A recent study released by
Marin Software offers some insight in how a cohesive cross-channel marketing technique can lead to increased conversions. In their research, they found that companies who use both search and social paid advertising in a cohesive effort have seen their conversions double, and with that comes doubled revenue per click rate, as well.
This is a particularly interesting development for industrial and B2B companies who have begun to expand beyond just updating websites or participating in search engine optimization programs. Combing marketing efforts across all digital media channels - in particular with this study, search and social - offer a clear increase in return on investment. With interest growing in the industrial sector in participating in social platforms, and companies increasing their marketing budgets in search, Marin's research makes a compelling case to tie all these efforts together with an experienced marketing organization like Ecreative to reap the entire benefits. Marin explains the interest many companies have in both of these marketing channels - search and social - as individual interests. Search offers marketers an ability to "pull" their users towards a conversion, while social have the ability to "push" a marketing message out to highly targeted audiences receptive to a brand conversation. The vast number of users found in both platforms as well (92% of global internet users are active in search engines, 73% of global users using social media) make them compelling locations for companies to spend targeted ad dollars. But most companies use these platforms independently, and become more concerned with results of the platform, rather than results of the customer. Data continues to show website visitors come from all kinds of souces on the internet; they start by visiting a website on a desktop because they found them in a search engine, then research a company on a mobile device, before following them through social media. At each stage of this process, a customer has different questions about a company. Those questions, particularly if they are concerned with eventually buying a product, may occur as follows:
- Who sells sardines?
- What is the price Company A sells sardines for?
- How trustworthy is Company A's sardines?
- Where can I buy Company A's sardines?
At each step of this line of questioning, a user may be researching a company through different platforms, search, social, or other. To be effective in your digital marketing dollars, then, companies need to understand their audience with data available to them, and craft a message answering appropriate questions through appropriate platforms as such.
That's where cross-platform marketing comes into play. When used together effectively, Marin notes notes the following:
- Customers who click on a search AND a social ad are more likely to buy. Marin noticed a two times greater conversion rate when there was interaction in these two platforms than when a user clicked on only one of the platform's ads.
- Customers who click on a search AND social ad spend more. Marin found that users who click on ads seen in both social and search contribute almost two times more revenue per click than customers who click on only one of the ads in either platform.
- Search campaigns perform better when they are managed alongside social campaigns. Marin also discovered search campaigns managed in conjunction with social campaigns had a 26% higher revenue per click than in a search campaign was managed independently.
In essence? Customers are more valuable when they engage with marketing across several channels, rather than in isolation. With this, companies see increased revenue when they join their marketing efforts across several platforms (here, specifically social and search), than if they managed advertising platforms in isolation. The benefits are obvious. We encourage you to review
Marin's full report from their website independently, and when finished,
contact Ecreative to help you get started on combining your marketing efforts for increased revenue.
