Here are the top digital marketing data and case studies that caught our eye.

Best times to post on Facebook: ‘After hours’ gets most clicks

There are over 15 million brands and companies on Facebook now with the number of users steadily topping over a billion. But when are the best times for a brand to post on Facebook- and what should that post contain? This study from TrackMaven looks into how to get the most visibility from status updates. In many instances, pages saw more engagement during the hours and days you may least expect it.

Video ad buying trends: Fixed CPMs lead the way despite growth in real-time bidding

While real-time bidding continues to attract headlines, 96% of advertisers bought their ads based on a guaranteed CPM, with buying at a fixed CPM remaining the mainstay of advertisers buying video in a programmatic fashion, according to new research.
View an infographic showing the key highlights of the report below:

The value of a social share: Socialbakers ditches ‘engagement rate’ for ‘interaction rate’

Social media monitoring firm Socialbakers is switching its metric of choice, now favouring ‘interactions’ (absolute number of likes, comments, and shares) over engagement rate (interactions divided by audience) when looking at brand success on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Socialbakers said: “By understanding how your interaction levels are comparing to your industry or within your region you can benchmark your performance, and by understanding the structure of your interactions you can judge value, as naturally a share holds more weight than a simple like.”
View a sample comparing the Renault and Citroen car brands in the UK below:

The social sweet spot for search: Facebook ads ‘increase paid search conversions’ by 19%

Brands can generate increased conversions from their paid search ads when they also advertise on Facebook in the US, but only up to a certain point, according to a new study.

Ad revenue per user: Google, Facebook & Twitter

This chart shows the ad revenue per user (ARPU) for Google, Facebook and Twitter. Google has the highest ARPU buy far, 6 times that of Facebook and equating to 545 per Google user for Q1 2014. However looking at the chart shows that Googte’s ARPU is the most subject to fluctuation, whereas Facebook and Twitter have seen small but steady rises in ARPU since Q1 2012.

Advertisers still uncertain about real-time advertising

Most advertisers in the UK are still uncertain about real-time advertising (RTA), according to an ISBA survey.
Comments from survey respondents:
Below are selected comments on “If you aren’t yet involved, what do you consider to be the biggest obstacle to your company using Programmatic Trading / Real Time Advertising in the future?”
• “Our biggest obstacle is producing the creative in an agile, data led way without losing the power of the brand.”
• “The only obstacle would be when we need to share first party data.”
• “Data quality and data availability to support necessary targeting and optimization”
• “Negative perception of hidden costs and bot fraud”
• “Tagging. Until we get all of our onsite pages and content tagged up, we can’t track the full customer journey between onsite and offsite and so do retargeting.”
• “Lack of knowledge and reliance upon agencies to dictate the media plan”
• “Mistrust and lack of transparency”
• “Understanding…and securing buy in internally without all the information and clear benefits”

5 trends for Cannes Lions 2014: Smart tech, emotional power and long-form videos lead way

Leo Burnett Worldwide has revealed its 27th annual Cannes Predictions, which it claims to have 84% percent accuracy at previous awards.

Cannes Lions 2014: Highlights from the week so far

With Cannes Lions well underway, celebrating creativity in the digital media industries, Exact Target from Salesforce looks back at some of the key trends to come out of the festival so far. Throughout the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud will provide the top social trends from the event, including everything from the Game of Thrones to “La Galerie d’Instragram” photography competition, as seen in this recap.

World Cup marketing trends: Which regions generate most social buzz?

The Asia Pacific area (APAC) is producing 48% of all social buzz, ahead of Europe, Middle East and Africa and the Americas, with Japan and UK leading the way for countries, according to new research.
View an infographic showing key findings from the report below:

CASE STUDIES

Social media marketing on a budget: Play brings characters to life

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater partnered with the Art Institute of Chicago to give art lovers an once-in-a-lifetime experience and drive ticket sales for the play Sunday in the Park with George. This case study shows how the production company used social media marketing on a budget to amplify a one off event that brought a mysterious painting’s characters to life…

Mahou-San Miguel uses online gaming to engage fans

Mahou-San Miguel, the most important beer brand in Spain, leveraged its sports sponsorships by hosting an online game for consumers aged 18 to 50 leading up to a football match between two Madrid rivals. This case study looks at how the brand used online gaming to engage fans to reach 10% of Madrid’s population.

Mobile app marketing: Abercrombie pairs weather forecast with seasonal looks

The Abercrombie brand is first and foremost about looking hot. This was taken to the next level by transforming something as practical as a weather app into a way to find hot new looks, modelled by attractive forecasters. This case study looks at how the fashion brand used mobile app marketing to get customers engaging with the brand while on the move.

Mobile marketing on a budget: Donate a Word Via SMS

With an extremely limited budget, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan launched an innovative SMS campaign that raised money for schools in Afghanistan and created a new way of writing books.This case study looked at how the organisation used a mobile campaign on a tight budget to get the highest reach possible to help those in need.