46% of Marketers Have Had the Most Demand Gen Success with Social Media

Social media has become an intricate part of marketers’ overall strategies. Now, new research suggests that it has also evolved into a critical channel to help them throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shaped By recently published its “Perspective 2021” report, and statistics showed that over the last 12 months, enterprise marketers have had the most demand generation success with social media (46%) above all other channels. This surpassed SEO (41%), as well as account-based marketing (37%).

In the U.S., in particular, social media (32%) has also been the top channel for demand generation over the last 12 months. This is compared to online ads (31%), press ads (29%) and account-based marketing (27%).

Leveraging Social Media Marketing Data

Despite their consistent use of social media channels, previous research indicates that marketers are continuing to undervalue the data they receive from platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook.

Sprout Social conducted its “Sprout Social Index XVII: Accelerate” report, and data showed that 47% of marketers claim that social data is viewed as a resource that influences strategy for multiple teams. That being said, 46% say that their organization only views social media marketing data as strictly a marketing resource.

As of late, marketers have been leveraging social data to achieve their top objectives. Most of them (55%) are utilizing it to understand their target audience. About 48% are using it to develop creative content.