emarketer oct 2015 report: social advertising effectiveness

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Social Advertising Effectiveness Scorecard: Industry Execs Grade the Leading Platforms

Debra Aho Williamson Principal Analyst

October 2015

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http://totalaccess.emarketer.com/Reports/Viewer.aspx?R=2001670


How eMarketer developed this report Process: Phone and email interviews with agency and marketing executives from

29 companies during August–September 2015

Grading: Execs were asked to grade paid social ad effectiveness overall and to grade six properties (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat) on the following criteria:– Creative capabilities, ad targeting, measurement and analytics, building brand awareness and

engagement, driving actions, driving sales, and return on investment.

– Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were also graded on video ad effectiveness.

Calculations: Using a numeric system, we converted letter grades to numbers and then calculated an average grade for each property in each category.


Results overview

Paid social advertising earned a ‘B’ grade overall: Key strengths included targeting and cost efficiency, while weaknesses included measurement and the overall maturity of the platforms.

Big Three: – Facebook: Received high marks in every category and was the only property to earn

an ‘A’ grade in an individual category—ad targeting.

– LinkedIn: Its highest grade came in ad targeting, but it scored only average in most other areas.

– Twitter: Execs gave it a ‘B’ in most categories, including creative, measurement and analytics, and driving actions.


Results overview (continued)

Emerging Three: – Instagram: Received high grades for creative and brand awareness/engagement, but

the newness of its ad platform led to more average grades in other areas.

– Pinterest: Scored a B in every category except ad targeting and measurement and analytics, where it earned grades in the C range.

– Snapchat: Earned B marks for creative and branding, but the newness of its ad platform led to much lower grades in other areas.

Video Ad Effectiveness: Facebook and YouTube earned identical grades (B-plus) while Twitter rated a B-minus.


Grades: Creative capabilities

Most properties had high grades

However, advertisers wanted more help and advice on how to make the most of the ad formats


Grades: Ad targeting

Facebook’s extensive tools put it at the top of the Big Three

Newer services are still figuring out how to slice and dice their data


Grades: Measurement and analytics

Tools are improving, but the fact that no property received an A indicates this is one area where even Facebook needs to improve


Grades: Building brand awareness and engagement

Social media’s historic strength in this area led to high grades

However, no property earned an A, indicating that branding capabilities can still improve


Grades: Driving actions

Advertisers were finding more success than in the past

However, ads that drive actions haven’t been a priority for some properties


Grades: Driving sales

Attitudes are changing; advertisers believed some properties actually can drive sales


Grades: Return on Investment

Gaining ROI from social ads is still a challenge for advertisers, although they noted pockets of strength


Grades: Video advertising

Advertisers gave identical grades to Facebook and YouTube

However, they serve different purposes and are often used in campaigns together


What will improve paid social’s grade?

Measurement: Cross-platform measurement and the ability to tie results to business objectives top the list.

Maturity: The more quickly the newer platforms can get up to speed with essentials such as targeting and analytics, the better.

Creative: Advertisers want either more-standardized creative or additional handholding for developing unique executions for a social property.

Marketers: Advertisers play a role, too; the best targeting and analytics won’t help if marketers don’t create ads that fit the context.


How ad execs measure social ad effectivenessHave clear objectives: “Strict qualitative and quantitative data points should be outlined at the beginning of every effort to measure the success to the necessary goal.” —Jessica Richards, Socialyse

Look beyond the ‘like’—or the view: “The value of social media sites for brands is their accurate, targetable scale. So their success should be measured with the same yardstick as the rest of media. The moment has passed for fans, retweets and reblogs.” —Steve Carbone, MediaCom

Aim for attribution modeling: “Brands need to move beyond vanity metrics to really understand how social media rounds out their marketing mix. Attribution modeling is the gold standard.” —Jill Sherman, DigitasLBi


How ad execs measure social ad effectivenessStrive for comparable metrics: “The best way to measure the effectiveness of social media advertising is to push it to be comparable to other media measurement. It is not satisfactory to have to caveat social media advertising’s limitations.” —Maikel O’Hanlon, Horizon Media

Track user-generated content: “The way we measure success … is the user-generated content we gain. We often have followers imitate the pictures we have posted. We also gauge our success by measuring brand sentiment.” —Stephanie Giralmo, Talking Rain Beverage Company

Know how social adds to the bottom line: “We should be measuring two things: brand awareness and the bottom line. We want all of our clients to be able to say, ‘Out of our business goals for the year, social media accounts for this amount.’” —Fernando Espejel, FCB Chicago

emarketer oct 2015 report: social advertising effectiveness

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