Category Archives: Webtrends
Sponsored Stories and Getting Facebook Fans For Cents
While most Facebook ads are lucky to get a 0.050% CTR, we've observed Sponsored Stories get as high as 0.400% which equates to 18 cents fans.
There are two types of Sponsored Stories for Facebook pages:
- A Sponsored Like (Page Like Story) which targets friends of your fans.
- A Sponsored Post (Page Post Story), which shows messages to existing fans.
If you have merged your page and place together or just a place page, you'll have an addition option of a Sponsored Check-In (Check-In Story) will show activity at your location.
So how are Sponsored Stories different than standard Facebook Ads? We recently ran a Sponsored Like ad campaign for Gordmans. It's highly targeted against the regions where they have their 68 retail locations, a female demographic, and interest terms for bargain hunting. The Gordmans brand motto of "Something Unexpected" resonates well with this audience. Incidentally, targeting fans of JC Penney, Kohls, and other competing department stores fared better than standard marketplace ads, but not as well as the one shown here.
DECONSTRUCTING THE NUMBERS This campaign drove a 0.400% CTR on the first day, which fell by 45% within 48 hours to 0.220%. Ironically, the cost per click decreased over that time period, going from 26 cents to 15 cents. Therefore the eCPM (what we pay per 1,000 times we show the ad) went from over a dollar at the start to 33 cents at the end. Two days in, this ad drove 515 clicks for $76 and gained 418 new fans. That works out to 18 cents per fan and a click-to-conversion rate of 81%. Most brands are getting fans at between $2 and $10, the former via self-serve and the latter via premium ads. Thus, 18 cents for a new fan-- a person giving your brand permission to talk to them— is a great cost of acquisition. The fall-off in CTR is common with all Facebook advertising. Ads burn out quickly because of the frequency people check Facebook, the lack of frequency capping (Facebook is well aware of this), and advertisers who follow the "set it and forget it" model of traditional paid search. WHY DOES THIS PERFORM SO WELL? The Sponsored Like is a relatively new ad unit, so consumers are getting used to the novelty. There are more curiosity clicks, as with any new ad type. The Sponsored Likes and Posts are also featured by themselves on a page, or if there are regular ads on the page, shown above those. Thus, higher placement also contributes to the higher CTR. Facebook doesn't yet report on average position, so we can only speculate on the position as it relates to CTR. TAKE AWAYS Net net, the key to success with Facebook advertising has been leveraging the endorsement of your existing fans. People are far more likely to click on events that are associated with what their friends are doing, as we demonstrated in earlier research. Expect more ad products from Facebook that leverage the social graph— making ads more like welcome messages from friends that interruptive, irrelevant spam. Check out more stories from our customers and see what they’re doing with social marketing!The Strategic Imperative:
Developing A Measurement Program
- A company must identify a clear understanding of metrics, both traditional and those made appropriate in emerging channels. This will inform effective management, optimization and ROI analysis.
- You must understand where your target lives, works and plays. This will mean exploration of mobile, social, viral, ARG, video, event and promotional media strategies. This will give the right input to develop appropriate benchmarking on channel role and performance expectations.
- You need to develop a strong and sure testing plan that generates results quickly and drives toward reliability and predictability.
- Deploy relevant and robust technology that can be managed easily and completely, and that centralizes all pertinent data around the customer and the goal.
- Establish a team structure that can supports and drive data at every step of the process, communicating successes, insight and learning and necessary next steps.
A Look at the Marketing Innovation & Discovery Summit : What is Next Up for Mobile Marketers?
Yesterday our new VP of Mobile, Mike Ricci spoke at Marketing Innovation & Discovery Summit held in Austin. This event, hosted by Quantum Digital, brings together agency super stars and executives from world-recognized brands. His session was on uncovering what's fueling the mobile marketing explosion and help get attendee up to speed on some key trends and metrics that are driving adoption.
Mike provided an overview of new mobile devices, applications, and services, including: tablets, QR codes, location-based SMS, Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Shopkick, and much more. Take a look at his presentation and see how you can put some of these tools and technologies to good use in your integrated marketing campaigns. Presentations are being live-streamed and videos will be available on the Quantum Digital site after the event.
There was great dialogue at the show and online, you can see all the Twitter buzz here or with #mids11 - the conference hashtag.
Please join us in welcoming Mike to the team. If you've got questions about mobile for him or topic you'd like to see covered here - share your thoughts with us below or any of our social channels (Facebook, Twitter or in our User Forums)