APAC social media adspend up 7% in Q2: Report

Brands are allocating more budget to reach their target audiences via paid social amid pent-up demand for travel, according to customer experience platform Emplifi. 

Why it matters

Brands seeking to connect with their audiences are investing more in social media, which they recognise is an integral part of the marketing mix, with adspend linked to the airline and accommodation industries rising as business and leisure travel recovers.

Key figures

• After a post-holiday drop in Q1 2022, APAC brands’ median monthly adspend rebounded 6.5% in Q2 2022 to US$1,684 per ad account, although that is still 60% lower than in Q4 2021.
• This quarter’s rebound means the region’s median monthly ad spend has increased 7.12% year-on-year.
  
• Southeast Asia saw a similar trend, with a 6.85% increase in quarterly adspend and a 10.61% year-on-year jump to US$1,603.
• Global numbers were much more promising as monthly adspend bounced back by 18% in Q2 2022 and increased by 19% YoY.
• APAC adspend connected to the airline and accommodation industries was up 7.12% YoY as business/leisure travel recovers.
• Despite the travel boom, airlines’ use of social media for customer care shows a striking disparity in how brands have performed when customers post questions and complaints.
  
• The global airline industry is among the strongest in the speed at which they answer customer questions on Twitter (1.7 hours) and Facebook (5.4 hours), although most comments go unanswered.
• For 11 APAC airlines (Jan 1 to June 23, 2022): 31% response rate to customer questions on Twitter; 27% response rate and average response time of 1.23 hours on Facebook.
• In APAC, the click-through rate declined 14% YoY and 10.7% from the previous quarter, while cost-per-click rose 6.13% YoY and 5.3% from Q1 2022.

Key quote

“It’s no secret that TikTok’s surge in popularity is continuing – we’ve found that brands post more often on Instagram than TikTok and video content has higher engagement on TikTok. It will be interesting to see how this trends in the months ahead. What is certain though is that in today’s world, having and maintaining a solid presence on both TikTok and Instagram is essential” – Zarnaz Arlia, CMO, Emplifi.

Background

Emplifi's analysis is based on Q2 2022 data and year-on-year comparisons downloaded at the beginning of July 2022.