DailyDirt: Facebook Facebook Facebook...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, May 17th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There's a big IPO coming up that should create a few more Silicon Valley billionaires. Back when Google went public, there were lots of folks joking about how business models were all going to be based on advertising. Just add ads, and your last step would most definitely be "profit." That joke got old, but it doesn't look like business models based on ads have. (At least, not for Facebook.. or Twitter.. or Foursquare...)

GM hasn't been impressed by the performance of its Facebook ad campaigns. Is it always the poor musician who blames his instrument? [url]
A bunch of Facebook advertisers say that it can be difficult to pinpoint all the benefits of social networking ads, but getting more "likes" seems to quantify improving brand awareness in an easily-understood way. This is why there will never be a "dislike" button, though. [url]
Small businesses are still trying to figure out whether or not Facebook ads are worthwhile. Either way, there appears to be more publicity in having a nice story about how Facebook ads don't really have a great return on investment... [url]
To discover more interesting advertising-related content, check out what's floating around on StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ads, advertising, branding, ipo, roi, social network
Companies: facebook, gm

6 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Watchit (profile), 17 May 2012 @ 5:17pm

Well, an ad, is an ad, is an ad. And everyone knows it's always about location, location, location. If a facebook ad doesn't work for a company, then either they're doing something wrong or facebook ads are just not for them. Personally I ignore Facebook ads out of hand, because they annoy me most the time.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ken (profile), 17 May 2012 @ 5:53pm

Problem is the metric used to measure ads effectiveness
The problem with Internet ads is not the ads but the metric advertisers use to determine the success of an ad. Most ads track the number of people that click on their ads however this is not the way ads are effective. No other ad format is the viewer expected to make some overt act by clicking on an ad. Do TV or newspapers or magazines expect their potential customer to do some overt act like clicking on a link? No, the same goes for Internet advertising. The power of an ad is the exposure to the name of the company in the ad. Most people buy from brands they are familiar with and ads are what provide this familiarity. Judging an ads effectiveness by counting clicks is counter productive because few people do it and even fewer people who do it actually end up buying.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Michael Ho (profile), 17 May 2012 @ 6:01pm
  
  Re: Problem is the metric used to measure ads effectiveness
  This old quote from John Wanamaker seems to still be true:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wanamaker
  
  "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - ken (profile), 17 May 2012 @ 7:27pm
    
    Re: Re: Problem is the metric used to measure ads effectiveness
    They way advertisers determine the effectiveness of ads is like determining your readership by the number of comments.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - ken (profile), 17 May 2012 @ 7:29pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Problem is the metric used to measure ads effectiveness
      Micheal Ho
      
      So far I am the only person who has read this post. :-)
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Mike Masnick (profile), 18 May 2012 @ 12:40am
    
    Re: Re: Problem is the metric used to measure ads effectiveness
    "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
    
    The half spent on Facebook, obviously. Duh. ;)
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]