by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 23, 2017

Although they struggle to keep up with new tech, marketers repeatedly test campaigns to find the media returning the highest profit on investments. When it comes to pay-per-click advertising, paid-search text ads remain the best performer for marketers.
That’s according to the 87% who participated in a recent survey by Hanapin Marketing. Remarketing followed, with 66% of marketers citing the media as the No. 2 performer, followed by mobile at 60% and social at 53%.

Findings from Hanapin, released this week, reveal that 60% of marketers say they plan to spend more or significantly more in paid-search text ads and mobile ads this year. Over 70% say they will spend more or significantly more on social ads this year versus 2016.

Media also matters. More marketers are also investing in campaigns running across mobile. In fact, marketers said they will increase mobile by 67% this year, per the findings.

Hanapin released the social advertising data in its State of Paid Social report, conducted between May and June 2017, with plans to release the accompanying search data later this year. Both data sets analyze budgets and features that marketers find the most effective on each platform.

When it comes to social, marketers have a love-hate relationship.

Some 72% admit to spending less than 15% of their budget on social. About 63% say they will increase budgets by 2018. Finding experts and time to run campaigns seems to be the most common obstacle preventing marketers from succeeding in social media, with content creation close behind.

Advertisers say they plan to increase budgets in Google AdWords by 75%. They also plan to increase budgets on Bing by 54%, yet at a slower rate. The data shows that budgets on Bing are down 9% from the prior year.

Only 7% of marketers are not investing in Facebook ads, and 35% still do not invest in video ads, although the study suggests the “Facebook algorithm now gives favor to video in the news feed.” They also are not investing in new Facebook ad formats, like Slideshow, Canvas and Collection ads.

Facebook continues to take the majority of social budgets, with 71% of marketers saying they will increase campaigns on the platform. Some 46% of marketers say they will increase investments in Instagram; 39% on LinkedIn, and 21% on Twitter.

Despite an increase by some marketers on Twitter, another 21% say they will decrease investments. About 19% say they will decrease investments on Snapchat, 16% on Pinterest, and 14% on LinkedIn.

This column was previously published in the Search Insider on July 14, 2017.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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