Search Ads Yield 68% More Revenue per Conversion When Integrated With Social

Does an integrated search and social advertising strategy yield superior results to when they're pursued as separate channels? This is a key question Marin Software set out to answer when it conducted research and published findings in a new white paper, "The Multiplier Effect of Integrating Search and Social Advertising."

What the research found was that customers who clicked on both search and social ads were about twice as likely to convert versus those who clicked on a search ad alone.

"The impact of a cross-channel touch was even greater when examining social clicks. Users who clicked on both the search and social ads had a click-through rate approximately four and a half times higher than users who only clicked on social ads," Marin stated in its paper.

According to Marin, customers also spent more when clicking on both search and social ads with two times more revenue per click.

"Multi-channel touch points are even more valuable for social advertising," Marin reported. "Users who clicked on both a search and social ad contributed four times more revenue per click than users who clicked on a social ad only."

And search campaigns that were managed alongside social ad campaigns had 26 percent more revenue per click than search campaigns managed alone. In addition, the integration of ad campaign management for the two channels yielded 68 percent higher revenue per conversion for search campaigns when managed with social advertising, Marin said.

"Successful marketing executives recognize that meeting overall business objectives requires focusing on the customer, not the channel," Marin said in its paper. "For example, a channel-focused approach is mainly concerned with the right keywords, the right targeting settings and the best bids. While a single-channel management focus can have some tactical advantages, it often ignores the strategic goals of the overall marketing effort: acquiring the right customer with the right buying intentions at the right time.

"Marketing is fundamentally about target audience, while the channel is the means of delivering a message to that audience. Successful marketers are beginning to shift focus away from the individual channel and instead use the strengths of each channel to reach their intended audience."

Marin said the results of the research are better understood when we put ourselves in the customer's shoes:

"As customers, we are generally more likely to buy a brand when we believe its message, trust the company and see value in the product. When these purchase criteria are positively reinforced through multiple channels, we are typically more comfortable buying from the brand."

In its white paper, Marin gave several detailed tips on how to manage an integrated advertising campaign online, including:

How to assess the organization's ability for cross-channel capabilities.How to target high-value audiences across search and social.How to measure performance and optimize across channels for audience lifetime value.

For access to the full white paper go here.