Custom Clip Pens Beat Social Ads on ROI

“Stay top of mind when it counts. A single custom-clip pen can deliver around 2,436 real-world impressions at roughly £0.55 CPM.”

– Vitalijus Glotovas, Digital Marketing Manager, AIOM

The simple truth about salience

Great brands do not leave memory to chance. They invest so their name shows up at the moment of choice. Across the economy, marketing budgets typically sit between 7.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent of company revenue, depending on sector and model. In 2025, Gartner reports an average of 7.7 per cent, while The CMO Survey places the overall average at 9.4 per cent, with B2C product brands around 15.5 per cent and B2B product brands about 6.4 per cent.

The pen evidence you can stand behind

According to the Advertising Specialty Institute’s Ad Impressions Study, writing instruments deliver 2,436 lifetime impressions. 52 per cent of recipients keep them for at least a year, and 30 per cent say they are more likely to do business with a brand after receiving one. Using a unit cost of £1.34 (MOQ unit cost in 2025), that works out to roughly £0.00055 per impression and a £0.55 CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions).

Social CPMs (cost per 1,000 impressions), for comparison

CPMs move with audience, season and creative. Treat the figures below as solid 2025 benchmarks. Conversions use an indicative rate captured on 7 October 2025.

Platform comparisons

What this means in plain English

Your pen’s effective media price is about £0.55 CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions). Even the cheaper mainstream social CPMs in 2025 are several pounds per thousand. On a like-for-like 2,436-impression basis, you would typically spend between about £4.28 and £22 on most social platforms to buy what a single pen earns organically over its life, with LinkedIn costing substantially more (£36 to £117.55) for the same impression volume.

Why custom-clip pens outperform standard pens

The clip is your miniature billboard. When a pen sits in a pocket, notebook or pen pot, the clip faces outward, so your branding is visible even when the pen is idle. A distinctive clip shape and print increases secondary impressions as the pen is noticed, borrowed and passed around. Paying a little more for a custom clip is rational if the design nudges up visibility and keeps your mark in sight for longer.

Quality that protects brand perception

Materials matter. Using high-grade plastics and colour additives from reputable global producers helps pens retain colour, clarity and structure through prolonged use. Fewer dull or yellowed items circulating with your logo protects perceived quality during the full year (and longer), that more than half of recipients keep their pens.

The budget takeaway for stakeholders

• Pen CPI: £1.34 ÷ 2,436 ≈ £0.00055
• Pen CPM: about £0.55
• Directional comparison: achieving the pen’s average lifetime total of 2,436 impressions via social media would cost from about £4.28 up to £117 for targeted decision makers on LinkedIn, whereas a single pen can deliver the same number of impressions for around £1.34 or less when bought in volume.

Sources

Promotional product effectiveness
• Advertising Specialty Institute, “Ad Impressions Study” — primary source for writing instruments: 2,436 lifetime impressions, 52 per cent one-year retention, 30 per cent more likely to do business. (https://media.asicentral.com/resources/Ad_Impressions_2023.pdf) media.asicentral.com
• ASI summary article confirming key writing-instrument stats. (https://members.asicentral.com/news/web-exclusive/april-2023/2023-asi-ad-impressions-study-powerful-stats-on-promo-s-top-products/) members.asicentral.com

Marketing budget benchmarks
• Gartner, “2025 CMO Spend Survey Data Snapshots” — headline benchmark that marketing budgets average 7.7 per cent of company revenue. (https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/annual-cmo-spend-data-snapshots) Gartner
• The CMO Survey, “Highlights and Insights Report, 2025” — overall average ~9.4 per cent of revenues; breakouts by company type. (https://cmosurvey.org/cmosurvey_results/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-2025.pdf) The CMO Survey

Social media CPM benchmarks
• Gupta Media, “The true cost of social media ads in 2025” — cross-platform CPM tracker used for Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat ranges. (https://www.guptamedia.com/social-media-ads-cost) Gupta Media
• Gupta Media, “Instagram ads cost” — Instagram CPM reference point. (https://www.guptamedia.com/insights/instagram-ads-cost) Gupta Media
• Gupta Media, “TikTok ads cost” — TikTok CPM reference point. (https://www.guptamedia.com/insights/tiktok-ads-cost) Gupta Media

Currency conversion (USD→GBP)
• GBP/USD historical data for 7 October 2025 used to derive the indicative conversion for the article’s GBP figures. (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GBPUSD%3DX/history/) Yahoo Finance

Client-provided benchmark
• LinkedIn CPM range used in the article was supplied by the client: $25–$65 CPM and converted to GBP in-line. (no public URL)

Method note: Where CPMs were converted from USD to GBP, the cost for 2,436 impressions was computed as CPM × 2.436.

READY TO GET YOURS?

Check the range here

CUSTOM CLIP PENS