Facebook.com
creates a new world for advertising
After
the development of the World Wide Web in 1991 the online world gradually became
a more common source of socialization. In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg founded
Facebook.com. “In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based
limited liability company
specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was
named as the second most "in" thing among undergraduates, tied with
beer and
sex and losing
only to the
iPod.”
(“Facebook,” 2008) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)
Little did everyone know that this new fad would shape the face of the social
world. The above quote may sound a little risqué, but it just shows how popular
the website was becoming within various generations. Currently Facebook has
more than 59 million active users and an average of 250,000 new registrations
per day since Jan. 2007. (See
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
for more statistics.)
This highly trafficked website has become a prime target for advertisers over
the past few years; which has been both a good and bad thing.
Facebook is currently the 7th most trafficked website online and to top that, “in 2007 the word “Facebook” came in 2nd on Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year. All of these facts made this site a prime hot spot for advertisers.
Facebook has not only become a popular place for product and service advertisements, but also for campaigns and other groups. (An example of a campaign can be found on www.boston.com/new/nation/articles/2006/08/20/likes_ice_cream_war_on_terror/) This site is an open doorway to America’s younger to middle aged generation; which is why it’s so popular among advertisers. With the amount of traffic and excitement Facebook receives, it is the prime location to advertise. It offers “a marketing initiative which includes a system for websites to allow users to share chosen information about their activities on the sites with their Facebook friends ; the capability of businesses to host pages on Facebook for various brands, products and services (Facebook Pages); a targeted ad serving program based on user and friend profile and activity data (Facebook Social Ads); and a service for providing businesses with advertisement analytic data including performance metrics.” (“Facebook”, 2008) Companies are able to view the profiles of their target markets and mold their advertisements to them. If you visit the website http://www.facebook.com/ads/?src=aw05&gclid=COO5rYmL4
5ACFRakQAodqRXeOw
you will find that you can create a page for your business, buy banner ads,
create a social ad, choose your type of pricing, and so much more.
Facebook opened the doors to a great window of advertising for businesses. It became the perfect place for them to contact their target audience, but the question was, would it become too much? In early 2007 the number of Facebook applications rose to 10 thousand.
(See
www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_apps_hit_10k_in_numbe.php - 71k for
more information on Facebook applications.) This included personal ads
and much more. This high number resulted in an over abundance of clutter and
less focus on the actual advertisements. Facebook consumers said that they felt
like the actual reason for Facebook’s existence, communication between friends,
was being lost. Facebook emerged off of the technological ideas of instant
messaging and e-mail, but it was supposed to be quicker, easier, and a little
more in depth. However today it’s being over loaded
with
annoying games, gift giving applications, announcements, and so much more. The
cluttering of these applications is actually hurting advertisers. Facebook even
admitted that its “banner
ads aren't particularly effective. The ‘Homepage Sponsored Story’
gets a click-through rate ‘10-20x higher than banners.’ That would put it at a
respectable range of 0.4 to 0.8 percent.” (Thomas, 2007) “So what do we
conclude from this?”
Valleywag.com/tech/online-advertising/facebooks-secret-rate-card-284029.php says that “ Banner ads, clearly, don't count for much on Facebook; even Facebook admits as much to advertisers, which is why the company has sold off its banner-ad inventory to Microsoft.” (Thomas, 2007) Instead advertisers have to spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to attract their Facebook consumers by creating homepage stories (shown in the picture to the right)
and starting Facebook groups of their own. In order to be able to put one of these stories/groups up, the company must also become a sponsor for Facebook. “This will cost you, at a CPM, or cost per thousand, of $10, which is a minimum spend of $50,000. With targeting costs at $2 to $5 extra in CPM.” (Thomas, 2007) I think it’s fair to say that Facebook has definitely started to change the advertising world. Prices have become so steep and targeting so narrowed that it becomes hard to stay ahead of the competition. It’s interesting to see how important it is to some companies to get spaces and sponsorships like these on Facebook, but all of the headaches, time, and money must be worth it in the end. Who would have thought that such a simple communication and profiling application would ever stir up so much traffic and popularity in everyone’s lives?
Facebook
really did have a huge impact on the advertising and marketing industry. It
moved companies away from trying to contact certain social groups through direct
mail or e-mail and took the industry to a more personal route, a place where
companies could zero in on the markets they wanted to segment. Facebook allowed
companies a
chance to read into the profiles of their consumers and really find out what their customers wanted. From all of the research I’ve done I think it’s easy to see that Facebook brought about a more personalized and competitive type of online advertising to our world. The birth of Facebook opened up a new branch of advertising. The promotional opportunities on Facebook were endless, but unfortunately so is the clutter. Facebook may be a lucrative marketing location for companies, but advertisers must also be willing to get creative, because the mundane banner ads and pop ups are obviously not going to do the trick for much longer.
For an example of a Facebook website visit http://bradley.facebook.com/home.php? or log onto Facebook.com and search for Katelyn Lewandowski you can find my webpage. Some of the groups and applications I have downloaded show just how competitive and muddled Facebook can be.
Works Cited
(2008). Press room. Retrieved January 6, 2008, from Facebook Web site: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
(2008). Facebook. Retrieved January 6, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
(2008). Facebook ads. Retrieved January 6, 2008, from Facebook Web site: http://www.facebook.com/ads/?src=aw05&gclid=COO5rYmL45ACFRakQAodqRXeOw
Kirkpatrick, M (2007, December 5). Facebook apps hit 10k in number: are we still excited?. Retrieved January 6, 2008, from Read write web Web site: www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_apps_hit_10k_in_numbe.php - 71k
Thomas, O (2007, July 30). Facebook's secret rate card. Retrieved January 6, 2008, from Valleywag Web site: http://valleywag.com/tech/online-advertising/facebooks-secret-rate-card-284029.php