A new study from comScore and GroupM Search reveals further evidence that social media exposure and search behavoir are intrinsically connected. The study shows consumers who are using social media are far more engaged with brands than those who don’t and are much more likely to proactively search for brands.

Key findings from the study include:

• Consumers exposed to a brand’s influenced social media and paid search are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand.
• There was a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search.
• There was a 42-point lift in searcher penetration around brand product terms when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search compared to paid alone.
• Consumers are 1.7x as likely to search with the intention of sifting through a list of brands or products to check out, compared to other web users.
• 50% of consumers exposed to social media searched for product terms every day, compared to 33% of non social media users.
• Consumers exposed to social media and paid search have 223% heavier search behavior.

This study comes at a time when many marketers are learning that a successful web strategy is able to capitalize on this intersection of search and social media and that when used in conjunction these tactics are far more powerful than when used alone.