Premium display advertising and social marketing require considerable time and money, so it’s fair for companies to question their effectiveness.
Do they actually drive product sales, media subscriptions and memberships?
New research finds a direct correlation between visual and emotional resonance and higher revenue per order.
In fact, although social is hardly the highest-traffic channel — nor the leading driver of sales volume — its presence in the so-called “purchase path” drives higher-value orders (in terms of revenue per order) than natural and paid search combined.
That’s according to new research from advertising analytics and attribution platform ClearSaleing.
“Everyone believes that it’s the site-side activity that’s important for conversion quality,” said Randy Smith, CEO of ClearSaleing. “Media with higher visual quality and with [more] trusted content] is pretty significant.”
Indeed, the presence of social media in a purchase path drives higher-value orders, in terms of revenue per order ($280), than natural search and paid search combined ($230.07). When display was included in a conversion path, the average revenue per order increased to more than $206 — almost 65% more revenue than the overall average order size of $135.37, according to Smith.
Although social media is still in its early stages, it is proving to be a core channel for driving intent, Smith added.
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Rising Mobile Content Boon To Marketers
With the spread of smartphones, more people are embracing a range of mobile content and services. A new Forrester report urges marketers to keep up with consumers and to spend more time in mobile to build brand awareness and interaction on handheld devices.
The research firm estimates that roughly four in 10 U.S. adults now have a smartphone, setting the stage for the upswing in mobile media consumption. The share of people downloading an app, for instance, increased to 15% from 7% between 2010 and 2011. The proportion of those researching products has doubled to 10%, while that for actual mobile purchases has doubled to 4%.
Among other activities, 41% are receiving text messages, up from 34% a year ago, and 23% are checking the news/sports/weather on their phones compared to 14% last year. The Forrester survey conducted in the third quarter of 2011 involved more than 8,000 U.S. adults who owned both feature phones and smartphones.
The report recognizes that most companies are still at an early stage of mobile marketing — mostly testing and repurposing existing creative for mobile campaigns. To help brands see where they stand, Forrester outlines five phases of mobile marketing evolution: foundation, experimentation, device strategy, channel strategy, and comprehensive strategy.
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