U.S. companies spent a combined $5.1 billion on social media advertising last year. According to new research, it appears most of the money was wasted.
Gallup research found that two-thirds of U.S. consumers say that social media has no influence on their buying decisions. The conclusion of the authors:
“Social media are not the powerful and persuasive marketing force many companies hoped they would be.”
That’s an understatement. Only 5% of those polled felt that social media has a great deal of influence on their purchasing decisions.
In another study Nielsen (paywall) found that global consumers trusted ads on radio in addition to television, print, and billboards more than social media ads.
Radio Insights recently pointed out that fraud is rampant in the video ad business with more than half of online video ads never seen, and that an equal percentage of banner impressions served on advertising networks and exchanges are never seen.
Now it turns out that social media is ineffective.
It makes one wonder how many products and services are losing out because they are pulling dollars from radio and other traditional media so they can buy online video ads, banners, and a Facebook presence.
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