Social media has grown exponentially. One out of every seven people in the world has a Facebook page. Nearly four in five active Internet users visit social networks and blogs. Accordingly, marketers are flocking to the medium. Whereas their customers are adopting the medium with purpose, marketers approach social media with caution.

Marketers are increasing budgets and using social media in conjunction with other advertising channels, but return on investment (ROI) continues to be a question.

Below are some key facts from the report:

• Advertisers increasingly view paid social media advertising as an integrated, cross-platform tactic and run it in conjunction with other online and offline media.
• Paid social media advertising is primarily used to support branding-related efforts. As a result, advertisers “would prefer to use the exact same metrics used in the offline medium, and additional metrics specific to the online medium” to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Very few media sellers, however, can actually provide such metrics.
• Metrics such as pins, likes and click-throughs are often used to measure paid social media advertising ROI, though advertisers and agencies think sales generated and brand lift are the most appropriate metrics to use to determine ROI.
• Advertisers are doubtful or unconvinced about the effectiveness of paid social media advertising, indicating that the growth of the medium is being somewhat hampered by a lack of relevant, universally employed metrics.