• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 7, 2011

Where does social media fit into the online ad landscape, and how do marketers determine ROI when it comes to attracting Likes and followers? A panel of mostly agency types including MEC, Deep Focus and Big Fuel executives placed social media somewhere between display and search. That’s because it combines the direct response, transactional model of search with the targeting by social actions that’s more in line with traditional display ads. “You’re trying to drive direct action but based on all these layers of social targeting rather than intent,” noted MEC managing  partner Adam Schlachter.

Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer said a problem is marketers don’t know how to measurement engagement in social media beyond Likes or clicks. “Marketers haven’t done enough research to know what they should be paying for,” he said. So the value of social advertising remains elusive beyond impression-based results.