1) The document introduces Social Lift, a new metric for measuring the impact of ad campaigns on social engagement by comparing the volume of shares before and after ad exposure. 2) An analysis of over 170 million impressions across multiple industries found that Social Lift, which measures the percentage increase in shares, averaged 67.1% across campaigns. 3) Social Lift can be used to optimize campaigns by tracking performance over time, comparing different content types, channels and audience segments to see which drive the highest engagement.

1. SOCIAL LIFT
In their current form, the campaign performance metrics available to advertisers
are limited in scope, scale and effectiveness.
Measuring Campaign Effectiveness with Social Engagement
“In the accelerating swirl of chaos, excitement, and yes, sometimes fear, the brands
that win will prioritize engagement over exposure.”
– Tara Walpert Levy, Managing Director of Ad Market Development, Google
Though easy to track,
Interaction Rates (CTR, video
completes, etc.), fail to
incorporate the social web
and only apply to the small
percentage of users who
actually click on ads.
Social Platform Metrics
(Facebook Fans, Twitter
follows) are isolated within
their parent social media
tools.
Brand Studies are expen-
sive, slow to coordinate, and
subject to the bias of the
individuals being surveyed.
Social Lift www.sharethis.com
Social media has changed the landscape of online advertising and provided brands
with an unprecedented opportunity to engage with their customers in a more creative,
direct, and intimate way than ever before. Despite having prescribed to this
phenomenon, marketers have yet to develop an effective method of measuring the
impact of ad impressions on social engagement.
In the social web, sharing is the purest expression of interest. An effective measure of
brand engagement should leverage the growing importance of online sharing across
all social channels.
Interaction
Rates
Ease of
Implementation
Timeliness of
Reporting &
Tracking
Gauge of User
Attitude
Reach &
Applicability
of Results
Social Platform
Metrics
Brand Studies

2. INTRODUCING SOCIAL LIFT
A new metric to identify campaign success
through social engagement.
To test Social Lift, we examined 4 weeks’ worth of data from campaigns spanning
multiple verticals and over 170 million online impressions.
After Ad Exposure
Shares
759,879
Before Ad Exposure
Shares
1,268,890
-
=
-
Social Lift
The ShareThis database tracks the sharing habits of over 210
million users across 120 social channels. With it, we can monitor
the volume of shares related to a particular brand or campaign
message.
By observing the volume of shares before and after ad exposure,
we can effectively identify the lift in social activity generated by a
campaign. The difference between the two is Social Lift.
Social Lift
67.1%
Track weekly trends in campaign Social Lift:
Brands can track Social Lift week by week to
monitor a campaign’s effectiveness in
engaging new users over time. In the case of
our finance campaigns the period of maximum
Social Lift is in the first few weeks of a
campaign (Figure 1).
...or track cumulative Social Lift performance:
This can also be shown as cumulative Social
Lift throughout the campaign lifecycle to
provide a broader picture of engagement. In
Figure 2, we notice a similar trend in Social Lift
across the Technology and Finance campaigns.
Figure 1 - Weekly Social Lift
(Finance Vertical)
Figure 2 - Cumulative Social Lift
(Technology Vertical)
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Week 1 Week 1-2 Week -3 Week 1-4
150%
lift
102%
lift
79%
lift
64%
lift
74%
lift
Before Ad Exposure
After Ad Exposure
Log. (before ad exposure)
Log. (after ad exposure)
56%
lift
54%
Total
lift
94%
lift
Social Lift www.sharethis.com
Social Activites Before Ad Exposure
Social Activites After Ad ExposureSocial Activites Before Ad Exposure

3. SOCIAL LIFT AND CAMPAIGN OPTIMIZATION
Moreover, Social Lift can be broken out by URL and web domain to spot the
most effective content channels for ad delivery.
Brands can optimize their advertising efforts throughout the campaign by
monitoring Social Lift across the key variables in campaign delivery.
By Social Channel:
See which platforms drive the most conversation:
Facebook drove most of the conversation by volume
(Figure 4), but Twitter and Reddit are more effective at
broadening reach to the most influential audience.
By Creative Type:
Identify the most effective media types: While
standard flash and banner creatives may garner more
views, videos and rich content are more likely to generate
conversations about brands.
By Audience Segment:
Target the most influential users: Campaign targeting
can be honed based on sharing activity. Craft audience
segments or toggle targeting mix according to Social Lift.
Figure 5 - Social
Lift by Domain
Figure 6 - Social Lift by SQI
Score (Technology Vertical)
Figure 3 - Social Lift by
channel (Finance Vertical)
Figure 4 - Social Lift by Audience
Segment (Auto Vertical)
35%
lift
56%
lift
76%
lift
36%
lift
9%
lift
Facebook
Campaign Segment 1 Segment 2
Twitter Reddit StumbleUpon Linkedin
9.9%
lift
12.1%
lift
.5%
lift
The Social Quality Index (ShareThis’ proprietary
measurement of social quality on the web) has been
reliably proven to generate higher social engage-
ment when used to optimize media placement.
During our analysis of Social Lift, we tracked
metrics across all 2.4 million sites in the
ShareThis network, looking for the web
domains on which ad impressions
drove the highest increase in social
engagement from its users.
We found a positive correlation between Social Lift and
high SQI sites; sites with strong SQI scores (150 or above)
yielded 36% higher social lift than general. In other words,
ads delivered on highly social web pages generated
greater brand engagement online.
The Food
Network
The Post
Game
Screen
Rant
The Hollywood
Reporter
New York
Magazine
Sites with <150
SQI Scores
Sites with >=150
SQI Scores
before ad exposure
after ad exposure
56%
lift
124%
lift
89%
lift
32%
lift
76%
lift
76%
lift
69%
53%
1
1) “People are Talking About Lunch and Wendy’s is Listening” Adweek; December 2012. www.sharethis.comSocial Lift
1

4. Social Lift as a Campaign Planning Tool:
Track weekly trends in Social Lift throughout the campaign lifecycle to monitor social engagement in real time.
Break Social Lift out across all key variables of ad delivery to optimize media, channel, and targeting mix
according to social engagement.
Deliver ad impressions on the most social websites to drive the highest lift in social engagement.
By incorporating Social Lift analysis into campaigns, advertisers can more effectively amplify the conversation around
their brand by honing in on the strategies that yield the greatest lift in social engagement; those that reach
the most influential audiences with the most shared content on the most expressive social channels.
In the social web, campaign effectiveness is measured through engagement,
and engagement is measured with Social Lift.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BRANDS?
Social Lift reporting is
applied as a standard tool
in all ShareThis branding
campaigns.
Social Lift reports are
available at any point
during the campaign,
with minimal lead time.
As a measure of online
sharing across the web,
Social Lift leverages one of
the strongest indicators of
user attitudes.
Social Lift is applicable to
over 210 million users
across 120 social channels.
Social Lift www.sharethis.com
Social Lift provides brands with a robust tool to measure the effectiveness of
their ad campaigns in driving conversations across the web.
Ease of
Implementation
Timeliness of
Reporting & Tracking
Gauge of User
Attitude
Reach & Applicability
of Results
Interaction Rates
Social Platform
Metrics
Brand Studies Social Lift