The US Search Awards rolled back into Las Vegas on October 8th as marketers took a break from Pubcon to attend the awards ceremony in hopes that lady luck was on their side.
Now in its second year, the US Search Awards honor tech companies, agencies, and individuals in the search marketing industry for outstanding achievements across 20 categories.
Last year, I attended the awards along with my colleague Nate Luman where we were grateful to walk away with top honors for Best PPC Management Platform and Best Local Campaign. Nate returned this year to rep team Skai, and I am proud to report that we were announced the winner in the Best Use of Social Media in a Search Campaign category for the study conducted with our partner Experian as part of our Facebook Added Value series. (Thanks Nate for the #awardselfie)
The intersection of search + social has been a key topic that we’ve explored throughout the past year, and our Facebook Added Value series was developed to help marketers better understand the cross-channel dynamics between these two channels. In the first installment, we analyzed campaigns for a leading retailer to demonstrate how Facebook advertising has a direct, positive effect on paid search marketing performance.
The second study expanded on this research to provide more evidence of the impact of search + social and was conducted with a team of cutting-edge marketers from Experian, the leading global information services company. The team was eager to understand the influence their social advertising had on their search program and how their investment in social was paying off. Together, we discovered that not only does the cross-channel impact that social has on search increase as the investment ratio of Facebook to paid search spending rises, but that there is also a point of diminishing return.
It’s thanks to forward-thinking marketers such as those at Experian that we are able to provide research that can help the greater advertising community discover the value and impact of cross-channel coordination. We look forward to conducting future research that continues to explore the intersection of search + social and beyond.