Global marketplace analysts Nielsen and social networking giant Facebook have announced the launch of a new tool designed for measuring the effectiveness of online PR and advertising. Called Nielsen BrandLift, the tool will place opt-in polls on Facebook for users to give their opinions on different aspects of a company’s online strategy. Questions within the polls will aim to gauge consumer’s opinions on brand perception, ad recall and purchasing intent.

Since their alliance in 2009, this is the first time Nielsen and Facebook have offered a product of this kind outside of the US. More than 70 studies have been conducted across various sectors in the US.

Any digital agency stands to benefit, as Stephen Haines, UK commercial director at Facebook reportedly said, “Helping marketers measure the effectiveness of advertising using Facebook has been a priority for us and working with Nielsen helps us continue doing just that. Marketers have responded positively to BrandLift studies in the US and we know marketers in the UK will also benefit from a better understanding of how people react to their online PR campaigns.”

Louise Ainsworth, EMEA Managing Director for the Nielsen Company Online added, “The power and scale of Facebook’s community provides a unique platform for research and this offering complements the portfolio of tools available to marketers in the UK with simple and fast insights on brand advertising.”

The results of earlier studies highlighted the importance of gathering this data from consumers. 97% of the studies showed that at least one brand lift metric, such as brand awareness, had increased after an online PR campaign, and 85% of the studies showed increases in at least two key metrics.

The information will help brands make best use of online PR, ensuring that any digital agency working with them is focusing on the right areas of their campaign from search through to display advertising and social media helping ensure the right messages are being pushed to the right audience at the right time.

Understanding brand perception could also help to influence decisions about traffic and strategy such as budget allocation to activities such as SEO and link building making sure that all channels are being effectively maximized for optimum ROI.

As a simple example, if a digital agency has attempted to promote a product’s slogan via social media, but a BrandLift poll shows that consumers could not remember what it was, the agency could then analyse why this was the case and adjust future campaigns accordingly.

And with the sheer volume of users on Facebook, this could prove to be the most valuable source of online market research yet.

BrandLift could represent an excellent development in measuring the effects of social media and digital advertising strategies for lead consumer internet brands. Gary Collins, CEO at Status Media, a UK based digital agency commented that, “It seems that social media marketing is still for the early adopters with many companies still focussing much of their budgets on traditional SEO, link building and PPC. As an agency we’re proposing social strategies as part of an integrated approach, it’s all about customer engagement and consumer interaction really”.

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