Coronavirus and digital media industry trends: 5/29/20

We’re back with a new bi-weekly schedule for our digital media industry trends. This week, we’re looking at upward trends in advertiser spending and RPMs. .

What’s happening with advertiser spending and RPMs?

The end of May is always a good time for digital advertising. In years past, we have always seen big upward trends in this time frame. Translation: RPMs climb through the end of May.

But this year, we didn’t want to make any assumptions due to the pandemic and current economic environment. We’re happy to report that our skepticism was misplaced, and the last two weeks of May have been strong across most CafeMedia publishers.  

Strong growth in May RPMs

While RPMs themselves are not at May 2019 levels, this year’s growth in RPMs from the beginning of May to the end of May was actually higher than last year’s. That’s a fantastic sign that more and more advertisers are coming back to the market, and specifically coming back to support premium publishers. 

Mobile RPMs in particular grew very quickly this month. Mobile traffic makes up the majority of traffic for many publishers, so strong growth there leads to higher overall revenue, which is another positive sign.

Growth in spend across large advertising categories for CafeMedia publishers

We’re seeing a lot of strength in spend across some of the largest advertising categories as advertisers are regaining confidence. 

Retailer, consumer packaged goods, food, health, and several other categories of advertisers grew more than 15% week-over-week -a huge leap. These verticals include large categories of ad buyers, so their increased spend is positive for sites in any content category — the rising tide lifts all boats.

CafeMedia hit a huge milestone this month

If you didn’t see the news, CafeMedia (via our publishers’ aggregate scale) is now the 12th largest property on the internet. The only companies larger than our community are major platforms (like Google and Facebook) and “omnichannel” publishers like Disney, CBS, and WarnerMedia. 

Speaking of Disney, we were basically neck-and-neck with them, meaning that CafeMedia is the same size as the aggregate scale of ABC, Disney Parks, Disney Movies, ESPN, Marvel, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, and many other of the worlds’ most iconic media brands.

Comscore is one of the main tools that advertisers use when they are planning their spending. So when they’re looking for the top media companies, the collective “we” of CafeMedia is extremely high on the list!