Digital marketers are always seeking the most efficient way to allocate their advertising budgets across multiple channels and constantly adjusting those allocations based on performance and effectiveness. Nowhere is this more evident than in search and social, which currently account for more than half of digital ad budgets per eMarketer.
In Skai’s most recent webinar, The Intersection of Search and Social, participants weighed in to tell us how much of their digital marketing spend was allocated to search and social. 58% of participants allocated 36% or more of their digital budget to search and social with 23% allocating more than 66%.
Marketers are making this considerable investment because these two channels have proven to generate positive return on investment, and when run together, can create powerful results. In fact, Skai conducted a study measuring the influence Facebook advertising had on paid search metrics for a leading retailer and found that paid search segments that were exposed to Facebook advertising generated 30% more Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) fueled by higher average order value (AOV), better click-through rate (CTR), and lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA).
While integrating digital marketing efforts can obviously provide clear benefits, marketers are faced with many challenges that can make cross-channel integration difficult. As shown in the pie chart below, webinar participants expressed that cross-channel expertise was the biggest challenge facing the integration of their digital marketing efforts, followed by organizational structure.
These barriers might make cross-channel integration more challenging, but overcoming these challenges pays dividends. Each organization must take a slightly different approach to integration based on specific needs, but a few things every organization can do to ease the process include:
- Rally internal stakeholders to find champions and set goals
- Prove the concept through short term wins and by solving pain point
- Seek tech solutions to help automate and add intelligence and place more value on cross-channel integrations
Consumers are spending more and more of their time online on social networks and search engines, and view these channels as trustworthy sources. Increased engagement and trust in these two channels will lead consumers to interact with, remember, and make purchases with your brand or organization.
To learn more about capturing the synergy between paid search and social advertising, view the webinar slides and download the accompanying guide, The Skai Guide to Search and Social Intersections.
Be sure to also check Kenshoo.com/Intersections regularly, as we are constantly adding new resources to help you take your search and social programs to the next level!