Dive Brief:

• As social media continues to be a key place to interact with shoppers, retail is now the top Facebook advertiser by category. A group that includes beauty, travel, auto and alcohol is the second, according to a new report from MediaRadar emailed to Retail Dive. 

• The retail sector comprises 17% of all Facebook advertisers. Among the top retail advertisers are Amazon, supermarkets and big-box stores, according to the report. MediaRadar's retail category also includes restaurants.

• The retail and entertainment sectors, the latter of which accounts for 16% of Facebook advertisers, also have retention rates of 64% year-over-year.

Dive Insight:

Long one of the top firms in terms of advertising revenue, Facebook's popularity with retailers is continuing apace.

Facebook and Google make up more than half of the online ad market, according to a 2020 report from eMarketer, and as experts have told Retail Dive, both have long seemed to be essential for retailers seeking to reach online customers. 

MediaRadar's analysis indicates that the retail industry is among the top advertisers on Facebook, but some research indicates that Facebook ads might not be as necessary as retailers think. According to Forrester data shared with Retail Dive in January, most retailers that pulled their ad dollars from Facebook over the summer of 2020 didn't experience a negative impact. Forrester monitored 43 publicly traded companies participating in the Facebook boycott and found that only seven companies lost revenue in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. The other 36 companies saw a revenue increase. 

Despite the pandemic's impact on nearly every business, Facebook's advertisers have mainly remained the same, MediaRadar's report suggests. More than half (59%) of Facebook's advertisers were the same year-over-year in January and February of 2020 and 2021, the report said.

Moreover, retail's share of Facebook advertisers has increased. Compared to 17% this year, retail advertisers made up just over 15% of Facebook's advertisers last year, according to the report.