Survey: Retailers increase interest in this advertising channel

Retailers are starting to shift where they place their digital advertising dollars.

According to a new survey of more than 500 budget holders and decision makers from brands, retailers, and agencies from product review and user-generated content solutions provider Bazaarvoice, 52% of respondents are considering moving their budget away from paid advertising efforts to owned content (such as a company’s social media pages) and earned content (such as third-party social media posts) creation.

Another 30% of respondents are already doing so. Close to half (47%) of respondents are considering moving 10% or more of their budget to owned and earned content creation, away from paid advertising efforts.

In addition, 48% of respondents said they feel like they can only somewhat gauge how successful their paid advertising activities are. A substantial majority (86%) said they believe that more authentic user-generated content in their paid and owned media would improve the performance of their ads and content.

Other interesting findings include:

• One in respondents said that their paid, earned and owned budgets are all separate.
• Six in 10 (61%) respondents said their budget will be impacted by the recession, while 20% are unsure. 
• Eight in 10 (81%) respondents said they will be expected to reduce marketing dollar spend.
• One in three (34%) respondents said they will be expected to reduce headcount within their advertising team.
• Close to three in four (73%) respondents said they are targeted on improving the ROI of their marketing dollars.

"For years, brands have always leaned on paid channels to amplify branded content, tactics, and offers,” said Zarina Lam Stanford, Bazaarvoice chief marketing officer. “In fact, more than $700 billion was spent on paid advertising alone in 2022. Now we are seeing a rebalancing to optimize the marketing mix modeling as consumers are yearning for organic content from other shoppers i.e. earned and shared content and channels."

The research was commissioned by Bazaarvoice and conducted in November 2022 by Savanta among 502 budget-holders and decision-makers from brands, retailers, and agencies from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S.

Survey: Social shopping proves popular

An overwhelming 98% of surveyed consumers planned to make at least one purchase through social shopping or influencer commerce in 2022, according to recent data from social media management software provider Sprout Social.

In addition, 47% of respondents said they plan to use shopping features within a platform, such as Instagram Shops, Facebook Shops, or TikTok Shopping. And 77% are more likely to increase their spending with brands they feel connected to.