Social Ads More Effective, Say Nielsen and Facebook

Nielsen and Facebook have released the findings of a study which claims to show that ads placed on social media sites are more likely than others to be noticed and remembered, while also increasing users' intent to purchase.

The research was conducted using Nielsen BrandLift, which places opt-in polls on Facebook's homepage to measure consumer attitudes and purchase intent from display ads that have appeared on the site.

It was designed to help understand advertising not just in terms of 'paid' media, but also in terms of how 'earned' media (advertising that is passed along or shared among friends) and social advocacy contributed to campaigns.

Through the resulting 'Advertising Effectiveness: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression' report - based on six months of joint research and tapping 14 Nielsen BrandLift studies - the firms highlighted an increase in ad recall, brand awareness and purchase intent.

These 14 campaigns selected for the report are a subset of the studies conducted on more than 800,000 Facebook members, and over 125 Facebook campaigns from 70 different brand advertisers across a range of categories.

'Ads with social context can be powerful drivers of brand advocacy and ad effectiveness,' states Sean Bruich, who leads measurement research at Facebook. 'Nielsen has created a consistent framework to measure the effectiveness of ads and organically shared content on Facebook - we think this is powerful new data for marketers.'

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.facebook.com .