Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?

• Gen Z adults are more likely than others to use social media as a way of finding new brands. For marketers seeking to reach this young generation via social media marketing, which platforms are likely to filter through to this audience? A recent presentation from Comscore offers some insights into the social content that 18-24-year-olds are exposed to and how that differs from the general population. The leading platform for 18-24-year-olds, as with the general population, is YouTube, with virtually all (95% and 96%, respectively), exposed to YouTube videos in some capacity during the month of January. After YouTube, though, differences emerge – and they are quite significant.
• The search advertising landscape is “throwing more challenges,” as search Ad costs are on the rise, according to an analysis from Wordstream. On a year-over-year basis, costs-per-click have risen, conversion rates are down, and costs-per-lead are up, with almost all industries measured showing an increase in the cost necessary to acquire a lead through search advertising. The results are based on an analysis of 17,253 US-based search ad campaigns running from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023. While the benchmarks are primarily Google Ads based, about 20% of the data is for Microsoft Ads.
• Meta announced enhancements to its products at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with a particular focus on its short-form video Reels. Reels ads are being expanded to more Instagram advertisers following a successful pilot. The ads are designed to integrate smoothly with content for an unobtrusive viewer experience.Meta says Reels has seen exponential growth, with daily re-shares surpassing 2 billion—a number that has doubled in just six months, per its Q1 earnings call. On that call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the time spent on Instagram has surged by over 24% since the introduction of Reels, attributing this growth to AI-driven content recommendations similar to TikTok’s approach. Read on here.