.6% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPM 1st & 3rd Quartile Median After analyzing over 197 million ad impressions and nearly 2.7 million clicks for ads in Facebook’s Audience Network, we found that median CPM continued the upward climb it’s been making all year, ending Q4 at the highest cost we’ve charted yet. We also calculated that median CPM is $2.52 more expensive than it was same time last year. Key Takeaways ● CPM increased by 16.8% since Q2 2018 ● CPM increased by 66.3% year over year in Q3 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CTR 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Median CTR for ads in Facebook’s Audience Network improved just .03% since last quarter, and is relatively the same from where it ended last year. Key Takeaways ● CTR increased by 2.2% since Q3 2018 ● CTR increased by 1.5% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median In Q4 2018, we analyzed nearly 129 million ad impressions and over 856,000 clicks for ads in Facebook Messenger. Median CPC plunged 29 cents since last quarter, ending the year at a record low and down over 30% from where it was the same time last year. Key Takeaways ● CPC decreased by 32.2% since Q3 2018 ● CPC also decreased by 32.2% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPM 1st & 3rd Quartile Median After analyzing nearly 129 million ad impressions and over 856,000 clicks for ads on Facebook Messenger, we found that median CPM dipped $1.58 from last quarter and is down significantly, $4.53, from Q4 last year. Key Takeaways ● CPM decreased by 29.1% since Q3 2018 ● CPM decreased by 53.3% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CTR 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Median CTR for ads on Facebook Messenger jumped slightly from last quarter, but remains down 0.32% from Q4 2017. Key Takeaways ● CTR increased by 9.8% since Q3 2018 ● CTR decreased by 32.3% year over year in Q4 2018 16 INSTAGRAM Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median In Q4 2018, we analyzed over 2.2 billion ad impressions and over 14 million clicks for ads on Instagram. Median CPC dropped 26 cents since last quarter to the lowest price we’ve ever recorded and is a whopping $4.22 cheaper than it was this same time last year. Key Takeaways ● CPC decreased by 23.7% since Q3 2018 ● CPC decreased by 80.3% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPM 1st & 3rd Quartile Median After analyzing over 2.2 billion ad impressions and over 14 million clicks for ads on Instagram, we found that median CPM dropped $1.66 from last quarter and is down over 50% from the its cost of over $11 in Q4 2017. Key Takeaways ● CPM decreased by 24.8% since Q2 2018 ● CPM decreased by 55.1% year over year in Q3 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Median CTR for ads on Instagram dropped slightly from last quarter but soared from where it was last year when apparently almost no one was clicking any ads on Instagram. Key Takeaways ● CTR decreased by 8.2% since Q3 2018 ● CTR increased by 121.4% year over year in Q4 2018 20LINKEDIN Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median In Q4 2018, we analyzed over 2 billion ad impressions and over 5 million clicks for ads on LinkedIn. Median CPC ended the year at the cheapest we’ve seen it, dropping 5 cents since last quarter and down $1.21 from where it was in Q4 2017. Key Takeaways ● CPC decreased by 1.3% since Q3 2018 ● CPC decreased by 24.5% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPM 1st & 3rd Quartile Median After analyzing over 2 billion ad impressions and over 5 million clicks for ads on LinkedIn, we found that CPM ended on a high note, jumping 82 cents from last quarter, but is down 46 cents from Q4 last year. Key Takeaways ● CPM increased by 11.8% since Q2 2018 ● CPM decreased by 5.7% year over year in Q3 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CTR 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Median CTR for ads on LinkedIn ended high with an increase of .07% from last quarter, and is up .08% year over year. Key Takeaways ● CTR increased by 36.7% since Q3 2018 ● CTR increased by 44.4% year over year in Q4 2018 24 TWITTER Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median In Q4 2018, we analyzed nearly 96 million ad impressions and nearly 1.8 million clicks for ads on Twitter. We found that median CPC dropped 20 cents from last quarter and is up 4 cents from where it was same time last year. Key Takeaways ● CPC decreased by 33.5% since Q3 2018 ● CPC increased by 11.1% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPM 1st & 3rd Quartile Median After analyzing nearly 96 million ad impressions and nearly 1.8 million clicks for ads on Twitter, we found that median CPM dropped nearly a dollar from last quarter, and is up 26 cents from where it was Q3 2018. Key Takeaways ● CPM decreased by 14.9% since Q3 2018 ● CPM increased by 4.6% year over year in Q4 2018 Q4 2018 Q4 MEDIAN Max & Min CPC 1st & 3rd Quartile Median Median CTR for ads on Twitter rose 0.44% from where it was last quarter, but is relatively the same as it was in Q4 of last year.