Social Network Advertising, Can It Work?
Posted by Nick O'Neill on February 11th, 2008 10:05 AMLast week I brought up the issue of the effectiveness of social ads. The debate rages on with Joshua Porter providing insight as to why social advertising will never be as effective as search advertising. I have to agree with Joshua that search can actively track intent and thus is more effective. Users browsing through their friends’ profiles are not actively looking for something and are instead passively hanging out on the site waiting to find something of interest.
I honestly don’t think that social advertising will ever generate more than search but if it can generate a fraction of what search generates it will still prove to be highly lucrative. I also believe that combined with search, social advertising can increase ad conversions. I have been saying for a while that the value of social networks are not the websites themselves but instead the information that the sites have on each user.
I always use the example of browsing through CNN.com and having an advertisement that is targeted at you based on your Facebook profile data. Another possible value would be the combination of Google and Facebook. Not only do you receive ads that are targeted at your geographic location and based on your intent but you also get advertisements that are based on other demographic information.
This is still theory though and there is no data to back up my assertions unfortunately. Joshua Porter definitely makes some great points on his post and concludes that nothing will monetize more effectively on than search on the web. Do you think social advertising can work?
February 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am
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February 11th, 2008 at 11:51 am
The true value in social networks is found when companies are able to encourage user interaction with their brand inside the social network. No other area on the web provides easier access to groups of people to spread and grow ideas.
Social sites require different methods than traditional web advertising. It needs to be apart of a social media marketing effort, one that searches out, engages, interacts and ads value to the consumer. Just flashing a Fifa08 banner ad, just because I play soccer, isn’t going to cut it.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I think you are underestimating the value of trusted referrals.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
@Jess
I agree, it’s all about games. I bet if you saw the Fifa08 Flash soccer game instead of a banner ad you might give it a try, and especially if you only saw that add on someones profile who was also a player of that game.
That’s where Beacon can work….the friend recommendation has to have context to what the user has done or is doing on their own profile itself, not on some 3rd party site that doesn’t have any context to actions on their profile. The missing link in Beacon.