4 Secrets to Achieving Search & Social Synergy

Last week, we revealed data showing the benefits of an integrated cross-channel strategy. But implementing that kind of strategy is easier said than done. Here are some practical tips from our latest white paper, The Multiplier Effect of Integrating Search & Social Advertising.

1) Assess Your Organization's Cross-Channel Capabilities - Only 44% and 35% of marketers respectively feel that their paid search and social marketing channels are tightly integrated with their overall marketing activities. That's way too low! To get more aligned, first ask these questions to assess your organization's cross-channel capabilities:

• Are your search and social teams working toward the same business objectives?
• Is your message and value proposition consistent across channels?
• Are you properly attributing revenue from each channel?
• Are you budgeting across channels based on campaign ROI?
• Are your promotions aligned across channels?
• Is your business intelligence strategy integrated?

2) Target High-Value Audiences Across Search and Social - To reach the right customer with the right buying intentions at the right time, take advantage of audience retargeting across search and social publishers:

• Search to Social - Create Facebook Custom Audiences based on search query data from your digital marketing platform. Then target the same audiences on Facebook with tailored messages based on their search queries.
• Social to Search - Create Google Remarketing Lists based on visitors from social marketing ads. Then use Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) to retarget your social audiences when they search for your keywords on Google.

3) Measure Performance Across Channels - Marketers who analyze their search and social campaign ROI holistically are able to make better decisions faster. Here are some considerations:

• Make sure your search and social campaigns are tracking revenue from the same data source - this way you'll avoid over or under counting conversions.
• Integrate your search and social budgeting workflow in a single platform so that you can compare performance side-by-side and make channel-agnostic budgeting decisions.
• Measure the path to conversion across channels so you don't skip over important touch points, and so you have the best data to inform your messaging and creative strategy.

4) Optimize Across Channels Toward Audience Lifetime Value - If you focus on channel-specific metrics, chances are good that you're missing out on the bigger picture. Instead, opt for an integrated search and social optimization strategy that focuses on customer lifetime value:

• Automate your cross-channel bidding toward target audiences based on customer lifetime value.
• Forecast lifetime value and level of investment required to better hit your ROI targets.
• Use click-weighted attribution to assign revenue across clicks to accurately value each channel's impact in the path to conversion.
• Create look-alike audiences based on the lifetime value of converting audiences - this will help you expand into other profitable audiences while staying within ROI targets.

Looking for more search and social best practices? You don't want to miss out on our white paper. Download it here and benefit from lots of data, 5 strategies, and 15 tactics to integrate your search and social campaigns.