Few marketing leaders—3.4 percent—would say social media contributes very highly to their firm’s performance, yet by 2021, it is expected to account for 20.9 percent of marketing budgets. The CMO Survey, jointly sponsored by the American Marketing Association, Deloitte LLP and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, found that 40 percent of marketing executives describe social media as making a below-average contribution.

Underlying the disconnect, the survey found, was that social media is not effectively linked to companies’ marketing strategies, and that customer information, such as purchasing and social media, is not integrated. Furthermore, proving its impact is difficult. The CMO Survey reports that only 11.5 percent of marketing leaders say that they can quantify its effectiveness. A further 40.6 percent say that they have a qualitative sense of its impact, but not a quantitative assessment. Almost half, 47.9 percent, cannot report its impact at all.

The CMO Survey also notes that marketers—83.9 percent lead their companies’ social media activities—need more training on the intersection of IT and traditional marketing, and that most organizations do not have clear social media goals.

Click here for more on the CMO Survey’s findings.