Measuring the effectiveness metrics that matter

Facebook’s latest revelation of miscounted metrics is reported to have agencies in a spin. One top ad agency executive is reported to have said that it is freaking out people because “It’s hard to explain to clients”. But really you have to wonder if clients should be worrying about the minutiae of metrics about individual posts. Perhaps we all need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Facebook has proven its effectiveness as a marketing platform. Kantar Millward Brown’s CrossMedia studies typically find that Facebook’s reach and average impact per person on brand metrics like awareness and purchase intent is good. Facebook tends to have the reach advantage over online display and video advertising, but does not necessarily perform better on impact. However, a glance at the database of results from hundreds of studies conducted around the world still suggests that TV, outdoor and point of sale top the rankings in terms of reach, and TV outperforms Facebook in terms of impact on awareness. Facebook and TV have a similar per person impact on motivation.

Perhaps Coca-Cola Co.’s global Chief Marketing Officer Marcos de Quinto has seen similar data from market mix modeling because AdAge reports that he recently defended TV advertising as providing the best bang for the buck, and questioned the company’s past digital spending practices. The AdAge article seems to imply that de Quinto believes Coca-Cola’s previous digital investments were too fragmented to deliver significant return. Specifically he is reported to have focused his criticism on apps, noting that Coke runs an estimated 300 apps worldwide but that many of them had very low engagement.

His comments reminded me of this post I wrote back in 2011 which questioned the impact of Coca-Cola’s Facebook presence on its billions of users. Of course, since then the number of people liking Coke on Facebook has tripled, but that in itself does not imply Facebook is going to be an effective channel for Coca-Cola’s marketing. As de Quinto notes,

“Social media is the strategy for those who don’t have a true digital strategy.”

Media effectiveness is not just a matter of reach. To really be effective, a brand needs to first identify what overall strategy will motivate people to buy and then figure out how each channel will contribute toward that goal. One of the things that we see from our CrossMedia studies and elsewhere is that when you use multiple channels designed to complement each other, not simply build reach, good things happen.

What has your experience been of using digital and social? Do we get too hung up on the detail and lose sight of the overall strategy? Please share your thoughts.

by Nigel Hollis