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The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption
A study announced today by GroupM Search, comScore and M80, exploring the interplay of search marketing and social media, reveals the dramatic correlation influenced discovery of brands through social media has with search behavior, including more lower-funnel searches and increased paid search click-through-rates (CTR).
The study,“The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption,” explored the correlation between social media exposure and search behavior across different verticals, including automotive, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications.
Key findings include:
- Consumers exposed to a brand’s influenced social media and paid search are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products
- There was a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search
- There was a 42-point lift in searcher penetration around brand product terms when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search compared to paid alone
What the study tells us is bigger than correlation, making the topic at large, Discovery. We’ve learned how internet users discover and engage with brands in social media and how that discovery influences search behavior. The findings help us to better understand how the intent expressed by consumers via search is established through social media exposure and the interplay between the two channels.
Of note, it further validates our view that generating upper-funnel awareness and influencing consideration through influenced social media (social media leveraged by a brand advertiser) can produce better down-the-funnel performance with paid media, such as paid search. In our white paper, we expand on the findings and address the value of the synergy between paid, owned and earned media. Additionally, we address the state of media today, challenges advertisers face, and introduce the discussion of Media Delivery and Media Discovery and the new thinking we must consider in making maximizing engagement that drives lower-funnel activity.
As CEO of GroupM Search-The Americas Chris Copeland addresses in the whitepaper,:
“As advertisers come to recognize a need to create greater connections on a one to one level with consumers, they also must acknowledge a shift in their approach to advertising. If they agree with the assessment that media delivery in traditional forms has a limited impact given the threats identified above, then it is equally important to understand the new advertising mandate of media discovery.
Media discovery represents a shift in approach where allowing your brand to be central to the conversation but doing so in a manner that uses your brand, its products and the assets associated with both at the center. Media delivery has been about using buying clout to drive scale and push out paid media to broad swaths of consumers. Media discovery is about using the owned and earned media that a brand can produce to its advantage.”
He later concludes the implications for digital advertising at large:
“At this stage of digital advertising development, the goal has to be investing more intelligently to get people into your brand consideration and drive them through the process to a location well suited for paid media effectiveness, such as paid search.”
On Tuesday, October 6, GroupM Search, comScore and M80 will sharing the findings and implications of the research for the first time publicly. Check it out at SMX East at 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. in Room 1A03.
A study announced today by GroupM Search, comScore and M80, exploring the interplay of search marketing and social media, reveals the dramatic correlation influenced discovery of brands through social media has with search behavior, including more lower-funnel searches and increased paid search click-through-rates (CTR).
The study,“The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption,” explored the correlation between social media exposure and search behavior across different verticals, including automotive, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications.
Key findings include:
- Consumers exposed to a brand’s influenced social media and paid search are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products
- There was a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search
- There was a 42-point lift in searcher penetration around brand product terms when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search compared to paid alone
What the study tells us is bigger than correlation, making the topic at large, Discovery. We’ve learned how internet users discover and engage with brands in social media and how that discovery influences search behavior.
The findings help us to better understand how the intent expressed by consumers via search is established through social media exposure and the interplay between the two channels. Of note, it further validates our view that generating upper-funnel awareness and influencing consideration through influenced social media (social media leveraged by a brand advertiser) can produce better down-the-funnel performance with paid media, such as paid search.
In our white paper, we expand on the findings and address the value of the synergy between paid, owned and earned media. Additionally, we address the state of media today, challenges advertisers face, and introduce the discussion of Media Delivery and Media Discovery and the new thinking we must consider in making maximizing engagement that drives lower-funnel activity.
As CEO of GroupM Search-The Americas Chris Copeland addresses in the whitepaper,:
“As advertisers come to recognize a need to create greater connections on a one to one level with consumers, they also must acknowledge a shift in their approach to advertising. If they agree with the assessment that media delivery in traditional forms has a limited impact given the threats identified above, then it is equally important to understand the new advertising mandate of media discovery.
Media discovery represents a shift in approach where allowing your brand to be central to the conversation but doing so in a manner that uses your brand, its products and the assets associated with both at the center. Media delivery has been about using buying clout to drive scale and push out paid media to broad swaths of consumers. Media discovery is about using the owned and earned media that a brand can produce to its advantage.”
He later concludes the implications for digital advertising at large:
“At this stage of digital advertising development, the goal has to be investing more intelligently to get people into your brand consideration and drive them through the process to a location well suited for paid media effectiveness, such as paid search.”
This is great insight and another proof that social media does influence search behavior. Invest and you will get repaid…
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Thanks, Andreas, it’s something many of us in the industry have suspected and now there’s proof that verifies it. I was most surprised to learn that exposure to a social media program by a brand had such a significant correlation to increased search activity around that brand. I definitely expected some but not at the scale the study revealed. Thanks for reading.
What is potentially misleading, by being left unsaid, is that brands cannot \”push\” what they want to say in the social space. The \”exposure\” to brands comes from people saying good (and bad) things about them. Brands may (politely) ask for feedback or stimulate discussions but they will have no influence over what is being said. It will not be the brand message carefully manicured by the advertiser and its agency, but rather the messy, raw, misspelled, random, but genuinely authentic musings of real people.
Because of this study, many brands will shift budget and charge headlong into social marketing, doing exactly the \”push\” tactics they used to do — which is exactly the wrong thing to do. Observe the vast wasteland of one-way brand fanpages on Facebook and brand twitter pages that are beautifully designed but have no tweets for months.
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Augustine, you raise a good point and a topic that’s great for discussion. I don’t feel the findings or research are misleading, as it measured consumer behavior broken down into six very specific segments to measure the exact correlation over a period of time. To your point, though, social is just that – a natural setting for natural conversation. That’s one of the raw, awesome things about social. That said, there definitely are ways brands can leverage social media, including strategic leveraging of their assets or generating brand-owned social programs and forums.
The study revealed this audience is very engaged and while they are not the only segment of audience to focus on, is an audience that should not be overlooked.
I think the study is an en entry point and first step into the topic and exploration of the interplay between social media and search marketing. As the study showed that social media exposure is correlated with search activity, especially down the funnel where consumers are more likely to click, what we suggest is brands explore their presence in both channels and the opportunity to engage consumers through social and capture their intentions through search.
Your comment was great – thanks for sharing your thought and hope you’ll do more of it on SearchFuel.
@Augustine Fou- I think you bring up a really good point about social media, but i don’t think it’s one that is recommended or supported by the study. What I have found this research points towards is where social media can best fit into the new decision making patterns of consumers and the media blend that brands and agencies bring together.
Blogs and other social media destinations exist as a meritocracy, where the value determines whether that earned media can ever gain a single placement. ‘Pushing’ a bad piece content that consumers don’t want is not advised and won’t be successful.
During the SMX East Panel discussion I did my best to support what you are recommending which focused on two-way communication. This methodology that involves brands listening and monitoring first; understanding what consumers want; and then filling those gaps with brand content, or brand participation (if needed.) When a brand is listening properly and communicating with the right influencers and consumers, their content satisfies a need and is ‘pulled’ into a social vacuum, not ‘pushed’ in front of people blindly. Brands then need to stick around, gain feedback and talk to those who can best give insight on their products, policies and ways of doing business. The right content stimulates that discussion and makes all the rest of that possible. And we know that lasting relationships (in social media and otherwise) are best formed when we give before we ever think about receiving.
Thanks again for the comment and getting my brain working on a Friday.
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Very interesting study, but I have been unable to find the baseline number. Does anyone know the number of people on which this study is based?
Thanks!
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