The Marketers Guide to Social ROI

The Marketer’s Guide to Social ROIHow to implement an identity centric strategy that results in positive ROI, and formulas to prove it.

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ROI is Hard – This Guide Aims to Make it Easier

Proving social return on investment (Social ROI) is hard. There’s no question about it.

Thousands of marketers are faced with the challenge of demonstrating that social is worth its

piece of the marketing pie. However, many marketers fall short when it comes to proving that

their social investment was worth the effort or spend.

To help you navigate the path to true social ROI, this guide breaks down the process into a series

of achievable methods and provides relevant use cases and trackable metrics to help you

measure your marketing campaigns more accurately.

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Start with Defining Business Objectives

Here is a list of the most common business objectives that social can help you solve.

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Lift in…

o New customer

acquisition

o Referral traffic

o User-generated

content

o Engagement (time

spent on site or page

views)

o Repeat conversions

Improvement in…

o Marketing campaign

performance

o Organic search

rankings

o Brand exposure and

awareness

Discovery…

o Learning valuable

audience insights

o Pinpointing behaviors

that lead to more

revenue

What are your business objectives?

METHOD #1

Authenticate User Identity and Improve Conversions with Social Login

Why Social Login?

The most effective way to begin measuring social ROI is by integrating social login, which acts as

the first access point to a user’s identity. Social login lets users authenticate and log in to your

web properties using their existing social identities.

Essentially, social login is the gateway to social ROI -- it orchestrates data capture in a

permission-based, streamlined manner.

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We examined thousands of websites and mobile

applications offering social login and discovered

that social login increases user acquisition by an

average of 33 percent. Moreover, socially logged

in users view 66.7 percent more pages and

spend 56 percent more time on average

interacting with the site.

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Social Login:

Collect users’ first-party data

in a streamlined, secure

manner.

Registration System:

Authenticate user identities

and sign customers in via

traditional or social login.

Dynamic Database:

Store unlimited identity data

fields in a safe, cloud-based

database designed for

social.

Key Tools and TechnologyUse Case: Forbes Increases Registration Conversions

Forbes, one of the most influential sources of business and

technology news on the web, boosted its registrations and

conversions by integrating a connected consumer

management suite across its web properties.

Specifically, the news publication implemented social login

for an improved registration and sign-in experience, along

with a series of social plugins to facilitate and foster online

engagement.

Forbes experienced a significant increase in newly registered

users on its site, with over half of its new user base choosing

to register for the site through social login.

What You Should be Measuring

Increase in registrations - How much have site registration numbers increased since

implementing social login?

Value of a registered user - To determine the value of a registered user, you’ll want to examine

the estimated return for new user registrations. Take the following example: An ecommerce site

registers 10,000 users a month. Of these registrations, 500 users go on to make purchases on the

site over the span of a year. If the margin for each shopping cart conversion is $75, then the

value per registered user would be $3.75 -- (500*$75)/10,000 = 3.75.

Decrease in forgotten password help desk issues - When users log in socially, they save

themselves from having to remember another username and password combination; your

business, in turn, avoids the hassle of dealing with lost password recovery issues.

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Formula for Calculating Social Login ROI

Increase in Registrations with Social Login * Value per Registered User

Example: After adding social login, your registrations increased by 28%, resulting in 15,000 new

socially registered users. Using the value per registered user above ($3.75), your ROI calculation

would be: 15,000 * $3.75 = $56,250

METHOD #2

Finding the Value of Customer Data

Why Social Data?

As more and more businesses are discovering, true customer understanding begins with social

data. According to a recent survey sample of 2,200 marketers around the world (CIO), 71% of

marketers plan to implement big data analytics into their marketing strategies within the next

two years.

Having access to users’ social profiles and behavior data enables businesses to better tailor

their marketing efforts and online experiences for increased relevancy. For instance, a user who

logs in with his Facebook account grants your business access to his profile information, which

can include his interests, social graph, location, and more. You can then use this data to tailor

your marketing campaigns and online experience to that individual user.

Source: http://www.cio.com/article/737887/Marketers_See_Value_in_Big_Data_Analytics_But_Face_Hurdles

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Social Login:



manner.

Dynamic Database:

Store unlimited identity data

fields in a safe, cloud-based

database designed for

social.

Insights Dashboard:

Visualize and act on the first

party social data of anyone

who connects with your

brand .

Key Tools and Technology

Use Case: KLM Personalizes and Socializes the Flying

Experience

Traditionally, flying has been a somewhat isolating

experience: airlines don’t typically know much about their

passengers other than their flight history, dietary restrictions,

and payment details, and passengers generally don’t expect

to socialize in-flight.

In a push to differentiate itself from its competitors, Dutch

airline KLM challenges age-old flying conventions by

integrating social technology into its in-flight experiences.

It set the stage for serendipitous meetings amongst

passengers with its Meet & Seat program, which socializes

the flying experience by letting passengers authenticate their

social identities and choose their plane seats according to the

social profiles of other socially logged in passengers on their

flight.

Not only does social login help passengers easily identify

other customers on their flights, it also acts as a gateway into

a wealth of customer identity data which KLM can connect to

its customers’ flight histories, meal preferences, airline

rewards, and more.

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“Social Login and consumer management technologies equipped

our business with the tools to create a personal in-flight

experience.”

Rob Zwerink, Director of eDevelopment, KLM


Average Value of Data Collected Per User – To get this number, you will need to assign a

value to the data you are collecting when a new user authenticates with a social identity. Social

profile data like interests, number of friends, relationship status, and education are all

examples of customer data that can help you improve the effectiveness of your marketing

campaigns. There are many services that allow you to purchase similar sets of data. By

collecting social data as users authenticate with a social identity, you’ll get more accurate

information without the high cost.

Number of Socially Connected Users – To calculate the value of data, you’ll need to keep

track of the number of users who authenticate with a social identity.

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Formula for Calculating ROI from Social Data

Average Value of Data Collected Per User * Number of Socially

Connected Users

Example: To obtain a registered user’s birthday, relationship status, location, and friend count is

worth an average of $1.25 to your business. Each month there’s an average 5,000 granting access to

this information by logging in socially. Your ROI calculation would be: 5,000 * $1.25 = $6,250

METHOD #3

Applying Customer Data to Business Applications

Why Use Customer Data?

As important as it is to understand users in deeper ways by collecting and analyzing their social

data, businesses wanting to establish lasting relationships with customers need to effectively

utilize this data to boost customer engagement and drive conversions.

To start acting on your social data, you’ll want to port it into marketing platforms such as email

marketing software, recommendation engines, CRMs, ecommerce platforms, ad serving

platforms, DMPs, and more. Integrating marketing platforms with first-party user data leads to

personalized marketing efforts and more meaningful user experiences.

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Integrations with

Marketing Applications:

You’ll need to be able to

easily port acquired

customer data into

marketing platforms like

email marketing software,

recommendation engines,

CRMs, ecommerce

platforms, ad serving

platforms, DMPs, and more,

to start personalizing user

experiences and marketing

campaigns.

Key Tools and TechnologyUse Case: Virgin America Celebrates Customers’ Birthdays

Virgin America creates authentic connections with its customers

by collecting data on their users’ favorite teams, birthdays, and

full names. It then ports this user data into its existing email

marketing platforms and configures its email client to

automatically send a personalized promotional message to

customers on their birthdays.

In the example below, Virgin America’s email displays a

personalized birthday message along with a 15% birthday

discount code. By reaching out to customers with a relevant

birthday greeting, Virgin America creates tailored user

experiences while encouraging customers to purchase a flight

through its online booking system.


Increase in Application Conversion – After porting your data into the appropriate marketing

platforms, your business needs to measure the conversions generated by these data-fueled

marketing campaigns. How much have your conversions increased since incorporating

consumer social data?

Increase Value of a Conversion from Improved Application Performance – Data-driven

conversions are likely to bring more value to your business, as they represent more targeted,

relevant opportunities for your customers. What is the increase in conversion value (e.g. CPMs

or average order value) of a data-backed marketing strategy?

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Formula for Calculating Data Driven ROI

Increase in Conversions * Value of a Conversion

Example: Incorporating customer data into an email campaign resulted in a 14% increase in email

click-through rate, which led to an extra 25 conversions. If the average order value of those 25

conversions was $125, your ROI Calculation would be: 25 * $125 = 3,125

METHOD #4

Create Meaningful User Experiences

Why Create More Engaging and Relevant User Experiences?

To help you better grasp the direct impact of creating more engaging user experiences through

integration of social plugins, we’ve outlined the core benefits below.

Shorter potential path to purchase - According to a survey by Dimensional Research, 90

percent of respondents claimed that positive online reviews directly influenced buying

decisions.

Increased sense of community among users - Social consumers love to interact online,

whether by sharing and commenting on content or chatting directly with other visitors.

Increased SEO ranking - Adding more user-generated content to your site through plugins like

comments and reviews helps your business optimize for search.

Referral traffic from social channels - Share plugins enable seamless, quick sharing of site

content to users’ social networks, which results in more referral traffic back to your web

properties. Our research shows that 22 percent of all comments and reviews are shared to

social networks.

Source: https://blog.gigya.com/gigya-data-22-of-comments-and-reviews-are-shared-to-social-networks/

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Share:

Get users sharing the right content at the right

moments to increase high quality referral traffic

from social networks.

Comments:

Allow users to leave feedback on your site’s content

while boosting SEO with user-generated content.

Ratings & Reviews:

Let users share opinions on products and services

across your site.

Activity Feed:

Show real-time activity from friends and your entire

site community through shared content,

comments, ratings & reviews, gamification, and any

other tagged action on your site.

Key Tools and TechnologySHARE

RATINGS & REVIEWS

COMMENTS

ACTIVITY FEED

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Use Case: Dallas Morning News Fosters a Social Reader Base

Social Login allows Dallas Morning News’ user base to register and log in for the site quickly and

easily using their existing social network profiles before leaving a comment. By providing a

convenient alternative to traditional registration and login, Dallas Morning News encourages

users to verify their social identities before performing other site actions while creating

opportunities for itself to capture actionable user data.

This process of logging in with an existing social profile before commenting adds a layer of

authenticity to the site experience, converting what would otherwise be anonymous users into

known customers.

After making it easier for users to authenticate their social identities on Dallasnews.com and

making the commenting process less anonymous, Dallas Morning News saw its commenting

activity rise 92% after just the first four months of implementing Gigya’s Social Login and

Comments, with over half of subscribers logging in socially to leave comments. What’s more,

Social Login automatically filters out spam bots, increasing the quality of comments and

improving the overall user experience on Dallasnews.com while reducing labor needs for

comment moderation by 95%.

By offering multiple Social Login options, Dallasnews.com also increases its user login rates,

making the barrier to entry for registration and sign in easier and quicker.

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“Comments gives us the ability to create a more customized user

experience on the front-end while also providing a much more

robust moderating experience on the back-end.

We’ve definitely seen the tremendous impact that social login and

authentication has on the overall commenting experience.”

Michael Landauer, Dallas Morning News Digital Communities Manager


Increase in SEO Traffic – As we discussed earlier, user-generated content helps boost SEO. How

much has SEO traffic increased since implementing social plugins?

Increase in Social Referral Traffic – Social plugins, especially Share buttons, help boost traffic

from social networks. What is the increase in social referral traffic?

Visits to Conversion – Referral traffic is valuable but often times difficult to measure in

monetary terms. When it comes to real returns, you want to look at conversions. How many of

your site visits lead to actual conversions?

Value of a Conversion – Conversions should lead to direct revenue, such as a customer

completing a purchase on your site or clicking on an ad. What is the value of each conversion?

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Formula for Calculating the ROI of Customer Engagement

(Increase in Traffic * Conversion Rate) * Value of a Conversion

Example: Adding social plugins resulted in 10,000 new visits from social and organic traffic. Your

average conversion rate for those traffic sources is 1.2% and your average order value is $120. Your

ROI calculation would be: (10,000 *1.2%)*$120 = $14,400

METHOD #5

Increasing Customer Loyalty Through Gamification

Why Gamification?

Rewards programs, which are often times integrated into gamification, allow businesses to

incentivize users by offering virtual or physical goods to users who perform valuable site

actions. Incentives promote repeat site visits and generate valuable conversions, which can

translate to direct returns.

In fact, websites featuring a gamified, incentive-based program experience a 29% increase in

overall site actions (Gigya).

(Source: Gigya, https://blog.gigya.com/gamification-real-results-not-hype-infographic/)

Another way to promote customer loyalty is to encourage some friendly competition across

your web properties. Gamification enables businesses to reward customers with points,

badges, and other prizes for completing specific site actions. Users can level up and see how

they stack up against other users, which fosters a sense of community among your user base.

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Social Login:



manner.

Gamification:

Build customer loyalty by

incentivizing users with

points, badges, and special

offers for performing

positive actions on your site

or mobile app.

Social Plugins:

Facilitate valuable behavior

like sharing, commenting,

and more.

Key Tools and TechnologyUse Case: Capcom Grows its Customer Base with

Gamification

In a push to drive engagement and awareness for the

relaunch of one of its biggest franchises, Devil May Cry

(DmC), video game retailer Capcom teamed with Gigya to

create a mobile app that would create a connected, holistic

experience between the mobile app and console game while

extending play time and engagement.

For a seamless, permission-based sign-in process, Capcom

integrated social login to get its users started with the app

quickly. To drive friendly competition and encourage more

interaction with the app, Capcom gamified its mobile

experience, creating personal missions for users to complete

in exchange for virtual rewards.

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After launching its mobile app, Capcom saw thousands of daily social logins, with users

continuing to engage with the app’s game elements, logging in an average of 6.1 times. The

retailer also surpassed $1 million in game sales in its first month of launching the app.

The screenshots below demonstrate Capcom’s socially-powered, gamified mobile experience:


Value of Incentivized Actions – Each time you offer incentives to your users for performing

valuable actions, your business derives value from these performed actions. In order to

calculate the ROI of Gamification, you will need to assign values to customer actions. Before

launching, it’s important to have a good grasp of what each action is worth so that you can

measure results to clearly demonstrate ROI.

Increase in Valuable Actions – Whether you’re encouraging users to share to social networks

or make a repeat purchase, Gamification should be designed to increase the customer actions

that impact your business’s bottom line. To calculate the impact of Gamification, you will need to

track the increase in valuable customer actions over time.

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Formula for Calculating the ROI of Gamification

Value of Incentivized Actions * Increase in Valuable Actions

Example: Value of a customer review = $5. After implementing a loyalty system, reviews increased by

1,000/month. Your ROI would be: 1,000 x $5 = $5,000

Demystifying ROI

With the right tools, methods, and strategy, social ROI can be achieved and measured in a way

that’s easy to understand and demonstrate. Hopefully this guide serves as a starting point to

begin your journey of executing an identity centric marketing strategy that results in positive ROI.

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About GigyaGigya helps clients build better customer relationships by turning unknown visitors into

known, loyal and engaged customers. With Gigya’s technology, businesses increase

registrations and identify customers across devices, consolidate data into rich customer

profiles, and provide better products and experiences through integrations with leading

marketing and service applications. More than 700 of the world’s leading brands rely on

Gigya to build identity-driven relationships and to provide scalable, secure Customer

Identity Management.