This document discusses quantifying the contribution of social media in marketing campaigns. It outlines challenges with social media attribution, such as much social media activity escaping traditional tracking. The document proposes addressing this by building on an existing attribution methodology to encompass social media through techniques like agent-based modeling. This would create unified datasets and simulated user journeys to uncover attribution and interaction effects between paid digital campaigns and earned social media. The benefits would include optimizing campaign architecture and maximizing returns across channels.
5. Social Media’s
growing importance
in the marketing mix
Word of Mouth combined with Search
are the most powerful drivers of consumer behavior
Have some degree of trust* in the following forms US online buyers who were led to
of advertising (Apr. 2009) their purchase by a search engine
or Social Media site (Nov. 2010)
Recommendations from people known 90% % of total
Consumer opinions posted online 70%
Brand websites 70%
Editorial content (e.g. newspaper article) 69%
Brand sponsorships 64%
TV 62%
Newspaper 61%
Magazines 59%
Billboards/outdoor advertising 55%
Radio 55%
Emails signed up for 54%
Search
Ads before movies 52%
51% Social
Search engine results ads 41%
Online video ads 37%
1%
Search&Social
Online banner ads 33%
48%
Textads on mobile phones 24%
Source: The Nielsen Company Source: comScore Inc., 2011
* E.g. 90 percent of respondents trusted “completely” or
“somewhat” recommendations from people they know.
Social Networking is where people
spend most of their online time
US consumers who spend 1+ hour on Social Network Time spent on online activities, by type
activities per week, Q2 2008 - Q3 2010 (Sep. 2010)
Hours per week spent on activity
% of respondents
66%
64% 65% 65%
61%
59%
54%
46%
38% 39%
Email Social Interest
Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 4.4 4.6 3.9
2008 2009 2010
Source: Interpret, December 16, 2010 Note: n=48,804
Source: TNS, “Digital Life”. October 10, 2010
6. MANAGING WORD OF MOUTH IS CRITICAL
Fortune 500 companies with a Twitter account*, US Facebook users who are more likely
2009 and 2010 to buy a product or visit a retailer
based on a positive Facebook friend
% of total referral (Mar. 2010)
% of respondents
35% 60%
2009 2010
Note: *with tweets made in the past 30 days.
YES 68% NO 32%
Source: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center of
Marketing Research, “The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Source: Morpace, “Facebook’s Impact on
Longitudinal Study of Blogging, Twitter and Facebook Usage by Retailers”, provided to eMarketer. April 1, 2010
America’s Largest Companies”. October 6, 2010
“Social network advertising is real and growing.
International markets will grow even more than US markets” eMarketer
Social network ad revenues worldwide, 2009 - 2012 Facebook ad revenues, 2009 - 2012
Billions and % change Billions
Worldwide $0.74 $1.86 $4.05 $5.74
$8.09
(35.6%) Non US $0.18 $0.65 $1.86 $2.87
US $0.56 $1.21 $2.19 $2.87
$5.97
(71.6%)
$3.48
(47.6%)
$2.36
(20.3%)
2009 2010 2011 2012
2009 2010 2011 2012 % change US Non US Worldwide
(2012 vs. 2009) 417% 1,468% 678%
Source: eMarketer. January 2011 Note: numbers may not add up to total due
to rounding. Source: eMarketer, January 2011
How can marketers achieve accountability
for their social advertising spend?