Determining the elusive ROI of social media marketing is one of the burning issues in the business dialogue of the Web 2.0 reality, especially when social media brims with intangible benefits that cannot be directly linked to revenue.
So it should perhaps come as no surprise that European marketers struggle to identify the Key Performance Indicators that have the biggest impact on the bottom line.
Based on a pan-European survey about prevalent social media marketing practices it conducted in the spring of 2012, Neolane concludes that, while social ROI is a decisive target for the overwhelming majority of marketers (69%), measuring it remains a common challenge.
57% of European marketers gauge intangibles such as brand awareness, buzz and web traffic, yet only 34% evaluate social marketing performance on the basis of revenue indicators such as acquisition, qualification and sales rates.
While the social ROI aspect of the study findings may not be particularly unexpected, what is perhaps interesting is where marketers across Europe believe the biggest digital marketing opportunities lie.
Integrating social media into the global marketing strategy, personalising the user experience and testing rank highest on European marketers’ list of priorities.
Check out this infographic for a visual representation of the study results.
Via: Neolane
If you wish to learn more about social media and ROI, join Brightfire at Social Media Week, Glasgow for our in-demand event, Social ROI: Cracking the Code through Collaboration.
