Dive Brief:
- 24% of major advertisers’ digital ad budgets go toward social media, according to Advertiser Perceptions' first Social Media Advertising Report, as reported by Media Post.
- 47% of advertisers intend on increasing that figure over the next six months.
- Even though advertisers are spending more on social media, only 38% are attempting to generate offline sales and instead are advertising on social media for brand recognition purposes.
Dive Insight:
A lack of strong measurement for performance metrics, including ROI, might be preventing an even greater share of ad budgets going toward social media. Marketing strategies built for social media, such as influencer marketing, are popular but often suffer from the earned perception that it’s tough to prove any direct value beyond engagement for many campaigns.
“I think marketers are not willing to take the risk of not receiving metrics," Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group consulting firm, said in explaining the metrics challenge with influencer marketing – and by extension, social media marketing. "At least in my experience when we speak with clients about influencer marketing they roll their eyes saying ‘thanks so much for your promises,’ and it's very much a hard selling point.”
At 20%, reach and engagement was the most cited reason for investing in social advertising. While large companies are making sizable investments in social media marketing, less than 50% report having advanced social media strategies and infrastructure in place, and a mere 10% of respondents describe themselves as experts in social media advertising.
“Social advertising is a shining opportunity for agencies, but they need to ramp up expertise quickly,” Advertiser Perceptions President Randy Cohen told Media Post about the new report. “Marketers are set to rely on agencies more as they increase social media, because they don’t have the in-house expertise.”