Is your revenue down in 2023? Don’t fret! Hawke AI data reveals the silver linings. A surge in average order value (AOV) and steady conversion rates signal resilient consumer behavior. Less ad competition means better CPMs, and there’s room to soar even higher! For a lot of brands, there’s a chance to capitalize on these promising trends by enhancing user experience (UX). H1 analytics from Hawke AI provide a clear roadmap to reach goals in H2. 

 

Key Takeaways for Ecommerce Brands

– Revenues are slightly down YoY for H1 2023 vs H1 2022 (4% decrease), which is being caused by a decrease in sessions (10% decrease). Transaction rates and AOV are both up, which is partially offsetting this drop. 

– Why are sessions down? Media budgets appear to have been the victim of recession worries and goals of operating profitably. Same-brand ad spending is down YoY by 11%. 

– Based on this decreasing spend, it is probably not surprising that CPMs for social ads (TikTok and Meta) are down on average 26%  from the end of Q1 to the end of Q2, and are back down to pre-BFCM levels. 

– Impressions and CTRs on the paid platforms are consistent, as are conversion rates reported in the platforms and on analytics. Budgets are not dropping due to reduced intent, but rather trying to get the same revenue for less money.  

– The percentage of budget spent on Meta and TikTok seems to have stabilized after seeing TikTok cannibalizing paid social budget away from Meta. 

 

Key Takeaways for Lead-Generation Brands 

– Spend is down 18% compared to the same period last year, with a slightly higher decrease on Google Ads than Meta Ads. 

– CPAs on Meta and Google Ads are within $1 of each other, meaning that while historically Meta for lead-gen has been seen as an awareness play, lower funnel performance metrics look good for Paid Social. 

– Conversions from Meta and Google are only down 5%, so reduced spending has some balance – but still a net negative impact on absolute leads. 

– The better-than-expected conversion numbers are due to higher conversion rates, as clicks moved down by exactly the same percentage as spend (i.e. CPC is the same). 

– On-site performance has seen a bounce rate moving from 47% same period last year to 56% this year to date. Brands need to ensure landing pages are relevant, website speed is optimized, keywords are refined, and audience targeting is assessed are all ways to improve marketing efficiency other than just cutting back on ad spend. Getting more from the same spend is a better result than just reducing the budget. 

 

 

 

This proprietary data comes from HawkeAI, a revolutionary data benchmarking tool that tracks your paid and organic marketing performance against competitors in your industry, provides real-time insights and suggestions to optimize ads, and presents data in an easy-to-read and even easier-to-report dashboard.