thehighcalling

social metric usage varies depending on whether a marketer is focused on selling to businesses or consumers, as well as whether the firm markets a product or a service.

B2C product firms are outpacing them in monitoring sales levels and revenues and profits per customer, suggesting consumer-oriented social marketers may have learned that lesson.

In the next year, marketers expect to nearly double social dollars from just under 6% of total marketing budgets to just under 10%. Within five years, spending will be up to 17.7%.

Among those with budgets over $1 million, while 85% said they used analytics, 71% said they had a formalized way of doing so.

Marketers focused most on internal resources to measure the success of their programs, with 86% using internal data, 74% relying on internal teams and 52% on internally developed tools.

Much of this effort is directed toward justifying marketing programs, but the marketers surveyed often lacked an effective way of communicating the success—or otherwise—of their campaigns to other executives. While three-quarters of marketers begin initiatives with clear goals set out, only 56% have a system for letting company executives know how the campaign fared.