Measurement/Analytics

The top benefits of social media marketing are increased exposure (89%) and increased traffic (75%), finds Social Media Examiner in its annual "Social Media Marketing Industry Report" [download page], which surveyed more than 3,000 marketers on their social media activities. A majority also report benefits such as developing loyal fans (65%), lead generation (61%), and improved search rankings (58%), but only 43% say their efforts have boosted sales. Nevertheless, study results indicate that for those willing to take the time, sales will follow. Read more »

Data-driven marketing spending is on the rise, according to respondents to the Direct Marketing Association's Quarterly Business Review covering Q1 2013. 38.7% of respondents indicated that their spending increased quarter-over-quarter, with another 41.9% reporting a steady level of spending. On a 5-point scale, where 5 indicates a significant increase in spend from the prior quarter, data-driven marketers averaged out at a score of 3.19, up from 3.1 in Q4 2012 and 3.16 in Q3. In turn, 45.9% enjoyed revenue increases from their activities for the quarter, with another 39.4% indicating that revenues stayed flat. Read more »

Executives at large companies (more than $500 million in revenues) who rate themselves highly in terms of their capability to use data analytics, deploy applications, and operate APIs are more likely than those who rate themselves poorly in those capabilities to have confidence in their future competitive position, according to [pdf] results from an Apigee Institute survey. These top digital performers also are more likely to report having outperformed their competitors in the past year across a range of factors, such as bringing new products to market and customer satisfaction. Read more »

In Q1, social vastly outperformed portals, networks, and exchanges in user quality index – a measure that refers to a channel's ability to reach a user that can be marketed to consistently – according to the latest "Global Media Intelligence Report" [download page] from Aggregate Knowledge. The study, which analyzed more than 27 billion impressions across Q1, found that social performed 65% better than the industry overall in delivering such quality users, and 33% better than the next-best channel, portals. In a turnaround from Q4, though, portals emerged as the best option for reach efficiency, which tracks the ability to reach exclusive users at the lowest cost. Read more »

Asked to rate a range of elements of the digital experience for their effectiveness in increasing conversion rates, a leading 39% of digital marketers from around the world pointed to social sharing (e.g. social sharing icons on pages) as being very effective, according to [download page] survey results from Adobe. Social sharing and third-party credibility indicators (such as security seals) were seen as the most effective ways to boost conversion rates, with 37% indicating that the latter are very effective. Read more »

Not only is optimization not getting a bigger slice of the marketing budget pie this year, it may actually be getting a slightly smaller share, per results [download page] from the Adobe 2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey. This year, 53% of the digital marketers surveyed from around the world said they devote less than 5% of their total marketing budget to optimization activities (including agency fees, professional services, and technology), up from 48% last year. Only 6% of respondents are allocating more than one-quarter of their budgets to these activities, relatively unchanged from last year's 7%. Read more »

Marketing teams are as likely to employ a growth hacker as a product manager, suggests a new study [download page] by Ifbyphone. The report reveals that 25% of marketers surveyed indicate that their team employs a growth hacker (defined by the researchers as "professionals that combine expertise in marketing, product development and technology to drive revenue"), with these respondents reporting an above-average likelihood to track a variety of marketing metrics including conversion rates (50% vs. 41%), marketing ROI (53% vs. 40%), cost per lead (52% vs. 38%) and customer acquisition cost (59% vs. 34%). Read more »

41% of marketers say that inbound marketing demonstrates ROI for their company, compared to 9% who believe it doesn't, according to HubSpot's newly-released "State of Inbound Marketing 2013" report. But another one-third cannot (or do not) calculate ROI. A difficulty in tracking reliable metrics may be why despite healthy inbound implementation rates and projected spending increases, a leading 25% of inbound marketers say that proving ROI is their top challenge. Read more »

The CMO Council and Exhibit & Event Marketers Association (E2MA) have released a new report [download page] examining events and trade shows and their contributions to customer engagement. Among the key findings, 31% of respondents believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and channel events are essential to doing business in their target customer markets, while another 42% believe them to still be very valuable. Read more »

A recent study by Nielsen and the IAB recommended moving 15% of TV budgets to online video in order to increase reach at a lower cost. It seems that some online video buyers are taking heed. In their Q1 2013 "State of the Industry in Online Video" study, Adap.tv and Digiday find that 72% of video buyers' budgets for the medium increased in the last year, by an average of 53% (compared to a 20% hike in Q1 2012). Among those who increased their spending, 39% re-allocated funds from TV budgets (up 12% points), with the amount of TV spending cannibalized averaging out at 11%. But the study finds that display budgets may be more in peril than TV dollars. Read more »