Commentary

Mother's Day Performance Lifts All Boats, Including CPCs, Conversion Rates

The National Retail Federation estimates 83% of consumers plan to celebrate Mother’s Day this year spending on average of $245 per person, but with tight budgets and climbing prices for goods and services, the question becomes whether or not shoppers will spend more on moms in 2022 compared with previous years -- and what impact advertising will have on purchases.

“We are seeing a spike in gifting and apparel, which is on par with what we typically see,” says Bryan Cano, director of media strategy at StitcherAds.

Cano says an analysis of historical performance finds that the company expects consumer spending to dip shortly after Mother’s Day, but to pick back up leading into Memorial Day. 

StitcherAds, acquired by Kargo in October 2021, supports performance-marketing campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. The company analyzed 53 client campaigns that spent at least $100,000 per month between 2021 and 2022.

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Conversion rates for paid-social campaigns rose between one and two weeks prior to Mother’s Day in 2021. This can be compared with the conversion rates that rose by 33% beginning the week of April 25, 2022.

Cost per 1,000 impressions this year rose about 23% compared with the year prior in response to an increase in budgets and spend leading up to Mother’s Day. The cost per click (CPC) for Meta's companies like Facebook on average rose 27%.

In 2021, the company saw an increase in spending for Mother’s Day because families could not celebrate spend the day together the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cano says.

“The trends we are seeing in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day seem very on-trend for 2022’s numbers in CPM and conversion rates, and we expect them to accelerate as shoppers continue to spend for Mother’s Day,” he adds.

The terms “gifts” and “experiences” are popular keywords when searching on Microsoft Bing, while “apparel” was steady from March to May as a popular gift to give. All apparel subcategories have seen a spike around Mother’s Day in past years, but 2021 searches were higher than previous years and remained relatively stable.

There is no shortage of data related to Mother’s Day. Time2play, founded by a group of former casino industry workers who came together to combat false and sensationalized online casino information, in April surveyed 1,024 moms in the United States with children still living at home. The average age of respondents was 36.4 years. About 65.7% were employed full-time. 26.9% were stay-at-home moms. 

In 18 U.S. states, a nap was voted for by moms as the gift they want most for Mother’s Day. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin moms all voted for a nap as their ideal gift.

Some 66.7% said they would like some time away from the kids. A once-a-month break was just right for 25.2% of moms, while 14.2% said they would take refuge once per quarter. Overall, the average number of days moms wanted to spend away from their kids was 1.98 days. 

There was no shortage of ideas for Mother's Day. Baskin-Robbins introduced a new flavor of the month in celebration of Mother's Day. Breakfast Bed, the flavor, features buttermilk pancake and maple syrup-flavored ice creams stuffed with pancake pieces and a blueberry compote swirl.

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