Facebook Social Media Advertising Analysis

Companies are using innovative ways to more cost effectively target sales and marketing budgets increasing return on investments. Now marketers hungry for more than soft measures of social media exposure and estimates of average fan value can look to hard data measuring the effectiveness in ad recall, awareness and purchase intent, according to The Nielsen Company and Facebook.

 The joint study on social media advertising effectiveness looked at three types of ads on the social networking giant: typical ads on the homepage, ads that incorporated the names of friends who were brand fans and mentions of the brand in a friend’s newsfeed.

 Ads with “social advocacy” components—that is, those that included information about users’ friends—and organic exposures to brand mentions both increased recall, awareness and purchase intent significantly. For example, Facebook users exposed to both a homepage ad and brand mentions in their newsfeed were three times as likely to remember the ad and be aware of the brand than viewers of the homepage ad only. Purchase intent was four times as great among viewers of any marketing with a social component compared with users exposed to just a traditional ad.

 The data bolsters research on the value of word-of-mouth and friend recommendations.  For example, if you like Coca-Cola or Diet Coke, and go to Facebook and see an ad for that and you see friends liked the brand, you are much more likely to engage with the creative and the message than if there were no social actions attached to it.  Social media networks such as those “friends” on Facebook can share their consumer experiences and recommend products and services etc.

Further, earned media exposures continue to have an effect beyond that of repeated exposure to traditional display ads. Brand awareness and purchase intent showed significant lift even after 10 or more impressions. 

Many research studies have shown that friends and family are among the biggest influences on purchase decisions. Advertising that incorporates recommendations from social network contacts is starting to show similar results.

BIO: Mr. Rickman is a respected CEO/Developer living in Oregon. For over 30-years, companies large and small have relied on his innovative business development, Internet marketing/sales and video broadcast services. He is a published sustainable analyst, ghost-writer columnist and co-author worldwide of several books including Eight Billion People.  Mr. Rickman holds advanced business and technical degrees from Boston University. For more information visit: http://www.sustainablevirtualbiz.com  or call (503) 621-4953.