Download The Key To Successful Social Advertising

A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By Kenshoo Social
The Key To Successful Social Advertising
How To Choose The Right Tactics To Achieve Your Social Advertising Objectives
May 2013
Forrester Consulting
The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Table Of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Social Advertisers Use Pages More Than Ads — But Pages Aren’t Enough ................................................................................ 3
Social Advertisers Should Prioritize Ad Targeting Over Ad Rotation .......................................................................................... 5
Marketers Say That Promoted Content Drives Brand Awareness And Ads Drive Sales........................................................... 7
Key Recommendations ........................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Appendix A: Methodology................................................................................................................................................................... 10
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Forrester Consulting
The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Executive Summary
With more than 1 billion users tapping into social networks, marketers have eagerly turned to social advertising tactics
in order to reach their audiences. In Q1 2013, Kenshoo Social commissioned
Forrester Consulting to evaluate how marketers are using social media advertising,
US marketers spend more
with the goal of educating marketers on how to choose the most effective social
than $2 billion a year on a
variety of social tactics to
media advertising objectives and tactics.
reach more than 1 billion
social network users.
For the purposes of this research, we define two types of social advertising tactics:
• Organic social media marketing. This includes tactics that social sites don’t
charge for, such as branded pages, branded applications, and branded posts on social networks.
• Paid social media advertising. This includes paid tactics such as ads and promoted content on social networks,
promoted content on microblogs, and ads on business-focused social networks.
In conducting an in-depth survey with 105 large social advertisers (i.e., social media and advertising professionals
whose companies spend more than $100,000 per year on social media ads), Forrester found that while social advertisers
use a wide range of organic and paid tactics across a variety of social sites, more than one-third are not satisfied with
their efforts. Considering how many large social advertisers are missing the mark, it’s time for marketers to use more
sophisticated social advertising tactics and to better match their tactics to their objectives.
Key Findings
Forrester’s study yielded three key findings:
• Organic posting is the most popular social tactic — but paid advertising is the most successful tactic. Social
advertisers we surveyed use a wide range of social sites and strategies. The most popular tactic? Maintaining
branded pages on general social networks, business networks, and microblogs. But branded pages alone do not
make an effective social marketing strategy — marketers must use paid social advertising as well.
• Social advertisers still aren’t using advanced optimization tactics. More than half of social advertisers use ad
rotation. But only one-third use granular targeting to reach the right audiences; most of those who do target
primarily use basic criteria like demographic targeting. This leaves a lot of room for improvement for marketers
who seek better results.
• Social advertisers should pay for promoted content to drive awareness and buy ads to drive sales. We
measured the tactics of 69 satisfied social advertisers and found that different paid social strategies drove different
kinds of success. Social advertisers who paid to promote their branded content were most satisfied with the
awareness they created, while those who bought paid ads were happiest with their ability to drive purchases.
Brand-focused social advertisers and response-focused social advertisers must deploy the tactics proven to be best
for meeting their specific objectives.
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Social Advertisers Use Pages More Than Ads — But Pages Aren’t Enough
Today, most marketers include some type of social advertising tactic in their toolbox. But which tactics do they most
commonly use? We asked 105 social advertisers a variety of questions in order to gather insight on which tactics they
are using and which of their efforts are most effective. We found that:
• Social advertisers use a broad range of sites and strategies. Social advertisers use a variety of social sites to reach
their audiences (see Figure 1). A majority of our survey respondents market on general social networks, and more
than half use microblogs and business-focused social networks for marketing. By casting a wide net, social
advertisers increase the chance that individuals will find and connect with their brand on noisy social media
channels.
• They prefer organic tactics. All of the advertisers in our survey use paid social advertising tactics, but overall they
were more likely to implement organic tactics like branded pages and content than to use paid ads — no matter
what type of social site they were targeting (see Figure 2). Close to three-quarters of respondents indicated that on
general social networks, they create branded pages and post messages on those pages, and more than half create
branded accounts and post messages to those accounts on microblogs. By comparison, significantly fewer social
advertisers run paid social ads or pay to promote content on each type of social site.
• But paid promotion offers them the best results. We asked 69 respondents who indicated that they are satisfied
with their paid social media advertising what tactics they use. The tactic that satisfied social advertisers used more
than other survey respondents was paying to promote content on general social networks — followed by paying
to promote trends on microblogs and buying ads on general social networks (see Figure 3). The lesson?
Generally, social advertisers get what they pay for. They are more satisfied with the results they achieve from paid
advertising than the results they achieve with less costly organic tactics like branded pages, groups, or accounts
alone.
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Figure 1
Social Advertisers Use A Wide Range Of Social Sites And Strategies
“Which of the following types of social media properties do you use for marketing?”
Base: 105 US social media/advertising professionals
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
Figure 2
Social Advertisers Use Branded Pages More Than Paid Promotion
“Which of the following marketing tactics do you use on social networks or
microblogs or business-focused social networks?”
Base: 105 US social media/advertising professionals
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Figure 3
But You Can’t Just Post Content; You Need To Promote It
“Which of the following marketing tactics do you use on social networks or microblogs or
business-focused social networks?”
Base: 69 US social media/advertising professionals who said that they were “satisfied” with paid social media advertising
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
Note: Top five responses and bottom five responses are shown.
Social Advertisers Should Prioritize Ad Targeting Over Ad Rotation
All of the social advertisers in our survey sample spend at least $100,000 per year on paid social ads—and most spend
much more. In fact, the majority of the companies we surveyed spend more than $500,000 per year on paid social
advertising. What strategies do social advertisers use to get more value from all that spending?
• Ad rotation is the most popular strategy for improving performance. More than half of social advertisers
indicated that they rotate ads on social media properties, but only a third said that they use granular ad targeting
(see Figure 4). Likewise, most social advertisers don’t use advanced testing to compare the performance of
different advertising tactics — and fewer than one-quarter use tools to either manage their bids or manage their
creative.
• But ad targeting remains too basic to drive real success. In addition to ad rotation, social advertisers use
targeting tactics across all social sites to improve their paid advertising strategies (see Figure 5). But despite the
benefits of the advanced targeting methods that social sites offer (e.g., targeting users’ interests, targeting friends
of a brand’s existing fans, targeting workplace seniority), social advertisers are most likely to turn to the simplest
form of targeting: basic demographics.
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Figure 4
Social Advertisers Focus On Ad Rotation, But It’s Not The Key To Successful Social Advertising
“Which of the following practices do you use when buying ads or paying to promote
content on social media properties?”
Base: 105 US social media/advertising professionals
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
Figure 5
Most Social Advertisers Target, But They Use Basic Criteria
“What types of targeting do you regularly use when buying ads or paying to promote content on
social networks or microblogs or business-focused social networks?”
Base: 105 US social media/advertising professionals
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Marketers Say That Promoted Content Drives Brand Awareness And Ads
Drive Sales
One of the greatest challenges that social advertisers currently face is trying to determine where and when to dial up
their investment in paid tactics. Social advertisers are starting to realize that a one-size-fits-all strategy is not the best
way to deliver a positive return on investment (ROI). Today, marketers are finding that different paid social advertising
tactics are effective for achieving different objectives:
• Paid promoted content is working best for brand-focused social advertisers. Satisfied social advertisers who
used promoted content said that they were more satisfied with their campaigns’ ability to create brand awareness
than to achieve any other marketing objective (see Figure 6). The reason is simple: Paying to promote content
helps social advertisers get more exposure for the organic content they create, increasing their brand footprint on
fans’ and followers’ feeds.
• Paid social ads are working best for response-focused social advertisers. By contrast, satisfied social advertisers
who used paid advertising said that they were more satisfied with their campaigns’ ability to drive purchases than
to achieve any other marketing objective (see Figure 7). Why? Social advertisers tell us that they feel freer to use
strong calls-to-action in social ads than in posts that appear in the streams of their existing users — and that can
lead to better conversion rates.
Figure 6
Paying To Promote Content Is Working Best For Brand-Focused Social Advertisers
“What is the primary objective of each tactic you use when marketing on social
media properties?”
(Answers shown for promoted content)
Base: 69 US social media/advertising professionals who said that they were “satisfied” with paid social media advertising
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Figure 7
Paid Social Ads Are Working Best For Response-Focused Social Advertisers
“What is the primary objective of each tactic you use when marketing on social media properties?”
(Answers shown for ads)
Base: 69 US social media/advertising professionals who said that they were “satisfied” with paid social media advertising
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Kenshoo Social, Q1 2013
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
After years of experimenting with organic and paid advertising tactics on social media channels, it’s time for social
advertisers to focus on the strategies and tactics that drive success. Our survey shows that marketers can immediately
improve their results with these four simple steps:
•
Start with clear marketing objectives. Marketers must define their most important priorities and objectives
before they choose social advertising tactics and then focus on the tactics that will help them reach their objectives.
For brand-focused marketers whose primary goal is to drive awareness, promoted content is the easiest way to
create success. For response-focused marketers whose primary goal is to drive purchases, paid advertisements
represent the surest way to meet your objectives.
•
Promote your brand and your content. Many marketers still think of social media as a free channel. But the data is
clear: Marketers who used paid social tactics — be it paying for social advertising or paying to promote social
content — say that they’re more successful than those who don’t. The lesson? Social marketing can be free — but if
you want it to deliver results, it shouldn’t be free.
•
Take advantage of robust targeting. One of the greatest benefits of advertising on social networks is that
marketers can set very specific targeting criteria — reaching users based on their interests, activities, friends, and
more. This type of granular social targeting enables brands to increase the ROI of their advertising efforts on social
networks.
•
Develop a holistic approach for greater success. Successful marketing programs accomplish a range of
marketing objectives — for instance, creating brand impact to drive discovery, offering deep product information
to convert prospects, and building relationships with existing customers after the point of purchase. While different
paid and organic social advertising tactics play different roles, smart marketers will consider how all of their social
opportunities fit into the customer journey and into their broader marketing initiatives — and then take a holistic
approach to managing and measuring those programs.
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The Key To Successful Social Advertising
Appendix A: Methodology
In this study, Forrester interviewed 105 large social advertisers (e.g., social media and advertising professionals whose
companies spend more than $100,000 per year on social media ads) in the US to evaluate how marketers are using
social media advertising, with the goal of educating marketers on how to choose the most effective social media
advertising objectives and tactics. Respondents were offered a cash incentive as a thank you for time spent on the
survey. The study began in February 2013 and was completed in that same month.
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