How to Measure Social ROI

Social media is evolving at an incredible pace, and - let’s face it - many marketers are still finding it difficult to measure what matters. What should we be paying attention to after we post, promote, tweet and pin? How should we do it?

As our Google colleague and digital marketing evangelist Avinash Kaushik says, you’ve got to be able to answer the big “so what” of social:

“Did you grab attention? Did you cause people to take an action? Did your participation deliver economic value?...Social media participation, done right, adds value to the company's bottom-line. Some of its benefit can’t be computed. That is okay. But some of it can be and it is your duty to quantify that.”

Earlier this summer we announced that Wildfire products would be integrated with DoubleClick Digital Marketing. Today we’re happy to share that two Wildfire integrations are available with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. These integrations are part of our vision for helping you better measure how social works alongside all your other digital channels, and how social can drive real business results. 

1. Measure your ROI from social with Google Analytics

If you use Google Analytics (GA) to measure activity on your websites, our new GA integration will allow you to zero in on the bottom of the marketing funnel – i.e. what happens when someone hits your website after clicking on a social link.



For the first time, you can understand which social posts and pages are driving website conversions without huge amounts of manual time and labor.



When you direct someone to your website from a social post on Google+, Facebook or Twitter, or from a social landing page, Wildfire will automatically add tracking links and allow you to view all conversion metrics in Google Analytics.



For example, in a GA Campaigns Report, you’ll be able to see a breakdown of metrics - time on site, revenue, clicks, etc. - for each social page and post. This level of integration is unique to Wildfire.



2. See how your customers interact with social on the path to conversion with Google Tag Manager

Social used to be a black box. If your customer saw one of your social landing pages at some point, it likely wouldn’t be credited as part of the customer’s path to purchase. Until now! Wildfire’s new integration with Google Tag Manager (GTM) gives you a full picture of how social fits into your customer’s journey without the expense and hassle of manual tracking and tagging.



Google Tag Manager is a free product that allows you (and your agency and website team) to easily tag content across any of your domains and websites. We’ve integrated with GTM so that in one step, you can automatically add GTM code to all your Wildfire campaign landing pages--sign up, sweeps and coupon forms. You can also tag ads related to those specific campaigns, allowing you a full view of how customers move from ads to social landing pages to your website. 



This works for both Google and non-Google tags and will give you tremendous insights in one place:

• First, it can help you spend your ad dollars more wisely: If you send users from a digital or social ad to a Wildfire-built landing page, you can easily track which ads were most effective in driving the most social conversions, such as coupon downloads, sign-ups and sweepstakes entries.


• Second, you can view the full customer journey: For example, you can see if customers who started in social vs. display generated more revenue, or if social ads directing customers to a landing page were more effective in driving conversions than mobile ads sending customers straight to your website. The possibilities are almost endless.


• Third, you can compare the effectiveness of organic vs. paid content: See if users who landed on your social page organically (from a brand post or user share) lead to more revenue or social conversions than those who came from paid ads.

Much of the value your brand gets from social media comes from having a place where you can have a two-way, engaging conversation with customers. Yet showing how social delivers real business value will get you permission, and the budget, to do more of that brand and relationship building.



Digital marketers are only just beginning to realize the true potential of social, and with these new integrations Wildfire by Google is working to help you take social from siloed to integrated…from nebulous to concrete. We invite you to join us in our quest to better measure social’s impact on customer interactions, web visits, ad effectiveness and ultimately revenue.



Learn more about measuring social with Wildfire’s Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager integrations here.

Wildfire explores the "New Normal" at iStrategy Miami conference

One of the best parts of being a social marketing technology provider and thought leader is hearing what’s on the mind of our customers, partners and other marketing professionals. Last week, we traveled to Miami, Florida for iStrategy’s latest Global Digital Marketing Conference, a gathering of more than 350 senior brand marketers to discuss the latest innovations in digital and social marketing technology and strategy.

During the conference, Wildfire spoke about how the digital-social revolution has delivered to us a “New Normal,” where technology has empowered consumers by giving them access to information. This phenomenon has fundamentally changed how brands drive value from marketing, and was frequently discussed throughout the conference.

The New Normal has been driven in large part by Generation C, an emerging class of consumers who demonstrate core behaviors that begin with the letter C: they are connected, and constantly curating and creating content. These consumers’ voices are more powerful than ever before; they decide who and what they trust -- and as a result, they are in control of the conversation around your brand.

 Brands that are successful in the New Normal use social and digital to create interactive experiences and transform their businesses. Here are three key concepts Wildfire presented at iStrategy to help you do that:

1. 
   
   
   Ditch the pitch. Connected consumers are savvy: because information is always at their fingertips, they don’t care if your brand is better, faster, cheaper or stronger. They aren’t interested in a sales pitch, they are interested in what is interesting to them: “I’ll be interested if you are interesting.”
   
   

2. 
   
   
   Pique Generation C’s interest by building a social strategy that shows your brand is listening to their needs, wants, expectations and preferences. Gen C is interested in brand experiences that they relate to, connect with and believe in. Your job, then, is to understand your audience’s passions, preferences and desires; then create experiences around your brand and mission that demonstrate these things.
   
   

3. 
   
   
   Execute your strategy with an orchestrated approach to reach connected consumers on multiple screens and multiple social networks. In today’s always-on, multi-screen world, people consume your content in many ways and from many devices. Whether it’s a retail store, website, YouTube Brand Channel, Pinterest page, or on a tablet, PC or smartphone, you must be where your consumers are. Your digital-social strategy should incorporate all channels and networks to engage your consumers wherever they are, on whatever screen they’re on.
   
   

Mike Nabasny, Wildfire’s Head of Midwest Sales, talks about engaging Generation C.

Procter & Gamble is an example of a brand that’s been wildly successful at applying these concepts and connecting with its portion of of the Gen C audience. About a year ago, P&G launched its “Thank You, Mom” campaign in conjunction with its sponsorship of the London Olympics.

The campaign included 35 P&G brands sponsoring 150 Olympic athletes, and the effort was tied around interactive content on YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. It was one of the most ambitious integrated marketing campaigns to date.

In an interview with AdAge last summer, P&G’s Global Brand Building Officer, Mark Pritchard, estimated that the company would bring in $500 million in incremental revenue as a result of the “Thank You, Mom.” The campaign also deepened P&G’s connection with millions of social followers; it was so popular with Facebook fans, in fact, that it spawned its own Facebook page. “Thank You, Mom” continues to provide a significant source of social engagement for P&G’s brand.

How are you engaging consumers in the New Normal? Leave us a note about your strategy below. We love to hear from you!

The Wildfire Team