91.9% of agencies say they’re tapping social media for their clients’ campaigns, finds the latest quarterly survey from STRATA covering Q3 2012. That’s up from 88.7% in Q3 2011 and 86.4% in Q3 2010. The survey finds that emerging platforms such as Pinterest and Google+ are gaining traction, although Facebook, predictably, remains most commonly used.
As the leading option, Facebook is used by 82.4% of advertisers, with YouTube coming in second, at about half that rate (42%). Pinterest trails, used by 23% in Q3, although that represents an impressive 48% increase from just a quarter earlier.
Digital Continues to Get More Attention
As results from the STRATA survey attest, a general shift in marketing and advertising industry focus towards all things digital continues. 84% of survey respondents said that their customers’ focus on internet/digital had risen from the previous year, the 16th straight quarter of growing interest.
As a result, 26% of agencies now expect to spend more on digital than traditional in the next 1-3 years. That’s an increase of 29% since Q3 2011. The shift in spending from traditional to digital has been found in numerous recent studies, and continues despite research showing consumers and marketers both perceive traditional media to be best for advertising.
Other Findings:
- Between Q1 and Q3, STRATA has observed a 40% increase in advertisers’ focus on online video, which is consistent with findings from FreeWheel of growing advertiser demand for digital video.
- Determining ROI continues to plague advertisers, and this ranks as their leading challenge, cited by 49%. Merging traditional and digital is their second-biggest challenge, indicated by 39%.
- While social media use is almost ubiquitous in client campaigns, agencies aren’t using social for advertising at such a great rate. The most common choice for digital advertising is online display (84%), followed by search (78%), which has seen rapid growth over the past quarter. Social media comes in at third (57%), ahead of mobile (45%).
Original Article: Ad Agencies Now Almost Universally Using Social Media for Client Campaigns.
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