Research from Ad Age has looked into the way that advertisers feel about that network.
The latest survey from Ad Age has looked into the perceptions that advertisers have developed regarding social media marketing over Facebook, including the adoption of ads on that network and the perception of increases in ROI.
Throughout the last 15 months, Facebook has moved to maturity from having been an experimental channel.
Companies that had previously hesitated to include social media marketing as a significant part of their budgets are now considering the channel to be a natural part of their campaigns and are continuing to boost their spending there. This was a part of the results that were confirmed through the participation of approximately 1,200 subscribers to Ad Age who were polled within the company’s survey in connection with RBC Capital Markets.
This social media marketing survey was conducted in August and was the third of its nature since June 2012.
That June 2012 social media marketing survey occurred just slightly before the IPO at Facebook. This most recent version of the survey has seen an increased percentage of respondents that claim to be using Facebook as a part of their advertising mix. That said, it continues to remain at a steady level greater than 80 percent. At the same time, the specific number who said that they are now advertising over the network has spiked significantly when compared to 15 months before.
Approximately 74 percent of the survey respondents stated that their budgets for Facebook social media marketing now include ad outlays. That number has risen significantly since January 2012, when the figure was 62 percent and even more since June 2012, when it was only 54 percent.
The most recent social media marketing survey included respondents among whom 30 percent identified themselves as employees of ad agencies and 26 percent identified themselves as either marketers or clients. The remainder of the participants were said to be either consultants or employees of media companies.
The increase in the percentage of marketers who are purchasing social media marketing ads from Facebook was said – by Mark Mahaney, RBC Capital analyst – to be a clear indicator of the rising ad income that is headed in Facebook’s direction.
