ZESZYTY NAUKOWE WSG, t.

34, seria: Ekonomia, nr 10 (2018/2019) 143

s. 143-154, Ilość znaków: 23 773

Dariia Doroshkevych
University of Economy in Bydgoszcz (WSG)
Oleg Venger
International University of Finance in Kyiv

Evaluation of Digital Advertising Effectiveness

on Social Media

Abstract: With the advancement of information technology and the Internet, new and promising ways
of promoting products and services are emerging for modern businesses. Successful promotion and
positioning of an enterprise on the Internet is the key to success of its activity. At the same time, the lack
of information about a company on the Internet today can even lead to the loss of a regular customer and,
as a consequence, the effectiveness of an organization’s activity.
Important innovative tools for advertising products and services of modern businesses online
are the use of social media. In a broad sense, social media are an Internet service that is intended to
disseminate certain information created by users, whereas any consumer of the service may be the author
of such information.
The emergence and rapid development of social media is due to the fact that the modern
consumer is gradually losing confidence in traditional media and is ignoring them. Social media,
as a new space for consumers, have their own features that differentiate them from the rest of the media,
and accordingly their methods of work are also different from traditional ones. Therefore, the questions
of the features of advertising on social media and the evaluation of its effectiveness are relevant and important
in the organization of an enterprise’s marketing and in the process of promoting its products or services.
The evolution of social media in the modern world has reached such a level that millions
of people around the world create, disseminate and promote information about themselves, or about
certain things. The concept of customers creating their own content on the Internet has become
commonplace today. This has provided new opportunities for researchers to observe, communicate and
collect information
Keywords: Social Media, Digital Advertising, Effectiveness of Advertising, Criteria of Effectiveness.

Literature survey
The term “social media” is used by modern researchers [Stokes 2013,
Van Dijck 2013, Sajid 2016] to mean web-based services the content of which
is created by users and they are intended for mass distribution of their content.
144 Dariia Doroshkevych, Oleg Venger

Social media are the complete opposite of traditional media in which content is
created by selected authors, that is, a limited number of people.
Social media have become such an important platform that almost every
business uses it to market and promote their business, products and services. Social
media are also used to exchange information and connect with customers and the
public in general.
Social media sites have made communication with an audience so easy that
different companies can interact with their customers and know their preferences,
which are then employed offline to develop an appropriate brand promotion
strategy.
The table below shows the comparative capabilities of traditional media
and social media (Table 1).

Table 1. The comparative characteristics of traditional and social media

Criteria Traditional Media Social Media

Flexibility Fixed, unchangeable Instantly updateable

Commentary Commentary limited and not real-time Unlimited real-time commentary

Products Limited, time-delayed bestseller lists Instant popularity gauge

Archives Archives poorly accessible Archives accessible

Media mix Limited media mix All media can be mixed

Publishers Committee publishers Individual publishers

Lifetime Finite Infinite

Sharing Sharing not encouraged Sharing and participation encouraged

Control Total control Freedom

Source: compiled by the authors on the basis of Stokes, 2013.

Comparing traditional and social media, one can see that social media have
more advantages. After all, they can always be updated, mixed with other media
content, have an endless effect (because everything that goes to the Internet stays
there forever). We also see the possibility of free sharing, which allows disseminating
and exchanging advertising information on social media without restrictions. Social
media can generally be defined as a group of Internet applications and platforms
that are based on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and they
allow creating and sharing user-generated content [Voorveld et al. 2018].
We want to add that social media are interactive, digital means of creating
and disseminating information content, as well as a means of communication
Evaluation of Digital Advertising Effectiveness on Social Media 145

between users on the Internet, which facilitates business communication in both

B2C and B2B space.
There are many variations and types of social media, including Facebook,
Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Each of them
is individual and has its own ideology for a specific target audience. Therefore,
each brand adapts its offer to the features and characteristics of the social network
so that users really pay attention to their brand and ultimately either prefer it in
the form of “likes” or purchase the product or service offered. In general, all social
media can be divided into 4 categories [Voorveld et al. 2018]:
1) Social media platforms that show the relationship that they want to
build with their audience. They are based on their own profile and are
mostly made up of individual messages. Platforms like Facebook and
LinkedIn belong to this category.
2) Self-media platforms are also profile-based, but offer people the
ability to manage their own channels of communication on social
media. A typical example is Twitter.
3) Creative outlets are content-based platforms that allow users to share
their interests and creativity, such as YouTube and Instagram.
4) Collaborative platforms are also content-based, but allow people to
ask questions, get tips, or find the most exciting news and content
of the day.

Having considered the concepts of social media, we can summarize and

conclude that they are a very powerful means of influencing people. Through
communication, a person can solve any problem. That is why it is so important to
build the right connections on social media platforms when developing your business.
Next, we are going to discuss the concept of SMM (Social Media Marketing),
which today has captured the attention of all business entities that are focused on
the development and long-term existence of their brand in the market. Promoting
your business through social media consists in using social networks to convince
a wide or target audience that your product or service is worth their attention.
That is, everything works according to the principles of traditional media with
a difference in the channels of promotion. It all depends on the internet space, which is
many times more responsive and has a much higher priority in “consumption” of certain
content by the audience. Table 2 lists the major benefits of social media marketing.
146 Dariia Doroshkevych, Oleg Venger

Table 2. The benefits of marketing on social media

№ Name of a benefit Description of a benefit

1. Easy reach • Registration, creation and maintenance of pages on
social networks today is possible not only with the
help of computers, but also of mobile applications
on tablets and smartphones.
• The number of social media services, available on
different devices, is increasing.
• The ease of communication and connection with
other people.
• Ability to make purchases, while doing something else.
2. A variety of platforms Variable advertising opportunities (different forms of ad-
vertising layout or video, different sites and placements,
different methods of influence).
3. A convenient way to find information • Convenient search engine
• Various social networks are different in the way they
search for information
• The presence of hashtags on some of the social
networks that are used to find information
• Search by geolocation
4. Interactivity Information about a product or service on social ne-
tworks not only tells the audience about the product, but
also makes contact with it. On social media, one can ask
people questions or answer their questions. People love
when brands interact with them and most importantly
hear them on social networks. SMM provides an oppor-
tunity to understand the wishes of consumers, as well as
to hear their complaints or suggestions.
5. Measurability of efficiency A feature of social media marketing is clear and un-
derstandable metrics that are statistically measurable.
Unlike traditional media, every iteration with a potential
customer is accountable and truthful.

Source: compiled by the authors on the basis of Chmielecki 2014; Gray and Fox 2018;
Facebook for Business.

In fact, the purpose of this type of marketing is consumer interest, creating

a positive brand image, positioning a company for which the primary task is not to
profit, but meet the needs of consumers, gaining their trust and loyalty.
It seems that internet space can offer users far more opportunities than
traditional mass media. After all, first, it is a choice. A choice between a range
of social networks that match one’s brand characteristics and target audience.
Secondly, it is the optimization of the content necessary for the selected product
(video, photo, text etc.). Thirdly, it is a cheaper channel of promotion than other ways
of popularization. That is, it becomes clear that in our time of active virtual life, the
Internet, namely social media, are coming to the fore for developing and supporting
the brand image, increasing its recognition and so on. Functionality offered by
social networks cannot be offered by any ordinary channel of communication.
Evaluation of Digital Advertising Effectiveness on Social Media 147

Methods and results

Placing advertising messages on social networks is the norm in modern
life. First, it helps the social networks to grow themselves, using the money they
receive from advertisers, and secondly, it is a space with millions of users, which
allows the advertising customer to achieve their goals: to sell the product, introduce
the brand, enhance the image etc. Social Media Advertising (SMA) includes the
following advertising tools that use: banner ads, embedded videos, animation,
brand profiles to enhance the company image, various surveys, classified and
sponsored advertisements to promote their products and services on the web
platforms. All this branding activity is used on Facebook to drive sales, on Twitter
to generate trends (such as launching hashtags), to upload videos about a launch
of a new product on YouTube, attract potential customers to Instagram photos, and
so on [Qazi and Raziq 2018].
Measuring social media performance is a difficult process, but
computerization simplifies this activity every day. If we take into account the
Instagram and Facebook networks, the measurement of the efficiency of the
advertised products on these networks is calculated automatically. First of all,
when setting up an advertisement at the beginning of its launch, the system itself
adapts to the type of product (service) brand that is being promoted, and also helps
to set the targeting, the most rational publication time, ways/ methods and other
important points for conducting online business effectively.
Secondly, during and after the advertised period, the system automatically
produces performance results that reflect the number of users attracted, the
number of times people followed the profile, liked it or forwarded to others, etc.
That is, on such primitive, and at the moment, the most popular social networks,
advertising creation and tracking its effectiveness is so simplified that anyone can
maintain accounts on social networks as well as advertise profiles. Thus, this is
a way to more significant progress, which in turn can lead to even larger reduction
of prices for traditional advertising as such and loss of interest in it. At the same
time, for entrepreneurs, it is a way to manage their own brand personally, which
enables them to respond instantly to the urgent needs of consumers.
Based on the analysis of scientific literature and practitioners’ research
[Raudeliuniene et al. 2018, Sobowale 2018, We are social 2019], 39 factors have
been identified that affect the efficiency of advertising campaigns on social
networks. These include: growth of audience, sales, content reach, website traffic,
demonstrations of certain material, frequency of visits, relevancy, the number
148 Dariia Doroshkevych, Oleg Venger

of potential customers, feedback, value of potential customers, relative market

share, determination of mood/feeling concerning certain posts, time on site,
managing relationships with mobile phone users, the number of new users,
revenue growth rate, audience profiles, the number of views, the number of clicks
on social networks, the reputation of a company, hashtag usage, target audience
engagement, conversion, content type engagement, the number of posts per
day, cost per specific action on a post (e.g., like), clickthrough rate, the number
of orders, cost per thousand views / visits, profitability assessment, the period of
social media visits, the quality and quantity of the response (when surveyed), the
conversation on the topic of a publication, the number of comments, the potential
of the customer, the return on investment, gross figures, the number of repeat
visitors [14].
That is, we see that there are many ways to measure the effectiveness
of a promotional message on social media. Most of these metrics are embedded in
social media systems and do not require additional actions to calculate a particular
indicator. However, at the same time, all performance indicators are presented
without classifications and groupings, and each author singles out his or her own
metrics of efficiency, which they regard as the most meaningful.
If we analyse the data by Slack, 2012 and HootSuite, 2018, we can identify
the following methods for measuring the effectiveness of advertising on social
media:
1) Mention. It determines the number of mentions of a brand or company
on social networks over a period of time established by the company.
There are two ways to measure this indicator: to pay some money to
the social network and it will automatically calculate this indicator; to
personally count the number of publications mentioning the company.
2) Mood. A way to measure the emotions that a user is experiencing during
the interaction, when a brand is mentioned on social media. They can
also be measured personally, by reading and classifying references as
positive, negative, or neutral. However, there are also free platforms
that track and measure mood, and as a result, provide an automatic
analysis. In addition, the analysis helps to determine the perception
of the brand by the audience in comparison with its competitors.
3) Engagement. Engagement measures how and how often users interact
with the brand content on social networks. When someone finds time
Evaluation of Digital Advertising Effectiveness on Social Media 149

to “like”, add to favourites, or comment on the content, they actively

engage with the company’s content. Engagement metrics are important
to show the success of the content, as they expand the content of the
publication beyond its own audience. Almost every social network lets
people measure engagement with an advertising post for free.
4) Share of Voice + Audience Growth Rate. Share of Voice indicators
help you to understand how your business operates compared to
competitors’ one. The metrics show what percentage of mentions relate
to the advertised brand and its rival. To measure your share of voice,
you need to calculate all the mentions of the company over a period
of time, as well as count the mentions of a competitor. To get the result
of the share of voice, you need to divide the mentions of the company by
the mentions of a competitor. Audience growth measures the changes
related to social media followers. When tracking each social network
where the company operates, you can determine the average rate
of increase or decrease in the number of followers. To measure this, you
need to calculate the number of new followers of each social network
every day / month.
5) Influence. There are digital tools that measure impact, assessing
activity and engagement on social media. Each company uses its own
methodology for determining influence, giving different estimates of
indicators such as reach, comments, likes, etc. to formulate a number
that will show overall social and media influence. This can be reflected in
thoughts of influencers who speak of the brand in a positive or negative
light. These include opinions of bloggers and celebrities who are integral
parts of social media advertising that cover certain brand information.

Based on this data, we can conclude that the existing criteria for
evaluating the effectiveness of digital advertising on social media are not adequate.
The generalization presented here has made it clear that most indicators are
interdependent, which means that it is not possible to evaluate some indicators
without parallel or sequential evaluation of others. That is why, we have created
a new classification of criteria for evaluating efficiency (Figure 1) and proposed
a methodology for carrying out an assessment presented in the form of the PDCA
cycle [Shewhart 1980, Deming 1986] (Figure 2).
150 Dariia Doroshkevych, Oleg Venger

The figure shows that all the criteria are divided into 4 groups, each
of which presents interrelated metrics with common characteristics. At the same
time, it is shown that it is impossible not to evaluate one of the criteria groups, as they
consistently affect one another. Thus, for example, if you ignore the Demographic
characteristics criterion, then inefficient advertising will be launched, which will
affect the Number of subscribers, which in turn will affect the cost of lead and, as
a consequence, the retention rate.

Figure 1. Classification of criteria for evaluating the digital advertising effectiveness

Source: compiled by the authors.

For efficient business in the online space, we offer the following

methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of digital advertising on social media,
which involves a two-phase assessment:
A. “Plan” Stage – Planning the relationship between the criteria for
a specific digital advertising campaign and establishing a basic level
for measuring effectiveness. The company must take into account all
the data that need to be measured to get the efficiency indicators for
their product. For example, sales volume, brand mention frequency,
the number of views, and so on. This will allow you to see the work
of the company «before» and «after» in order to understand whether
the social media, which were used for promoting, are effective.
Evaluation of Digital Advertising Effectiveness on Social Media 151

B. “Do” Stage – a test run of digital advertising. The effectiveness

of digital advertising is not immediately apparent, but one can notice
it within a minimum of 50 first responses. This is the basis of the
principle of advertising on all social media. Therefore, the second
stage should be a test launch of the campaign and its efficiency will
be tested in 100-150 advertising responses (the figure depends on the
advertising budget of the campaign).

Figure 2. PDCA-methodology for evaluating the effectiveness

of digital advertising on social media

Source: compiled by the authors.

C. “Check” Stage – Monitoring your test digital campaign. All social

networks provide relevant online statistics at the time when digital
advertising is being viewed.
D. “Act” Stage – Adaptation of digital advertising in accordance with
the statistics obtained during the monitoring. Since removing all
statistics from digital advertising is much easier than from traditional
advertising, the process of customizing an advertisement is also
simple. In this way, we can optimize an advertising campaign and
increase its effectiveness by reducing its cost.
152 Dariia Doroshkevych, Oleg Venger

Hence, by analysing the ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising

on social media, we can conclude that social networks are interested in providing
information to users about the efficiency of their online business. After all,
advertisers are the money, through which networks are being developed. Therefore,
both social network owners and their users have advantages.

Conclusions
Thus, it can be concluded that the issue of evaluating the effectiveness
of digital advertising on social media is important and timely. The analysis of the
definitions of social media and their main characteristics made it clear that social
media have more advantages over traditional ones, especially, when it comes to
criteria and metrics used for evaluating the efficiency. This means that the number
of advertising campaigns that use social media as their primary advertising channel
will increase.
However, the existing criteria are mostly regarded by scientists as disparate
indicators that do not have strong cross-links. Thus, we have suggested the original
classification of indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of digital advertising on
social media, and offered a two-phase methodology for evaluating the effectiveness
based on the PDCA-cycle.
It can be argued that further scientific developments in this field are of
great importance for small, medium and large businesses and will help to evaluate
the effectiveness of digital advertising realistically and in the current time.

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