The document summarizes the results of a survey of 29 marketing executives who graded the effectiveness of paid social advertising on various platforms. Facebook received the highest grades overall for capabilities like ad targeting and building brand awareness. Emerging platforms like Instagram and Snapchat showed strengths in creative capabilities but still need improvements in areas like measurement. While social ads were deemed effective for branding, driving actions remains a challenge. Measurement and tying ads to business outcomes were cited as areas most needing improvement across all platforms.

1. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
For more information on this subject, see the related report at
Social Advertising Effectiveness
Scorecard: Industry Execs Grade the
Leading Platforms
Debra Aho Williamson
Principal Analyst
October 2015
http://totalaccess.emarketer.com/Reports/Viewer.aspx?R=2001670

2. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
How eMarketer developed this report
 Process: Phone and email interviews with agency and marketing
executives from 29 companies during August–September 2015
 Grading: Execs were asked to grade paid social ad effectiveness
overall and to grade six properties (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat) on the following criteria:
– Creative capabilities, ad targeting, measurement and analytics, building brand
awareness and engagement, driving actions, driving sales, and return on investment.
– Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were also graded on video ad effectiveness.
 Calculations: Using a numeric system, we converted letter
grades to numbers and then calculated an average grade for each
property in each category.

3. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Results overview
 Paid social advertising earned a ‘B’ grade overall: Key
strengths included targeting and cost efficiency, while weaknesses
included measurement and the overall maturity of the platforms.
 Big Three:
– Facebook: Received high marks in every category and was the only property to earn
an ‘A’ grade in an individual category—ad targeting.
– LinkedIn: Its highest grade came in ad targeting, but it scored only average in most
other areas.
– Twitter: Execs gave it a ‘B’ in most categories, including creative, measurement and
analytics, and driving actions.

4. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Results overview (continued)
 Emerging Three:
– Instagram: Received high grades for creative and brand awareness/engagement, but
the newness of its ad platform led to more average grades in other areas.
– Pinterest: Scored a B in every category except ad targeting and measurement and
analytics, where it earned grades in the C range.
– Snapchat: Earned B marks for creative and branding, but the newness of its ad
platform led to much lower grades in other areas.
 Video Ad Effectiveness: Facebook and YouTube earned
identical grades (B-plus) while Twitter rated a B-minus.

5. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Creative capabilities
 Most properties
had high grades
 However,
advertisers
wanted more
help and advice
on how to make
the most of the
ad formats

6. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Ad targeting
 Facebook’s
extensive tools
put it at the top
of the Big Three
 Newer services
are still figuring
out how to slice
and dice their
data

7. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Measurement and analytics
 Tools are
improving, but
the fact that no
property
received an A
indicates this is
one area where
even Facebook
needs to
improve

8. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Building brand awareness and
engagement
 Social media’s
historic strength
in this area led
to high grades
 However, no
property earned
an A, indicating
that branding
capabilities can
still improve

9. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Driving actions
 Advertisers
were finding
more success
than in the past
 However, ads
that drive
actions haven’t
been a priority
for some
properties

10. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Driving sales
 Attitudes are
changing;
advertisers
believed some
properties
actually can
drive sales

11. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Return on Investment
 Gaining ROI
from social ads
is still a
challenge for
advertisers,
although they
noted pockets
of strength

12. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
Grades: Video advertising
 Advertisers gave
identical grades
to Facebook and
YouTube
 However, they
serve different
purposes and
are often used in
campaigns
together

13. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
What will improve paid social’s grade?
 Measurement: Cross-platform measurement and the ability to tie
results to business objectives top the list.
 Maturity: The more quickly the newer platforms can get up to speed
with essentials such as targeting and analytics, the better.
 Creative: Advertisers want either more-standardized creative or
additional handholding for developing unique executions for a social
property.
 Marketers: Advertisers play a role, too; the best targeting and
analytics won’t help if marketers don’t create ads that fit the context.

14. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
How ad execs measure social ad effectiveness
Have clear objectives: “Strict qualitative and quantitative data
points should be outlined at the beginning of every effort to measure the
success to the necessary goal.” —Jessica Richards, Socialyse
Look beyond the ‘like’—or the view: “The value of social media
sites for brands is their accurate, targetable scale. So their success
should be measured with the same yardstick as the rest of media. The
moment has passed for fans, retweets and reblogs.”
—Steve Carbone, MediaCom
Aim for attribution modeling: “Brands need to move beyond vanity
metrics to really understand how social media rounds out their marketing
mix. Attribution modeling is the gold standard.”
—Jill Sherman, DigitasLBi
Have clear objectives: “Strict qualitative and quantitative data
points should be outlined at the beginning of every effort to measure the
success to the necessary goal.” —Jessica Richards, Socialyse
Look beyond the ‘like’—or the view: “The value of social media
sites for brands is their accurate, targetable scale. So their success
should be measured with the same yardstick as the rest of media. The
moment has passed for fans, retweets and reblogs.”
—Steve Carbone, MediaCom
Aim for attribution modeling: “Brands need to move beyond vanity
metrics to really understand how social media rounds out their marketing
mix. Attribution modeling is the gold standard.”
—Jill Sherman, DigitasLBi

15. © 2015 eMarketer Inc.
How ad execs measure social ad effectiveness
Strive for comparable metrics: “The best way to measure the
effectiveness of social media advertising is to push it to be comparable
to other media measurement. It is not satisfactory to have to caveat
social media advertising’s limitations.” —Maikel O’Hanlon, Horizon Media
Track user-generated content: “The way we measure success …
is the user-generated content we gain. We often have followers imitate
the pictures we have posted. We also gauge our success by measuring
brand sentiment.” —Stephanie Giralmo, Talking Rain Beverage Company
Know how social adds to the bottom line: “We should be
measuring two things: brand awareness and the bottom line. We want all
of our clients to be able to say, ‘Out of our business goals for the year,
social media accounts for this amount.’” —Fernando Espejel, FCB Chicago
Strive for comparable metrics: “The best way to measure the
effectiveness of social media advertising is to push it to be comparable
to other media measurement. It is not satisfactory to have to caveat
social media advertising’s limitations.” —Maikel O’Hanlon, Horizon Media
Track user-generated content: “The way we measure success …
is the user-generated content we gain. We often have followers imitate
the pictures we have posted. We also gauge our success by measuring
brand sentiment.” —Stephanie Giralmo, Talking Rain Beverage Company
Know how social adds to the bottom line: “We should be
measuring two things: brand awareness and the bottom line. We want all
of our clients to be able to say, ‘Out of our business goals for the year,
social media accounts for this amount.’” —Fernando Espejel, FCB Chicago