In the spectrum of advertising that maps to the consumer intent funnel – from awareness to action – one outlier on the “awareness” end is Super Bowl advertising. It’s always the go-to example for ad placement that gets the greatest reach … but the least measurable response.
In fact, it’s always raised some degree of skepticism when it comes to ROI. Will Budweiser, Pepsi or Doritos sell that much incremental product to recoup their massive big-game spots? Beyond unit economics, there’s some degree of branding that’s harder to quantify.
So to put Super Bowl advertising into perspective – while Sunday’s spots are still fresh on our minds – how do ad rates and ROI compare with other ad media? How much can one expect to get in other channels for the same amount required to secure a Super Bowl Spot?
Digiday helped answer these questions by doing the math for comparative ad buys. Given that the average spend on this year’s Super Bowl was $6.5 million for a 30-second spot, what could you get for the same price on Facebook, Google, and other digital outlets?
War Chest
To synthesize Digiday’s findings for Localogy Insider readers, here are our highlights and emphasis. Again, these options factor in a $6.5 million budget (note, that’s just the ad space itself… campaign creation is extra and mileage will vary). That war chest will get you…
4.2 million clicks from Google search ads
At current ad rates (depending on keyword bid pressure of course) advertisers can get 3.4 million to 4.2 million Google search clicks for $6.5 million. For more of an apples-to-apples comparison, this applies to topics and timing similar to the Super Bowl and its prior-weeks anticipation (CPCs go up during the high-demand time period around the Super Bowl).
1.7 million clicks from Amazon sponsored videos
For $6.5 million, advertisers could get anywhere from 1.2 million to 1.7 million clicks on an Amazon sponsored display video ad. Digiday cites one media buyer who claims Amazon’s sponsored display videos fetched $3.75 to $5.30 ahead of the Big Game (up from $3 to $4.25 normally). For context, Amazon attracted $31 billion in ad revenue last year.
650 million impressions from a Facebook ad
Despite Facebook’s public arena black-eye(s), it’s still a leader in digital advertising. As we recently examined, advertisers aren’t as fazed as the tech press to the company’s missteps. Citing a media buyer, Digiday says that Facebook ads cost about $10 on average, teeing up some easy math to get to 650 million impressions.
843 million impressions from a TikTok ad
Given an average CPM of $7.71, Digiday says that $6.5 million will get you 843 million TikTok impressions. As a side note, the same $6.5 million could get 6500 posts from TikTok’s micro-influencers who have 10,000 followers (given the going rate for that tier of influencer).
30 days of TikTok branded hashtag challenges
TikTok isn’t just a high-reach medium but it continues to broaden its ad offerings. Besides ads and sponsored placement, it offers brands hashtag challenges. They cost about $650,000 for three days according to Digiday, adding up to a 30-day run at $6.5 million.
915,000 clicks from an Instacart search ad
Back to the consumer-intent funnel, if you wanted to go in the opposite direction of a Super Bowl ad, you could do something like Instacart search ads during the big game. That taps into searchers who are looking for their fix of game-time party food. Specifically, $6.5 million would get you between 577,000 to 915,000 clicks on Instacart search ads. This applies a game-day CPC of $7.10 to $11.25 (up from its average range of $5.70 to $9).
Cheat Sheet
So there you have it… a cheat sheet to compare ad options and ROI for next year. Of course, such decisions are always subject to individual brand objectives, and where those goals map to the consumer intent funnel. There are also considerations for audience targeting.
For example, the Super Bowl is known for the broadest possible audience, even though it’s a sporting event with implications for demographic targeting. TikTok by comparison could hold a notable qualitative difference in marketing strategy, given its narrower Gen-Z bent.
So there are several considerations and a sliding scale of broad versus narrow audience targeting. In other words… it depends. Where would you place your chips, given $6.5 million ad budget?
