75% of Advertisers Use Social Ads, Half Integrate With Print

Social Media

February 13, 2013 -- The majority of advertisers are taking an integrated approach to social media advertising, according to The Paid Social Media Advertising Report 2013, by Vizu, a Nielsen company.
 
According to the survey of more than 500 U.S. digital marketing and media professionals, “marketers are increasing budgets and using social media in conjunction with other advertising channels, but return on investment (ROI) continues to be a question.”
 
Findings:

75% OF RESPONDENTS EMPLOY SOCIAL MARKETING
 

• Paid social media advertising on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the likes, is growing – 75% of advertisers surveyed use this tactic, and 64% of these social marketing users are increasing their paid social media advertising budgets in 2013, though for the most part the increase will be modest (between 1-10%).

FOR THOSE WITHOUT A DEDICATED SM BUDGET, MOST DOLLARS ARE SHIFTING FROM PRINT BUDGET
 

• Four out of 10 advertisers surveyed (41%) report social marketing at their organization has a dedicated budget. Of those advertisers without a set budget, 23% indicate they will shift budget away from online display to paid social media advertising, while 10% will move dollars away from other online channels (e.g.--rich media, video). Offline budgets will see the largest shift, as 39% of advertisers report they will move dollars away from offline and into paid social marketing.

SOCIAL MEDIA BEING INTEGRATED WITH OTHER ONLINE, AS WELL AS OFFLINE, TACTICS
 

• Paid social media advertising is increasingly being viewed as an integrated tactic – 66% of advertisers say they use paid social media advertising in combination with other online advertising, and 51% use it in conjunction with offline advertising. Agencies reported a similar degree of integration.

 
Source: The Paid Social Media Advertising Report 2013

PRINT IS TOP OFFLINE CHANNEL ADVERTISERS INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA WITH

• When asked which online tactics they typically run their paid social marketing efforts in conjunction with, respondents’ top three responses were online display (83%), online video (46%), and mobile (40%). Offline, advertisers’ paid social media advertising campaigns were mostly combined with print (52%), followed by TV (37%).

SOCIAL MEDIA'S EFFECTIVENESS IN QUESTION DUE TO LACK OF METRICS
 

• According to  survey, many advertisers are doubtful of social media advertising's effectiveness because of a lack of "relevant, universally employed metrics."

Source: The Paid Social Media Advertising Report 2013

About:  More than than 500 U.S. digital  marketing and media professionals were surveyed online in Sept-Oct 2012 by Digiday, on behalf of Vizu. Results were summarized and cross-tabbed in order to identify consistencies or inconsistencies in each constituent’s viewpoints regarding paid social media advertising in 2013 and opportunities to improve the outlook.

Source:  Vizu, The Paid Social Media Advertising Report 2013, accesed Feb. 14, 2013.