What does the beekeeping craze of 2024 have to do with the packaging industry?

Thousands of businesses in Australia and New Zealand are using Google to find custom packaging suppliers. They’re making more than 73,790 searches per month, specifying their problems, requirements, and desired solutions in more than 2,890 unique ways.

Demand for natural, high-quality packaging continues to grow year on year, with demand for molded packaging seeing enormous growth throughout 2025:

Wholesale, eco-friendly packaging experienced a surge in demand post-COVID, before dropping off significantly in 2023 and 2024, then rising again in 2025:

Biodegradable packaging is also showing signs of recovery in 2025. Is the UK’s new 2026 packaging legislation starting to effect Australian businesses?

Christmas, it seems, it not the time for sustainability:

Nor is it the time for package innovation:

Small business ecommerce seems to have stagnated in recent months:

Although perhaps not for cosmetics:

There is huge variance in costings across this sector in Google Ads. Average cost per click (CPC) for packaging keywords this year is $5.31. Assuming a click through rate (CTR) of 3.20%, the average medium-visibility advertiser in Australia and New Zealand is receving approx 2,361 clicks/month for an average Google click spend of $12,529/month.

However, with a highly-targeted Google Ads strategy, average cost per click (CPC) is signifciantly lower ($1.75), with the similar click volume (2,361) from the same high-intent keywords possible at a lower Google Ads budget of $4,134/month, representing a potential saving of approx $8,395/month, or $100,740 per year for no reduction in traffic volume or quality.

Costings also vary by theme. Packaging manufacturers in Australia and New Zealand appear to be competing heavily for ‘pet packaging’ keywords in 2025, with an average cost per click (CPC) of $25.04.

This is over 30x higher than the cost per click (CPC) for ‘skincare packaging’ and ‘cosmetic packaging’, both of which have almost no competition, and an average cost per click (CPC) of $0.61 and $0.96 respectively.

There is also almost no competition for ‘HDPE bottle manufacturers’ on Google Ads, with an average cost per click (CPC) of only $0.37, despite a surge in demand for HDPE packaging in 2025.

Have AU/NZ packaging companies haven’t caught on to the HDPE packaging trend yet?

The biggest packaging trend, however, is honey, with Google searches for honey packaging have surging 14,000% over the last two years:

Interestingly, hobby beekeeping spiked in January 2024, so it seems that 12 months is the average lag from beehive setup to requiring packaging for honey storage or sale:

Isn’t it great to see such an enterpising group of beekeepers! However the big winner here is clearly Google. Almost all custom packaging manufacturers currently advertising on Google are matching to ‘honey packaging’ keywords, and paying an average cost per click (CPC) of $2.31.

However since honey packaging is not seem a major focus for most packaging manufactuers, this represents an average wasted budget of $1,338/month – or $16,056 per year.

That’s a lot of honey.