Facebook Advertising Trends Report: Competition highs and early intent in Q4 – but ‘Q5’ undervalued by advertisers

In our Q4 Facebook Advertising Trends Report, we identify the key trends that ecommerce advertisers encountered in Q4 and benchmark critical Facebook performance metrics for ecommerce brands across global markets.

Q4 predictably saw 2021 competition and demand peak, with anticipated trends such as early intent from consumers and early discounting from advertisers coming to fruition.

Competition was fierce on the platform, with CPMs reaching all time highs. The UK in particular saw the highest incline in CPM YoY, likely due to pullback from the high street as cases of Covid-19 again reached new heights, causing social media use to soar closely followed by competition on the platform.

CPMs declined in ‘Q5’

CPMs gradually declined into the period after Christmas, dubbed ‘Q5’ by Facebook. Interestingly, Q5 saw CTR rise again while CPMs continued to fall demonstrating that this opportunity is currently undervalued by advertisers.

Targeting strategies shifted in efforts to continue to reach the right acquisition audiences in the wake of new privacy initiatives. Additionally, brands allocated significantly more budget towards branding campaigns YoY. 

Creative trends

In terms of ad creative, ads using USPs such as ‘Sale’ and ‘Quality’ saw significantly stronger performance than other creative in Q4.

As we look ahead to 2022, ecommerce brands should keep an eye out for improvements to Meta’s models for targeting and measuring ad performance, as well as developments in Social Commerce and the Metaverse.

Find out more in this quarter’s Facebook Advertising Trends Report: