Social Advertising: Is it worth the buck?

As marketers, we hear and talk a lot about social media. Social media is on the rise in Singapore, with nearly half of the country’s leading marketers believing that social media advertising spend will increase this year. But what really excites social media advertisers? Word-of-mouth marketing? Strengthening the brand? What are the challenges? Identifying the right audience in the noise? Or the dreaded question every CEO will ask: What is the return-on-investment? Ultimately, these questions make us always wonder: is social media marketing really the way of the future?

At Social Media Week in New York, we introduced a new social advertising solution called People Powered Stories (PPS) ™. With it, advertisers can incorporate real peoples’ ratings and reviews about their products within a rich brand ad. We believe it will give marketers the ability to create ads that tell powerful stories and create brand relevancy beyond just a “Like” by adding the authenticity and believability of real people’s real stories.

As an industry, we inherently understand the power of social advertising. But interested to find out views from leading marketers around the world and in Singapore, we recently conducted a study entitled ‘Social Advertising and Driving Word of Mouth: The Social Advertiser's View’. Featuring views from 713 social media marketers identified as high spenders across six markets – Singapore, the United States, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom and France – the study was developed to help marketers understand the benefits, challenges and what lies ahead in social media.

Here is what the study confirmed:

1. ‘Presence’ is Not Enough

Having site presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites is important but is no substitute for social media advertising. It is true that virtually all Singaporean marketers surveyed (97 percent) have a presence on at least one social media platform. But Singaporean marketers also believe it is equally important to advertise as well as have a presence on social media.

2. Social Ads are Part of a Good Mix

Top decision makers remain convinced that social media advertising will become more important to them in the next three years.

3. Word-of-Mouth is No. 1 Reason

Word-of-mouth marketing—particularly ratings and reviews—was identified as the number one reason advertisers in Singapore invest in social media. Brand strengthening was the number two reason.

4. Finding the Right Audience Isn’t Easy

More than Two-thirds of word-of-mouth reaches the wrong audience.

5. Return on Investment is Hard to Measure

Inadequate tools to measure the ROI have left social media advertisers with ambivalent feelings about their investments.

6. Staying On Point is a Challenge

Most social media advertisers aren’t sure they can prevent people from saying negative things about their product, service, or promotions.

7. Social Media Advertising Will Grow

Still, nearly half of heavy social media advertisers in Singapore say they expect their spending will rise in the next 12 months.

8. Word-of-Mouth and Branding Will Only Become More Important

Sixty-two percent of social media advertisers in Singapore said that branding campaigns will be “much more important” than they are today; 40 percent, word-of-mouth campaigns.

What does this mean to marketers?

The results show that brands cannot run an ad-hoc social media plan without a proper social media strategy. For a brand to be successful in social media, marketers need to realize a few things:

· Social media is a tool to help them achieve their goals, and that it is not a goal itself.

· How to be authentic and lead conversations with their audiences without dominating them.

· How to be involved and which platforms are best used to connect with their target audiences.

Coming together with online branding, performance and targeting, social media is another part of the increasingly relevant online media mix. Establishing a presence in the social media space is a long term commitment. If you don’t know why your brand needs to be there or what will be use of the social interaction, there is a big risk involved. Brands need social media to interact, not to react.

Bruno Fiorentini, General Manager, Microsoft Advertising & Online, APAC