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Every time you try to research the effectiveness of social media advertising, you constantly obtain very vague and ambiguous. Does social media advertising really work? Is there a measurable return on investment? I think the answer to both of these questions is obvious. Yes, social media advertising works, and No, you cannot measure the return on investment. Digital zombies will have you think otherwise, but the there is no real measurable return. Consider the IPO of Facebook recently; many investors simply could not put their arms around a valuation of a company selling something intangible with no real data to support their marketing strategy.

Before we explore the context of this piece and get into deep, brain wrenching thoughts on how to effectively balance and structure your strategic marketing platform, first we must consider some data points.

Based on a non scientific study recently conducted, we ran some numbers on social media advertising platforms. The first was a Google AdWords campaign that received slightly over 28,000 impressions and got 128 clicks, that is a click-through rate of about .45%. The second was a Facebook campaign that received over 505,000 impressions with less than 45 clicks; this is a click-through rate of less than .01%. Finally, there was a similar campaign on Linked-In that had slightly under 30,000 impressions with a click-through rate of 15, once again a rate of less than .01%. At this point you can clearly see why the Facebook IPO was somewhat of a under-value proposition. In essence, not really, because you need to carefully weigh your total marketing campaign between many forms of media to effectively deliver your message and get measurable results, read on:

Let’s now look at the total dollars spent on marketing across all mediums in the U.S.:

Television: $66.4 billion in 2013 to $75.4 billion in 2012

Digital Media: $32 billion in 2013 to $61.4 billion in 2017

Television remains the top advertising medium in the country with an annual spend of over $66 billion in 2013 and is expected to capture the dominant position well into the future. With almost 2/3 of all marketing budgets being spent on TV and digital media, the real question is to extrapolate is the return on investment of one versus the other. I would speculate to say, despite vast opposition from the geek community, that TV is enormously more effective that social media. But don’t stop here, you need to be the final judge based on some of the data we will present.

Social Media vs. traditional marketing platforms: Social media is inexpensive, it is interactive, somewhat measurable, and in most cases very time consuming to accurately implement an effective campaign. Comparatively, traditional marketing is costly; it is non-reciprocal, somewhat measurable, and very tangible. Most proponents will tell you that an inverse relationship exists between effective growth and decline of each medium. On one hand, the pro-social media authorities will tell they are on the increase and traditional forms are declining, with the opposite being proclaimed from the traditionals. The fact of the matter is that both of them are growing and an effective marketing campaign will need to utilize both mediums.

The cost of social media marketing makes it extremely attractive, roughly $5.00 per thousand impression vs. $10.00/M for TV, $30.00/M for print and $55.00/M for direct mail. However, when it comes to engagement levels, Television is at the top with over 50% compared to Facebook at 12% and Twitter at 2%. Additionally, consumers place a higher level of trust with TV marketing because higher costs have a direct association to a more reliable message.

With traditional advertising we often measure a wide demographic reach as compared to social media where we can measure a more finite message to speak to an individual’s concerns or more customized message. Social media creates a broader overall customer experience that allows you to monitor and participate what people are saying about your brand or company. Unfortunately, designing a campaign to address these finite concerns is very difficult, primarily because the likes of Facebook and others do not share demographic profiles to allow companies to effectively target a specific demographic. Mark Zuckerberg recently purchased all the homes surrounding his Palo Alto residence because he was concerned with privacy, his company has collected more information on you that you care to know, if they ever release this data, look out, the barrage of targeted ads will be overwhelming.

What should the future of your marketing platform look like? It should contain a carefully balanced mix between traditional mediums and digital mediums depending on y0ur brand and company marketing objectives. As the chart above clearly illustrates, all forms of medium are alive and growing, with the possible exceptions of newspapers. Nonetheless, all need to be considered. Most people are tired of sharing information and are making their social profiles much more private almost to the point of being annoyed. Social media is not immune to users feeling like they have been mistreated, and if they want to proliferate, they must create useful interactions with their users.

We have become an empathetic society, Obama, his staff, and his economic policy has clearly demonstrated this cultural shift. Marketers need to focus on a strategy of “shared responsibility” and supercharge their movement to this platform. Shared responsibility? Yes, we have embraced a cultural change, a least temporarily, to have our life decisions run by 3rd party entities. It reminds me of being on the Titanic when the front of the ship was underwater and people and the back were saying, “I am just glad I am on the back of the boat” This may be an extreme example, but many consumers will be looking for targeted advertising campaigns to lead them rather than suggest.

The millenials (18-34 year old) continue to demonstrate unprecedented interest in working together to support this empathetic society. They believe a fractious government unable to make meaningful change for the better is the way to the future. Marketers need to recognize that this is the number one force in America and beyond. This philosophy dictates that you deliver value and relevance that can be measured on the same scale that the millenials think, your marketing strategy needs to embrace these behavioral changes while increasing sales. See my publication entitled “The Gen Y Influence” and “Marketing Strategy for the Gen Y Influence”.

I believe this will be the year of the global “drop” in terms of more localized marketing platforms. Consumers will be further influenced by localized marketing campaigns that hit the heart of their sphere where they live, where they shop, and what they buy. As stated earlier, people are getting tired of being ruled by Google algorithms and will be looking to make decisions that are free of some digital result. Look to employ five local marketing officers than one global marketing officer, it will provide dramatic results. Consumers will be looking for coherence, impact, pleasure and simplification from the brands they will be supporting.

Anticipate a movement in the future towards a disconnection from the online community to a more traditional approach. Consumers are looking for more touch, more connection, and more fun from marketing strategies. So ask yourself this question, “Ask not what your customers will do for you, but what can you do for your customers”.

Conclusion: How you interpret this report is entirely up to you and should be structured towards your brand and company strategy. In essence, it is critical that you understand your customer and your marketing campaign. At the end of the day, no one can effectively place a value on digital media; no one has been able to determine if the return on investment is worthy. However, the one take-away is this: digital media has an enormous impact and cannot be overlooked, it is inexpensive to implement but difficult to target. Digital media needs to be combined with traditional forms of marketing to create the most effective strategy.

Advertisements are all around us. Whether we’re watching television, driving down the freeway, flipping through a magazine, or listening to the radio, we are bombarded on every side by messages trying to get us to buy a product or service. And although there have been countless debates over whether or not advertising is effective and whether it really does influence people to purchase products, the fact is many companies will spend billions of dollars on a single advertisement in the hopes that it will increase their profits.

Good advertisements have the power to make people stop and take notice. You have to have been living under a rock not to notice the success of Geico’s caveman series or the iPod’s silhouette series of commercials and advertisements. And as a result of those advertisements, sales went up significantly for those two companies.

Advertising creates awareness of the product and can convey messages, attitudes, and emotions to entice and intrigue audiences. At least those are the desired effects of an advertisement. Needless to say, some advertisements fail miserably in their purpose.

So, what makes the difference between a successful advertisement and an unsuccessful one? It’s all in the design. Typically, larger organizations produce more effective advertisements, while newer and smaller companies are the ones that produce the duds. This is largely because bigger organizations have the money to hire professionals while smaller companies do not.

The advantage of hiring an in-house advertising developer or hiring an advertising agency is that you get the skills of people who have been trained in creating effective advertisements. Many have spent years and years going to school, studying past effective advertisements, looking at elements of design, and learning how to create their own effective advertising campaigns.

Learning how to create effective advertisements does not happen overnight, but there are a few simple rules that many workers for professional advertising agencies follow to create effective advertisements that will appeal to audiences and hopefully increase the company’s revenue. The following paragraphs list a few advertising principles that companies and advertisers follow when creating their own advertising campaigns.

Perhaps the most important quality of an advertisement is its uniqueness. In a world where people often see hundreds of advertisements a day, an advertisement must be unique and different in order to capture audiences’ attention. Going back to the iPod example, the single block of color with an image of a black silhouette was extremely effective at the time because it was unlike anything else around it. The simplicity of the advertisement stood out against posters and billboards that had busier images and much more text. Also, the use of bright, bold colors made people stop and look at the image. Even though the advertisement had little text on it, people got the message that this product was new, fun, and bold.

Of course, there are a variety of ways to make your advertisement stand out. Look around your area and write down descriptions of advertisements you see. What are the trends? Are they text heavy? Do they use similar colors? What kinds of images are on the advertisements? Once you start noticing trends, try to think of ways your advertisement can go against those trends and be something different–something that will make people stop and look.

One word of caution: Once you’ve made people stop and look at your advertisement, they need to be able to understand what you’re selling. You may have the most eye-catching image on your advertisement, but if it is completely unrelated to your product or service, then viewers won’t understand what you want them to buy. So, be sure that when you are selecting your images and text for your advertisement, people will understand what you’re trying to sell.

A well-designed advertisement will also communicate well to audiences. In order to figure out how to make your advertisement effective, you need to identify your audience. Who are you trying to target? Teenagers? The Elderly? Business people? Parents? There are a variety of different audiences, and the more specifically you can identify the audience for your product, the better chance you have of designing an ad that will effectively influence your audience.

For instance, if your audience consists of young teenage girls, you might choose to use bright and bold colors, but for business people you may want to create an advertisement that uses more professional blues and blacks (but don’t be afraid to be a little bolder if you’re trying to stand out).

The key is to think of the general traits of your specific audience and try to reflect those traits in your advertisement. What do they value? What do they fear? What motivates them? Once you’ve answered those questions, it should be easier to come up with a few solid ideas for an advertising campaign.

Once you’ve developed some ideas for an eye-catching advertisement and identified how you want to communicate with your specific audience, some good, solid design principles need to come into play. The advertisement needs to be legible. Viewers shouldn’t have to work to get what you’re trying to say. The advertisement needs balance. One side shouldn’t feel heavier than the other. The advertisement should also make good use of contrast, repetition, color, and pattern. When these design elements are implemented well into an advertisement, the result is a fabulous ad that will appeal aesthetically to viewers.

The above is just a brief overview of what advertisers have to think about when designing an ad. You can see why many people find it helpful to hire an advertising agency to help them develop ideas and create effective advertisements. And whether you’re looking for a Seattle or a Miami advertising agency, you shouldn’t have a problem finding an organization in your area to help you create the perfect advertisement campaign for your company.