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$2.7B Increase in Ad Spending This Year on Social Sites

jilliantate — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 22:37:41 +0000

As social networks grow in size, advertisers are also increasing ad spending on social sites. In 2011, 10.8% of all US online ad spending will go to social networks; and that number is expected to rise to 12.1% in 2012. IMS took a look recently at some of the factors helping to drive this increase in advertising across social networking sites and how this media channel can be adapted for direct response. Here are the top five reasons we see for the projected increase in social ad spend in 2011:
1) Increased social site user population. Facebook grew from 121M to 147M unique users in 2010. More users mean more impressions – and more potential for ad spending
2) Targeting ability. Social sites give advertisers the opportunity to isolate and target very precise niches. Marketers with profiling data can set up campaigns to only reach the most likely to convert consumers. For example, IMS recently ran a Facebook Ads campaign on behalf of Hair Club to promote their American Chopper show appearance. We targeted only men 35 to 55, who had listed any of a dozen chopper related interests in their profiles. With interest targeting and the event tie-in, the cost per fan was the lowest yet for an IMS client campaign.

3) New ad products, including in-app ads. Over 225M people play the top 5 games on Facebook, creating a huge audience for in-game ads. Sites are also developing more engaging ad types that give users the opportunity to take an action in the ad, such as “Like” or “Share”, without leaving the page they are on.

4) Local targeting and increased SMB spending. With the increase in location-based social networking (Foursquare, Facebook Places, Yelp Check-Ins), more small and medium business are using social networking sites on a geotargeted basis customized to their sales area.

5) More social networking sites following the “Facebook model”. LinkedIn has announced that they will begin running more social ads (above) which can be targeted to people based on their professional profile.
IMS is watching this space closely to establish where the best opportunities lie for our clients. As the audiences on these sites grow, we will continue to test new targeting and messaging to achieve and exceed goal costs-per.

Facebook Sponsored Stories: You Are Now Endorsing Any Brand You Mention

jilliantate — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 05:21:39 +0000

I wrote the below as a comment to David Berkowitz’ post on Mashable about Facebook’s Sponsored Stories.

David, did you see this article?
I was really surprised to see All Things D’s editorial take on this new program. I agree with your statement in your op-ed that your initial posts on Facebook “come from the heart”. In their initial posts, users, like you, are choosing to mention their association with a brand. The Sponsored Stories crosses that line from mentioning association to full-on endorsement. I may post that I’m at a Starbucks because I freely associate and identify with that brand’s image, but that doesn’t mean I want Starbucks to make that look like a recommendation to my friends. Also, I know most of my friends may miss my initial post in their Feeds, and blowing it up into a full on ad makes it very difficult to miss, and much less of the casual, organic mention I meant it to be.

As a user, I agree there should be an opt out. But as a marketer, I’m ready to get client ads up on there the second the option opens up to me in the self-service ads center. This is actually a fantastic fit for a brand who interacts well with people on their Facebook page, since engaging their customers in dialogue will give them lots of stories to sponsor. This could be part of really big Facebook strategies, and could help close the gap between paid and organic marketing on social media. It’s tough NOT to like it from a purely marketing standpoint.

Facebook updates page URL policy

jilliantate — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:11:14 +0000

I was horrified when I saw that Facebook would only allow for pages to claim URLs if they had 1,000 fans as of May 31st. That was just silly on SO MANY LEVELS. What if the page was on the verge of getting 1,000 fans – when would they be allowed to get a URL once they achieved the goal? And what if a page was a smaller brand? How could Facebook expect pages for small businesses to compete with national brands, or expect indie bands to compete with major label artists with lots of exposure?

However, it didn’t surprise me AT ALL that Facebook was overlooking an actual opportunity to make money. They could have charged a nominal fee per URL for pages with less than 1,000 fans and made a quick six-figures. Worse, the policy would likely alienate advertisers, and make it difficult for companies starting out in the Facebook environment to launch successful campaigns that included paid ads.

So it was with great joy that I announced to my clients yesterday that Facebook had changed their policy. Mashable broke the news yesterday afternoon. As of June 28th, pages with less than 1,000 fans will be able to claim URLs, just like the super big guys.

Thank you, Facebook, for seeing some light here. Now, remind me tonight to snag my own personal username, OK?

A Less Narrow Social Media Universe

jilliantate — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:44:25 +0000

No, I do not think that social media is just Twitter and Facebook. And to even ask that question is, in itself, short sighted.

Here’s why: A year ago, I would never have even included microblogging (Twitter) as a major social media category. I either counted it as a social network, or as a blog site, depending on the client & their objectives. Now, I count microblogging as its own category – and explain that it also includes sites like Tumblr. Twitter is the site within the channel, not a social media channel it itself.
That’s how I explain it to my clients, and then I tell them what the best practices are…and whether its even a relevant channel to their marketing.

To even ask the question, is this all there is? is to forget the very nature of the Internet. There are constant shifts happening, and there is always a game changer. To plan only for Facebook and Twitter because that’s all a client is familiar with, is irresponsible to the client. Now, on the other hand, to only use Facebook and Twitter in a social media plan because they have the biggest audiences, and therefore have adequate reach to your target where other social media sites may not…that’s a different story.