Digital display drives more brand conversations than paid social

Digital display ads contribute significantly more than Facebook to both offline and online volume of conversations for marketers, new research says. 

Key findings

A study commissioned by media holding company G/O Media, whose brands include The Onion and Gizmodo, and conducted by Engagement Labs, looked at ten leading brands (five each in the tech and beverage categories) and analysed the impact of paid social vs. digital display advertising to ascertain which has the greater ability to drive people to share online and talk offline.

• The contribution from digital advertising to the average tech brand’s offline conversations is 15.8% vs 3.3% for paid social on Facebook. 
• Online, the average tech brand has an 8.3% contribution from digital and 1.9% from paid social. 
• In the beverage category, the average brand has a 9.6% contribution from digital advertising on offline conversation vs 2.4% from paid social. 
• Online, the average beverage brand has an 8.3% contribution from digital and 1.7% from paid social.
• Digital ads have a higher estimated ROI than paid social for both offline and online – and this was true for both categories.

Why it matters

Platforms such as Facebook offer huge scale but not necessarily user attention. It’s the combination of attention and contextual relevance that is the strongest driver of ad effectiveness and that is what publishers offer marketers.

Key quote

“Knowing where to invest to drive social influence can make a big difference and a much-needed competitive edge for brands to prosper in a marketplace that is increasingly driven by consumer conversation and recommendations” – David Spiegel, chief revenue officer of G/O Media. 

Sourced from G/O Media