Actual social media exposure linked to survey data
Rather than asking people what they remember seeing, we collect what they were actually exposed to on TikTok and Instagram. That covers both paid advertising and the far more common cases where a logo or a brand name simply turns up in the content.
The challenge
Advertising effect in social media is normally measured on people remembering correctly. They rarely do, particularly in younger audiences with high content consumption and very short exposure per item. And paid advertising is only part of the picture. A logo in the background of a video, or a brand named in the content of someone you follow, lands too, but it never shows up in ad statistics, and nobody remembers seeing it.
How we approached it
We combine a conventional survey with collection of respondents' own exposure data from the platforms, so actual exposure can be held against reported awareness and attitude. TikTok and Instagram are measured separately. The design has so far run in parallel across four markets, with a dedicated validation routine for submitted files before analysis.
The outcome
- Exposure measured on actual data rather than on recall
- Organic exposure, meaning logos and mentions inside ordinary content, captured alongside paid advertising
- TikTok and Instagram measured separately, not as one combined figure
- Run across four markets so far on the same design, with strong results
Methods
Case studies are anonymised. We are happy to share more in conversation.