Does Brand Advertising Work for Marketers? Our New Report with The Drum

Over the years, marketers have pumped billions of dollars into brand advertising, from paid search and social ads to display and PPC — but why? Well, aside from the obvious desire to grow brand awareness, the more troubling response is simply because it’s established wisdom that they should.

The biggest question lies with whether or not marketers can actually prove this investment works for them, and that’s what The Drum, a global media platform and the biggest marketing website in Europe, set out to uncover in this new report.

The Drum conducted a survey and looked at how brands (B2B, B2C, and agencies) across the world currently advertise, how they’re measuring the effectiveness of their ad dollars, their experience with certain media platforms, and how marketers generally feel about the efficacy of brand advertising today.

Among the full results of the survey, here’s what we found most noteworthy:

• Only a quarter of brand respondents were able to attribute increased brand awareness to their spending on advertising.
• The most popular way of measuring return on investment in brand advertising is through clicks (62%), followed by impressions, conversions/assisted conversions, and increased sales correlating with the campaign period (all 60%).
• Almost a third (30%) of respondents said they didn’t measure brand perception at all, meaning they have no way of knowing whether what they spend on brand advertising is having any effect.
• 38% of respondents said they’re unsure if they trust Google, Facebook, and other advertising platforms to provide accurate counts on impressions, clicks, and video view counts.

Despite all of the uncertainty around brand advertising, businesses continue to spend billions on ads they aren’t even sure are working for their brands. Marketers need to find a better way to build awareness and brand affinity with the right people online.

Get all the research results from The Drum

Curious to learn more about the state of brand advertising? Take a look at the full report by heading over to The Drum’s website for more.