Leveraging Social Networking Channels – the Medium remains the most difficult to monitor.

Sapient revealed the results of its annual Interactive Marketing Survey. This survey is designed to understand how marketers are implementing and tracking campaigns, the challenges they face and how they plan to allocate marketing spend across channels in 2008. The national survey is based on 120 senior level respondents, all of whom are either directly or indirectly responsible for managing digital marketing budget allocation across multiple channels.

The Interactive Marketing Survey revealed that marketers lack the tools necessary to optimize their marketing efforts across the full spectrum of digital channels. Specifically, more than half the respondents felt only ‘somewhat confident’ or ‘not confident at all’ in their organization’s abilities to track campaigns across multiple channels in real-time, with only 19 percent reporting the ability to make campaign changes in less than 24 hours.

While social networking was cited the least “trackable” digital channel, according to the survey, it was the channel with the largest anticipated increase in marketing analytics spend for 2008. Only 12 percent of respondents tracked social networking campaign performance in 2007; in 2008, 42 percent anticipate using analytics to track this increasingly important channel.

Other findings of the Interactive Marketing Survey include:

Marketers Confident in Tracking Search and Email Campaigns

Email (32%) and Search (30%) were cited as the two channels that marketers were most confident in their ability to track

Cross-Channel Measurement is a Major Concern

1. Nearly half the respondents said they do not believe campaign data provided to them evenly measures and compares performance across all digital channels
2. Difficulty in comparing metrics across channels is the most common hurdle to accuracy in this area, cited by 28 percent of respondents

Shifting Spend in 24 Hours – Not an Easy Task

1. Only 19 percent of respondents said they could make changes in campaign spend in less than 24 hours: the rest would need a couple of days or more. In the fast-paced social networking world, this inability to move quickly could become a big issue for marketing organizations, if not properly addressed

Recent Acquisitions Cause Concern

1. Marketers are concerned about the wave of acquisitions involving Microsoft, aQuantive, Google, Double Click and others. 41 percent of survey respondents fear being lost in the shuffle with thousands of other clients as a result of consolidation in the online advertising industry

“While marketers have developed an aptitude for tracking more traditional online channels, the emergence of social networking further complicates the interactive landscape,” said Sapient Chief Creative Officer Gaston Legorburu. “In 2008, marketers will seek the ability to seamlessly incorporate this medium with their other channels, including search and email, and the capability to monitor and measure performance to ensure they are achieving optimum results.”

Legorburu also noted that the most forward-thinking marketers are already investing in new marketing analytics tools that allow them to analyze, measure and ultimately improve all elements of their multi-channel marketing campaigns quickly and seamlessly.

“In 2008, analytics will become the new black – the absolute, must-have essential for all marketing teams,” said Legorburu. “Without an effective analytics tool that can measure and fine-tune all online marketing campaign channels, marketers will be left in the dark wondering if they actually reached potential buyers in the dynamic social networking world.”

For more information at http://www.sapient.com