unified q4 2016 quarterly magazine

U N I F I E D Q U A RT E R LYQuarter 4, 2016

2 3Unified Quarterly Q4, 2016 Unified Quarterly Q4, 2016

Vice President, Marketing

RICK MARTIRA

Marketing Manager & Senior Writer

RASHIDA BOYD

Marketing Associates

ETHAN HORNE

DANIELLE WESTERHOFF

Designers

TYLER COURTENAY

QUAN NGUYEN

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Or in the case of social advertising,

the more shiny new features that top channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat

release, the more things marketers need to learn. In fact, looking back more than a decade we see

an accelerated evolution of this digital marketing channel, from the launch of the f irst major professional

network to the introduction of video. In this edition of the Unified Quarterly, we’ll take you through this

storied past with “A Brief (Updated) History Of Social Advertising,” as well as 3 specific aspects of this

evolution: video, data and ad units.

Video, the f irst aspect we discuss and the epicenter of social media development this year, has seen quite

a bit of activity from each and every major channel. Facebook launched immersive Canvas ads, Twitter

introduced live video for sports events, Snapchat tested and released video ad products, Instagram unveiled

video carousel ads and both LinkedIn and Pinterest are now able to support the media type natively on

their perspective networks. In “A 5 Minute Social Media Video Ad Tutorial For 4 Leading Sites,” we dive into

the fundamentals for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to help clarify the main similarities and

differences for marketers who need to keep in the know.

The second aspect, which focuses on Dark Social, is the most important marketing data that the vast

majority of brands are not even aware of, let alone tracking. Not only are these generations of downstream

engagement and sharing a critical measure of your content’s virality, but they can also significantly impact

how accurately you can measure the performance of your ad campaigns. In our infographic “Illuminating Why

Dark Social Is Extremely Essential To Marketing Attribution,” we take you through what Dark Social is, why

it’s important and an example of how it impacts campaign measurement.

And lastly, we take a deeper dive into the Facebook Canvas ad unit with a case study about an initiative for

one of the world’s largest and most successful gaming brands. In “This Top Gaming Brand ‘Pwned’ Facebook

Audiences With A Very Creative Use Of Canvas Ads,” you will learn how their campaign was constructed, the

important lessons learned and the corresponding results.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading this quarter’s content, and look forward to bringing you more social

advertising topics in the future. Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Rashida Boyd,Marke t ing Manager

U N I F I E D Q U A RT E R LY

Social Industry Summary

Quarter 4, 2016

Welcome To

About Us

Unified delivers technology and services to connect marketing data sets and optimize investments

across the customer journey. Unified’s software empowers Fortune 500 companies and agencies

to drive marketing success in the context of their business goals. The Unified platform transforms

fragmented marketing data into actionable intelligence and real-time activation. Unified has offices in

New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. For more information visit www.Unified.com.

Contents


This Top Gaming Brand “Pwned” Facebook Audiences With A Very Creative Use Of Canvas Ads

Contact Us

A 5 Minute Social Media Video Ad Tutorial For 4 Leading Sites

An [Updated] Brief History Of Social Advertising

Illuminating Why Dark Social Is Extremely Essential To Marketing Attribution

06 12

23

27

18The digital age has both increased the importance of s ight

and sound in brand messaging and inspired cr it ical social

innovations such as video placements. Big players l ike

Facebook and Twitter have already transformed ads from

static image to video with features l ike autoplay, while newer

platforms l ike Snapchat and Pinterest push boundaries with

their own unique experiences. As a result , marketers need to

evolve beyond simply repurposing TV spots on social to ful ly

embrace these new ways to interact with consumers.

Social Media 101

Jamie Gershel,

Senior Media Strategist

Unified

SOCIAL MEDIA 101

DARK SOCIAL CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

SOCIAL MEDIA 101


It’s hard to believe that a 328 billion dollar company

started out as a Harvard college message board with

simple banner ads over a decade ago. Of course,

“Thefacebook” has grown into the powerhouse we know

today as Facebook, which claims just shy of 70.0% of

the market—but not without some serious competition.

With Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest and

Snapchat also successfully vying for their piece of the

social posting pie, we’ve seen an evolution of advertising

options emerge, then explode over time. From mobile to

live video and everything in between, we’ve documented

some of the most significant milestones for both these

top networks as well as social advertising in general.

F O U N D E D

F O U N D E D

RELEASES FIRST FACEBOOK API

REACHES

REACHES

LAUNCHES VIDEO

INTRODUCES THE HASHTAG

LAUNCHES ITSFIRST AD

LAUNCHES ADS

LAUNCHESMOBILE

LAUNCHES NEWSFEED

LAUNCHESIPHONE APP

LAUNCHES SELF-SERVICE ADS PLATFORM & PAGES

$150mm

An

Of SocialBrief History

Advertising

(Updated)

PASSES

$1BLAUNCHES THE FACEBOOK PLATFORM

F O U N D E D

F O U N D E D

2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 20102007 2009

= 2,000,000 users

KEY

1,000,000USERS

REACHES

1,000,000USERS

REACHES

50,000,000USERS GLOBALLY

REACHES

100,000,000

500,000,000

USERS

USERS

REACHES

REACHES

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

= 500,000,000 views


F O U N D E D

LAUNCHES SPONSORED PHOTOS & VIDEO

LAUNCHES BUSINESS ACCOUNTS

LAUNCHES SPONSORED STORIES

PASSES

LAUNCHES MOBILE ADS

300,000,000

200,000,000

1,000,000,000

LAUNCHES AN ADS API

ANNOUNCES INSTAGRAM ACQUISITION

LAUNCHES TRENDS

PASSES

LAUNCHES PROMOTED TWEETS

LAUNCHES PROMOTED ACCOUNTS

LAUNCHES ITS PREFERRED MARKETING DEVELOPER PROGRAM

$100mm

$5B

F O U N D E D

The term Dark Social is coined by Alexis Madrigal

Social ad spend becomes 15% of total digital ad spend

15%Dark Social becomes trackable

ACQUIRES ATLAS

REACHES 1B VIDEO VIEWS PER DAY

LAUNCHES VIDEO

LAUNCHES MOBILE ADS

USERS

USERS

LAUNCHES AN ADS API & PARTNER PROGRAM

LAUNCHES VINE

PASSES

PASSES

LAUNCHES AUTOPLAY VIDEO ADS

LAUNCHES SPONSORED UPDATES API AND CERTIFIED MARKETING PARTNER PROGRAM

OPENS PROMOTED PINS TO ALL ADVERTISERS

LAUNCHES ITS FIRST AD

REACHES 1B DAILY VIDEO VIEWS

2011 2012 2013 2014

$10BREACHES

REACHES

1,000,000USERS

REACHES

1,000,000USERS

REACHES

100,000,000USERS

REACHES

200,000,000USERS

REACHES

10,000,000USERS

REACHES

100,000,000USERS

REACHES

USERS

REACHES

25,000,000USERS

REACHES

100,000,000USERS

REACHES

$500mm

$500mm

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

PASSES

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

= 2,000,000 users = 500,000,000 viewsKEY


LAUNCHES THE MOPUB MARKETPLACE (TWITTER PUBLISHER NETWORK)

ACQUIRES BIZO FOR $175MM

PASSES $1B IN AD REVENUE

LAUNCHES PROMOTED VIDEO

$1B

RE-LAUNCHES ITS PREFERRED MARKETING DEVELOPERS (PMD) PROGRAM AS FACEBOOK MARKETING PARTNERS (FMP)

PASSES

LAUNCHES AN ADS API & PARTNER PROGRAM

ACQUIRES LYNDA FOR $1.5B

LAUNCHES ITS MARKETING DEVELOPER PARTNERS PROGRAM

LAUNCHES VIDEO (CINEMATIC PINS)

PASSES

$100mm

PASSES

LAUNCHES MOBILE VIDEO

2015 2016

LAUNCHES FLOCK TO UNLOCK

LAUNCHES LIVE VIDEO

EXPANDS THE TWITTER AUDIENCE PLATFORM (TWITTER PUBLISHER NETWORK)

ACQUIRES PERISCOPE

Social ad spend becomes 20% of total digital ad spend

20%

LAUNCHES THE FACEBOOK AUDIENCE NETWORK (FAN)

ACHIEVES 68.0% SHARE OF ALL SOCIAL NETWORK AD REVENUE

PASSES

PASSES

IS ACQUIRED BY MICROSOFT

REACHES 10B IN DAILY VIDEO VIEWS

LAUNCHES ITS AD SNAPCHAT PARTNER PROGRAM

EXPANDS LIVE VIDEO, ALLOWS USERS TO WATCH LIVE TV

LAUNCHES INSTAGRAM STORIES

LAUNCHES CONVERSION TRACKING68%

100,000,000

100,000,000

USERS

USERS

REACHES

REACHES

250,000,000USERS

REACHES500,000,000USERS

REACHES

$25B

$1B

50,000,000USERS

REACHES

$500mmIN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

IN AD REVENUE

Sources eMarketer, March 2016

eMarketer Estimates, September 2016LinkedIn Q2 2016 Metrics, August 2016

“Twitter Milestones: A selection of memorable moments,” Twitter 2016Techcrunch’s “Leaked Pinterest Documents Show Revenue, Growth Forecasts,” October 2015

Twitter’s Advertising BlogFacebook.com, Company History

Bloomberg’s “Snapchat User `Stories’ Fuel 10 Billion Daily Video Views”The Atlantic’s “Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong”

Wikipedia, “Timeline of Snapchat”Wikipedia, “Timeline of Instagram”Wikipedia, “Timeline of Facebook”

Wikipedia, “Timeline of Twitter”Wikipedia, “Timeline of Pinterest”

Photo CreditsMaurice Svay “Mark Zuckerberg” CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/5sKDrzKubiac “Fail Whale” CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/7Kp3NSOpen Grid Scheduler “Linkedin Office “ https://flic.kr/p/HYVagYdamon jah “Shinjuku blues” CC BY 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/pxqCMy

= 2,000,000 users = 500,000,000 viewsKEY


Move over photo and link ads—video has been crowned the new king of advertising formats on social media. Clearly the biggest area of innovation, we’ve seen Twitter announce that

users can now watch their favorite football games in-app, Facebook launch

a fully immersive video experience and Pinterest introduce promoted

video… all this year alone. Americans seem to be fully on board and hungry

for new ways to consume content, with an estimated 215.1MM users

racking up video views in 2016, 152.1MM of which are watching on their

phones. If you’re one of the 65.0% of marketers that think social platforms

are the most important media for digital video campaigns, you’ll need to

catch up on the basics quick. We’ve put together 12 fundamental things

you’ll want to know for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO AD

A5 MINUTE

4 LEADING SITESFOR

T U T O R I A L

FACEBOOK VIDEO ADS

TOTAL NUMBER OF U.S. USERS

166.8MM

The vast majority of U.S. users are still using both desktop and mobile devices

to access social media websites

DID YOU KNOW?

3 Seconds

VIDEO VIEW DEFINITION

34.0%

TOTAL SHARE OF DAILY VIDEO

VIEWERS

Awareness, Engagement, Conversions

CAMPAIGN GOAL OPTIONS

43.0%

TOTAL SHARE OF U.S. SOCIAL VIDEO BRAND

POSTS

Yes

OFFERS CRM TARGETING

Yes

OFFERS AUTOPLAY

Muted

AUTOPLAY AUDIO

DEFAULT

Yes

OFFERS MOBILE-ONLY AD UNITS

Yes

OFFERS LIVE

VIDEO

Yes

OFFERS ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS

Facebook Canvas ads fully immerse users in your

content to full grab the attention of mobile users

and can be combined with photos to tell a more

effective story

DID YOU KNOW?

Yes

100% IN-VIEW OPTION

33.0%

PERCENTAGE OF AUDIENCE THAT’S

MOBILE-ONLY


TWITTER VIDEO ADS


52.2MM

3 Seconds

27.0%

Engagement Yes

Yes

Approx 50.0%

Muted Yes

Yes

Yes



VIEWERS



OFFERS AUTOPLAY


MOBILE-ONLY

AUTOPLAY AUDIO

DEFAULT

OFFERS LIVE

VIDEO


100% IN-VIEW OPTION

1%

70.8% of U.S. marketers plan to use social video ads. Of this group, 65.8% will buy from Facebook, 27.4% from Instagram, 21.6% from Twitter and 9.0% from Pinterest

DID YOU KNOW?


POSTS

Yes

Consider Twitter’s Audience Platform, which gives marketers access to hundreds of millions of mobile users through a

network of apps, whether or not they are on the Twitter website

DID YOU KNOW?


INSTAGRAM VIDEO ADS


67.2MM

3 Seconds

35.0%

Awareness, Engagement, Conversions

46.0%

Yes 60.2%

Unmuted

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Shameless plug, but Unified is a partner of all four sites, plus Snapchat and LinkedIn

DID YOU KNOW?



VIEWERS



POSTS



MOBILE-ONLY

AUTOPLAY AUDIO

DEFAULT


OFFERS LIVE

VIDEO


100% IN-VIEW OPTION

DID YOU KNOW?

Yes

Approximately 85.0% of the time, autoplay videos are watched without sound

OFFERS AUTOPLAY


With 60.0% of the U.S. population now on social ,

consumers are constantly leaving a digital data trai l .

While this presents an unprecedented opportunity to track

campaign success, marketers that are not on top of mult i-

generational Dark Social act iv ity are st i l l missing out on

a substantial part of the performance picture. Without i t ,

report ing and strategies remain incomplete.

Dark Social

Rick Martira,

Vice President of Marketing

Unified

PINTEREST VIDEO ADS

n/a, presumed 3 Seconds

15.0%

Traffic, Engagement, Conversions

n/a

No

Yes

Approx 35.0%

Muted

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

55.0% of Pinterest users want to find or shop for products while on the platform

DID YOU KNOW?



VIEWERS



POSTS

Promoted by


OFFERS AUTOPLAY


MOBILE-ONLY

AUTOPLAY AUDIO

DEFAULT


OFFERS LIVE

VIDEO


100% IN-VIEW OPTION


54.3MM

41.0% of U.S. digital video viewers discover new original video content through social media sites, second only to

word-of-mouth

DID YOU KNOW?


Marketing Cam-PAINs

The Low-Down On Dark Social

Brands find themselves seesawing between meaningful measurement and proving performance.

Dark Social activity is in essence, how consumers are sharing your content. Remember that interesting article you shared on Facebook? Well, a fellow fan who saw your post and loved it may click the link, copy the URL and then Tweet, post, email or IM it to their friends. It is this type of cross-channel link sharing, as well as the many generations of engagement resulting from these actions, that define Dark Social. This multi-generational activity represents a massive amount of untracked behavior that can have an enormous impact on those status reports you have to create next week.

Let’s face it—if you’re an advertiser, you’re probably feeling some added pressure to show the business impact of your initiatives. In fact, about half of marketers say there’s a growing emphasis on investment measurability and accountability at their companies, with almost the same amount citing insufficient supporting technology as a serious pain in the pixel. These days an ad campaign is only seen as successful as the ability to measure its performance. Luckily for you, there’s a whole new world of unattributed engagement, conversions and revenue that if tracked properly, has the potential to transform a campaign from average to outstanding. We’re of course talking about Dark Social, that hidden gem of downstream activity that we’re pretty sure you’re not measuring. Read on to get the inside scoop on what it is, why you should care and how it can impact a real-life campaign.

The Lion’s Share of Sharing: What Is Dark Social?

3 Reasons Why You Should Care About Dark Social

of marketers expect to spend time and resources on cross-channel measurement and attribution

of marketers say there’s a growing emphasis on marketing investment and measurability within their organization

of marketers say their technology lacks the functionality needed to drive and track value from marketing initiatives

or more of sharing activity occurs from users copying and pasting URLs

of revenue can come from multi-generational and Dark Social activity

the conversion rate can be achieved with multi-generational and Dark Social audiences


SourcesIAB & Winterberry Group’s “The Outlook for Data 2016: A Snapshot Into Digital Media and the Evolving Role of Audience Insight”Unified Case Study, “em michelle phan Decodes Dark Social Engagement To Reveal Up To 34% Of Revenue Was Previously Unattributed”The State Of Content: Rules Of Engagement For 2016

The Dark Social Effect

Now that you’re fully convinced as to why Dark Social is so crucial, you may be asking how it would actually impact your marketing initiatives. We’ve mapped out a scenario based on real-life campaigns to give you a sense of just how much attribution you may be missing.

Attribution Is Everything: Taking A Walk On The “Dark Side” Of Social

Dark Social’s Generation GapIn addition to link sharing, there are generations of interactions to consider. Think of the engagement for each social media ad as the original ancestor in a potentially long line of digital descendants. The first or “original” generation is the area where most marketers have a pretty good read on, and many tools measure extensively. However there are numerous other layers of activity from shares of your original post or shares of shares that are not being captured. This activity is a critical component to the ROI pie.

Social Users Are Doing Their “Share”

of Americans actively share content online

of users in the U.S. trust content from a friend or family member

of Americans are most likely to share content from a friend or family member

75% 72% 73%


As the bel lwether in an industry that’s fast-paced and

competit ive, i t ’s no surprise that Facebook continues

to push the envelope with new features l ike Canvas

ads to maintain i ts edge. These ads have been so

ef fect ive in fact , that our auto, tech and entertainment

customers have consistently seen engagement levels

that are twice the amount of benchmark goals.

However marketers considering Canvas ads should be

sure that they have plenty of content to bui ld unique

experiences and an audience eager to engage.

Customer Spotlight

THIS TOP GAMING BRAND “PWNED” FACEBOOK AUDIENCES WITH A VERY CREATIVE USE OF CANVAS ADSThe video game industry is undoubtedly a lucrative one, with

gamers in over 60.0% of U.S. households, and sales that have grown

by more than 126.0% in the past decade. However, with more than

650 games released in any given year, marketers must take additional

strides to cut through the competition to win over wallets. This was

the challenge for a Top Gaming Brand releasing a new shooter game,

who chose Unified’s team of social marketing experts to help craft a

winning strategy involving Facebook’s innovative new Canvas ads.

C A S E S T U D Y

Katie Elliott,

Vice President, Customer Success

Unified


With the shooter game genre taking up a quarter of all best-

selling games, The Brand needed to entice potential customers by

immersing users in the story—a factor that only comes in second

to price for purchase consideration for games. With a laser focus

on generating as much awareness as possible for a spring launch,

marketers relied on the Unified Platform to deploy the following

strategy on the world’s largest social network.

HEAVY VIDEO VISUALS

BROAD DEMO, SPECIFIC INTERESTS

With such a potentially dynamic ad unit, marketers opted for

several combinations of creative with video front and center.

Referencing the creators who’ve made other successful games,

The Brand was able to introduce the game’s heroes, villains

and premise in full color to further demonstrate the high-level

graphics. At any point during the flight, marketers could easily

go into the Unified Platform to run intelligence on their creative,

even playing video content within the system.

Largely due to their desire to reach a mass, yet high quality

audience, The Brand opted to create 7 distinct ad sets which were

aimed at males aged 18-44 who have shown interest in specific

shows, competing games and remedy entertainment. Furthermore,

The Unified Platform was able to apply an additional layer of

optimization to ensure that the most effective ads were most

prominent to the most tuned-in audience.

40.0s40.0s40.0s

43.6%43.6%43.6%

Average Duration Of Canvas Ad Viewed

Of Canvas Ad Viewed On Average

MOBILE ENGAGEMENT, MAGNIFIED

In its usual knack for innovation, Facebook released Canvas ads

earlier this year, which not only completely submerges mobile users

in a brand’s content, but also creates interactivity with various

movements of the phone. As an early adopter, The Gaming Brand

experimented with different combinations of videos, photos and

links to piece together an engaging story that took up 100% of the

user’s screen, ensuring maximum attention.

26 Unified Quarterly Q4, 2016

There were three critical factors to the success of this campaign.

First, was developing effective ways to convey the story and features

of the game to a mass audience. Second, was leveraging a cutting-

edge immersive ad unit like Facebook Canvas Ads. And lastly, was the

additional layer of optimization that The Unified Platform provides to

yield the best possible results. All in all, this combination of factors

lead to one of The Brand’s most successful video campaigns to date.

180 Madison Ave., 23rd Fl, New York, NY [email protected] 855-236-5482

/unif ied /unif ied /getunif ied /+Unif iedPlatform

www.unified.com

Contact Us

http://facebook.com/unified

http://twitter.com/unified

http://linkedin.com/getunified

http://plus.google.com/u/0/+Unifiedsocial

www.unified.com