L2 Research Shows Maturing Social Ad Market Amid Ongoing Growth

L2 Research Shows Maturing Social Ad Market Amid Ongoing Growth
Arthur Zaczkiewicz
More than 180 retailers and brand marketers from fashion and beauty jammed a ballroom at the Andaz hotel in New York last week to cull insights from L2's latest Intelligence Report on Social Platforms. The findings marked a milestone in social media marketing: while advertising dollars dedicated to social and digital continue its breakneck speed, the segment is experiencing maturation, L2 researchers said. "As brands have opened their pockets, social platforms have raced to capitalize, rolling out new ad offerings," the report said. "While Facebook and YouTube solidified their roles with advertisers, 2016 marked the maturation of Instagram as an ad platform and the emergence of Snapchat as a serious contender for ad dollars." Along with this growth and maturation, challenges are emerging. "The rapid pace of innovation and evolution has only made social platforms more difficult for brands to crack," researchers noted. "Changes to Instagram's algorithm have begun to reduce organic engagement, while evidence of ad fatigue exists on Facebook. Brands continue to struggle with content creation for new platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram Stories, while newer platforms like Facebook Live and Messenger seem poised to add more complexity to social advertising." L2 added that "underlying all this frantic activity, the key question

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