Brands Finding Social Ads as Effective as Traditional Advertising

Social advertising is growing on nearly every platform — Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and more — but the biggest knock against paid social has been proving effectiveness. It appears the tide is changing. According to a recent study by IZEA, 52 percent of companies surveyed have a sponsored social budget and they find social ads to be in the top three most effective marketing investments they’ve made. Ted Murphy, chairman and CEO at IZEA, commented on the study in a press release: For the second year in a row, Marketers are seeing the value in leveraging Content Creators to reach their target audiences in authentic and original ways. We have created the Creator economy, a place where content has real power. Sponsored content has the ability to dramatically change the trajectory of conversations and sentiment for and about brands; we have the power to send products flying off of shelves. Interestingly enough, many consumers surveyed also said that social ads were as effective as TV ads. Just how prevalent are social ads? From the IZEA study: Over one in three adult online users age 18 to 70 have seen a Sponsored Social message in the past year. Overall, consumers estimate they see a total of 86 Sponsored Social messages per month across all platforms — or about three per day. Overall, about two in five consumers are seeing more Sponsored Social messages than one year ago, with highest penetration sites driving the greatest increase. Marketers are feeling a lot better about social ads than in the past. More than half (54 percent) of marketers surveyed feel more positive about paid social than they did a year ago. It definitely shows in the budgets of those polled — 25 percent had an annual budget greater than $500,000; 5 percent of brands surveyed said their social ad budget is greater than $5 million. Marketers also reward content creators, as they are willing to pay 2.1x premium for sponsored video and blog posts over other forms of social advertising. Sponsored social is a source of income for 9 of 10 creators, who say it accounts for 55 percent of their income. Readers: Have you noticed more ads on social channels in the past year?