Marketers Still See Display Advertising as Important, Place Bigger Emphasis on Social Media
Bizo, a business-analytics company, recently shared the results of a survey of in-house and agency marketers. Among the key findings is that marketers view display advertising as important as they did last year, and that social media is set to get more attention from marketers.
The fourth quarter (fall) is the undisputed busiest season for executing campaigns, closing sales and planning, according to the survey of more than 520 strategic marketers. Here’s the breakdown for what respondents said were the busiest seasons for:
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Executing campaigns: 1) Q4 (fall); 2) not sure; 3) Q2 (spring); 4) Q1 (winter); 5) Q3 (summer)
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Closing sales: 1) Q4 (fall); 2) Q2 (spring); 3) Q1 (winter); 4) not sure; 5) Q3 (summer)
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Planning: 1) Q4 (fall); 2) Q3 (summer); 3) Q1 (winter); 4) not sure; 5) Q2 (spring)
When asked the question “What is the most important role display advertising plays in your mix?” the top response was “top-of-funnel awareness and education,” followed by “drive more desired actions (e.g., white-paper download, webinar registration),” “generate leads,” “increase site traffic” and “improved search results.”
According to Bizo, of marketers that participate in display advertising, 84 percent said the medium is as important or more important to their marketing mix this year versus last year.
The top answer to the question “Which marketing channels do you plan to increase focus over the next 12 months?” was social media with a 63.4 percent response. Email marketing (45.5 percent), content marketing (45.3 percent), SEM/SEO (42.7 percent) and video (36.0 percent) were also popular responses.
Bizo notes that 97 percent of marketers said social media marketing was more important or as important to their marketing mix this year versus last year.
Social media marketing is following in the steps of display, in the sense that the most important role social media marketing plays in marketers’ media mixes is “general awareness.”
“Display was initially deployed as a top-of-funnel instrument but evolved into a full-funnel weapon as marketers gained experience incorporating it in the mix,” the report notes.
Quality content offers for marketing outreach and nurturing programs, tighter integration across marketing programs, program and campaign measurement, campaign execution, planning, and higher-impact sales tools (in that order) were all cited as areas with big room for improvement in the next quarter.
The most popular way marketers are measuring social is by the increase/decrease in followers, which was cited by nearly 55 percent of respondents. This is “completely missing the bigger opportunity to target their desired prospects,” according to Bizo’s press release.
Other popular forms of social media measurement are actions taken by targets, page views and clicks.
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