We hear the question of spending mix come up again and again. We’ve compiled averages based on Northbeam and Varos data as well as conversations with eCommerce Founders. The below chart represents the averages across brands. Clearly, every brand is unique so their spend might be heavier in some channels, but we think this represents a useful guide for both new and mature brands. If your spend is wildly different from the below then there might be an opportunity to scale spend on other channels.
Meta (Facebook) captures the lion's share of eCommerce paid ad spend. Meta is an amazing channel for both generating top of funnel demand as well as capturing bottom of funnel demand. This is the reason that we recommend most new eCommerce brands focus on Meta advertising first before expanding to other channels. Most scaled brands still spend the majority of their paid spend on Meta. If Meta as a channel isn’t working for your brand it likely means that you need to pivot the product or messaging.
Google is the next most popular channel but a distant second to Meta. Of the 27% the majority is Google Search (24%) and a small chunk is YouTube (3%). Google search is excellent at capturing bottom of funnel demand but doesn’t create top of funnel demand. When someone is searching for blue pants size small there is high purchase intent but Google outside of YouTube did little to create that intent. Paid branded keywords are seen by some as a Google tax that is necessary and others as unnecessary.
Tik Tok is the fastest growing channel but is still nowhere close to Meta and Google from a paid ad spend perspective.
The other category includes Pinterest, X (fka Twitter), Bing, Podcasts, Outbrain and other display advertising. Clearly these are very small channels for most eCommerce brands. We recommend caution when thinking about adding new channels in this category. The overhead to manage an additional channel might not be worth it given the limited spend in these channels.
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