“Social recommendations have received a renewed focus within the digital advertising space following the introduction of new ad units that place an emphasis on friend connections the social network. With that in mind, Nielsen analyzed results from 79 ad campaigns on Facebook over a period of six months to determine the effectiveness of social advertising, defined by Nielsen as those served to users who have friends that are fans or have interacted with the advertised brand, prominently calling the relationship out. Nielsen found that social advertising, on average, generates a 55% greater lift in ad recall than non-social ads. According to the report, it’s not surprising. Nielsen cites a separate study it conducted in 2011 that found that 76% of U.S. web consumers said they most trusted recommendations from personal acquaintances.”