Emplifi reveals SEA Social Ad Spend up 74.29%

Emplifi, the leading unified customer experience platform, has released its “State of Social Media and CX” report, highlighting key data points for social media ad spend by industry and region, organic post performance, influencer marketing, and CX trends for Q2 2021.

Emplifi’s Southeast Asia data shows ad spend on Facebook and Instagram increased 74.29% year-over-year (YoY) during Q2 to USD 2,287.22 per ad account per month, while costs to advertise (CPC) grew 85.75%. In Singapore, social ad spend surged 106% YoY to USD 2,162.96 per ad account per month.

Global social ad spend saw a 50% YoY jump while the overall worldwide CPC grew by 85.1%. Marketers spent 49.9% more on Facebook and Instagram advertising globally compared to Q2 2020.

“The ongoing increase in social media ad spend is proving to be more than just a pandemic-related ‘bounce-back’ scenario. More and more brands are relying on social media marketing to engage with their audiences meaningfully and at scale,” said Zarnaz Arlia, Chief Marketing Officer, Emplifi. “Social commerce and the formats which support it are also becoming more prevalent as the year goes on. As more brands recognize the value of live streaming and start to leverage more live content to cater to users at different stages of the customer journey.”

A study by Bain & Co highlighted that 62% of consumers in Southeast Asia cited social media, short videos and messaging as top channels for discovering new brands and products while 88% cited online channels as their top source of brand engagement.

In Singapore, the e-commerce category accounted for 41.8% of the total interactions of brand pages on Facebook in Q2 2021.

On Instagram, the services sector took up the most interactions at 17.6%, followed by the retail category with 16.8%.

These industries are mainly service-based, demonstrating that brands are adapting to the modern consumer and providing customer support and customer service through social media platforms.

Emplifi’s report also includes influencer marketing trends and vital data on organic social media content. For example, the number of posts with the hashtags #Pride and #PrideMonth from global brands more than doubled year-over-year in 2021, a clear indicator that brands are boosting their efforts to better connect with audiences through more empathetic messaging.

In Southeast Asia, brands in Thailand, the Philippines and Australia led discussions on Pride Month with over 750 posts.

“As more and more consumers begin to expect a brand’s social media channels to facilitate outstanding customer experiences across many stages of the customer journey, the importance of engagement and interaction data is taking on a greater significance”, Zarnaz added. “What we’re seeing is that an engaging and responsive social media presence is no longer just a “nice-to-have” for consumer facing brands, it’s a key point of differentiation.”

Another takeaway is that Facebook Live videos have earned the highest number of organic post interactions and delivered three-times the engagement rates of standard videos globally, but account for less than 1% of branded posts.

In Singapore, Facebook Live videos and video posts performed the best compared to other formats (status, photo and links). Social media users are engaging far more with live video than traditional content.

Ultimately, the report looks at how social media marketing is helping close the customer experience gap.

Download the full report here: Emplifi’s State of Social Media and CX for Q2 2021.

Report Methodology:

• Emplifi’s State of Social Media and CX report looks at trends in Q2 and uses data downloaded at the beginning of July.
• Southeast Asia data includes Brunei, Cambodia, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam