Social Advertising Metrics at Social Ad Summit

Sean Ammirati, mSpoke/RWW (moderator)
Albert Lai, kontagent
Jody McDermott, Clearspring
Ian Swanson, Sometrics
Cam Balzer, DoubleClick Performics

DoubleClick: Looking for measurable return, such as via hypertargeting on Facebook. If it works for 10,000 people in Chicago, scale it further.

Sometrics: Sequencing of ads important. Need not just hypertargeting but more of an ROI model that drives interaction.

Moderator: Frequency issues.

Sometrics: With Facebook apps, now monthly active users/uniques rather than daily. Much more sense for advertisers. Important to talk about user and not the content.

Clearspring: Standards are important. Many metrics won’t be measured by IAB. Web Analytics Association aims to fill void. Would love to see more involvement from vendors here, more transparency about what’s really being measured.

DoubleClick: From advertiser point of view, standards would be helpful for engagement. How do you
grade engagement?

Clearspring: Can you measure engagement when looking at different media?

(Audience Question)

Sometrics: If I saw an ad and commented, how many people saw my comment and viewed the video? This can now be measured along with other forms of peer influence.

Kontagent: The News Feed is the hardest part to get at.

Audience: What about mobile?

Kontagent: More promise ahead with new Facebook iPhone app, more happening there.

Sometrics: Are we looking at the network, Facebook, or users? Users transcend Facebook. (ed: Funny, I just tweeted, "trying to determine if this is the social ad summit or the facebook ad summit").

Moderator: Closing remarks?

Kontagent: For measuring success or iterating against A/B testing, success often comes from lots of trial and error.

Clearspring: Measuring effectiveness with social media is hard. When you look at vendors’ analytics packages, understand what’s important for you. Not every solution for distribution will work for everyting. Put content out where it’s contextually relevant for your audience. Try other things, like for widgets, ad serving it. Optimize content like you would for anything else. Find what works. (Ed: So close to channeling Tim Gunn there. I’d love to see him on this panel. And then Michael Kors say something like "You sound like a bulemic at the metrics buffet!") (No, I don’t know what that last thing means, but Kors doesn’t always make sense either).

Sometrics: (I missed this while making snarky comments about Project Runway)

DoubleClick: Contact me.