- eMarketer Staff

Recent studies point to a strong connection between social media marketing and tactics such as paid search. This means that companies need to carefully align their social media efforts with other online initiatives -- and that requires strategic planning, according to eMarketer.

A study of U.S. Internet users by comScore, GroupM Search and M80 found a significant amount of brand leverage when paid search campaigns were combined with social media efforts.



Among survey participants who were exposed only to paid search ads for specific products, 23 percent searched on product terms after seeing the ads.

However, when paid search was combined with social media marketing relevant to those products, 38 percent of respondents searched on product terms.

More impressively, when paid search was combined with social media influenced directly by the marketer, 65 percent of respondents searched on product terms.