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Apparel & Accessories Benchmarks Oct. 2021

Many of our customers want to know - are FB Ads acquisition costs increasing for everyone else, too?

So we decided to dive into the data, focusing for this post on the Apparel & Accessories vertical. This analysis is based on 55 DTC Apparel & Accessories brands spending an average of $100k per month on FB Ads, all of whom are users of Varos - a platform that anonymously provides real-time digital marketing KPI benchmarks to DTC brands.

As you can see in the chart above, the TL;DR is yes, CPAs are increasing for everyone. 

DTC Apparel & Accessories companies went from a median Cost Per Purchase of $42 in March 2021 to $112 in Sept. 2021, a 168% increase in just 6 months!

As alarming as these trends are, take comfort that it’s not just you and there are still paths to acquiring customers efficiently via FB. These metrics are fluctuating on a weekly basis, so use Varos to keep an eye out for where this rollercoaster will go next.

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There were many factors that impacted the spike in CPAs, but the most significant one was a plummet in Conversion Rates. In the chart below, you can clearly see that from April 2021 to Sept. 2021, the CVR has been decreasing significantly, landing at about half of what it was.

Digging in by a different dimension, we can see the trending increase cost per purchase is similar across targeting types. Interestingly, Retargeting Campaigns have leveled off in the past few months, while Prospecting and Lookalikes continue to climb.

The elephant in the room is the IOS 14.5 update, which dropped in April - just around the time that we see these trends starting. 

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With Varos, you can maximize FB Ads ROI by analyzing these metrics and many more, broken down by sub-industry, vertical, targeting types, date ranges, and much more. You can see how you stack up compared to similar companies, and find your specific areas of improvement so you can get the most from your ad budget. 

As the holiday season is coming up, we’ll be monitoring the market closely. If you also want real-time market data, shoot me an email at yarden@varos.com for access to the platform.

About the Author

Yarden Shaked

Co-founder & CEO at Varos

LinkedIn

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Tweets

Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd 📧
@ecomchasedimond

Bottom line: I’m recommending Varos to you all because it’s FREE (for now) and it’s already added a ton of value for myself and my clients.Check it out 👇

Social Savannah
@social_savannah

I would definitely recommend checking out Varos. With Varos you can easily see how your peers are performing, for free. You get insights into not only TikTok Ads benchmarks, but also similar data for Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and more. #VarosAmbassador

jason wong
@eggrolI

Varos allows thousands merchants to upload anonymize marketing data across meta and google and aggregating it to show what the average is across different categories and ad spend

Cody Plofker
@codyplof

With varos.com, I can see exactly how our performance across channels stacks up against our competitors in our space.

Barry Hott ☄️
@binghott

Compare your ad performance to benchmarks of companies just like yours, anonymously.
I would've killed for this tool years ago and now it's here and oh it's free. Amazing.

Ron Shah
@obviceo

I've been seeing some content about @Varos_com so we decided to check it out.

One underrated feature of theirs is the Shopify Benchmarking, which is FREE btw.

Literally impossible to access this data anywhere else. Check out what we're seeing at @my_obvi 👇

William Harris
@wmharris101

I'm loving what @Varos_com is doing with providing much more relevant benchmarks for #ecommerce... especially since it shows that we are absolutely DOMINATING @Elumynt on #facebookads!

This is in the Baby and Children vertical.#fbads #ppcchat #retail #dtc

Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd 📧
@ecomchasedimond

Bottom line: I’m recommending Varos to you all because it’s FREE (for now) and it’s already added a ton of value for myself and my clients.Check it out 👇

Social Savannah
@social_savannah

I would definitely recommend checking out Varos. With Varos you can easily see how your peers are performing, for free. You get insights into not only TikTok Ads benchmarks, but also similar data for Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and more. #VarosAmbassador

jason wong
@eggrolI

Varos allows thousands merchants to upload anonymize marketing data across meta and google and aggregating it to show what the average is across different categories and ad spend

Cody Plofker
@codyplof

With varos.com, I can see exactly how our performance across channels stacks up against our competitors in our space.

Barry Hott ☄️
@binghott

Compare your ad performance to benchmarks of companies just like yours, anonymously.
I would've killed for this tool years ago and now it's here and oh it's free. Amazing.

Ron Shah
@obviceo

I've been seeing some content about @Varos_com so we decided to check it out.

One underrated feature of theirs is the Shopify Benchmarking, which is FREE btw.

Literally impossible to access this data anywhere else. Check out what we're seeing at @my_obvi 👇

William Harris
@wmharris101

I'm loving what @Varos_com is doing with providing much more relevant benchmarks for #ecommerce... especially since it shows that we are absolutely DOMINATING @Elumynt on #facebookads!

This is in the Baby and Children vertical.#fbads #ppcchat #retail #dtc