ComScore and Facebook, launch the third publication of the series “The Power of Like”, entitled The Power of Like in Europe: how social marketing works for retail brands , focusing on European brands such as ASOS, H & M, Zara, Topshop and La Redoute.

This study shows how these popular consumer brands use Facebook to offer impressions on a large scale, achieve repercussion and brand expansion, and ultimately generate the desired behaviors among the main customer segments.

“The results of this study offer different ideas for marketers and advertisers who want to better understand the effectiveness of marketing in their Facebook campaigns,” said Mike Shaw, Director of Marketing Solutions at comScore. “With a framework for measuring value and the impact of campaigns, brands will obtain the necessary knowledge to optimize their marketing efforts in social networks. While each campaign is unique and can vary in effectiveness, this research demonstrates how Facebook marketing can be effective in reaching consumers and influencing their behavior at the time of purchase. ”

Among the highlights of the European Power of Like are:

• On Facebook in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, 32% of a user’s time is spent visiting the Home page / Latest news, the main place where the content of the brand is consumed. While the section of Últimas noticias is the main driver of the brand exposure on Facebook in relation to the brand page, only a small part of the fans see the content of the brand in a certain week (both in retail and in other categories)
• Marketing messages served to the brand’s fans can be extended to extend the reach of the brand to Friends of Fans, as long as the fans interact with the message (ie, by “liking” it, writing a comment, sharing it, doing check-in, etc ..). European fashion brands such as ASOS, H & M and Zara have the ability to spread these marketing messages to 44 Friends of Fans for each Fan that has the brand on Facebook.
• Fans’ Friends often present slightly different demographic profiles than the core Fans of the brand. Understanding where the differences lie provides brands with ammunition to strategically target these demographics and help them participate as consumers and even lead them to visit the physical store or to make online purchases.
• Fans and Friends of Fans of retail brands (and brands of other categories) often assume the highest value customers. For example, ASOS Fans multiplied the probability of visiting the ASOS website by 3.6 compared to non-fans, which could be expected given that they had indicated their affinity for the brand. However, also Friends of Fans multiplied by 2.7 the odds of visiting the website, which means that in addition to the inherent similarities between fans and groups of Friends of Fans, there are persuasive effects achieved through the exhibition to the media in the Friends of Fans.
• Not only were the effective social impressions that generated positive brand commitment for ASOS, but also the paid impressions were effective and achieved behavioral increases. Ads paid on Facebook generated a 130% increase in purchasing behavior on the ASOS website within four weeks of the campaign’s exposure; compared to consumers who were not exposed but who had a similar affinity to ASOS (in terms of site visits and purchase), as the test group in the four weeks prior to the advertising campaign.

Leading fashion companies highlight the importance of measuring ROI by third parties
“ASOS has been at the forefront of Facebook marketing for many years and, in order to continue increasing investment, it is essential to have access to a measurement of the Reliable ROI, “said Fiona Marshall, Marketing Director of Womenswear at ASOS. “Recent comScore research shows that ASOS experienced a large increase in visits and online purchases as a result of our paid advertising on Facebook.”

“Facebook is an important element in our marketing strategy and as comScore emphasizes in its most recent research, social networks can be very effective at delivering large-scale brand impressions and ultimately driving potential customers to our website,” he said. Nicolas Perignon, Social Media and M-commerce Marketing Manager, La Redoute.