Commercial media budgets on digital channels are set to increase significantly over the next year, a new survey of EMEA marketers by Nielsen has found, despite “below average” confidence in their measurement of online platforms.
Advertising budgets across social media, online and mobile display, and search engines are expected to increase by 50%, 48%, and 43% respectively over the next 12 months in EMEA, according to the latest Annual Marketing Report.
The increased expenditure across digital is driving a plan to raise ad spending across all channels by 28% over the next year.
Though lower than the expected global increase in social media adspend (65%), the change also reflects the greater perception that advertising on social media is considered the most effective among EMEA marketers.
Despite this, confidence in measuring ROI across paid digital channels is below average in EMEA, with just 57% of marketers feeling confident in their measurement compared to 65% globally.
When considering that EMEA marketers’ top goals include customer acquisition and brand awareness, Nielsen notes that traditional mass-reach media options such as TV and radio are likely more aligned with these goals, suggesting either a mismatch between goals and strategies or a greater rethinking of effective use of digital strategy.
The report also stressed the continuing emphasis placed around ESG, DE&I, and social corporate responsibility throughout EMEA marketers.
The survey queried nearly 2,000 global marketers manager-level or above, who manage budgets of more than $1m across a variety of industries between December 2021 and January 2022.
Stark revelations were uncovered globally – namely, while 69% of global marketers believe first-party data is essential for their media strategies and campaigns, and 72% of marketers believe they have access to quality data, just 26% are fully confident in their audience data.
Perhaps driven by GDPR, EMEA marketers appeared to prefer being less reliant on first-party data (61% believe it is essential vs. the 69% global average), and likewise 61% believe they have access to quality data.
Instead, the importance of audience targeting and ad creative were ranked higher than other factors driving positive campaign performance in EMEA.
