Fashion brands push for more social media marketing

In recent years, consumers have seen quite aggressive social media marketing efforts from most retail brands, including some of the luxury brands.

While Google ads remain a main channel to advertise for a brand and drive traffic, social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have served as key marketing channels for brands. Facebook reported second-quarter revenues of $2.9 billion, driven mainly by ads. Snapchat has also just announced the new advertising platform.

According to WWD, Global digital ad spend is expected to surpass $140 billion this year, an almost 17 percent increase from $120.41 billion in 2013, according to data from eMarketer. Google currently commands nearly a third of the market, or 32.35 percent, up from 31.83 percent last year. In 2013, Facebook made up 5.8 percent of worldwide digital ad revenues, and this number could reach 8 percent by yearend. 

Additionally, other than Google, Facebook is the only player to make a dent in the space in recent history, especially when it comes to mobile. Mobile ads are primed to increase by 91.7 percent this year, potentially hitting more than $36 billion, and Facebook is expected to account for 20.4 percent. Google’s share is expected to drop to 44.6 percent from 46.4 percent. 

In one of my marketing projects, our team compared the social media marketing efforts by different luxury brands. We noted that many brands have no predefined social media strategy and seem to be confused about their identities at times. In fact, many marketing experts have suggested that retail brands should evaluate the return on ads on social media the same way as they evaluate the traditional ads return. If social media is not used effectively, the company may as well be wasting its marketing budget.

Many retail brands these days are advertising on Facebook and Instagram simply because they fear to be behind the curve. However, the social media strategy often times have less structured approaches in terms of contents, key words and target audience. Social media is an excellent opportunity for marketers to create a different kind of connection and interaction with the brand's clients. Therefore, ads should be carefully curated based on each social platform's target users.

In addition, some marketers, especially those from luxury brands, may decide not to advertise heavily on platforms such as Facebook as they do not want the ads to be seen alongside rental car ads. Instead, style.com or other fashion related websites may be a better place to invest ads money in.