Social media: The rise of targeted advertising

Social media will continue to grow as a favoured platform for targeted advertising as its adoption surges, driven by increasing mobile usage and higher penetration of smartphones and a young population, says a Deloitte report, Technology, Media & Telecommunications: India Predictions 2014. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, with detailed understanding of the user's demographics and preferences provide an attractive proposition for advertisers. The high granularity of information allows advertisers to target consumers much more effectively.

Innovation in various tools provided by social media platforms as well as third party providers for targeted advertising will improve customer engagement, says the report. For instance, Facebook started native in-line advertisements in news feed of their mobile users. Twitter has also revamped its analytics platform to provide improved campaign reporting for advertisers. LinkedIn, along with targeting options for ads, also offers sponsored updates that allow companies to promote their content to specific audiences on LinkedIn in a similar manner as companies post sponsored tweets on Twitter and promote page posts on Facebook.