Social Advertising – Status Update

The Pivot Conference, which focuses on The Social Consumer, has released a report about the state of social advertising based on a survey of 230 brand managers, executives and marketing professionals. This report, The Rise of Social Advertising, offers numbers that help us see beyond the trendiness of Facebook and Twitter. There is indication of the level of adoption of social advertising and the extent of satisfaction with the efforts in these numbers. Pivot offers these findings as the significant highlights of the report:

• Social advertising campaigns are used by 84% of brands to encourage user involvement.
• Traditional media is used to increase engagement in social advertising by 70% of brands.
• Marketing campaigns, including traditional and social advertising, are planned in an integrated manner by 70% of brands.
• There is a clear understanding that social advertising has to be an “ongoing” effort because “consumers are always-on and expect the same from those with whom they connect.”

The report also offers some interesting graphs about the extent of acceptance and satisfaction with social media advertising.

Among those who have taken to social advertising, 11% indicate that they are “very satisfied” with their efforts and another 43% say they are satisfied. There is also the 1% of respondents who are not satisfied with their social advertising impact. It is not clear whether the satisfaction levels are a comment on the kind of campaigns that were undertaken or a feedback on the use of social advertising itself.

The top five social platforms where there has been the most investment in social advertising are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare

While this does not really feature any surprises, here is a assessment of how marketers rank the paid advertising options of some of these platforms:

This survey and report is an a great capture-the-moment-shot that zones in on the current marketing reality and it shows the untapped potential that lies in wait for all businesses, big or small! The promise is that we are going to see increased investment in social advertising with marketers working to balance traditional and social campaigns and to use each of them to reinforce each other. There is also the reality that Facebook is dominant in this field right now but there is potential for dramatic growth from candidates such as social gaming giants such as Zynga!