Advertisers are in a period of rising ad prices, but that could change in the second half of the year, Skai notes in a report published Wednesday.

The report shows topline growth numbers in retail media, paid search, and paid social were all positive, maintaining similar levels to those reported in the last quarter.

The more expensive clicks are working harder. Conversion rates rose in segments like Amazon Sponsored ads and search keyword ads.

Retail media continued as the fastest-growing channel with a 21% increase YoY, with paid social at 13% and paid search at a distant 6%.

Advertising prices grew faster than clicks or impressions.

Changes in CPC for retail media and paid search — and CPM for paid social — all grew faster. Retail media clicks and social impressions still grew, but at a slower rate than prices, somewhat slower than seen in recent quarters.

Advertisers should not “obsess over ad prices without considering the overall effectiveness” of retail media programs, the report says.

Skai suggested that advertisers keep an eye on performance key performance indicators (KPIs) to eliminate “balking” at higher prices at the sacrifice of conversions and sales revenue that might have been realized by more expensive ads

Spending increased year-over-year (YoY) in all channels, as well as quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).

Overall investment levels continued to grow in walled garden ecosystems of retail media, paid search, and paid social.

Retail media and paid-search CPC rose YoY for four consecutive quarters, and paid social CPM has increased YoY for the last two quarters.

Despite rising prices and spending in retail media, performance metrics have kept pace. Conversion rates grew 12% YoY — matching the CPC increase — and total conversion volume grew 18%, just one point shy of the spending increase.

Spending on paid search grew 6% during last year — the same rate of growth as last quarter. Google budgets were up 8% — also the same as in Q1.

Clicks fell 5% and CPC rose 14%. Branded keywords seemed to drive higher keyword CPCs, which could be the result of recent changes around match type and/or rules around bidding on competitors’ brand names.

Performance Max campaigns also drove spending, which more than doubled YoY as the new algorithmic shopping format has almost completely replaced Smart Shopping, the report explained. Just more than half of Skai search accounts increased spending by at least 5% over Q2 of last year.

When isolating clicks for legacy and RSA, it shows that while clicks dropped faster for keywords than for overall search, higher CPCs pushed spending higher than the overall channel. Skai also saw conversion rates grow by 9%, although not as much as CPC.

While advertisers are in a period of rising ad prices, that could change in the second half of the year, according to a report released Wednesday.