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Stay updated on all the latest paid social trends.

Stay updated on the latest trends in paid social media to amplify your brand's reach. Explore insights on effective strategies, targeting techniques, and creative approaches to connect with your audience and drive engagement.

Our Perspectives on Paid Social Media | Brunner

paid social media

Gain valuable insights and perspectives to build your business and respond to market changes from Kristen Taggert, VP of Integrated Marketing Communications.

Perspectives from Kristen Taggert | Brunner

Vice President, Integrated Marketing Communications

Kristen Taggert

Explore strategic insights from Kevin Amos, Brunner Partner, Chief Media and Data Officer.

Perspectives from Kevin Amos | Brunner

Partner, Chief Media and Data Officer

Kevin Amos

Social media is a key way to communicate with your customers. Hear from our teams.

Social media is a key way to connect with your customers and foster meaningful relationships. Hear from our experts as they share insights on building authentic engagement, crafting compelling content, and staying ahead of trends in the organic social landscape.

Organic Social Media Content: Industry Trends and POVs | Brunner

organic social media

From campaign tips to influencer collaborations, discover perspectives from our team.

Discover perspectives from our experts on influencer marketing, where influence meets strategy. Explore insights on how to effectively partner with influencers to enhance your brand's authenticity and connect with your audience.

Influencer Marketing Content and Perspectives | Brunner

influencer marketing

Unlock the potential of programmatic display advertising with our collection of resources and expert insights.

Dive into our expert insights on programmatic display advertising and discover how to reach your audience with precision. From best practices to innovative strategies, we’ll guide you in maximizing your brand’s visibility and impact.

Programmatic Display Content: Industry Trends and POVs | Brunner

programmatic display

Search engine optimization is constantly changing. Stay up to date with perspectives from our team.

Search engine optimization is constantly evolving, and our team is here to ensure you’re always ahead of the curve. Stay informed with insights from our experts as we explore the latest trends, strategies, and best practices in SEO to help you grow your brand and dominate search rankings.&nbsp;

SEO Content and Perspectives: Industry Trends and POVs | Brunner

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Your brand has built a strong and effective presence on TikTok, for both organic and paid campaigns. The influencers you work with are building their communities on the platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;And your website data shows growing traffic from TikTok as people use it instead of Google to search for information.&nbsp;But a new federal law President Joe Biden signed on April 24 will force a sale of TikTok or ban the platform within 12 months.&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketers are asking, “Now what?”&nbsp;Brunner manages TikTok as a marketing channel for clients in industries from building supplies and auto insurance to consumer packaged goods and quick service restaurants. We’re sharing our point of view on what brands should know about the ban at this point and our recommendations. ByteDance filed suit May 7 in U.S. federal court to challenge the new law, so the TikTok ban timetable could change.<h2>What Does the Law Banning TikTok Require?&nbsp;</h2>The <a href="https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/395515/biden-signs-law-banning-tiktok-unless-its-sold.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">new U.S. law</a> gives ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, nine months to sell the app. If a sale is in progress at that point, ByteDance may be allowed another three months to complete the transaction.&nbsp;If a sale does not happen, TikTok will be banned in the U.S., where more than 170 million Americans use it. The app is especially popular with Gen Z, which makes up 44.7% of U.S. TikTok users, according to <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/insights/guide-tiktok/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EMarketer</a>.

With the U.S. TikTok ban looming, marketers face a pivotal shift in their strategies. Learn the potential impact the TikTok ban can have on various channels.

What Does the U.S. TikTok Ban Mean for Marketers?

What Does the U.S. TikTok Ban Mean for Marketers? What Brands Should Know

At Brunner, media is in our DNA. From ad targeting to ROI tracking, hear from the experts in media.

At Brunner, media is in our DNA, blending data-driven strategies with creative execution. Explore our insights to optimize your media investments and engage customers at every touchpoint on their journey.

Our Perspectives on Media: Trends and POVs | Brunner

media

Unlock the power of paid search engine marketing with insights from our SEM experts.

Unlock the power of paid search marketing with insights from our SEM experts. Discover tailored strategies, industry trends, and best practices that drive clicks and conversions for your brand.

SEM Content and Perspectives: Industry Trends and POVs | Brunner

Many marketers are still skeptical about TikTok’s place in the digital marketing toolbox, but more and more articles like this one&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/google-exec-suggests-instagram-and-tiktok-are-eating-into-googles-core-products-search-and-maps/?tpcc=tcplustwitter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">from TechCrunch</a>&nbsp;are making it clear that the platform is no longer playing second fiddle to the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Meta. Here at Brunner, we have certainly taken notice, and have been recommending TikTok to a variety of clients in recent years. If TikTok isn’t part of your digital marketing portfolio it has never been a better time to reconsider!As noted from TechCrunch, nearly 40% of Gen Z users prefer searching on TikTok over Google Search &amp; Google Maps “for discovery purposes”.&nbsp;While that last phrase seems to indicate that Gen Z searchers are more likely to use TikTok as an initial touchpoint for a product or service rather than for immediate recommendations for a dinner spot, it’s clear that young people are searching the web in a much different way than previous generations. With most marketing departments being led primarily by Millennials and Gen Xers this can be hard to wrap our collective heads around – but ignoring this trend could be a critical mistake for those trying to reach the nearly 70 million Gen Z citizens in the United States. While not an ideal fit for every client and situation, TikTok is nearly a must when Gen Z eyeballs are a priority.<h2>Testing TikTok with Mixed Results</h2>If your company is anything like our clients, you’ve been testing TikTok for some time with mixed results. High to mid-funnel results, and even soft conversions, typically perform strongly in TikTok and can often outperform some of the more established social channels like Facebook. However, you may have had a tougher time when proving ROI. For many advertisers, TikTok will not be the final place of conversion no matter how much search activity it’s generating. This can be a red flag for advertisers who are hyper-focused on proving the ROI for each channel. However, modern digital marketers know that the conversion funnel is as complex as ever, and just because a channel isn’t leading to a last-touch conversion doesn’t mean that it’s not an essential part of the user journey. Look no further than Google’s own&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-journey/navigating-purchase-behavior-and-decision-making/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">‘Messy Middle’</a>&nbsp;to see how the conversion funnel has evolved in recent years. Many user journeys have a multitude of intersecting touchpoints, and now TikTok is most likely at least one of those touchpoints for an entire generation of US searchers. If you’re not there, will you miss out on a valuable touchpoint?<h2>When to Add TikTok to Your Marketing Mix</h2>We believe that the time is now to recommend TikTok for a growing number of client needs. But if you’re still on the fence about including TikTok in your marketing mix, the platform is working harder than ever to capitalize on its impressive search algorithm to show advertisers that it can be a lower-funnel touchpoint. As of July 2022, advertisers were able to take part in a closed BETA that allows for a sponsored ad placement in the platform’s search results. TikTok will search their eligible videos to place the most appropriate content in these results. What’s more, there are rumors that TikTok is also working on keyword-targeted ad buys that will let advertisers serve videos for specific queries!Does that sound familiar? It appears that search advertising is quickly moving into an era that will go beyond simple text ads and become more focused on highly specialized video content. If TikTok proves out this model, how long before Google inevitably follows suit and the lines between search and video are further blurred? Are you ready to meet that challenge head-on? We suspect that few are, but those that can take advantage of TikTok’s blossoming search potential are bound to reap the benefits.Keep reading to<a href="https://www.brunnerworks.com/perspectives/to-reach-young-adults-companies-like-the-home-depot-rental-are-finding-success-on-tiktok" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> find out if TikTok is right for you</a>.

Explore the potential of TikTok as a powerful paid search platform and how brands can leverage TikTok’s unique features to drive engagement and conversions.

Will TikTok Become the New Paid Search?

When running a social media campaign for a B2B client, the first platform you probably think of is LinkedIn. LinkedIn provides the most premium audience in B2B. No other social media platform allows you to target decision makers by job title, company, and industry. Your second thought may be Facebook (and Instagram). These channels, on the other hand, are less tightly targeted for B2B but still hit the right people if the strategy behind the targeting is tactical. With Facebook providing greater reach at a more efficient CPM, and LinkedIn providing a tighter target with higher CPMs, the platforms often complement each other when combined in a larger social media strategy.&nbsp;In deciding on a platform (or platforms), we don’t typically think about bots, but we should.&nbsp;Bots have been an issue since digital advertising started. Many platforms have been very transparent in their efforts to combat bots, with the goal being to cut down on wasting spend and misleading campaign results. But how effective are those efforts really?<h2>Platform Metrics and Analytics Weren't Lining Up</h2>We analyzed one of our B2B client campaigns and noticed a lot of traffic coming through LinkedIn based on its in-platform metrics, but we saw a large drop-off in users when looking at Google Analytics (GA). Often ~45% of LinkedIn clicks to the landing page result in a GA session, with one instance dropping as low as 6%. Facebook, on the other hand, was consistently above 90%. In order to understand what was going on, we implemented a test with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fullstory.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FullStory</a>, which provides session replays and error monitoring for each user who made it to the site. As it easily integrates with GA, we were able to record all of the interactions and study trends of users coming from LinkedIn and Facebook individually and compare the results.As many would expect, there was a difference in user interaction based on where the user saw the ad, but the results were more staggering than expected. We found that there was a very large percentage of traffic coming from Linux OS. This accounted for 44% of the LinkedIn traffic, while Linux overall accounts for 1.85% of all operating systems in the United States (<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgs.statcounter.com%2Fos-market-share%2Fdesktop%2Funited-states-of-america&amp;data=04%7C01%7Crbopp%40brunnerworks.com%7C52116f677aeb47a4959d08d9730a8d4c%7C75f07833328847a295d9784dafd3c511%7C0%7C0%7C637667311431012580%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=XHXgd27Afd9yE%2Brqg1iaGI0n85o53rQU7%2Fka5D5OkRI%3D&amp;reserved=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">source</a>).&nbsp;According to this&nbsp;article&nbsp;from Adobe, <a href="https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/admin/admin-tools/manage-report-suites/edit-report-suite/report-suite-general/bot-removal/bot-signatures#ip-addresses-that-originate-from-distributed-computing-platforms" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bots will often use Linux as their operating system</a>.FullStory assigns each user a unique name and will show how many sessions a user has had in their lifetime. Out of all 245 Linux sessions, there were no repeat users, despite many of the session times coming within minutes of each other.&nbsp;According to the same&nbsp;article&nbsp;by Adobe, this is a sign of bot traffic as “Bots usually get a new visitor ID every time they execute, thus incurring only one visit ever and all their traffic will consist of a visit number of one.”<h2>Operating Systems Offer a Clue</h2>In our exploration, we found all 245 Linux users had an almost identical pattern. They all had a session count of one, with the total session seconds all being between four and five seconds, and an active time of zero seconds, except for three users, which all had a time of one second. Every Linux session also matched back to one of two recorded latitudes and longitudes.&nbsp;<a href="https://f.io/jrK0DgZ3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to see the chart.</a>For comparison, Facebook only has 0.21% of its traffic coming from Linux, and those have active session times of 27, 24, and 13 seconds, which are much more realistic.We also found that 71% of the traffic coming from LinkedIn has an average active session time of zero seconds. Facebook is the opposite, with 63% of the sessions averaging a time of greater than 10 seconds.&nbsp;<a href="https://f.io/XPdqmUJk" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to see the chart.</a><h2>So, What Does This All Mean?</h2>As of now, bots are making up about 44% of the traffic in our LinkedIn campaign. Every other platform will block bots and credit money back each month for any that do sneak through. LinkedIn seems to be behind on bot blocking and crediting back any spend that occurs due to them being so strong on their platform. We cannot conclude that this is always the case, but advertisers should be cautious when running within LinkedIn and leverage software that verifies the site users beyond LinkedIn’s in-platform metrics.&nbsp;LinkedIn, arguably, has the best targeting for B2B clients, but there is a strong possibility that you may spend media dollars on bots and inflated metrics while running within the platform. There are still cases when, even with these bot results, LinkedIn can be a good platform for your media strategy, but it is important to understand what you as an advertiser are getting for your media dollars. Is LinkedIn’s premium audience worth it?

Find out how to identify and manage bot activity in your B2B LinkedIn campaigns to ensure genuine engagement and results. Learn more.

Are Bots Overtaking Your B2B LinkedIn Campaign?

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