Until now there has been no clarity on how to test whether $58.3 billion in annual U.S. mobile advertising is having the intended effect. Emotional Brand Connections (EBC) Social Media Ad Testing from MFour and Kantar Added Value provides a reliable beacon to cut through the fog.

The new process takes place in test-recipients’ actual mobile news feeds. After picking the intended audience for the ad, proprietary technology injects it into panelists’ feeds, where it appears no different from the regular ads they receive.

First, tracking targeted consumers’ natural behavior on the social site captures important data about how long they view a test ad, whether they turn on audio, and whether they engage with the ad by liking, clicking or enlarging it. Researchers then survey the test ad’s recipients to measure a wide range of impacts, including brand recall, reaction to the content and caption, emotional connection to the advertised brand, and the ad’s influence on test recipients’ intent to purchase.

“Social media is where today’s mobile citizens congregate (91.5% of Facebook usage is mobile), and social news feeds are consumers’ windows on the world,” notes the official word shared with MMW. “EBC Social Media Ad Testing blazes the first reliable path to clear insights in this crucial marketing space.”

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