After what it admits was an awkward phase for social marketing, Adobe just debuted a new service, which it promises will give brands all the data and tools necessary to execute mature social strategies. Part of its Digital Marketing Suite, Adobe Social is a combination of analytics-heavy social listening, management and publishing tools. “Just because social feels intuitive doesn’t mean you can run it intuitively,” says Brad Rencher, senior vice president/GM of Adobe Digital Marketing Business. “Imagine reporting on your search campaigns by telling your CMO that customers really ‘like’ your keywords, or that sentiment around your keywords is positive.” Determined to drill deeper than “likes,” Rencher and his team will try to help brands understand the direct and indirect effects of social on all aspects of their businesses. More superficially, Rencher plans to give brands a clearer picture of how social impacts brand uplift, conversions, and revenue, while allowing for better customer segmentation across various channels and devices. “Your social strategy should not end with the start of a conversation,” according to Rencher. “That’s just where the opportunities to learn from your customers begin.” The next step is to put social into context with search, display, email, mobile, Web sites and other marketing channels, Rencher added. “With all of this information, data and programs have to connect, make sense together and be part of a broader initiative and platform.” In recent years, Adobe has moved aggressively into the advertising space with four key acquisitions, including Efficient Frontier, Omniture, Demdex and Auditude. All the while, Adobe has continued to create technology for marketers to buy and optimize online advertising for search, social and display. Late last year, Adobe said it was capturing approximately 5 trillion digital transactions annually for some 5,000 customers.