2021 Report Reveals Which Ad Platform Had the Highest Conversion Rate

Nope, it wasn’t Google, Amazon, or Facebook. It’s something you’ve heard of, but probably never considered advertising on.
SIA Team
August 5, 2021

Recently, on RetailTouchPoints, an impressive infographic was published. This infographic, based on information sourced from Sidecar, reveals some interesting advertising-based statistics gathered from advertising data on 4 major platforms: Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Instagram. 

(Yes, the platform that I alluded to in the snippet above, that you’ve heard of but probably never considered advertising on, is Instagram. But, it’s not the be-all-end-all, in that it didn’t win in every statistical category.)

This infographic weighs the ad performance of these 4 platforms across 6 marketing metrics: return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per click (CPC), conversion rate (CVR or CR), click-through rate (CTR), average order value (AOV), and cost per acquisition (CPA). 

Google Paid Search won in return on ad spend, or ROAS (even beating out Google Shopping).

Amazon won in cost-per-click, or CPC. 

Instagram won in conversion rate, or CVR or CR. (That’s your headline promise fulfilled.)

Google Paid Search won in click-through rate, or CTR.

Google Shopping (not exactly the same as Google Paid Search), won in average order value, or AOV.

And finally, Amazon won in cost-per-acquisition, or CPA.

You can look at the infographic here, or get the report here.

But, Let’s Not Jump to Conclusions. Retail Categories Matter.

Just because, for example, Instagram had the highest conversion rate doesn’t mean that all retail categories (apparel, automotive, home, etc.) will experience the same outcome. 

That is, Instagram may not produce the highest CR for all advertisers. Some platform’s audiences may respond differently to different categories, and this is where there’s opportunity for different retail categories. 

For example, the health and beauty category has the highest CR on Facebook, not Instagram. 

What these stats show is that different retail categories may have varying degrees of success on various platforms. Nonetheless, digital marketing is booming, and for businesses that are serious about expanding, advertising isn’t a cost…it’s an investment with a positive ROI. 

Source: Sidecar