How FSI and Insurance Brands are Winning with Paid Social

Given recent shifts in marketing norms, brands are rethinking channel strategy and all eyes are on paid social. Across the landscape, marketers are leveraging these channels to drive full-funnel strategies and enter the growing social commerce landscape.

What’s been happening:

• Consumers are invested in social commerce: Social media is a viable space for commerce as 60% of consumers are interested in purchasing via these platforms. What’s more, US retail social commerce is projected to be worth nearly $80B by 2025.
• Paid social media is stealing share of spend: Brands are increasing investments in paid social, with advertising spend averaging an 18% Y/Y growth rate. Coming out of 2022, paid social budgets are expected to account for the largest share of ad dollars, beating out TV and other digital channels.
• Paid social media as upper-funnel tactics: Mintel reports show that 61% of shoppers use social media to begin their purchase journeys. This allows brands to capture the attention of interested shoppers with more engaging content that can be boosted through paid efforts.

For FSI and insurance brands, several key trends are emerging for paid Instagram and paid Twitter. The most successful brands are maximizing these platforms’ strengths when it comes to video opportunities and engagement tools. It’s resulting in agile, yet effective, strategies and it’s providing channel-specific messaging that resonates.

What we’re seeing:

• Video spend becomes more efficient: While video tends to drive more costly top-funnel campaigns, social media platforms are facilitating the use of video as a less expensive awareness effort. Since Jan. 2021, almost 99% of Allstate’s paid Twitter spend went towards social reworks of its popular TV and online video Mayhem spots. For financial services, video’s low CPMs suggest the platform is incentivizing this type of ad buy. From Q1’21-Q1’22, FSIs spent 53.5M on Instagram videos, resulting in 6B impressions at an average of $8.91 CPM. Photo spend for the same timeframe hit $51.9M for 5.8B impressions at an average of $9 CPM.
• B2B finds a home on paid social: Considering their 2022 strategies, B2B brands overall are set to increase paid Twitter spend by 70%, and paid Instagram spend by 63%. Commercial insurance Instagram spend increased nearly 300% from Q1’21 to Q1’22, led by insurtech Next.
• Facebook loses focus for Insurance: Paid Twitter and paid Instagram are emerging channels for this sector. Their combined share of spend grew over the last five quarters, resulting in 37% of total social media spend in Q1′ 22. Lemonade boosted its paid Instagram spend by nearly 200% from Q1’21 to Q1’22, elevating efforts for its homeowners (+431%), pet (+18%), and renters (2621%) insurance. Allstate’s Twitter spend jumped 423% Y/Y as the firm has invested deeply in the channel, mainly pitching its auto insurance product.
• Fintech players bet big: Extra Card beat out the competitive set when it came to total Y/Y spend on paid Instagram. From Q1’21 to Q1’22, the issuer increased spend by $9.9M in efforts to tout its credit-boosting debit card. Additionally, Varo Money was the top spender on Instagram from Q1’21 to Q1’22, spending $29.2M.

Source: Comperemedia Omni [01/01/2021-03/31/2022] as of 5/19/2022 – 06/13/2022 and [01/01/2021-03/31/2022] as of 05/19/2022

Plainly put, brands that fail to effectively integrate paid social media forgo connecting with customers across the funnel, and risk losing ROI to key competitors.

Did you know that Comperemedia now has the capability to provide analysis on exactly what your competitors are doing in the paid social realm? Contact us today to request more information on how we can help your brand strategize for future paid social campaigns.