MMI's Caitlin Jeansonne presented Setting Up for Paid Social Success: Tracking, Attribution and Reporting at SMX West 2017. As more social networks develop increasingly sophisticated targeting, tracking and attribution capabilities, paid social strategy and management has become a key focus for digital marketing agencies and in-house marketing departments. Social has also been at the leading edge of the advertising shift to mobile, making paid social a must-have discipline for both B2B and B2C companies.

1. Setting up for Paid Social Success
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
MMI AGENCY | @MMIAGENCY
CAITLIN JEANSONNE | @QCAIT

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About Caitlin
• Cat lady, pop culture junkie, geek
• 12 years experience in digital
strategy, SEO/SEM, social media
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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Let’s Chat
• Tagging Set Up
• Campaign Set Up
• AB Testing Set Up
• Attribution Set Up
• Expectations Set Up
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

4. First things First: What are
we tracking?

5. What Is The Goal?

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Sample Social Ad Goals
Awareness Consideration
Preference/
Purchase
Retention
• Increase visibility to
key new audiences
• Utilize existing
customers’
networks to build
awareness through
social endorsement
• Improve brand
perception in
consideration set
• Reinforce key brand
attributes
• Educate on service
offerings
• Drive website traffic
and new consumers
into the sales funnel
• Purchases and
conversions
• Capture direct
customer feedback
and market insights
• Resolve customer
service issues
efficiently
• Build brand trust and
customer loyalty

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Sample KPIs
Awareness Consideration Preference Purchase
• Reach
• Views
• Clicks
• Content Views
• Engagement
• Likes/follows
• Sentiment
• Likes/follows
• Shares
• Post-click
engagement
• Coupon downloads
• Social listening
• Conversions
• Coupon
Redemption
• Tracking Tags
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

8. What Data Is Most Useful?
(What Will You Want To Report On Later?)

9. Set Up Pixel Tracking
Pixel Helper Chrome Extension Is Your Friend

10. Next: URL tagging structure
Adobe, Google Analytics, etc.

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Document Your URL Structure
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

12. Get Everyone In The Same Room
Disagree. Hash It Out.

13. Think Beyond Current Scope

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A Few Examples
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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GA will never match Facebook perfectly
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

16. Campaign Structure

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Stay consistent between platforms
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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Note that Twitter reports on audience variables separately
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Use separate Campaigns for different:
• Objectives
• Marketing Campaigns
• Within Evergreen Campaigns:
• Campaign Type
• Month/Quarter
• IO numbers/Budget buckets
Campaign Structure
• Use separate Ad Sets for different:
• Audiences
• Specific Budget Allocation
• Months (for very similar campaigns
spanning several months)
• Promoted Posts/Pins/Tweets to ensure each
gets budget
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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Budget
• Facebook minimum is $5/day
• 38% of organizations spent >20% of their
total ad budgets on social in 2015
• Things that affect budget:
• Audience size
• Audience competition
• CTA
• Relevance score
• Marketing Priorities

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Rule of thumb: The more you’re
expecting a user to do, the more you
should expect to pay
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Refresh campaigns in order to:
• Avoid ad fatigue
• Clear historical data
• Too much historical data can “lock in” your
winning ads
Start campaigns fresh quarterly
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

23. Label Clearly
(Don’t Forget To Include The Year)

24. Assume You Will Win The Lottery
And Someone Else Will Take Over

25. Set up: AB Testing

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• Images
• Titles
• Texts
• Links
• Audience
(Age,
Gender,
Interests)
Things to Test
• Location
• Placement
• Landing Page
• Call to action
• Ad Type
• Bidding
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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Things can get complex quickly
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Define by week or month
• What will you test
• What are you looking to learn?
• How long will it take?
Create a Testing Plan
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Start by developing a baseline with a relatively
small budget
• Then test factors most likely to affect ROI
• Test very different options at first, then hone in
on specifics in follow-up campaigns
Where to Start
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• For social generally: Imagery/creative
• For complex conversions: Desktop vs. Mobile
At right, AdEspresso study of factors most
impacting campaign performance:
Factors that matter most
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Create different ad sets to test with even
spend
• Wait until you have enough data to make
decisions (i.e. a few weeks, 10-20
conversions)
More tips for the road ahead
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

32. Attribution

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• Google Analytics = Last-click attribution
• Facebook/Instagram = Up to 28 day click/ 1 day view
• Twitter = Up to 90 day click/ 90 day engagement
• Pinterest = Up to 60 days post click or engagement
Attribution varies by platform
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Last click
• First click
• Linear
• Time Decay
• Position Based
Attribution Models
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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In a perfect world…
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

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• Agree on conversion window
methodology
• If reporting all conversions by
channel, be up front about
inevitable overlap
• Test major changes one at a time to
see how they affect cross-campaign
• Add/remove a platform
• Budget increase/decrease
Reporting Attribution, even without an analyst
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

37. Key Takeaways

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• Think about URL tagging at scale
• Assume you may win the lottery tomorrow and never come back
• Put time up front into a testing plan (it will save you in the future)
• Accept that cross-platform reporting won’t be perfect
Key Takeaways
#MasterSocialAds | #SMX | @QCait

39. Thank You
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
MMI AGENCY | @MMIAGENCY
CAITLIN JEANSONNE | @QCAIT