Digital Advertising Industry Benchmarks 2022 (New Zealand Edition)

Overview

There are a bunch of factors that influence the performance of your digital advertising and you are often left wondering how your campaigns are performing compared to others.

Ever wondered how you stack up when it comes to cost-per thousand impressions (CPM), average Cost-per click (CPC) and click-through rate (CTR)? Well look no further!

In collaboration with Aro Digital we have been able to provide a benchmarking tool on these top metrics across Google and Meta platforms. We’ve also broken it down by industry, platform and channel so you can see how your campaigns are fairing compared to heaps of other advertisers. This data is typically hard to come across in little old New Zealand making it difficult for SMEs and marketers to know where they sit.

Even better, the data also gets refreshed weekly so you can see how things are going month-to-month.

Want to know how you compare? Get your own benchmarks in Kepla by signing up to a free trial account.

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How much does it cost to advertise on Facebook in New Zealand?

Updated: January 2023

• The current average CPM is $4
• The current average CTR is 0.62%
• The current average CPC is $1.23

How much does it cost to advertise on Google Search in New Zealand?

Updated: January 2023

• The current average CTR is 11.91%
• The current average CPC is $1.81
  

Dashboard Walkthrough

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Trends In 2022

1. The cost to advertise on Meta has increased by 10% YoY on average

‍Comparing year to date vs. the prior year, the average CPM hasn’t increased much, which is interesting considering Facebook has reported a decline in active monthly users over the last quarter and was interested to see whether this was having an impact on the cost to advertise. However, weare seeing a larger increase in CPM for Instagram, which potentially means that more advertisers are shifting their spend to that channel.

2. Advertising on Meta during christmas period (Oct - December) was up to 1.5X more expensive than the quarter prior

‍Not surprisingly it’s a lot more expensive to advertise during Christmas with your spend being less effective during the last quarter of the year. Even though it may be more expensive, if you are retailer, you may see higher than normal conversion rates so it could be worth paying a bit more during this time. For other advertisers however, probably not so much.

3. The first quarter of 2021 and 2022 was the cheapest to advertise across Meta

‍The average CPM in January 2021 sat at $4.34 and for 2022 was $6.55, the lowest month this year so far. We know there is a ‘come down’ period off the back of all the advertising during the Christmas period - this could be a good opportunity for advertisers with small budgets to spend in these areas, however, typically if you’re a retailer, you may see lower than normal conversion / purchase rates.

4. Google’s Click-through rate is 11X more than Meta on average‍

Those that are searching on Google typically have a higher intent and already actively researching and perhaps looking for a product or service. The caveat is that if you were to look at just the ‘search’ channel compared to Meta, you end up paying almost twice as much per click. Note that this data also includes advertisers running ads across their 'brand' which does inflate the CTR slightly.

5. The Cost-per click for social enterprises has increased the most out of all the industries between 2021 and 2022‍

The overall increase between 2021 and 2022 between Google and Meta was a 155% increase. On Google specifically, we saw a 296% increase in cost per click (CPC) and on Meta, we observed an increase of 109%, thus bringing the average increase across both platforms to 155%.

6. The cost to advertise in the technology and education space has increased by 20% YoY

Looking at the top 2 most expensive industries to advertise in year on year (Education & Technology), the average cost per thousand impressions had increased 20%, however, comparing that to the two least expensive industries to advertise in (Government & Entertainment), they actually decreased in cost per thousand impressions. This CPM actually decreased 2.8% YoY!

3 Ways To Use The Dashboard

1. Use these benchmarks to plan your advertising spend

‍With access to over 12 months worth of data you could use these metrics to plan your advertising budgets in advance, giving you an estimate of the potential impressions and clicks you would expect to get across various channels, and how you could maximise your budget.

2. Compare your existing performance with these benchmarks

‍If you are currently running campaigns you can go in and compare whether the CTR for your ads and see whether they cut the mustard, or are outperforming advertisers similar to you.

3. Make an informed decision on what platform will be best fit for the product or service you are wanting to advertise

‍Using this tools presented in the dashboard can weigh up the pros and cons of advertising on specific channels like Instagram, Facebook, or both! Note that depending on the conversion rate of your website may vary as well as the channel, which is something you need to factor into when making decision on where best to spend your budget.