Agency Marketers Challenged to Tie Social Media Efforts to Company Objectives

Marketers are investing more in social media, but they’re finding it challenging to set goals for their initiatives and measure their progress along the way.

The “2017 State of Social Marketing” report from Simply Measured recently discovered that 61 percent of brand and agency marketers are struggling to determine the ROI of their social media initiatives.

Most agencies (57.8 percent) claim they are using engagement metrics in an attempt to gauge their success. About 24 percent are using conversion and revenue metrics, and 15.7 percent are using amplification and brand awareness metrics. These numbers are fairly consistent with those gathered from brands as well.

Most agency marketers are also still working to tie their social media efforts back to broader business objectives. This year, 65.7 percent will focus on aligning their social media strategies with their business objectives.

In order to do their best work, nearly half of agencies (49.5 percent) say they need analytics software. This is followed by more human resources (34.1 percent) and publishing software (11.4 percent).

Tying Social Media Marketing to Company Initiatives

Previous research suggests that marketers have been struggling to tie social media efforts back to business objectives and revenue for quite some time.

Earlier this year, the “2017 Marketing Leadership Survey” from TrackMaven discovered that in terms of proving marketing ROI, 71.1 percent struggle to attribute social and content to revenue. Most marketers (90.6 percent) are using engagement metrics, such as social media interactions, to measure their overall impact.

Overall, only 27.6 percent of marketers claim that they are “very effective” at demonstrating the value of their marketing efforts to their colleagues.