Meta Takes Top Spot for Preferred eCommerce Advertising Platform in 2022

There are a lot of advertising platforms out there, and businesses certainly have their favourites. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ advertising platform to use, but there is one that stands above the rest in terms of popularity – Meta.

It has been revealed that the advertising platform of choice for online retailers in the UK in 2022 was Meta. Despite there being a host of advertising platforms to choose from, 2022 has been the year of success for Meta. It’s the platform that a large portion of businesses in the UK have selected throughout the year, and it’s not something that is likely to change any time soon.

According to data released by Juni, 65% of UK ecommerce advertising spend went on Meta-owned networks in 2022. This includes the likes of Facebook and Instagram. Trailing behind with 22% was Google, and even further behind was TikTok, with 4.3% of the ad spend. This shows just how much of a focus businesses have on Meta platforms when it comes to spending their advertising budget. 

However, there was a slight change in how advertising spending was divided at the beginning of the year. Back in January, Facebook and Instagram claimed 70.5% of ecommerce ad spend in the UK, but this fell to 60.9% in November. Despite this drop, Meta remained to be the most popular. 

There has been a lot of talk about Retail Media Networks changing the way advertising budgets are spent in the UK. Launched by retailers such as Boots and Tesco, experts expect Retail Media Networks to revolutionise things in some way, but there is no denying that social media platforms are a key part of how retailers are currently advertising themselves online. According to June, TikTok came a long way in 2022, garnering a larger portion of ad spend than Amazon and Pinterest. Amazon, Pinterest and Snap only claimed 1.4%, 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively. Using this information, we can confidently say that the majority of ecommerce advertising is done via social media channels.

Though social media ad spend is here to stay, there are definite seasonal changes on each of the platforms. For example, Google dipped to having a 16.4% market share in August before rising again to 25% in November. This can be expected, considering the popularity of Google during key dates in the retail calendar. When people begin to shop for the holidays, they turn to Google for ease and options. 

November, April and May saw the highest advertising spend online in the UK; November claimed 16% of the year’s total, April claimed 12%, and May claimed 10.5%. In fact, online retailers spent 61.3% of their monthly budget on advertising in November. This was an increase of 167% compared to January. It’s likely that this is something that will also be seen in 2023.

Back in 2021, Facebook rebranded itself as Meta. The company owns a variety of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and it rebranded itself as Meta as a way to represent itself as one product. At the time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we’re building toward.”

Though the individual platforms have kept their names – Facebook is still Facebook, and Instagram is still Instagram, and so on – the company as a whole is now referred to as Meta. The name comes from the term ‘metaverse’, which is what Zuckerberg hopes to achieve with this rebranded company. It’s a shared online space that focuses on the future version of the web, and online retailers want to get involved.

Meta taking the top spot as the preferred ecommerce advertising platform in 2022 shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, not when you consider how vast the company is. The ad spend figures aren’t taking one advertising platform into account, nor is Meta only made up of one social media platform; it’s taking a whole host of advertising space into account. Meta is a combination of Facebook and Instagram, both of which are hotspots for ecommerce advertising.

Even if you have a state-of-the-art and effective website, you will still need to utilise ecommerce advertising as a business. This is how your company reaches out to larger audiences, markets products and services, and spreads the word about what you do. The more people see your brand, and what you have to offer, the more people are likely to make a sale. Ecommerce advertising is all about boosting leads, sales and revenue. Without it, it’s hard to succeed amongst competitors.

There are various ways to advertise online as a business, including paid for advertisements on Facebook and other social media platforms. This is where Meta comes in, as it provides a variety of ways for businesses to reach their target audience. For example, you could advertise a product on Instagram or create a pay-per-click campaign on Facebook. Meta gives ecommerce businesses options, and they can advertise on Meta in multiple ways.

At Quickfire Digital, we work hard to create flawless ecommerce websites for businesses large and small. It doesn’t matter if you are a brand-new startup or an existing website that needs a revamp; we use Spotify to ensure that your business stands out online. To find out more about ecommerce advertising or for help with launching an ecommerce website of your own, get in touch with the Quickfire Digital team. Contact us today to speak to one of our experts.