We live in an attention economy. The ecommerce space is filled with companies not only competing for revenue but also consumer awareness.
And ecommerce giant Temu is giving competitors a run for its advertising budget.
Temu’s strategic takeover of advertising space on Meta, Google and other platforms is impossible to ignore. Reports and industry pros suggest an almost audacious investment from the Chinese ecommerce newcomer, with figures rumored around the $2 billion mark in 2023 alone.
This colossal spend aims at carving a substantial footprint in the U.S. retail space, but the implications, challenges and outcomes of such a move truly impact media buyers every day.
Temu is anything but subtle. If you’ve been scrolling advertising or DTC Twitter, you’ll have seen specific callouts of this sweeping uptick in Temu campaigns. I spoke to marketers in the space who called out the potential damage of the Temu ad avalanche as it continues down the mountainside.
Advertising like a billionaire
Attributed to the umbrella of PDD Holdings from China, Temu surged onto the U.S. scene with a vision of dominating the market, employing a mix of aggressive marketing and low-price allure to draw consumers. This seemingly budgetless ad spend on Meta has propelled Temu to one of its top revenue advertisers in 2023.
What if you could find items you normally purchase at Amazon and other retailers for shockingly low prices? Consumers are ready to throw their credit cards at them, with a reported $3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2023 alone and an expected $6 billion this year.
This aggressive push not only impacts the revenue of any potential competitors but also impacts the efficacy of competitive advertising budgets.
Viral Marketing Stars CEO Katya Varbanova has seen this strategy before. “On my team, we have a phrase that says, ‘Outspend your competition, and you’ll have no competition.’ And it seems like Temu is taking that same approach to their advertising.
