Facebook No. 1 for online retailers building ‘fan pages,’ but still lags in display ads
Facebook is the social media site of choice for online retailers in the U.S., according to an August 2008 study by Internet Retailer and Vovici. However, the company is having less success with advertising from many of those same customers.
Nearly one-third of businesses responding to the study said they had a Facebook page, compared with 27 percent that had a MySpace page and just over one-quarter that had a page on YouTube.
Another study, this time by Rosetta that focused on the top 100 online retailers in the US, found that 59 had a fan page on Facebook, up from 30 in May 2008. Among the 29 who added Facebook pages since that time were Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart.
But despite Facebook’s success in attracting retail “fan pages,” its share of total U.S. online display ad views is only 1.1 percent against MySpace’s 15.9 percent, according an article appearing WSJ.com this week.
WSJ.com quoted Angie Tulgetske, vice president of RE/MAX Preferred Choice Properties who said "I haven't heard of anyone purchasing something off an ad on Facebook. I wouldn't think any of my marketing dollars would be spent advantageously there."
Facebook is trying to rectify the discrepancy. The latest ad launch is called "engagement ads" that appear on the main screen when a person first logs in to Facebook. They prompt a user to do something within the ad, such as comment on a movie trailer or RSVP for the season finale of a TV show. If the user completes the action, such as adding Bravo TV's "Project Runway" show to a personal list of events, Facebook tries to get Bravo's ad in front of more eyeballs by sharing a notice about what the user has done with their friends.
Sounds promising, but WSJ.com has questions. The site quotes one user who, after seeing the engagement ad for "Project Runway," clicked the "not attending" option to wipe the Bravo ad from her view.
One thing's for sure: the social network ad wars will only intensify.
More here: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006674
And here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122637098500816351.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
