Facebook engagement among brands up 338%, says Adobe
If your business doesn't have a Facebook Page yet, you're losing out.
Brands are still crazy about Facebook even if they can't quite figure out how to best leverage the massive social platform. Facebook investment numbers show an increase of 21 percent between the first and second quarter of 2012 as well as an 84 percent bump between the second quarter of 2011 and second quarter of 2012. The extra money, time, and effort are apparently paying off: Facebook brand engagement numbers show a growth of 60 percent between the first quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2012 as well as a whopping 338 percent jump between the second quarter of 2011 and second quarter of 2012.
The latest numbers come from last quarter's Adobe Digital Index, which compromises over 250 billion impressions and activity of 46 million fans for 225 companies in the automotive, CPG, financial services, media and entertainment, as well as retail industries. The eight-page report, titled "Q2 2012 Global Digital Advertising Update" (PDF), is overall quite positive, noting that paid search continued to grow across industries, spend grew by double digits, and ROI improved thanks to lower CPC rates.
The Facebook section is the one I found most interesting though. Adobe estimates Facebook brand Pages will grow an additional 45 percent by the end of 2012 thanks to changes in the Facebook platform, such as Timeline for Facebook Pages. In fact, the software company believes brands should adjust Facebook spending accordingly to take advantage of improvements in the Facebook Platform.
"We surmise that increased engagement rates result from platform changes made in the last two quarters (e.g. Timeline), use of new acquisition and engagement metrics, and more effective social marketing by brands. Increases in engagement levels in future quarters would indicate that Facebook is becoming a more valuable advertising marketing channel than in the past," an Adobe spokesperson said in a statement.
Oh, and if you found the use of 438 percent odd in the image above, don't worry, it's just basic math. "338 percent represents the increase year-over-year in Facebook brand engagement from Q2 2011 to Q2 2012 (which is what we've stated in the report)," an Adobe spokesperson said in a statement. "In the image, 438 percent percent represents Q2 2011 Facebook brand engagement (which was 100%) plus Q2 2012 Facebook brand engagement (338 percent). If you add the two together (100 percent + 338 percent) that's what the 438 percent figure comes from."