Small businesses spend between $1,000 and $2,500 on their social media marketing. Marketing Weekly has created an infographic suggesting how small businesses can make the most of their advertising on Facebook.
According to a study by Vertical Response, 90 percent of small businesses use Facebook and 32 percent of companies post at least once per day. Enterprises don’t often have a lot of money to spend on marketing and have to make the most of cost-efficient initiatives and best practices.
Women always knew it, but now there is proof: men are cheap. At least they are when it comes to reaching them via Facebook advertising, according to a new study from Resolution Media and Kenshoo Social.
The study, entitled Social Media Insights: Men are Cheap, explores gender differences in Facebook advertising campaigns and offers actionable guidance to advertisers.
“Women represent the majority of Facebook users, but it’s cheaper to advertise to men. While this may seem counterintuitive given the laws of supply and demand in an auction marketplace, our advertisers capitalized on this trend and spent 53 percent of Facebook advertising budgets reaching men,” said Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media.
“As it turned out, ads targeting men performed better and thus warranted the increased investment. Men delivered better Exposure Rates and click through rates than women, increasing their value for marketers.”
Key highlights of the report include:
Men are exposed to and click on more Facebook ads
On average, ads targeting men cost less through the cost-per-thousand impressions ($0.16 male / $0.20 female) and cost-per-click ($0.51 male / $0.68 female) pricing models
Ads targeting men achieved superior Exposure Rates, reaching a larger percentage of their unique audiences
“As social media continues to increase in popularity, it’s critical for brands to understand who represents their best consumers and how to best reach them with effective ads,” says Sivan Metzger, general manager of Kenshoo Social. “Gender is just one of the many rich targeting options available to Facebook advertisers and leveraging Kenshoo Social’s advanced technology helps marketers identify the right audience segments and create highly engaging campaigns at scale.”
Social Media Insights: Men are Cheap is based on aggregated data across a wide range of brands whose Facebook ad campaigns are managed by Resolution Media using the Kenshoo Social technology platform. The data set examined for this report spans nearly 65 billion Facebook ad impressions and 20 million Facebook ad clicks during a 12-month period.
We’ve never clicked on a single Facebook ad. Have you? While the 800-pound gorilla of the social networking world has more than twice the U.S. population in users, it isn’t proving to be an advertiser’s best friend.
That could prove to be bad news now that Facebook is a public company and will be judged on its quarterly financial results like all other public companies.
Facebook is not as important as the rest of the web to 70 percent of advertisers and agencies surveyed in the 33Across Advertiser and Agency Survey in June. That’s nearly a quarter (23 percent) more than in March.
The new survey was taken in order to gauge the changing attitudes and spend around Facebook vs. Rest of Web. Full survey results are available below.
Key Findings:
In the new survey, over 70% of respondents said that they focus 80% of their attention on “Rest of Web” (ROW) vs. Facebook, a 23% increase from March.
Moreover, when asked “Do you see your Facebook spend changing vis-à-vis the rest of the web?” five and half times as many respondents — relative to the number from the pre-IPO survey — asserted that they were planning on “decreasing [their] Facebook spend.”
Additionally, the number of people who said they are very concerned about “understanding and driving ROI from big data” rose from 91% to 96%. And, the number of people who said they are concerned about integrating that data jumped from 73% to 82%.
Arguably, the most unexpected finding was the recent shift by marketers from Facebook towards advertising on Rest of Web. Respondents represented multiple verticals including Automotive, CPG, Financial Services, Retail, and Travel.
“What was particularly surprising to me was the dramatic shift in advertiser and agency attitudes towards Facebook after the IPO,” said Allie Kline, Chief Marketing Officer, 33Across.
“Facebook’s future greatly depends on advertiser spend — on both the web and mobile devices — and this survey indicates that they have some work to do to restore advertiser confidence in their Facebook investments.”
Detailed Survey Results: When thinking about Facebook versus the rest of the web, which gets more of your team’s attention?
Facebook: ROW
June 2012
March 2012
80:20
4%
0%
60:40
11%
7%
50:50
4%
16%
40:60
11%
16%
20:80
71%
58%
Over 70% said that they now focus 80% of their attention on ROW vs. FB, a 23% increase from March. Over 80% said that ROW now gets more of their team’s attention, an 11% increase from March.
How concerned are you about the following?
Participants Who Were
“Very Concerned”
June 2012
March 2012
Integrating Cross-Channel Data
82%
73%
Understanding and Driving ROI from Big Data
96%
91%
Advertising Categories that Participants Worked Within*
Industry
June 2012
March 2012
Automotive
11%
23%
CPG
39%
29%
Entertainment
21%
36%
Finance/Insurance
29%
23%
Retail
43%
29%
Technology
32%
10%
Travel
18%
16%
Others
14%
16%
*Note: Participants could select more than one industry.
Three-quarters of the brand marketers and agency reps surveyed by 33Across, operators of the largest social and interest graph in the world, reaching over 1.25 billion users, say that the rest of the web is more important to them than Facebook advertising.
The survey also points out the increasing importance of big data – all that information about us that can be gleaned from digital sources – and how to access it, interpret and use it.
Key results of the 33Across Advertiser and Agency Survey include:
75% of respondents said Facebook receives less than 40% of their attention versus the “rest-of-web” (ROW)
71% describe their goals as more focused on fan engagement vs. fan acquisition
70% said they were concerned about making sense of the data at their disposal
91% are very concerned with being able to drive ROI from big data in 2012
73% said the integration of cross-channel data continues to be a top area of concern
33Across found several examples where these issues are heightened in particular industries, as advertisers grapple with an increasingly broad and diverse online marketing landscape. For instance:
Over 90% of respondents within the Auto and Financial Services industries are concerned about being able to drive ROI from big data.
Travel, Financial Services, and Auto placed the most importance on successful integration of cross-channel data that is collected from a variety of online and offline sources, e.g., Facebook, ROW, and in-store purchases.
The majority of respondents (71%) are more focused on Facebook Fan engagement than Fan acquisition. The Financial Services industry, however, graded noticeably higher with its Fan engagement objectives (over 90%) compared to any other industry. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) ranked second in this category, with 89% of those surveyed prioritizing Fan engagement over Fan acquisition.
“These survey findings validate that Rest-of-Web is at the epicenter of this conversation, and big data will continue to be one of the largest issues that online marketers confront for the next few years,” said Eric Wheeler, CEO of 33Across.
On the eve of Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO), the markets are contemplating why auto manufacturer General Motors decided abruptly yesterday to terminate advertising on Facebook.
WordStream Inc., a provider of search engine marketing software and services, has released new research comparing the value of Facebook advertising to Google’s Display Network.
That’s the portion of Google’s advertising business that allows advertisers to place display ads on Google sites such as YouTube, Gmail, and Blogger and over 2 million other websites, including popular news sites, blogs and other niche sites across the internet, rather than alongside search results.
The research, which offers possible clues as to why GM may have dropped all Facebook advertising, is compiled in a new infographic that evaluates Facebook’s display advertising business versus the Google Display Network on criteria including advertising reach, ad performance, revenues and growth, ad formats, and targeting options. Click here to view the full Facebook versus Google advertising infographic.
Results of the study include:
Facebook click-throughs are half the industry average
The average click-through rate (CTR) of an ad on the Google Display Network is 0.4% — almost 10 times as high as the typical Facebook ad. Average CTR on Facebook is under 0.05%, about half the industry average for online banner ads. At the same time, costs per thousand impressions on Facebook are climbing.
The Google Display Network offers twice as many ad formats as Facebook, including in-video ads, mobile-game ads, support for industry-standard image ads, and more.
Facebook does not yet support mobile advertising and has more limited targeting options than Google.
The comparison suggests that Google currently offers advertisers more value in terms of both options and results for advertisers, and that Facebook has a lot of catching up to do to provide advertisers with the best possible advertising solutions.
“So far, Facebook’s advertising platform hasn’t kept pace with the explosive growth of its social network, and it remains to be seen if CEO Mark Zuckerberg even wants to focus on advertising as a source of revenue. In his 2,500+ word letter to shareholders this month, he mentioned advertising just once,” said Larry Kim, Founder and CTO of WordStream.
With Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) just around the corner, many are wondering if the company can live up to its enormous valuation of approximately $100 billion.
Accordingly, WordStream Inc., a provider of search engine marketing software and services, has released new research comparing the value of Facebook advertising to Google’s Display Network – the portion of Google’s advertising business that allows advertisers to place display ads on Google sites.
Those include YouTube, Gmail, and Blogger and over 2 million other websites, including popular news sites, blogs and other niche sites across the internet, rather than alongside search results.
Results of the study include:
Facebook and Google both have huge potential reach, with Facebook boasting 845 million monthly active users and Google owning the world’s largest online display advertising network.
The average click-through rate (CTR) of an ad on the Google Display Network is 0.4% – almost 10 times as high as the typical Facebook ad. Average CTR on Facebook is under 0.05%, about half the industry average for online banner ads. At the same time, costs per thousand impressions on Facebook are climbing.
The Google Display Network offers twice as many ad formats as Facebook, including in-video ads, mobile-game ads, support for industry-standard image ads, and more.
Facebook does not yet support mobile advertising and has more limited targeting options than Google.
The comparison suggests that Google currently offers advertisers more value in terms of both options and results for advertisers, and that Facebook has a lot of catching up to do to provide advertisers with the best possible advertising solutions.
“So far, Facebook’s advertising platform hasn’t kept pace with the explosive growth of its social network, and it remains to be seen if CEO Mark Zuckerberg even wants to focus on advertising as a source of revenue. In his 2,500+ word letter to shareholders this month, he mentioned advertising just once,” said Larry Kim, Founder and CTO of WordStream.
Wordstream created this infographic summarizing its research:
Optimism returns to the media buying industry after it reports impressive growth during the fourth quarter 2011, according to a new STRATA quarterly survey of leading advertising agencies. The industry is confident that business and client spending on advertising will continue to increase in 2012.
However, the STRATA Survey noted that Digital advertising was flat during the fourth quarter, but Mobile is building momentum.
STRATA, the system of choice for over 1,000 agencies nationally, found that 81% expect client approach to advertising and marketing to either increase or stay the same. This is up 14% based on the same figures reported third quarter 2011.
Adding to this positive economic surge, nearly half of respondents said they project the 1st half of 2012 to be better than the last half of 2011 with increases in business compared to the same time last year.
The impact shows 31% of agencies noted they plan on hiring in 2012, which is up 29% over third quarter 2011 and up 28% over the same time last year.
Digital advertising dollars were nearly unchanged during the fourth quarter 2011 compared to the previous quarter. When agencies were asked about client focus, 81% said more than a year ago, which is actually down 4% from the previous quarter.
There is also significant confusion around Digital due to the fact that agencies still say clients don’t understand the value (54%).
On the social front, Facebook continues its dominance in ad campaigns with 89% of agencies planning to utilize the medium for clients (followed by Twitter (39%), YouTube (36%), LinkedIn (21%) and Google Plus (18% – up 28% over 3Q 2011).
Agencies reported Mobile advertising during the fourth quarter 2011 was up 39%.
iPhone the top choice, Android closing
The iPhone remains the top choice as reported by 83% of agencies surveyed, though Android continues to close the gap, up 32% over third quarter 2011 and up 50% over the fourth quarter 2010. Although the iPad is still third for Mobile advertising, 76% do say that with Apple and Amazon continuing to focus on building tablet content, there will be an increase in interest in advertising on the newer medium.
The STRATA Survey reveals that the top medium of choice for clients in the fourth quarter was Spot TV (Broadcast and Cable) as reported by 51% of agencies surveyed. Digital was second at 31%, which is down 9% from third quarter 2011, followed by Spot Radio (8%). Spot TV (Broadcast) continues to be an area of interest as 28% of respondents said that they are more focused on it than a year ago, up 12% over fourth quarter 2010.
As for Spot Cable, 26% say they are more focused on it than they were a year ago, which is up 66% over last year.
“The key word for advertisers in 2012 is growth,” said John Shelton, CEO/President of STRATA.
“Agencies started to reap the benefits of balance sheets turned in their favor during the fourth quarter 2011, brokering a bright early 2012. The STRATA Survey shows that many advertisers are confident that their business and the economy will return to a strong period by midyear. That sentiment, coupled with strong numbers from the political race, provides an overall positive barometer for advertising in 2012.”
Client Attraction remains the biggest agency challenge for the second straight quarter according to 37% in the STRATA Survey. ’
Client spending was the next area of concern with 19% reporting, however it is not nearly as much of an issue as it was in the third quarter 2011, with a decrease of 13%. A growing issue identified by 16% of agencies is advertising costs, which is nearly double the amount reported a year ago. Determining ROI is the top issue in measuring campaigns (47%), followed by Merging Digital and Traditional (41%).
Other prominent findings of the STRATA survey:
42% say their 2012 political ad spend will be more than 2010.
46% say that during the political season they will advertise in alternative mediums to avoid competition by politicians (41% will compete with politicians for space).
49% said they project the 1st half of 2012 to be better than the last half of 2011 (46% also see business increasing compared to the same time last year).
4% say that it will be 3-5 years before there is a greater spend in Digital than Traditional media (that’s a 50% increase over 3Q 2011); but 38% still feel that shift will not ever happen.
Android is the second most popular mobile advertising choice at 71%; iPad remains third (46%).
For mobile advertising the top option is Display (46%) followed by SMS (25%, but up 61% since 4Q 2010).
44% are somewhat interested in self-service inventory of Digital assets.
Only 4% said they are more focused on Print than they were a year ago.
Brands are continuing to invest in Facebook advertising and focusing on fan acquisition. Spend in social media advertising is now additive to existing budgets rather than subtracting from other digital media channels, demonstrating the growing investment in the medium.
This is according to Efficient Frontier, a leading performance marketing company managing more than $1.5 billion in marketing spend annually on behalf of advertisers worldwide, and its subsidiary Context Optional, one of the leading providers of social marketing management for global brands and agencies.
Brands grabbing Facebook fans
Brands continued to acquire Facebook fans at 9% per month. Facebook spend share reached 2.7% of biddable online advertising spend in Q4 2011 and is expected to increase fan base by 2x by the end of 2012.
Search spend increased significantly in Q4 of 2011, bolstered by aggressive spending by retailers. Overall, search spend grew 14% Year over Year (YoY) in the United States, while retail specifically grew by 18% YoY and 40% Quarter over Quarter (QoQ), indicating that search is still the primary driver of digital marketing spend.
Mobile clicks less expensive
While Q4 search spend increased significantly, Cost Per Clicks (CPCs) decreased 5% due to a rise in mobile advertising, where clicks are less expensive. Meanwhile, improvements in more efficient ad delivery by search engines resulted in higher click-through rates, and mobile spendbecame 7-8% of search spend compared to 2% a year ago.
Systems Incorporated announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Efficient Frontier, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of Adobe’s 2012 fiscal year.
“Facebook continues to be where marketers are placing new bets by adding advertising spend with a focus on fan acquisition,” said David Karnstedt, President and CEO, Efficient Frontier.
“Mobile search advertising is also an area of significant investment, growing to 7-8% from 2% a year ago. We should expect both channels to grow significantly in 2012.”
Additional Report Highlights
GOOGLE MAINTAINS 80% SPEND SHAREin Q4. Yahoo/Bing clicks yielded 14% more revenue per click (RPC) than Google while also having 9% more Return on Investment (ROI) than Google. Yet Google increased click share by 2.5% YoY indicating the necessity for volume and reach from advertisers, primarily retailers, in Q4.
MOBILE SPEND specifically tablets, is becoming increasingly important for marketers as tablets account for 50% of mobile search spend and 50% of click share.
DISPLAY SPEND remains flat QoQ. However, Google’s Doubleclick increases exchange display market share by 19% YoY. Due to both inventory constraints and shifting strategies by Yahoo for their Right Media Exchange, Google extended significant share gains in biddable display.
EUROPEAN MARKETS showed strong growth in search spend YoY. France increased search spend 70% YoY and Germany 47% YoY indicating heavier investments into online advertising in 2011. The UK has been leading the online marketing industry in Europe and continues to increase search spend 19% YoY.
Outlook for Q1 2012
FACEBOOK SPEND will reach 5% of all online advertising spend by the end of 2012. As marketers improve their ability to acquire and engage Facebook fans, brands will continue to pump incremental spend into Facebook.
MOBILE SEARCH SPEND will make up 16-22% of all paid clicks by the end of 2012. As more mobile devices with full Internet browsing capabilities enter the market, mobile experiences become more robust. This is driving a shift of consumer usage from desktops to mobile devices, ultimately causing mobile advertising to become a key focus for marketers in 2012.
SEARCH SPEND will increase 15-20% in 2012 in the United States. Similar growth is expected internationally, however, the macro economic conditions in Europe may significantly affect this growth.
SEARCH CPCS will further decrease by 4%. The increase of mobile advertising and mobile search spend will contribute to this reduction. Search engine innovations by Google to provide more effective ad delivery will also continue to decrease CPCs.
YAHOO/BING will continue to pursue more ad inventory. Although Yahoo/Bing clicks continue to have better RPC (Return-Per-Click) and ROI, the search engine still needs to increase reach to improve market share. Advertisers are eager to take full advantage of the higher performance Yahoo/Bing provides, but are still looking to do so at scale.
DEVELOPMENTS IN OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS such as Google+ and LinkedIn will have a positive impact on social spend and the growth of this competitive space. However, Facebook will still remain the dominant social network and social publishers for advertisers in 2012.
Early next year Facebook users will start to see Sponsored Story ads in their news feeds.
Sponsored Stories let advertisers repost user status updates related to their brands or products as small display ads which now show up on Facebook’s right hand column.
At least initially, users will see only one such sponsored story a day in the newsfeed.
Adding Sponsored Stories is one revenue stream among those that pushed the site to an estimated $3.8 billion in ad revenue globally, up from $1.86 billion in 2010, according to eMarketer.
Some California users have brought a legal challenge in court saying Sponsored Stories violates a state law which gives people the right to control use of their names and images in endorsements.
Android sees $700,000 daily activations
Andy Rubin, Google’s head honcho for its Android operating system, wrote on his Google+ page that more than 700,000 Android devices are now activated every day. That’s twice the 300,000 activated daily last year (according to a Rubin 2010 Tweet).
VentureBeat reports that Android devices account for half the total mobile market for U.S. smartphones, with Apple’s iOS a distant second at 27 percent.
Kindle Fire update improves touch response, performance
A Kindle Fire tablet computer
The Kindle Fire software update we previously reported was coming is available now. The 6.2.1 update, which will be delivered automatically to web connected units, that Amazon says, “enhances fluidity and performance, improves touch navigation responsiveness, gives you the option to choose which items display on the carousel and adds the ability to add a password lock on Wi-Fi access.”
We noticed far fewer accidental touch problems with the screen following the first update we received. The touchscreen’s responsiveness did need improving. Playing games can be difficult if what you’re trying to control doesn’t respond quickly and just selecting something wasn’t as easy as it should be.
The Kindle Fire is reportedly Amazon’s best-selling product at a million a week. In two months the company shipped between 3 million and 4 million units, making it the iPad’s chief competitor. Company execs have said it is the most successful product Amazon ever launched.
It’s success is sure to spawn other inexpensive tablet entries, although Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at slightly less than cost in hopes of driving more sales of books, apps, movies and music.
If you’re a Kindle owner and your device has not automatically updated, you can do it manually here.
Britney Spears first Google+ user with 1 million followers
Britney Spears remains an Internet and social media favorite, has highest number of Google+ followers.
From the just-when-you-thought-she-was-gone department: Britney Spears topped 1 million followers on Google+, the first to do so. Even Google CEO Larry Page and rapper Snoop Dog follow Spears.
Her numbers on other social networks are much larger: a whopping 15.7 million fans liked her Facebook page, and she all 11.9 million Twitter followers.
Spears has been an Internet phenomenon throughout her career and now that she’s turned 30, online interest in her remains high.
We sometimes think about what marketers have to learn from celebrity brands online. For one thing, besides the obvious reminder that sex sells, a bit of controversy is obviously not a deal-killer with followers and may even grab wandering attention, although consumers may not be as forgiving of brands as they are of celebrities.
Advertising showed its resiliency this quarter by achieving solid gains consistent with spending trends from third quarter 2010, according to a new STRATA quarterly survey of leading advertising agencies. Digital, aided by social and mobile, was up by 43 percent in the quarter, almost matching local TV.
However, client attraction and decreasing budgets remain the chief challenges affecting overall agency growth. The survey also noted a possible shift for the top advertising channel, with Digital and Spot (Local) TV now only separated by a margin of 1%.
STRATA, the system of choice for over 900 agencies and roughly half of ad agencies nationally, found that 52% of respondents noted that their business is increasing compared to the same time last year (only 16.5% saw a decrease in business, down 30% from a year ago).
Biggest industry challenges
Job growth also made a steady upswing this quarter, with 24% of agencies surveyed noting they will hire before the end of the year (up 8% since last year).
When listing their biggest business challenges, attracting new business remains tops for agency respondents (38%) followed closely by client spending (22%). In fact, most feel that their business won’t return to a strong growth period until after 2012.
If market volatility continues, Print and Local TV would be the media most hit by ad spending cuts (Print 52% and Local TV 24%). The auto industry (30%) and entertainment industry (21%) are the two top industries that agencies say are asking to cut advertising.
Digital up 43 percent since last quarter
The STRATA survey suggests its now a tight race for the top advertising avenues. Local TV remains the medium of choice (35%), though it is just barely beating out Digital (34%), which is up 43% since last quarter.
Taking a closer look, 85% say clients are focusing on Digital more than last year. Local Cable noticed a bump as 31% say they are more focused on it than they were last year (up 13% over last year).
Radio had a downturn as 37% say they are less focused on it as they were a year ago. Network TV noticed an uptick with 12% saying they are more focused on Network TV than they were a year ago (up 86% since third quarter 2010).
Social and mobile help digital challenge traditional advertising
Social and Mobile are helping Digital challenge Traditional advertising, according to STRATA’s third quarter survey. In fact, 89% of respondents indicated that they would use Facebook in their campaigns (up 10% from last quarter). For the first time, YouTube (39%) is the number two most desirable social medium for campaign, surpassing Twitter (37%).
Google+ is still on the outside looking in with only 14% planning to use it this quarter (down 47% since last quarter). LinkedIn was a strong fourth at 22%.
Mobile advertising sees the iPhone as the convincing leader with 78% of respondents noting it is the device their clients are most interested in advertising on (down 10% since last quarter).
Android is closing the gap at 54% (up 7% since one year ago). The iPad remains strong at 46% (up 85% since last year). With Amazon and Apple continuing to focus on content for tablets, 69% say that focus will make this medium more attractive to advertisers.
“If one looks for another sign of a nominally growing economy, one should look to the advertising industry right now,” said John Shelton, CEO/President of STRATA. “Attracting new business is still a challenge for agencies, but, and it’s a key point to emphasize, client retention is stabilizing, and market volatility is not immediately effecting long-term goals and campaigns.
As we’ve seen throughout the year, the STRATA survey is a good indicator of advertising growth and definitely highlighted third quarter challenges such as client attraction. But with the holidays right around the corner, it will be interesting to see if the industry can leverage short-term boosts to create long-term optimism.”
Other key findings of the STRATA survey:
20% of respondents say that they anticipate having a greater spend on Digital than Traditional within 1-3 years.
36% say that they will never have a greater spend on Digital than Traditional.
Facebook’s Open Graph launch did create some buzz, but agencies aren’t quite sure yet with 64% saying it is too early to tell if it will help stabilize social media advertising.
Agencies question whether their clients see the value in Digital. In the survey only 56% say their clients understand the value in Digital with 44% saying that they don’t see the value.
29% say clients are more focused on Local TV than they were last year.
WASHINGTON, DC – Results from a survey by Facebook-focused Social Code, show that for ads with a ‘Like’ button, older Facebook users have a higher click-through-rate while younger Facebook users will tend to click ‘Like’ directly within the Facebook ad.
SocialCode, a DC-based full-service Facebook agency working with global brands and agencies to translate their marketing goals on to Facebook, disclosed the results from a new Facebook advertising research study. The research examined over four million data points across over 50 clients from a wide variety of industries to get a better understanding of how age and gender affect click-through rates (CTR) and ‘Like’ rates on Facebook.
“In general, younger Facebook users are more comfortable using the ‘Like’ button than older users at this point,” said Laura O’Shaughnessy, CEO, SocialCode. “With inline fan ads on Facebook, older users have a high level of interaction and curiosity about the ads as evidenced by their high CTRs, whereas younger users have a higher propensity to click the ‘Like’ button right in an ad on Facebook.”
He added, “We assume that while older users are adopting Facebook at a high rate, they are also the newest subset to join the social network, meaning they may not have high friend numbers so ads are less likely to have social context in advertisements.”
AGE FINDINGS
The SocialCode study found that while age has a strong positive effect on whether a user will click; it oftentimes has the opposite effect on the likelihood of the user becoming a fan of a page.
50+ year-old users, the oldest segment in the study, are 28.2 percent more likely to click through and 9 percent less likely to ‘Like’ than 18-29 year-old users, the youngest group observed
Versus the rest of the younger population on Facebook, 50+ users see a 22.6 percent higher CTR and 8.4 percent lower ‘Like’ rate
GENDER FINDINGS
When broken down by gender, age has a much more pronounced effect on CTR for women than it does for men, whereas for men there is a stronger effect on ‘Like’ rate than women.
Overall, women are 11 percent more likely to click on an ad
‘Like’ rates are almost even for men and women; men are actually 2.2 percent more likely to ‘Like’ an ad than women
For women, CTR is 31.2 percent higher for the 50+ age group versus 18-29 year olds, men only see a 16.2 percent difference between the age groups
Versus all age groups, 50+ women’s CTR is 22 percent higher versus a 16.4 percent difference for males
The oldest male segment has an 11.7 percent lower ‘Like’ rate than the youngest segment, and 9.5 percent lower ‘Like’ rate versus all age groups. Women only see a 7.2 percent and 7.9 percent difference respectively
The age and gender research study conducted by SocialCode examined over four million data points for ads containing a ‘Like’ button across over 50 clients in different verticals for the past ten months. While performance varies greatly based on multiple variables, this study looks at the aggregate trends for
Go Daddy Group Inc., parent of domain registrar GoDaddy.com, has sold to private equity firms for $2.25 billion, the company said. The company sold to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.
GoDaddy is looking to exceed $1.1 billion in revenue this year. The company is known for its excellent company service. If you ever bought a domain name from GoDaddy, you likely got a call not long after from one of its service people. The company, based in Scottsdale, AZ, was founded by CEO Bob Parsons in 1997.
Some folks in the tech community have expressed concerns that the private equity buyers of the company will milk it for all its worth without regard to its tradition of selling domain names inexpensively with great service. We’ll see.
Zynga, Farmville-maker files for $1 billion IPO
San Francisco-based Zynga, the game maker that created Farmville and Mafia Wars, two of the most popular Facebook games, has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock to raise at least $1 billion.
For a detailed infographic on Zynga’s path from founding to IPO see: Zynga infographic at Namesake.com.
Zynga, founded four years ago, has users in 166 countries. About 230 million people play its games every month. The company has revenue of $597 million in 2010, up from $121 million in 2009. The profitable company earned $90.6 million in 2010.
It is the latest of the much ballyhooed Internet companies to seek public status following LinkedIn (Linkd) Corp. Analysts expect even greater interest in Zynga’s IPO and the amount of money it decides to raise may change as the level of that interest is better evaluated.
The company was founded by CEO Mark Pincus and has about 2,300 employees. The company’s shares recently sold for $15 each on secondary markets, which would value the firm at $12.6 billion.
The filing with the SEC reveals the company is investing in its own data centers to supplement its use of the Amazon cloud service, which allowed the company to grow fast without building infrastructure. Most Facebook game companies rely on Amazon’s cloud. VentureBeat says Zynga’s ability to design apps that take advantage of Amazon’s cloud is one reason for its success.
Despite the inevitable suggestions that the moonbeam valuations of Internet companies may signal another Internet bubble, many analysts point out that the difference is in the fact the today the Internet is more fully integrated into our public, personal and professional lives. These companies have substantial revenues, enormous numbers of users, and some, such as Zynga are even profitable.
Some analysts note, though, that their market values may still be quite overvalued.
BLiNQ names John Tawadros president, COO
BLiNQ Media, a global technology innovator in Facebook advertising and the only pure-play media and technology company worldwide with official access to the Facebook Ads API, has hired former COO for top search-marketing firm iProspect John Tawadros as president and COO.
Prior to joining BLiNQ Media, Tawadros was the COO of iProspect. Over the course of ten years he helped build the company from a basement startup to the #1 search marketing firm in the world, acquired for $50MM in 2004.
While at iProspect, he built and ran a world-class client services team with a 90%+ client retention rate, a companywide training program and scalable business processes to drive efficiencies, communications, ROI and overall performance.
The client-facing, algorithmic and paid search, technology, training and innovation teams all reported to Tawadros. He also played a significant role in the integration of iProspect with Aegis and in the acquisition and integration of a Texas-based retail industry search firm.
“Social media is the new search,” said Tawadros. “Facebook, the biggest player in digital media, is now the home of innovation, and BLiNQ Media helps advertisers make the most of it. It’s an honor to join this creative, intelligent and hard-working team.”
WASHINGTON, DC – If nothing else, people following Twitter are getting early notice about what’s up in the news. At quarter til 10 Sunday night, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted the news media that President Obama would address the country at 10:30, says the New York Times.
The Twitterverse exploded with rumors and speculations.
Other newsmen received a three-word email: “Get to work.” But even before the President’s speech, the Twitterverse was alive with speculation that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.
Then, Keith Urbahn, former chief of staff to Donald Rumsfield when he was defense secretary, tweeted that Bin Laden had been killed.
On top of that, Mashable reports that Sohaib Athar (2ReallyVirtual) on Twitter, posted a tweet about helicopters landing in Abbottabad as the U.S. Raid was occurring.
Sony hack puts 10 million customers at risk
Sony Corp. apologized Sunday for the security breach to its Playstation online video game that put the information of ten million of its customers at risk.
The company said that right now there is no evidence its encrypted credit-card data was stolen, but a hacker did get personal information such as names, addresses and birth dates of users. That may be enough for some cyber criminals to attempt identity theft.
We suspect apologies will not satisfy those affected, especially if they have to jump through hoops to protect compromised personal information. “Gee, we’re sorry we didn’t protect your personal information well enough to keep it out of the hands of crooks” may not cut it in the online reputation management space.
Configuration error caused Amazon clout outage
Amazon says that a configuration error made during an upgrade caused an outage of its popular cloud service that knocked many prominent and not so prominent websites offline, including Foursquare, Reddit, and Quora, as well as those of a number of Southeast-based startups.
The problem has already stirred up new debate over the stability and maturity of cloud-based services and points out that there is still some stormy weather in the cloud environment.
Social media advertising expected to hit $8.3B in 4 years
From our conversations with digital marketing experts headed to our Digital Summit in Atlanta May 16-17, we hear that many advertisers are still working on how to use social networks such as Facebook, social media advertising hit $2.1 billion in 2010 and is expected to soar to $8.3 billion by 2015.
So says BIA/Kelsey, which says the dominant format for social media ads now is display, but non-display formats are expected to continue growing and should hit $600 million (from about nothing now) by 2015.
“It’s no surprise that Facebook commands a dominant share of all social ad impressions served and ad revenues generated,” said Jed Williams, analyst and program director of BIA/Kelsey’s Social Local Media practice.
“As the social market leader, it already serves the most display ad impressions of any digital company, surpassing both Yahoo and Google. We fully expect Facebook to increase both impression share and ad revenue, as buyer awareness accelerates and creative formatting and targeting improve to optimize performance.”
Startup Madness event on video
Here’s a video recap of the Startup Madness event held at the NC American Tobacco Campus Bay 7 3/312/11.
Small businesses spend between $1,000 and $2,500 on their social media marketing. Marketing Weekly has created an infographic suggesting how small businesses can make the most of their advertising on Facebook.
We’ve never clicked on a single Facebook ad. Have you? While the 800-pound gorilla of the social networking world has more than twice the U.S. population in users, it isn’t proving to be an advertiser’s best friend.![Facebook vs. Google Display Advertising - Comparing the value of the world's largest advertising venues. [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://www.wordstream.com/images/facebook-vs-google-display-network.png)
Optimism returns to the media buying industry after it reports impressive growth during the fourth quarter 2011, according to a new 
Early next year Facebook users will start to see 
Go Daddy Group Inc., parent of domain registrar GoDaddy.com, has sold to private equity firms for $2.25 billion, the company said. The company sold to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.
WASHINGTON, DC – If nothing else, people following Twitter are getting early notice about what’s up in the news. At quarter til 10 Sunday night, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted the news media that President Obama would address the country at 10:30, 
