Report: Email delivers for retailers

Email saw a surge in performance over the 2020 holiday season. That is a key takeaway from new LiveIntent data. Researchers at LiveIntent partnered with MediaRadar, surveying how advertisers fared throughout the holiday season, and while the overall digital ad spend for retailers increased by about 22%, their data shows a conversion rate increase about 10 points higher.

by Kristina Knight

The digital ad spend increased across the board, as merchants and brands tried to engage with shoppers who increasingly stayed home because of COVID-19 restrictions.

According to the data, retailers increased their digital spending by about 22% from October through December 2020, and that increase in spending paid off, with conversion rates from emails alone increasing by 32% YoY.

"Despite the pandemic decreasing ad spend overall [in 2020], this holiday season saw relatively healthy digital spend numbers," said Kerel Cooper, CMO, LiveIntent. "As we saw earlier this year at the beginning of the pandemic, people are continuing to engage with ads served in emails. This engagement gave advertisers the confidence to know that they would be able to reach and convert consumers ahead of the holidays on email."

Other interesting findings from the report include:

*Shopping newsletters saw a 10x increase in impressions
*Hard news newsletters saw a 5x increase in impressions
*Ads in family/parenting newsletters saw 2x higher conversion rates
*Ads in shopping newsletters saw 1.5x higher conversion rates

"Our data revealed that retailers have increased digital advertising spend by 22%, YoY," states Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar. "[And] fitness ad spending was up 43% YoY, looking at TV & digital spend over the entire year."

Tags: 2020 holiday marketing trends, advertising, advertising trends, email marketing, email marketing trends, email tips, LiveIntent, MediaRadar