If you’re already familiar with our quarterly benchmarks, this one will look quite different to you. For Q2, we dug deep on Facebook’s various ad units, including News Feed, Right Hand Placement, Marketplace, Audience Network, and Messenger. And to get you accurate benchmark numbers for all the major platforms, we compiled over 6.6 billion impressions and nearly 125 million clicks to calculate median CPC, CPM, and CTR for Facebook ads, Google Ads (Search and Display), Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) for AdStage’s Q2 Paid Media Benchmark Report.

Some click-throughs saw a bump while others dropped, but the most important data points are how your own numbers compare to these benchmarks. With Twitter CTR up 91%, is it time to shift budgets that way? How does your CPC on Google Ads for Search measure up to the $1.42 median we calculated? Is your Facebook strategy getting you the median CPM that we calculated? Find out when you download our free Q2 Paid Media Benchmark Report.

Here’s a quick peek into what we found:

Facebook Right Hand placement saw low clicks resulting in very high costs

Key Takeaways

• The shrinking effect of right hand placement ads is clear this quarter. For brand reach, right hand is still a worthwhile placement, but it’s more expensive than other areas of Facebook.

Image from AdStage Q2 Benchmark Report

CTR on Twitter jumps 91% Q/Q

Key Takeaways

• In the past year, Median CTR for ads on Twitter has seen a welcoming increase in performance, while costs were dropping. That changed in Q1 when CTR fell dramatically. In Q2 2019 we observed a course correction, with the median CTR increasing sharply by 91% over the last quarter, and up 98% compared to the same time last year.

Image from AdStage Q2 Benchmark Report

Key product updates

In our free report, you’ll also find the key product updates for each major advertising network from Q2. Highlighted trends include:

Twitter: Twitter makes most of its money from advertising, but its monthly user base has been shrinking for a year. To combat the decline in advertising opportunities, Twitter is now experimenting with showing its loyal users more ads. Twitter has refused to reveal how many people the experiment affects and what the outcome might mean for future ad load.

Google: New advanced location targeting is meant to reach commuters, whether they’re at home, at work, or on the road. The change is now live for display, search, and shopping campaigns. Marketers will see the targeting option label has changed from “People in your targeted locations” option to “People in or regularly in your targeted locations.” Now you can reach people not just when they’re physically located in your target locations at the time of their search, but also people who regularly pass through your target locations.

Instagram: Continuing with the influencer theme, Instagram now lets advertisers boost Branded Content Partnerships as ads. As explained by Instagram in the announcement post : "We're introducing the ability for advertisers to promote creators' organic branded content posts as feed ads. 68% of people say they come to Instagram to interact with creators. With branded content ads, businesses have an opportunity to tell their brand stories through creators' voices, reach new audiences and measure impact." Previously, branded content partnership posts would only reach the followers of the influencer. Branded content ads let advertisers promote the posts just like they would any other ad.

Get benchmark numbers, product updates, & tips — All in our free report

Our Q2 2019 Benchmark Report not only reveals costs and click-through rate benchmarks and key product updates for each major advertising network — Facebook ads (News Feed, the Audience Network, and FB Messenger), Google Ads (Search and Display), Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) — but you’ll also get a quick-hit digest of all the important updates each platform made in Q2. Use these trend highlights to help optimize your ongoing strategy.

Get your free copy now!