A report by JupiterResearch suggested that 33 percent of European online advertisers plan to launch their own profiles on social networking sites over the following year. However, just 24 percent of advertisers using such “engagement” tactics measure whether users interact with their online ads.
“As marketers increasingly try to reach consumers through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, as well as video sites like YouTube and DailyMotion, they should turn to their online ad agencies for help gauging the success of these efforts,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. “In turn, agencies and ad servers must develop benchmarks and proxies to discover and prove the relationship between technology-based measurements and traditional brand impact surveys.”
The report finds that more than one-half of European online advertisers used tactics intended to increase user interaction, or “engagement,” in the last year. Nearly two-thirds of online advertisers will use engagement tactics in the next year. Although viral marketing campaigns will remain the most popular form of engagement marketing, advertisers’ use of tactics that engage users more deeply – such as profiles on social networking sites, and ads that encourage users to contribute photos and videos to advertisers’ Web sites – will grow relatively more quickly.
