How Data Security Companies Distributed Their $4.4M Advertising Budget

Key Takeaways

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The brands in the competitive set invested -13% less budget into digital ads during the first six months of 2022 than between July – December 2021.  

Channel Identification

• Brands allocated 54% of their total ad budget towards Facebook ads and 22% to Paid Search. 
• Display saw the highest increase (+72%) from the last two quarters of 2021. 
• CPM on Facebook is 16% lower than on Instagram.

Advertising Trends

• The brands decreased their investment in paid search, display, and Twitter ads.
• Veeam saw the highest advertising spend at $6.1M.

Ad Channels

• 84% of all Facebook budget was invested in link ads.
• Veeam is the only company that advertised on YouTube. 
• Cohesity focused on running display ads (primarily on desktop devices) on data and security websites for IT professionals. 

Landing Pages

• Veeam, Commvault, and Veritas drive traffic to the landing page where they offer free e-books or guides about security in exchange for users’ contact information. 
• Most of Veeam’s and Veritas’s traffic to these landing pages comes from paid search, while other brands in the competitive set invest more in other digital ad channels.

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The following companies were included in the competitive set for this analysis:

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In the first half of 2022 (January – June), the companies in the competitive set decreased their digital advertising spend by -13% from the previous six months of 2021. July 2021 saw the lowest ad spend at $262K and November 2021 saw the highest ad spend at $713K.

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Overall Veeam ($9.3M) invested the most advertising dollars in digital advertising amongst the competitive set., Cohesity and Veritas increased their spending from the first to the second half of the year, where Cohesity more than doubled (+129%) its digital spend in the first six months of 2022.

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Facebook and Instagram are the only two platforms that saw an ad spend increase in 2022 — Facebook’s ad spend grew by 11% and Instagram’s by 54%.

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From July 2021 to June 2022, the competitive set invested $11M into digital advertising. Facebook ($5.0M) and Paid Search ($2.5M) saw the highest spendings, followed by Instagram ($2.4M).

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Veeam spent the most advertising dollars on Facebook ($5M), Instagram ($2.4M), and Paid Search ($1.8M) amongst the companies in the competitive set. All brands invested in Facebook and Paid Search ads. 

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All companies in the competitive set invest in Display ads, where Cohesity ($906K) spent the most between Jul. 2021 and Jun. 2022. When it comes to Twitter, Veeam is the biggest spender on this platform and the only company in the competitive set that runs video ads on YouTube.

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From July 2021 to June 2022, Facebook saw a total investment of $5.2M and an average CPM of $7.4 across the competitive set. Veeam alone invested $5M into Facebook ads.

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Two of the top three Facebook ads backed by $378K investment promoted Veeam’s VMware Backup for Dummies, which is a free e-book.

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Veeam ($2.4M) is the only company in the competitive set that advertised on Instagram. The brands mainly ran story ads (51%), targeting users in New York City (9%), Dallas (5%) and Houston (5%).

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Top two Instagram ads promoted a chance to win either a t-shirt or Oculus Quest 2 Advance set.

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Veam ($1.8M) spent the most advertising dollars on Paid Search amongst the competitive set, followed by Cohesity ($173K) and Veritas ($172K).

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Veeam targeted 4.1K different keywords which resulted in 107K website visits.

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Cohesity invested $906K to run Display Ads, which is 78% of the total competitive set spend between July 2021 and June 2022. 

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The brands primarily ran display ads on desktop devices (89%), investing 18% of the total display ad budget on zdnet.com and 14% on cio.com, both IT and tech security media publications.

Cohesity ran simple display banners that all advertised AI Powered and Cyber Resilient next-gen data management.

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Veeam invested $42K in Twitter ads between July 2021 and June 2022, which is 43% of the total competitive set spend. The brands in the competitive set mainly ran photo ads (84%).

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Both of Veeam’s top Twitter ads promoted a chance to a free t-shirt along with other prizes such as $250 of AWS Credits and UnFi Dream Machine.

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Veeam is the only company in the competitive set than advertised on YouTube. Veeam invested $17K between July 2021 and June 2022 in one 15-second desktop YouTube ad.

Veeam saw an average YouTube CPM of $18.00 and distributed all ads on desktop devices. The simple 15-second graphic ad outlines the benefits of Veeam’s new backup for Microsoft 365 Data.

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Veeam drove ad traffic to over 1K different landing pages. 57% of the traffic came from paid search ads. 

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The top landing page backed by $327K investment asked users to download a ransomware prevention kit, while the second top page promoted the Microsoft 365 backup for dummies e-book.

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Landing Page Data Collection

In all their landing form pages, Veeam asks for the following information:

• First name
• Last name
• Business email address
• Phone number
• Company
• Country

Veeam also includes an opt-in box at the bottom for the submitter to sign up for future marketing communications.

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60% of Commvault’s traffic to landing pages came from digital ads, and 40% from paid search. 

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The top Commvault’s landing page led to the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software article, while the the other landing page called users to download the Ransomware Solutions Kit.

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Landing Page Data Collection

Commvault varies the information they are collecting on their landing page forms between their Commvault & Metallic offerings. 

For their Commvault offerings, they collect the following information:

• First name
• Last name
• Work email address
• Work Phone number
• Company
• Country

For their Metallic offerings, they collect the following information:

• First name
• Last name
• Work email address
• Work phone number
• Company name
• Job Title
• Country
• Number of Employees

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83% of Cohesity’s traffic to landing pages came from digital ads, and 17% from paid search. 

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Cohesity invested $438K to drive traffic to the Next-gen Data Management page, which highlights product benefits, customer testimonials and a link to download their free e-book.

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Landing Page Data Collection

In all their landing form pages, Cohesity asks for the following information:

• First name
• Last name
• Company
• Business email address
• Phone number
• Job title
• Country

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99% of Verita’s traffic came from paid search ads.

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Veritas directed 49% of its traffic to its homepage, and 35% to a landing page explaining it’s 3-pillar strategy to ensuring resilience. Another landing page backed by a $7K budget offer to sign up to receive a free trial of Veritas Backup Exec 22 product.

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Landing Page Data Collection

Veritas varies the information that they request in their landing page forms, which includes:

• Email address
• Company
• Country
• Question: What is your reason for trying this software?

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Commvault collects the most information in their landing page forms, while Veritas collects the least. Only Veeam has marketing communication opt-ins on their forms. 

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Ad spend includes Facebook, Instagram (USA only), Twitter (USA only), Display, YouTube and Search.

Spend is a directional approximation and does not include retargeting, or behavioural targeting, US, Desktop