Advertising on Facebook is a crucial element to retail holiday campaigns. Being able to micro-target shoppers in the market for holiday purchases is an opportunity to reach new and returning consumers, while driving online sales. However, some retailers rely more heavily on Facebook advertising than others.
Through a partnership with Pathmatics we have evaluated Facebook ad spending by leading retailers during the 2017 holiday season. Because these data cover select brands and not the entire retail category, Facebook expenditures have not been included in total media spending figures shown elsewhere in this report in order to maintain consistency.
Overall, the top 10 retail advertisers spent $114 million on Facebook during the measured period, garnering more than 16 billion impressions. More than half of this (53%) came from Target and Best Buy.
Link ads (hyperlinks directing users to take a specific action) and carousel ads (ads with up to 10 images) were the most popular ad formats on Facebook from this group during the holiday period. These types of ads have been proven to work, and thus are more popular with advertisers.
Source: Pathmatics
Link ads are simple and beneficial, especially when a brand wants to retarget shoppers. Using a pixel, every visitor that clicks can be logged and retargeted. This was the ad type preferred by Home Depot, Target, Kay Jewelers and Macy’s, who each used more than half of their Facebook spending on link ads.
Carousel ads may be preferable for retailers wanting to showcase multiple products. This was the case for Best Buy, who invested 77 percent of its Facebook advertising dollars on carousel ads.
