We always suggest to our clients that their paid media plan should consist of multi-media channels and multi-media platforms so that they have presence across the board and are available where the consumers are on the platforms that have the highest level of traffic/audience.
As a practical example: it could be that an individual sees brand X ads on Instagram while waiting for their train. The train arrives, they become distracted, and the Instagram app gets closed. Next time they are back online with the app, they try to remember the name of the brand seen earlier and use Google search engine to get help and locate the brand.
In this scenario, if brand X doesn’t run a PPC/Paid Search campaign but its competitors do, a competitor could easily capture the individual’s demand, whilst brand X (the one first seen by the customer could easily miss on that sale.) This is why we always recommend to those clients of ours who only run Paid Social ads to add PPC to their paid media plan.
The recent stats released from eMarketer in the US show that YoY product searches that started on Amazon and Google, as the top two products search engines in the West, are tracking down. Whilst the same trend is also evident for Facebook, in contrast YouTube, Instagram and TikTok have seen an increase in product searches that started on their platforms, with TikTok leading the way. For me the Walmart YoY rise from 31% to 37% is also interesting, creating more advertising opportunities for brands to negotiate directly with hypermarkets and supermarkets.
Another interesting topic mentioned in the eMarketer report is the impact that influencers can have on brand awareness and their sales increase on each age group globally. The Total lines show that not everyone is impacted by influencers, but the age breakdown of those who are shows a high percentage of people aged between 18 and 40 not only learned about but also went on to purchase a new product or brand via a social media influencer.
It’s worth noting that the brands we work with for their digital advertising don’t rely solely on this marketing method to generate sales, in particular those that have a good social media presence choose the right influencers to promote their products across various social media platforms.