When social met sales

Social media is proving a lucrative landscape for advertisers. Victoria Clarke explores some of the latest ad tools for marketers, and where and how brands should be spending their budgets

Social ad spending will grow to $11 billion by 2017. This bold stat from research firm BIA Kelsey features on Salesforce’s recent infographic – released to help promote the CRM giant’s latest suite of tools: ‘Social.com’.  Social.com enables businesses to create, optimise and automate social ad campaigns from a single platform, connecting social ads to customers and social listening data in real-time.

Paul Smith, VP EMEA for Salesforce Marketing Cloud, comments: “Pairing real-time customer and social listening data with social ads through tools such as Social.com is swiftly becoming a logical and essential extension of a company’s social media marketing strategy. It allows organisations to reach the next coveted milestone; connected ad campaigns.”ocial ad spending will grow to $11 billion by 2017. This bold stat from research firm BIA Kelsey features on Salesforce’s recent infographic – released to help promote the CRM giant’s latest suite of tools: ‘Social.com’.  Social.com enables businesses to create, optimise and automate social ad campaigns from a single platform, connecting social ads to customers and social listening data in real-time.

He adds: “It’s a major shift in how companies operate their campaigns, so it will be a challenging transition if they don’t have systems, processes and people who are used to working in a fast and flexible way.”

Salesforce is just one of a string of B2B brands recognising how social media has led to a paradigm shift in advertising and how the social ad space is growing at a significant rate. According to the IAB’s digital advertising spending figures for 2012, social media advertising increased by 24 per cent year-on-year to £382 million. The organisation says: “This continues a strong growth trajectory for social media ad spend over the past few years and this shows no signs of slowing down.”

While social media advertising is nothing new – at least in terms of businesses being able to brand real estate on the major social media platforms – a host of recent tools from the likes of Salesforce, Twitter and Facebook, are indicative of the way it is becoming much more sophisticated.

So what are some of the latest opportunities for B2B brands looking to exploit social media advertising? Does it offer value for money? And how can brands ensure a balance between conversational and commercial messages?

Participatory advertising

Advertising is one of the oldest methods brands have employed to get their message across to prospects and customers. Where social media advertising differs, in particular, is the fact that unlike early examples of advertising – even in the digital sense –  social media advertising involves two-way participation. Its value, therefore, is not only determined by its level of distribution but also how much interaction it generates among the target audience. Two further advantages of social media advertising are its enormous reach and the fact it leverages real-time, both of which place it in a different ball game than other advertising methods, and marketers would be wise to remember this.

“Social ads shouldn’t be treated as display advertising”, says Nick Davies, senior strategic planner at Mason Zimbler. “They are a means of generating the critical mass of reach required for your content to have the right eyes on it.”

Amanda Phillips, MD and head of strategy at Volume, meanwhile, emphasises how social media advertising has far more potential for effective targeting than traditional methods. She says: “In terms of ROI, social media advertising analytics offer an opportunity to split test, analyse and potentially amend campaigns in real-time.

“This clarity of results and effective implementation mean not only more effective campaigns but also complete visibility of success compared to more traditional mediums (i.e. print advertising).”

Tools of the trade

The major social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) are continuously developing new advertising solutions to entice more brands to spend money with them. There are simply too many options to explore in this feature, but here’s a quick look at some of the latest tools on offer. The thing to remember with any of these advertising tools, however, is that an integrated approach is crucial, as well as continued analysis to ensure you are getting maximum bang for your buck.

Twitter: Promoted tweets launched in 2010 as part of Twitter’s advertising programme and were quickly exploited by those brands wishing to reach a wider group of users or generate engagement from existing followers. Although adoption has been greater in the B2C arena, plenty of B2B organisations are leveraging them. This is unsurprising given Twitter was cited as being the most popular social media platform by 85 per cent of respondents in B2B Marketing’s Social Media Benchmarking Report in 2013. That said, Mark Pinsent, social and content lead at Metia, suggests investing all your efforts in promoted tweets may not prove the most effective use of your social media budget. He warns: “Unless your story is relevant to a very broad audience, the cost is difficult to justify. Realistically, it is hard to target tweets by anything other than geography right now.”

More recently, the launch of Twitter’s Lead Generation Cards may increase the appeal of advertising on the platform. The cards allow advertisers to upload an image of an offer and users to click on the image and to be instantly signed up. This latest offering by the micro blogging site is being touted by some as a game changer in terms of advertising revenue opportunities, particularly as it addresses CRM integration and lead generation through mobile devices. It’s worth mentioning here that growing mobile usage is one of the key reasons behind the rise of social advertising. The IAB reports mobile spend has now exceeded the half billion mark accounting for 10 per cent of digital ad spend.

In order for B2B brands to make full use of Twitter’s Lead Gen Cards once the tool is fully rolled out, Nick Davies, senior strategic planner at Mason Zimbler, offers this advice: “Twitter cards allow for multiplatform engagement. The trick is tracking interactions between email and social, and ensuring lead progression is monitored and managed.

“Know where to place this lead in your sales funnels. As with the difference between inbound and outbound leads, this sits in the shade of grey [as it is] paid for, but generated through engagement rather than a data purchase. Ensure the lead is treated appropriately when introduced to your CRM approach, integrating with the ad message and making sure it sits accordingly to make sense of where [followers] will be coming into your sales cycle.”

Rupert Staines, the UK’s MD at RadiumOne, suggests how else advertising on Twitter is likely to evolve. He predicts: “Intelligently using hashtags as a form of targeting is set to become more prevalent, as advertisers will be able to instantly connect with a customer that shows real-time interest in their brand. Using hashtag targeting will provide businesses with a competitive edge, enabling them
to exploit and monetise their earned media, making their paid media smarter and more effective.”

LinkedIn: While Twitter may currently be the preferred social network for B2B marketers according to B2B Marketing’s Social Media Benchmarking Report, the same report predicts LinkedIn usage to overtake that of the micro blogging site in the next year. 

With this in mind, Pinsent suggests using targeted LinkedIn advertising to “drive people to an owned online property or through negotiation with an established online user group to host a discussion on a paid-for basis.”

Leveraging sponsored InMail messages for commercial purposes is a less obvious method of advertising but one that can offer B2B brands much success when used wisely. The usual rules of email etiquette apply, however, meaning marketers must avoid a spammy tone and offer recipients real value.

Josh Graff, director of marketing solutions for LinkedIn EMEA, reminds B2B marketers of other commercial opportunities on the platform but emphasises these are best exploited through a joined-up approach. He says: “LinkedIn offers immensely powerful targeting capabilities and enables you to reach the most relevant decision makers on our 225 million-strong member network through sponsored updates, display ads, Sponsored InMails, Groups and more. But these formats are at their most powerful when combined with a vibrant presence for
your company on the platform – and a stream of relevant, insightful content that gives you a thought-leading position in
your industry.”

Facebook: While it may not be the number one social media platform in the B2B arena, Facebook offers B2B organisations various ad options. And with stats suggesting nearly a billion people on the planet access the social network, it would seem foolhardy to dismiss this lucrative pool of prospects and customers. Facebook’s latest offering ‘Promoted Page Likes’ is designed to help page owners gain new fans by targeting them in a specific location. The ads can 

run on both mobile and desktop news feeds and will particularly appeal to SMEs who are better able to leverage localised advertising.

Jon Myers, MD at Marin Software, offers B2B brands the following advice when it comes to tapping in to Facebook’s advertising options:

“Facebook ads have to be engaging enough to interrupt people during social activity when they’re unlikely to be thinking about work. Instead of Facebook ads clicking through to a business homepage, take users to your Facebook page, they’ll ‘like’ you and you can then re-market to them over time with key messages and offers.”

He adds: “The ROI of Facebook ads can’t be judged in isolation. Business purchases influenced by Facebook are more likely to be part of a multi-click purchase. So use a tool that allows you to track the success of Facebook clicks as part of a path-to-conversion across multiple channels.”

Felicity McCarthy, EMEA SMB marketing manager at Facebook, encourages B2B brands to think carefully about the content of their ads in order to better resonate with their target audience. While talking about Facebook, she reiterates the fundamental rules of any social media advertising: “B2B brands will get the most out of their spend on Facebook by focusing on reaching the right audience. Think about the businesses you want to get in front of but also who the decision makers are within those businesses.

“You can then target Facebook advertising to this specific group of people to help them find you and build a quality group of followers who you can share relevant and timely content with. That might be an insightful industry report, tips or advice from one of your own experts, stories of success from other customers or news – anything you feel will add value. But remember, the more exclusive you can make your content the better because people are more likely to build a business relationship with you if they see value in what you’re sharing.”

Vertical specific platforms: While we’ve focused on the main social networks, B2B brands should not forget the merits of advertising on vertical specific platforms. In theory these sites offer far greater targeting opportunities. While they may not boast the user numbers of the social network giants, platforms such as Spiceworks (IT), Wave (finance), Practice Fusion and Doctors.net (healthcare) and TES Connect (education) can often boast higher levels of user engagement as Jay Hallberg, VP of marketing at Spiceworks, highlights.

“The average user on Spiceworks spends two hours and 46 minutes per month on the site. The average LinkedIn user spends 18 minutes per month on LinkedIn. This difference is what’s driving advertisers to vertical networks such as Spiceworks.

“We’ve seen strong revenue growth across our advertising and email marketing businesses, and we believe other vertical social networks would also report the same trend.

“Unlike more generic social or professional networks, vertical profession-based networks are able to cut through the clutter and connect marketers and their audiences in meaningful ways.”

Money matters

With so many social advertising options available, it’s understandably challenging for B2B marketers to know where and how to spend their budgets. For example, should brands be putting equal weight on having a free and paid-for presence on social media, or should one take precedence over the other? This is a particularly poignant issue as many board members and C-suite decision makers are still reluctant to spend money on social activity.

Pinsent suggests: “The perfect weighting of a free and paid-for presence on social media will differ from brand to brand. The ideal scenario would indeed be a well-resourced presence in social channels, but I’d sooner see brands doing smart, targeted paid-for marketing in social – driving people to established online properties – than doing the half-baked efforts that so many seem to.”

Davies focuses on the wider picture when he reflects: “The other consideration is how a paid media placement can lead to multiple earned media placements, providing the content and ad are positioned in a manner that leaves space for user interaction, provides unique knowledge, and has a compelling call-to-action that compels the customer to share.”

Whether it’s free or paid-for advertising, the real question is, can social advertising offer B2B brands value for money? The answer from our experts is a resounding yes, which is great news for marketers looking to increase their return on social media marketing investment. Staines, however, offers this cautionary piece of advice to help ensure your social media budget is spent wisely: “Across any other type of media, brands will traditionally spread resources across both above and below-the-line advertising with a view to boosting customer sentiment and conversions. It’s important to recognise
that customers will access many different social media channels and it’s how you combine efforts across these channels to influence sentiment and therefore conversions that should be the focus for business marketers.”

Commercial vs conversational

A recurring theme among the experts in this feature is that advertising on social networks needs to have the concept of ‘social’ firmly front of mind. The social space is not somewhere people necessarily want sales messages thrust in front of them – no matter how enticing the offer. While this may seem obvious, social ad fatigue is already growing and many of us are becoming increasingly frustrated with 

misplaced ads. The rise of content marketing is helping to address this issue as brands look for more subtle ways of hooking prospects and customers into the sales cycle. While some may argue the social space is no place for a promotional message, most agree it is possible to strike a balance between the conversational and the commercial.

Pinsent concludes: “If the audience can see that paid-for activity and owned activity are aligned in terms of their content, messaging and tone, there should be no negative impact. What we’re starting to see growing is ‘native’ advertising: the greater use of rich, authentic content in paid-for advertising.”

Want to know more? Find out how social media advetising will evolve beyond 2013 here>>

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