The Adobe Digital Insights team used Adobe Analytics to analyse hundreds-of-millions of visits to retail sites from UK consumers over Cyber Weekend, tracking the prices of 100m SKUs across 18 product categories to provide a comprehensive view of the UK digital economy.

Online UK spending data from Adobe Analytics reveals that holiday season spending-to-date (1 November – 27 November) has reached £12bn, up 5.1 per cent on 2022 levels. A total of £3.45bn was spent online in the UK over Cyber Weekend (Nov 24 – 27) – up 5.6 per cent year-on-year.

£1.04bn was spent on Black Friday, up 4.1 per cent year-on-year. £680m was spent on Saturday, up 4.2 per cent. £843m was spent on Sunday, up 6.7 per cent. And £881m was spent on Cyber Monday, up 7.4 per cent. UK shoppers spent £475m through Buy Now Pay Later services over Cyber Weekend, accounting for 13.8 per cent of total online spend and up 15.8 per cent compared with Cyber Weekend 2022.

On average, online prices were discounted 15 per cent over Cyber Weekend when compared with pre-holiday season levels, with the deepest discounts falling on Cyber Monday in TVs (19 per cent cheaper; computers (24 per cent cheaper); apparel (15 per cent cheaper); and toys (16 per cent cheaper).

Click-and-collect was used in 8.4 per cent of orders on Cyber Monday, up slightly from 8 per cent on Black Friday and up from 7.2 per cent on Cyber Monday of last year. Click-and-collect is expected to see its highest utilization around 18 December, at 15 per cent of orders.

“After breaking the record for the biggest single spending day of the year on Black Friday, UK shoppers continued to spend over the remainder of the weekend, convinced by the discounts and value on offer,” said Vivek Pandya, Lead Analyst, Adobe Digital Insights at Adobe. “With prices down on average by 15 per cent compared with the pre-holiday period in categories such as electronics, toys and apparel, it’s no surprise browsers turned to buyers in their droves.”

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Lunio analysed 2.6bn paid ad clicks and 104bn impressions from 60,000 ad accounts across the platform’s customers. It found 8.5 per cent of all paid traffic across major marketing channels including Google, Meta, Linkedin, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok was invalid, equating to one in every 12 website visits.

The findings also show that invalid traffic goes beyond wasting ad spend. It wastes marketers’ time on spam leads that follow on from fake clicks and which never convert, leading to inaccurate budget allocations and unpredictable projected revenue forecasts. Ultimately, Lunio forecasts that IVT will cost businesses a staggering $204.8bn in lost revenue opportunity in 2024.

Of the channels analysed, LinkedIn had the highest invalid traffic rate at 25 per cent, meaning over $1.43bn (£1bn) of Ad Spend Forecast will be wasted by fake clicks on the platform next year. Lunio said this is likely due to the growing number of fake profiles, generated and used by marketers, on the platform.

Similarly, invalid traffic generally is more costly on non-Google channels such as Meta, Bing, LinkedIn, X, and Pinterest, with the average IVT rate across these platforms being 17.5 per cent and equating to a cost of $54.8bn (£45bn). On the other hand, the average rate across Google channels such as Search (inc Shopping), PMax, Display, and YouTube campaigns is just 5.5 per cent, or $16.6bn (£13.7bn).

Based on these figures, Lunio applied IVT rates of 5.5 per cent to Google’s 2024 revenue forecast of $301.59bn, and 17.5 per cent to total non-Google channel’s 2024 revenue forecast of $313bn, and added the two results together to arrive at the headline figure of $71bn wasted on traffic generated by invalid activity.

“Bots, fake users, and fake clicks are becoming more and more pervasive,” said Lunio Co-founder and CEO, Neil Andrew. “They instantly waste budgets, contaminate CRMs, distort analytics, waste the time and energy of sales teams, and make projected revenue forecasts unpredictable. Ultimately, this causes sizable lost revenue opportunities, which we estimate could be as high as $204.83bn (£169bn).

It’s never been more important for marketers to find new insights on how to maximise ad spend efficiency and eliminate sources of fake ad engagement. It’s the only way marketers can leverage a digital advertising ecosystem where every click, impression and placement drives genuine value.”

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SplitMetrics said the acquisition creates the industry’s largest platform providing AI powered services including paid user acquisition (UA), app store optimization (ASO), conversion rate optimization (CRO) and data analytics. SplitMetrics and App Radar will continue to operate as separate brands, and provide services to more than 1,000 customers across Europe and the UK, North America and the APAC region.

SplitMetrics, which has a global team of 160, currently manages over $250m in ad spend annually. Its customers include Babbel, Skyscanner, Glovo, and Rakuten Viber. App Radar specializes in app store optimization and automation for 30,000 app developers and marketers, including Degiro, ProCamera, Chatterbug and Cronometer. It monitors more than 30m keywords on app stores each day.

SplitMetrics said the acquisition is part of a wider strategy to capitalize on the growth of AI-enabled marketing. Its aim is to become an AI company that provides holistic services for apps that break down the barrier between UA, ASO and CRO. By removing silos, it said, businesses will be better able to leverage their data and use AI automation to dramatically improve efficiency, effectiveness and insights of their app marketing campaigns.

App Radar has a range of very powerful tools that are fully complementary to our own,” said SplitMetrics CEO and Co-founder, Max Kamenkov. “By combining these services, we can offer a market-leading, end-to-end solution that will drive incredible growth for our customers.

“Due to the impact of AI, the days of siloed app marketing solutions are numbered. There is likely to be a lot of consolidation and change in the industry. This is because there is so much to be gained through AI automation and the creation of holistic services that can combine and leverage marketing data all in one place. Put simply, there’s a huge opportunity within app marketing to create a one stop shop that meets every need. Our tie up with App Radar creates this solution and marks an exciting new era in SplitMetrics’ journey.”

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The survey, from user-first media platform Picnic, in partnership with global public opinion company YouGov, shines a light on attitudes towards user experience of advertising on the ad-funded web, and reveals that poor advertising experiences not only achieve diminishing returns, but actively turn consumers off infringing brands.

71 per cent of people agree that annoying or intrusive ad experiences make them less likely to purchase from that brand in future, while 86 per cent say that too many ads on a webpage make them feel overwhelmed and more likely to ignore the advertising altogether. Survey respondents identified “too many ads” as the number one most annoying UX issue, followed by blocked screen content, accidental clicks, slow load speeds, and unstable page content, in that order.

For users who chose to comment on ad experience issues, there was a resoundingly negative attitude towards digital ads in their current form, with all answers expressing negative sentiment. Comments included “all advertising is annoying” and “[ads are] annoying full stop”. Some users also confirmed they use ad blockers to avoid UX issues.

Hope for the ad-funded web
Despite these negative attitudes, respondents are still fundamentally in favour of an ad-funded web. The majority of respondents (56 per cent) agree that they enjoy reading free content from reputable publishers, and over a third of people (39 per cent) say they like discovering new products and brands on the open web. Importantly, 71 per cent of participants also said they’d be more likely to feel positively towards ads if they were fast-loading, and didn’t force clicks or block content.

Commenting on the survey, Matthew Goldhill, Founder & CEO, Picnic, said: “If brands and media planners can shift their approach towards prioritising ad solutions that resolve user experience issues on the web, we as an industry can drastically reduce the amount of ineffective, wasted and even damaging ad spend. This would not only be better for the environment, but would also help to drive more meaningful engagement and returns for brands.”

Sean Golding, Digital Development Director at AKA UK, agreed, saying: “Minimising wasted ad spend is a top priority in terms of efficiency and brand safety. To prevent waste and increase engagement, we need to find ad solutions that deliver a positive user experience on trusted, high-quality publishers. “It’s a win-win for all. Advertisers will see improved campaign performance, and publishers will benefit from delivering ads that do not ruin their on-page content – keeping their readers engaged and coming back for more.”

Key highlights from the survey:

• 70 per cent of people find digital ads annoying and unpleasant
• 72 per cent agree that annoying or intrusive ad experiences have negatively affected their perception of a brand
• 66 per cent say annoying or intrusive ad experiences reduce their trust in the brand advertising
• 71 per cent agree that annoying or intrusive ad experiences make them less likely to purchase from that brand in future
• 86 per cent of people agree that too many ads on a webpage makes them feel overwhelmed and more likely to ignore the adverts
• 71 per cent of people agree they’d have a more positive perspective of digital ads if they loaded quickly and didn’t force clicks or block content.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 2,006 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 13th – 16th October 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

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AppsFlyer

“As the world continues to bounce back following bouts of economic uncertainty, marketers and media owners cannot afford to make the wrong decisions – especially when it comes to media source budget allocation,” said Shani Rosenfelder, Director of Content and Market Insights at AppsFlyer. “Only four of the top 20 media source players saw budget increases this year, costs of media continue to fluctuate, and channels like CTV are leading ecosystem players to quickly adapt and think outside of the box to reach consumers. For marketers, selecting the best media partners is particularly important on iOS because of its high quality audience. However, privacy-driven fragmentation in measurement has only created more uncertainty, increasing the need for accurate performance rankings for the platform.”

Apple Search Ads and Meta lead the way across iOS gaming and non-gaming
The best way to properly depict the state of the iOS media market is by looking at a single source of truth (SSOT). AppsFlyer’s first ever SSOT iOS index combines SKAdNetwork and traditional attribution, and accurately deduplicates between the two data sources.

Apple Search Ads (ASA) is the number 1 media source for iOS gaming apps and non-gaming categories, coming in at number 1 in almost all the rankings across every region and every category with high quality and unmatched scale, particularly in non-gaming. The dominance of ASA in non-gaming is even more pronounced than it is in gaming, coming in at number 1 in all the rankings across every category and every region except for Latin America with unmatched scale and high quality.

Although still far from its dominant iOS position before iOS 14.5, Meta ads continues to adapt in the post iOS 14.5 era, coming in at number 2 in the power and volume rankings (power rankings combine quality and quantity metrics while volume only covers quantity). The social network’s performance is mostly fuelled by non-gaming apps on SKAdNetwork, Apple’s privacy-centric attribution interface, where it drives the highest number of installs, well above the competition.

Google Ads came in at number 3 in the rankings, thanks to its scale among non-gaming apps. It should be noted that for Google, iOS is secondary compared to Android, especially when compared to its web business.

For gaming apps, Applovin ranked 5th in the global power ranking, driven by success in casual and hypercasual games, followed by Unity Ads in 6th place, thanks to a number 4 rank in casual and hypercasual games. IronSource ranked 2nd globally in social casino, and 2nd in hypercasual games in Western Europe, Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and the Middle East.

For non-gaming, Meta ads ranked 2nd in the global power ranking, driven by its performance in Life & Culture, where it ranked 2nd, while Google reached 5th place (3rd in the volume ranking) thanks to a number 2 power ranking in finance. Snapchat and Moloco ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively thanks to top-notch quality.

Google and Meta dominate in Android gaming and non-gaming
Google Ads continues to dominate Android gaming and non-gaming, further extending its power ranking gap from 2nd place, Unity. In fact, it holds the top power and volume ranking in every single category within Android gaming, with the exception of hypercasual where it is ranked 2nd.

Unity Ads held its number 2 global power ranking position, but dropped one spot in the volume ranking to #5. Its success can mostly be attributed to Match genre games, where it ranked 2nd, as well as in Puzzle, Shooting, and Tabletop game apps where it ranked 3rd globally. IronSource surged in the global rankings, coming in at #3 in the power and volume ranking – up an impressive three slots, compared to the previous edition of the Index.

Meta ads ranked 4th in the global power ranking – up one slot compared to 2022 – thanks to a number 1 ranking in casino as well as number 2 spots in midcore games (RPG, Shooting, Strategy genres), as well as in puzzle, and sports & racing games. AppsFlyer notes that power ranking gaps between Unity, IronSource, and Meta are minor.

Meta surpasses Google atop shopping ranking for remarketing 
The Android remarketing ranking finds Google and Meta, and TikTok For Business to some extent, dominating market share. Google Ads, which is the number 1 player across most remarketing rankings, came in 2nd to Meta Ads in the most important category – shopping. Meta ads was able to close the gap with Google in the global power ranking because of its success in shopping, where it surpassed Google to come out on top.

TikTok For Business came in 3rd in the global power ranking, driven by its significant scale, particularly for shopping apps. Liftoff ranked 4th thanks to great quality, while remarketing specialists Adikteev and Remerge followed with a number 5 and number 6 ranking, respectively. The former’s success was largely driven by Life & Culture apps, where it ranked 3rd thanks to great quality, while the latter came in as the top player in casino games, where it clinched the number 1 power ranking.

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The first fine related to mishandling children’s data was issued to TikTok in 2021 for failing to have an understandable privacy policy in Dutch. It was followed by a fine to Instagram in 2022, when business accounts made by children were set to public by default, exposing children’s information without informed consent. The remaining two fines were issued to TikTok in 2023. The first was for failure to enforce its own policy prohibiting children under 13 from using the platform. The second was for setting accounts to public by default, exposing children’s data without consent, and for allowing adults to register as parents of child TikTok users without verifying legal guardianship.

Out of the top 10 investigated social media platforms, half were fined by European data protection authorities. In total, there have been 13 fines levied on these platforms, totalling €2.9bn. Meta-owned social media products (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) feature prominently amongst platforms that have received fines under GDPR, adding up to €2.6bn. TikTok received the third highest amount in fines (€360m), while X (received the lowest and only one fine in late 2020, totalling €450,000. The remaining five social media platformscovered by the study (YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and LinkedIn) did not receive any fines.

“Half of the most popular social media platforms examined have received GDPR fines from European data protection authorities, with a third of these fines linked to privacy issues concerning children,” said Agneska Sablovskaja, Lead Researcher at Surfshark. “Such penalties demonstrate the imperative to hold major social media players accountable for their data handling practices, ensuring that the privacy and safety of all users, especially children, is given the utmost consideration and care.”

The figures in the report came from information provided by the GDPR Enforcement Tracker. SurfShark identified the 10 most popular social media platforms by active user count, and checked them for fines on the Tracker. In the case of Meta, both individual platform names and “Meta Platforms, Inc.” were queried. For companies that were found to have received fines, data relating to the date, fine amount, issuing country, and links to relevant legal documents were recorded. The relevant legal documents were looked into to identify whether the fines were related to the handling of children’s data.

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The report reveals that key online formats, including search (+5.3 per cent) and online display (+5.8 per cent) registered growth between April and June, alongside BVOD (+5.6 per cent) and out of home (+4.4 per cent), which continued its recovery from the pandemic downturn.

The advertising industry is often seen as a barometer for the broader state of the UK economy, and AA/WARC’s latest results continue to demonstrate this trend. The industry-verified data for Q2 of 1 per cent ad spend growth is just ahead of ONS figures for the same period, which show that GDP rose 0.6 per cent.

In the first half of 2023, the UK advertising market recorded a 1 per cent year-on-year increase, equivalent to £17.5bn in spend from January to June 2023, compared to £17.3bn the previous year.

Looking ahead to forecasts for the full year, AA/WARC expects ad spend to grow 2.6 per cent to reach £35.6bn in 2023. Double-digit growth is expected from Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD) at 16.1 per cent year-on-year, with increases also projected for online display (7.4 per cent), out of home (7.7 per cent) and cinema (7.6 per cent). Sporting events such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, as well as key content moments such as the return of ‘Big Brother’ to ITV and the success of the ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ films, are expected to give ad spend a fillip in the second half of 2023 in the face of ongoing macroeconomic headwinds.

The latest dataset shows that the UK’s ad market is set to grow by 3.9 per cent to reach £37bn in 2024, a minor downgrade from July’s forecast of +4 per cent. More channels are expected to return to growth next year, such as the online portions of national and regional newsbrands and magazines, though the economic backdrop is likely to remain challenging.

“The UK’s economy continues to skirt with recession as households make cutbacks in the face of stubbornly high inflation and unemployment slowly ticks upwards as activity in the private sector cools,” said James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting at WARC. “It is therefore encouraging that, amid this backdrop, the UK’s advertising industry was able to grow during the first six months of 2023, and that the market is on course to be 2.6 per cent larger this year overall. It should however be noted that this growth is concentrated in certain corners of the industry, with broadcasters and publishers bearing the brunt of an unfavourable trading climate while digitally native platforms largely prosper.”     

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Publicis Sapient 

The study reveals that globally, whilst most consumers (78 per cent) have heard of Generative AI, only 30 per cent have actually used it. Consumers in the UK are the least likely to have used Generative AI tools personally or professionally (22 per cent) compared to consumers in APAC – Australia (38 per cent) and Thailand (35 per cent).

While overall feelings on Generative AI’s impact on society remain neutral across geographies, UK respondents showed particular concern that Gen AI will have a negative impact on the future of work, and their careers. 55 per cent thought it would have a negative impact, with concern increasing among older age groups.

While there is excitement among current users around the possibilities that Gen AI will bring, there are clearly some deeper concerns. Globally, the majority of consumers across regions and demographics are concerned that generative AI will cause: a loss of human connection (88 per cent); lack of data privacy (87 per cent) ; and an increase in misinformation (87 per cent). When it comes to using generative AI to interact with brands, nearly half of generative AI users (45 per cent) are likely to use a conversational application of the technology for travel and hospitality shopping. This was mirrored in the UK, with consumers most likely to use a conversational virtual assistant like ChatGPT for travel related enquiries or purchases, but not financial services, at just 14 per cent.

In contrast to global findings, UK respondents were also less likely (45 per cent) to share personal information if it meant a more personalised experience with a brand.

Some other key UK takeaways:

• 50 per cent of UK respondents have heard of Gen AI but not used it.
• Only 6 per cent of UK consumers have heard of and currently use Gen AI in their daily work.
• People in the UK were ambivalent about the impact that AI will have on society with 54 per cent believing it will have a neutral (neither positive nor negative impact).
• There is a strong feeling that Gen AI will have a negative impact on the future of work with 45 per cent feeling the impact will be more negative than positive.
• Most UK respondents (55 per cent) think Gen AI will have a negative impact on their careers; those in London were the most likely (20 per cent) to say it would have a positive effect on their career compared to those in the North, Midlands (10 per cent) and Wales (6 per cent).
• Over half of UK consumers (56 per cent) do not trust the outputs by Gen AI. Highest mistrust was among the over 55s and 18-24s were the most trusting at 24 per cent. The majority of UK consumers (66 per cent) trust human made content more than gen ai created content.
• For UK respondents, the top three concerns related to Gen AI are: loss of human connection 32 per cent; accuracy of misinformation 20 per cent;  data privacy 17 per cent ; Females are more concerned about loss of human connection than men 37 per cent v 26 per cent whereas men are more worried about job loss 14 per cent v 11 per cent.
• Nearly half (45 per cent) of UK consumers say that they’re less likely to share data if they know it’s to customise/personalise their experiences with a brand.
• UK consumers are most excited about 25 per cent the opportunity for real time price comparison and deal alerts when it comes to the ability to interact with brands – this was true for both men and women at 25 per cent each.

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Datafeed.com’s Multichannel Marketing Report 2023 gathered data from over 16,000 online stores from over 60 countries and across 20 major industries. It found that search-based channels have declined by more than 7 percentage points, while social media channels have increased by over 3 percentage points for eCommerce advertising. The shift is attributed to a decrease in overall ads from 2022 to 2023, and a transfer of budgets to social channels.

“Moving to social media is a global trend,” said Jacques van der Wilt, General Manager of Feed Marketing at DataFeedWatch.com. “In this case, pay-per-click advertising is following customers reactively. The most impressive growth can be seen with TikTok, but most large social channels have increased their advertising shares at the expense of the Search channels like Google or Bing.

Social commerce is expected to grow three times faster than traditional eCommerce, doubling its current value by 2026, according to a new study by Accenture. It is also projected to increase to $2.9 trillion by 2026 (Statista), more than doubling its current value. Affiliate channels remain a fairly underexplored type of advertising. At the moment, 11 per cent of all advertisers use this type of advertising.

Although the overarching trend shows a decline in the use of search channels by retail advertisers in favour of social channels, there are still large differences in each industry. Fashion retailers are increasingly turning to Google, with its share rising from 41.4 per cent in 2022 to 47.5 per cent in 2023. This suggests a growing preference for proven advertising platforms. TikTok has also gained traction as a significant advertising platform for this industry. Over the course of the last year, advertisers have doubled their use of TikTok in their advertising strategies.

The electronics sector is becoming more open to personalized advertising, with custom channels, increasing its share from 25 per cent to 29 per cent between 2022 and 2023. In the Furniture industry, Google Shopping has become the top choice for advertisers, growing from 30.5 per cent in 2022 to 38.6 per cent in Q2 2023.

In the Health & Beauty sector, mainstream channels like Google Shopping and Facebook are becoming more popular, with Google Shopping’s share increasing by over 11 percentage points between 2022 and 2023. Custom channels have seen a decline of almost 10 percentage points which means that custom channels may not be the right choice for the Health & Beauty sector. TikTok is climbing the list of popular channels for this sector. From the beginning of 2022 to Q2 2023, its usage among Health & Beauty merchants grew 5x.

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The H1 Digital Adspend update is conducted by IAB UK/PwC and is based on modelled data for the digital ad market between January and June 2023. It provides a condensed half-year update on key stats from the full year Digital Adspend report which is released every April. The update includes spend data for search, display (video and non-video), classified, mobile, non-mobile and other.

Spend on video ads saw the strongest growth – up 11 per cent – as advertisers increasingly harnessed the brand-building potential of the format. The growth in spend is in line with the popularity of short-form video content, with Ofcom’s Media Nations report showing that over a third of UK adults watch short-form online videos daily, rising to 68 per cent of 15-24 year olds. Overall, spend on display formats (including both video and non-video) grew by 8 per cent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, search ads continued to attract the lion’s share of investment, accounting for 50 per cent of the total market. The category grew 5 per cent, attracting nearly £7bn across the first six months of 2023.

Classified ads were the only format to see spend decline, with a fall of 13 per cent, although this is markedly less sharp than the 21 per cent fall seen in H1 2022. When it comes to split by device, spend on mobile ads grew by 9 per cent, with non-mobile formats remaining flat.

“The results we’ve released today reflect two things – that the digital ad market isn’t immune to wider economic pressures, but also that it’s repeatedly resilient in the face of challenging circumstances,” said IAB UK CJOn Mew. “Over the years, we have become used to seeing extremely strong growth, and there is no getting away from the fact that spend has slowed so far this year. And yet the industry is still growing despite the UK’s soaring inflation, the threat of recession, and the impact of structural changes, such as the removal of IDFA.

“It’s particularly encouraging that video formats are seeing strong investment. Advertisers are increasingly harnessing the creative power of digital channels to bring campaigns to life and deliver long-term results, and we see this reflected in robust video investment. As we head into the final months of 2023 and the lead up to Christmas, advertisers should be doubling down on a digital-first approach to make an impact, drive results and resonate with consumers where they’re choosing to spend their time.”

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