Survey: CMOs Spend 11% of Their Budgets on Social Media

Chief marketing officers who responded to the most recent CMO Survey said their companies currently spend 11 percent of their marketing budgets on social media, and this spend is expected to grow to 19 percent over the next five years.

Figuring out how to convert these investments into quantifiable returns, however, is more challenging, according to the survey. The same executives gave low marks for social media’s contribution to their companies’ performances. Forty-four percent, for example, believe social media’s impact was nonexistent or minimal, whereas only 10 percent believed social media contributed highly to the company's bottom line (scores of six or seven; average rating was 3.2).

As for the types of investments companies are making in social media, it’s clear that content remains king, with a whopping 63 percent of respondents reporting that they will invest in content creation for social media. This drops off to 44 percent, however, for analytics, followed by social listening (42 percent), campaign optimization (42 percent) and community engagement (41 percent).

Brand-related strategies dominant the ways companies are using social media, with 46 percent of companies using social media to create brand awareness and brand building. The next most common use of social media is customer acquisition (31 percent), followed closely by the introduction of new products and services (29 percent), and customer retention (28 percent). Looking beyond these top activities, 20 percent of companies report using social media to improve employee engagement.

The least popular uses of social media by the CMOs include market research (15 percent), identifying new customer segments (14 percent), identifying new product and service opportunities (11 percent), and improving current products and services (7 percent).

The CMO Survey, founded in 2008, collects and disseminates the opinions of top marketers to predict the future of markets, track marketing excellence, and improve the value of marketing in firms and in society.