Report: HK SEM ad spending exceeds HK$3m in Q1 2025

The average search engine marketing in Hong Kong has exceeded HK$3 million in Q1 2025, with text-based advertising (95%) dominating the sector, reaching HK$966 million. Meanwhile, shopping ads represent only 5% (HK$53 million), according to AdmanGo. 

From January to March 2025, SEM accounted for 13% of total ad spending in Hong Kong. The leading media share of voice (SOV) was held by desktop and mobile (26%), followed by social media (21%), TV (19%), SEM, out-of-home (OOH) (11%), print (8%), and radio (2%).

The top five categories for SEM ad spending are travel, banking, computers, retail, and insurance. Notably, the travel category allocated over 40% of its media budget to SEM, while the computers category spent more than 50% of its media budget on SEM. In contrast, retail and banking spent less than 14% and 18% on SEM, respectively.

The top advertisers in SEM were Booking Holdings, Trip.com Group, and Expedia - Hotels.com. They were followed by HSBC Group, Standard Chartered, Alibaba Group, MoneyHero, WeLab - WeLend, Samsung, and Apple.

When it comes to SEM top advertisers in shopping ads, Apple, Samsung and YOOX NET-A-PORTER Group were the top three. They were followed by iHerb.com, Lane Crawford, Amazon, LVMH Group -Christian Dior, SIMEverywhere, Ebay, Medicube. 

In the category with the highest ad spending share of voice (SOV) on SEM, computers allocated over 50% of their media budget to SEM, while travel spent more than 40%. In contrast, funeral services, telecommunications, and banking each spent less than 20% (18%) on SEM.

SEM ad spending in Hong Kong has remained steady over the past year, having reached HK$5.3 billion in 2024, accounting for 15% of media share, according to AdmanGo's 2024 report. Within SEM ad spending, text ads represented 87%, while shopping ads made up the remaining 13%. SEM ranked fourth in terms of media market share, following desktop/mobile, social media, and TV, highlighting its value among advertisers.

Don’t miss: Survey: HK search engine marketing ad spending reaches HK$5.3bn

Meanwhile, local social media ad spending also recorded an increase in Q1 2025, with Instagram ad spending reaching HK$779 million, representing a 53% YOY increase. Facebook's ad spending hit HK$807 million, marking a 2% annual increase, while YouTube's branded content ad spending reached HK$56 million, marking a 12% annual growth.

HSBC Hong Kong, Hang Seng Bank and McDonald’s emerged as the top three advertisers in terms of ad spending. Meanwhile, local KOL Elva Ni has become the top Instagram key opinion leaders (KOL) in terms of branded content ad spending, followed by celebrities Grace Chan and Sammi Cheng.

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