And update from Brook, Mason Interactive Founder & CEO:
I wanted to take a few minutes to think through some trends that we’re seeing across our direct-to-consumer brands here at Mason Interactive.
If you have attended any of our webinars, you will know that we have seen the following trends:
- Starting in Mid March, advertisers pulled out of the market, while at the same time, more people were online. Laws of supply and demand meant that online advertising got much cheaper, very quickly. Anyone who had the wherewithal to stay in-market essentially got ½ off their advertising spend.
- At the same time, Conversion % – the rate at which a click to a website turned into a sale – stayed about flat, with the following caveats:
- It’s a discount environment. Customers expect a sale.
- Not everyone saw this. Some clients (skincare) did better while some (travel products) did worse.
These trends are a product of political unrest, and COVID-19, and the resultant combined effect on the economy.
What we have seen over the last few weeks is a steep and sudden reversal of these CPM’s. The cost of advertising online for our direct-to-consumer clients is now higher than it was in March, and is approaching Black Friday/Cyber Monday levels.
CPM vs Click-to-Conversion Rate, Mason Interactive D2C Clients March 1st – June 16th
I will say that this is not what we saw last year; this is not seasonal and this is definitely a new trend. What this means for our clients is that we have to be more strategic than ever to help them survive in this still converting-price-sensitive-environment.