Entries Tagged 'Facebook Advertising' ↓

Lack of Proven Results Is Leaving Many A Potential Advertiser Gun-Shy

For most companies, marketing and advertising budgets are the last to come and the first to go. Marketing officers have to fight for every dollar they see. With the new set of tools and analytical data made possible by the Internet, things like ROI and “Results” are no longer avoidable; they are just too easy to get. It does not surprise me then, when I see quotes from Facebook developers that go like this:

“I have tried all the Facebook advertising networks and found that none earned much money. Now I am using Google AdSense to put text advertising links on the Scrabulous canvas page, and I am barely recouping my swelling bandwidth costs.”

For those of you at home not following along, those are the words of Scrabulous creator Rajat Agarwalla. Scrabulous has over 840,000 users, making it one of the most popular applications on Facebook. If the popular applications can not bring in enough advertising dollars to turn a hefty profit, what does that say about the hopes of the other 4,500  small to medium sized Facebook applications striking it rich?

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Stop Showing Me Ads For Meat - I Am A Vegetarian!

The Facebook advertising platform is showing ads targeted as well as an ad for Viagara to a 17 year old. That is, according to Blogging Stocks Barry Summerlin. Alright those are not his words (they are mine), but one has to truly wonder how targeted the Facebook advertising platform is when users start to complain. After all, aren’t we as marketers supposed to be the ones complaining that publishers can’t deliver our targeted consumer?

Summerlin quips,

“Why, when I log on to Facebook in the year 2007, is glorious old UoP (University of Phoenix) still hassling me to go get my GED or whatever learn-at-home hustle it’s running, particularly when the actual, genuine university that graduated me way back when is right there on the page, pulsing in Carolina blue beneath my favorite hilarious and insightful quotes?”

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Facebook Needs to Find a Better Ad Platform Partner

Slow. Difficult. Annoying.

Are these three words that you would use to describe a partner and stakeholder in your business? I sure hope not. Today’s Wall Street Journal story today about Microsoft’s bid to buy a stake in Facebook has me thinking about those three words.

Slow. Difficult. Annoying.

For any of you who have ever used Microsoft’s AdCenter paid search platform, you know what I am talking about. Facebook must have never used the system before they signed their advertising agreement with Microsoft. The system, compared with Google, is slow, difficult and annoying. In all honesty it is the worse platform I have ever used for paid search campaigns. Microsoft does not “get-it” - and I am afraid that they never will (whether they buy a 5% stake in Facebook). These latest talks with Facebook reek of desperation - a 50 year man bumping 50 Cent in his car.

Flyers Pro Offers Low Cost Highly Targeted Advertising

Facebook has answered the cries of advertisers looking for a more cost effective ways to advertise on Facebook. The Facebook Flyers Pro advertising option allows advertisers to set a minimum and maximum cost per click (a la Google). With Facebook Flyers Pro you can also set a daily maximum budget. As with the Facebook Flyers option, Flyers Pro is a easy to use, self service solution. Flyers Pro allows you to create relevant advertisements by targeting users based on gender, age, school, location, workplace, and interests.

This is a smart move by Facebook. Many small to mid-sized advertisers can not afford CPM based advertising campaigns and have been conditioned by the likes of Google that CPC is the “way to go” when it comes to online advertising. While CPM does have it’s place, Facebook has opened up a whole new segment of advertisers to their site - there are more small to medium sized advertisers than there are large ones, the sum of which is much greater than that of large advertisers. I am going to be launching a few CPC campaigns this week and will let you know how it goes.

RockYou’s Secret Rate Card is Selling You!

Valleywag got their hands on the secret rate card of RockYou, the leading provider of widgets on the web, that can be found on almost every social media site. In the rate card, it describes how Facebook application developers can leverage RockYou to advertise their application on the RockYou application for $.5o per user they sign-up. Whoa! Finally a Facebook application developer that figured out how to monetize their application by selling the most important thing they have…you!

Let’s Start the Era of Facebook Application Speculation

Now that you can buy users for $.50 and potentially sell them for $1.30 a few months later, how long will it be before Facebook application flippers start to surface? Watching all of these changes in the Facebook application economy on a daily basis has me foaming at the mouth to launch my own Facebook application.

Further Integration Necessary to Attract More Advertisers

The best advertising does not look like advertising. This statement has been made and proven to be true time and time again. With their announcement of a new advertising platform in the Wall Street Journal, Facebook has their eyes set on growing their revenues through targeted advertising. The easiest thing for Facebook to do with this new ad system is to offer up tons of user data that will allow advertisers to display highly targeted ads. The difficult thing is to offer advertising options that will offer strong returns.

The Problem With Display Ads

Display based advertising is a relic from the days of print advertising. Sure, lots of companies waste spend money on branding themselves through display ads. They want eyeballs. But for most companies, especially those on tight budgets, display advertising delivers poor results. People rarely click on display ads; the average click through rate of an online banner is less than 2%. Banner blindness is real.
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Thinking of Advertising on Facebook?

Do it now. It is only going to get more expensive. As Facebook continues to gain more and more users the number of page views will continue to skyrocket, causing CPM (cost per thousand impressions) to rise substantially. Sure CPM is not the best way to drive direct returns on your investment, it is a great way to build a brand and if you are selling into the 18 - 35 space, there is no better place than Facebook to do this.

While I am sure this sounds like a sales pitch from one of Facebook advertising executives, the fact remains that at $2 CPM this advertising is a 10th of what it costs to get on sites like TechCrunch or GigaOm through Federated Media. So if your curious to find out if Facebook Flyers work, I would try it now, because very soon it might be too expensive to just get your feet wet.