As Facebook prepares to release financially in Q4 2013, Socialbakers took a look at how industries on Facebook did in a new infographic.
Airlines, finance and telecom pages were the most responsive to fans, each delivering a of more than 75 percent in Q4. Airlines were actually the most responsive brand on both Facebook and Twitter, Socialbakers found. The company also discovered the brands respond more often to customers and fans on Facebook than they do on Twitter.
Click below to find out more.
Top image courtesy of Shutterstock.
According to documents filed , Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer, , has decided to sell 23,400 shares of Facebook stock.
Ebersman sold 11,700 shares at $58.80 each and 11,700 more at $56.37 each, netting him a total of $1,347,489 in the transactions. He currently owns 309,745 shares of Facebook stock.
As of the close of market Thursday, Facebook’s share value dropped slightly to $56.63.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
Version 2.0 beta of App Insights is now ready for developers, . All Facebook app developers can opt into this new version of starting today. It provides developers with a better dashboard to manage apps, as well as more actionable data, a clearer interface and improved warnings when outages occur.
Facebook Software Engineer Daniel Tomko discussed how App Insights 2.0′s improvement in actionable data :
We’ve re-organized the data you need to make a decision in one place. For example, we now have a single dashboard which tells you how much traffic you receive from Facebook, whether it’s coming from Open Graph stories or Requests.
We realize that it’s difficult to make decisions in a vacuum. Now, you can compare key metrics for your app to those for other apps. For example, if you see an abnormal spike in the mark-as-spam rate for your app’s stories, you can see if the spike is isolated to your app or if other apps also see the spike. Note: metrics are aggregated and anonymized – Insights will never show your app’s metrics to another developer.
Facebook noted that the company will still continue to make improvements to App Insights by bringing in more features from the previous version as well as adding new features. For now, App Insights 1.0 will be the default option. To try the beta product, go to the overview page and click “try the new App Insights.”
Readers: What do you think of the new version?
Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer Kenshoo announced recently that it has added , formerly Facebook’s Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions, to the company’s board of directors.
Burnett spent 4 1/2 years at Facebook and 4 years at Google, where he launched the Google Ann Arbor. Michigan office and served as Director of Online Sales and Operations for the Google North American AdWords team. Currently, Burnett is the COO of Flurry, a mobile analytics and advertising company.
Yoav Izhar-Prato, co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the board for , welcomed Burnett in a press release:
Finding someone with Grady’s expertise and professional network is rare, but we’re lucky enough to have also added someone who embodies Kenshoo’s core values of passion, innovation, and humility. We look forward to Grady’s insights related to cross-channel and cross-device activity as we continue to direct the future of Kenshoo and push the limits of digital marketing innovation for our clients.
Burnett discussed why he joined the board of directors:
I remember approaching Kenshoo about the importance of prioritizing social media back when I was at Facebook and the ad platform was in its nascent stages. Since the early days, Kenshoo’s record of product excellence has been quite impressive and, combined with the company’s rapid global expansion, it’s easy to predict that great things are on the horizon. … I’ve been lucky enough to watch firsthand as Kenshoo has grown from a disruptive startup to industry leader in both search and social advertising technologies. I look forward to contributing to this amazing team.
SocialCode, a Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer, announced Wednesday that the company has named Colin Sutton as the Vice President of Client Strategy.
Suttom comes to SocialCode from OMD, where he was the U.S. Director for Social Media, leading OMD’s social business while overseeing a group of media-focused strategists. He managed more than $50 million in advertising spend across social platform. Sutton has advised Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pepsi, Audi, GE, Hershey’s, Warner Bros. and other Fortune 50 brands.
Out of SocialCode’s New York office, Sutton will help the company grow relationships with the world’s largest advertisers. He will lead client strategy and delivery for the U.S. East Coast and Central regions. Sutton will also serve as a senior consultant for top clients globally.
SocialCode CEO Laura O’Shaughnessy welcomed Sutton to the company in a press release:
Colin Sutton is one of the most respected social marketing strategists in the business. He has an impressive history of capitalizing on social media to drive larger marketing strategy, while executing social advertising programs at global scale.
Sutton is excited to start, as he noted in the press release:
Social media continue to evolve as a core pillar of marketing, which has created growing demand for highly advanced technology-driven solutions. As an agency partner for several years, I’ve enjoyed SocialCode’s partnership and innovation in driving success for our most important clients. I look forward to contributing to SocialCode’s rapid growth and client success.
Facebook will start testing the delivery of ads in select mobile apps, . As more users turn to mobile, Facebook advertisers have been looking for ways to .
Facebook notes that the goal of this test is to demonstrate that Facebook can drive results both on and off the site.
When asked which apps would be a part of the test, a Facebook spokesperson noted that the company has nothing else to share at this time.
Here’s the announcement on the :
To improve the relevancy of the ads people see, provide even greater reach for Facebook advertisers and help mobile developers better monetize their apps, we’re running a small test to show Facebook ads in mobile apps. Our aim is to demonstrate even greater reach with the same power of Facebook targeting for advertisers both on and off Facebook.
While we have run similar tests in the past, this current test is more like a mobile ad network in that we are working directly with a small number of advertisers and publishers rather than an outside ad-serving platform.
The current test is limited to a few advertisers and partners, and we will share more details over the coming months.
Readers: What do you think of this?
Photo courtesy of Tanjala Gica / Shutterstock.com.
Q4 is always a big one for Facebook as it represents the , when retailers crank up their ad budgets to get more valuable real estate in the News Feed.
But how was the most recent Q4 for Facebook? A new infographic by Kenshoo shows that impressions, clickthrough rate and sales all went up significantly compared to Q3.
Here’s a few key tidbits from the infographic:
- Advertiser sales revenue driven by Facebook ads increased 59.09% quarter over quarter (QoQ)
- Impressions increased 50.79% QoQ
- Clicks increased 65.87% QoQ
Click below to learn more. Facebook will announce its official Q4 numbers .
Top image courtesy of Shutterstock,
One of the biggest headaches for novice Facebook page admins is making sure content looks good. While Facebook’s official image specs are hard to pin down, social marketing expert Jon Loomer recently compiled an infographic showing the ideal image sizes for every kind of Facebook post and ad.
Click below to find out how big your images should be.
Facebook announced Tuesday , this time involving status updates. Some page admins last year found that (or status updates including a link) were doing well in terms of reach. However, Facebook found that engagement was lower for these types of posts.
The social network decided that since status updates from pages behave differently than photo, video and link posts, they should be treated differently. While users may see more status updates from friends, pages may see a for these types of posts, writes Facebook’s Chris Turitzin, Product Manager, News Feed Ranking:
As a result, the latest update to News Feed ranking treats text status updates from Pages as a different category to text status updates from friends. We are learning that posts from Pages behave differently to posts from friends and we are working to improve our ranking algorithms so that we do a better job of differentiating between the two types. This will help us show people more content they want to see. Page admins can expect a decrease in the distribution of their text status updates, but they may see some increases in engagement and distribution for other story types.
Many Page owners often ask what kind of content they should post. This is difficult to answer, as it depends on who your audience is and what they want to see.
The move is to prompt more pages to take advantage of Facebook’s more visual link share format, instead of posting a link within a status update (as illustrated above). Turitzin notes that the new and improved link share format (which pulls a large image from the website linked to) has led to enhanced engagement and provide a more visual experience for fans.
He emphasized that there’s no magic bullet format that page admins should be using:
In general, we recommend that you use the story type that best fits the message that you want to tell – whether that’s a status, photo, link or video.
Readers: What do you think of this decision?
No jedi tricks, mass-scaled ad multiplication, or crazy targeting.
Just against 6 images he’s testing.
But which “well-established” rules did he break?
- Running strictly (RHS) right-hand side ads: we know the newsfeed is seen as more organic and has higher CTR. But sometimes the RHS performs better for website conversions. They wanted new user acquisition here.
- Allowing the frequency to balloon to 40: That means each user saw the ad 40 times– so many of them likely saw more than that. We don’t like to let newsfeed ads get over a frequency of 1.5 or RHS getting over 5-6, as that causes ad burnout. Yet, the CTR is still excellent.
- Running only a handful of ads: 12 ads total on 6 images. Not crazy multiplication against hundreds of precise interest targets. But he is using custom audiences.
- Optimized CPM is smarter: We knew about it , but haven’t seen it really take effect until recently. But bidding still can help if you know how to set manual bids per action (see below image). Notice the effective CPM is only 5 cents on the first ad. This is US traffic.
- The target clients are inherently social: This startup is targeting DJs in major metros. Their fan acquisition campaigns often yielded fans for 2.5 cents, said Mr. Hinds. Of course, consider whether this applies to your vertical, especially if you’re in B2B or something not as sexy.
- A winning graphic: You don’t know until you test a few of them. Even experienced pros can’t reliably spot which creative is going to win.
Clearly, Facebook is simplifying the ad experience — fewer ad units, more of the work being done by their algorithm. It would be as if Google AdWords were to select your keywords and bids for you — allowing you just to focus on crafting great content and servicing your customers.
Readers, what do think? Have you noticed improvements in your ad campaigns in the last few weeks?
Every Facebook page admin wants to know what (short of advertising or boosting) will prompt Facebook users to share their posts. A new infographic by ShortStack breaks down the science of what makes a shareable Facebook post.
Click below to learn more.
Click here to download a PDF version.
Are you playing Candy Crush Saga? Tell us your thoughts!
For more information, visit AppData or call us atAs people watch the upcoming this Sunday, determining , they’ll likely post about it on Facebook. The winning team will likely win over some new Facebook fans, as casual observers get to know the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
We analyzed numbers from PageData to show how the road to the conference championship games have affected the Facebook pages for the four remaining NFL teams.
AFC Championship: vs. New England Patriots
While the Patriots have more than double the Facebook fanbase of the Broncos, it looks like the Broncos are becoming more popular as the matchup draws closer. However, more people on Facebook are talking about the Patriots.
The day after New England’s previous victory, over the Indianapolis Colts, the page for the Patriots gained 14,936 Facebook fans. Meanwhile, the day after Denver disposed of the San Diego Chargers, 19,659 people clicked the “like” button for the Broncos page.
Here’s a look at how the People Talking About This metric changed during the playoffs. Both the Patriots and Broncos earned first-round byes, so they have each played only one playoff game so far.
NFC Championship: San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks
This matchup is a little more even, at least on the social network. While the 49ers have roughly 1 million more Facebook fans than the Seahawks, the page for Seattle’s team is gaining quickly, adding 63,280 fans.
In the day after San Francisco’s first playoff win, over Green Bay, the page gained 15,506 fans. The next week, a day after beating the Carolina Panthers, the 49ers fan page gained 18,314 new fans. Seattle has played only one playoff game so far, defeating the New Orleans Saints on Jan. 11. The next day, 17,055 new likes showed up on the Seahawks’ Facebook page.
Here’s how PTAT has gone during the playoff runs for both teams:
Readers: Which teams are you rooting for this Sunday?
Want to learn more about Facebook pages? Check out PageData.
Image courtesy of the .
It looks like Facebook may be testing a new design for its flagship Android app, bringing home some visual elements — namely, more white — present in its Messenger app.
Inside Facebook reader Thodoris Konsoulas of Greece noticed that the Facebook for Android design is markedly different, as seen above. He is not in the testing group, he noted.
We’ve reached out to Facebook about this and will update the story if we hear back.
In this new design, which we believe to be a test, the buttons for News Feed, notifications, messages, friend requests and the user’s timeline are all in white, as opposed to above in the blue bar. Additionally, the prompts for post status/photo and check in are on the bottom, rather than toward the top and above the News Feed.
Here’s what the current Android design looks like:
With the white buttons, this iteration of the Facebook for Android app looks more like the redesign :
Readers: Do you like this design found by Thodoris Konsoulas?
Facebook will turn 10 in February, marking a decade of social networking. What started out as a project in a Harvard dorm room project has become the way that around the world communicate.
Irish marketing firm DPFOC put together an infographic putting Facebook’s history into timeline format. Re-live the past decade of Facebook by clicking below.
Top image courtesy of Shutterstock.
Facebook has been similar to Twitter’s trending topics, but that it will start rolling it out for users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Australia. This may not be available immediately and is a roll-out.
On the top right corner of News Feed, Facebook based on popular conversations happening around the social network. Users can then click the topic to see public and friends’ posts about that topic.
A Facebook spokesperson noted that trends are identified by “an algorithm that highlights topics that have had a sharp increase in popularity, as opposed to overall volume.” Trends cannot be sponsored at this time, but this could be a source of revenue for Facebook in the future, much like how brands pay to promote topics on Twitter.
Users can click “see more” for a full list of trends buzzing on Facebook. The site also includes something that Twitter doesn’t: a description of why that particular term is trending.
When a user clicks on the , they’ll see posts from friends, pages, news organizations, celebrities and public figures. Posts from pages the user has liked, friends and people they’re following will show up higher in the feed.
Facebook notes that while they’re rolling this out for desktop in the select countries, they’re still testing it on mobile.
Readers: What do you think of this move?
Ampush, a Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer, announced Thursday that it has appointed former Facebook Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions Group Tom Arrix to its board of advisors.
Arrix after seven years with the social network, helping Facebook foster marketing relationships with brands such as Walmart, American Express, Coca-Cola and GM.
With , Arrix will advise the company on client strategy, strategic partnerships and product development. Prior to working with Facebook, Arrix led Univision Digital’s advertising and mobile sales team.
Ampush CEO and Co-Founder Jesse Pujji commented on the hire in a press release:
We look forward to working closely with Tom; we have gotten to know each other well in the last several months and Tom shares our values and vision for Ampush. His deep experience and knowledge of media sales, Facebook advertising and native platforms will be integral in taking Ampush to the next level.
Arrix is excited to get started:
Ampush is raising the bar by taking the complexity out of buying ads for brands and direct response advertisers, on the industry’s biggest native ad platforms like Facebook and Twitter. During my time at Facebook, I witnessed Ampush drive major ROI across multiple industries through Facebook advertising. This trend will continue on other native platforms as the industry evolves and Ampush continues its upward growth trajectory. I’m thrilled and honored to work with Ampush’s founders, some of the industry’s true rock stars.
One of the fastest-growing Facebook apps isn’t made by . , a puzzle game developed by CookApps, has an estimated 5.1 million monthly active users (according to AppData) — roughly 1 million of which have been added in the past week.
The only two Facebook apps to with a higher MAU growth in the past week are King’s headlining titles of Candy Crush Saga and Farm Heroes Saga.
Here’s a look at how Pudding Pop has grown rapidly, since its debut on Facebook late 2013:
The app had 1.38 million estimated MAU on Dec. 8, but had more than doubled that by New Year’s Day.
Pudding Pop has also grown steadily in DAU, with an AppData estimate of 247,245 on Dec. 8, nearly tripling on Jan. 1 to 611,776, and now at 912,875 with little signs of slowing. At the current pace, it’s likely that Pudding Pop reaches 1 million DAU within the next month.
Additionally, the has grown considerably according to PageData, rising from roughly 525,000 likes on Dec. 16 to more than 1.5 million today. Though the PTAT value has dropped in recent days, it hit a high of 340,668 on Jan. 11.
Readers: Do you play Pudding Pop?
Image courtesy of .
shows that automotive campaigns on Facebook are not only driving more brand awareness, but decreasing interest in competitors. The study of five major campaigns between May and August 2013 shows that Facebook advertising led to a 37 percent hike in brand site visits, a 17 percent increase in brand page visits on automotive-endemic sites and an 11 percent uptick in brand search activity.
Interestingly enough, these Facebook campaigns also meant that less attention was being paid to competitors, as there were 3 percent fewer competitive brand searches and 14 percent fewer competitive model searches.
The findings were announced at the annual North American Auto Show by Kass Dawson, head of automotive strategy of Facebook.
The study wrapped up the implications for automotive brands:
Facebook is at the center of the shift to time spent online, across both desktop and mobile. And automotive marketers have already seen their Facebook campaigns effectively drive brand perceptions, lower funnel actions and sales.
For its part, this study demonstrates additional benefits of automotive advertising on Facebook, particularly in terms of key mid-funnel behaviors – endemic site visits and search.
By incorporating Facebook into their media mix, automotive marketers can not only reach, influence and drive sales among in-market consumers, they can also improve overall mid-funnel campaign performance.
Dawson commented on the study :
As more people shop for cars and conduct research online, marketers using Facebook have never had greater opportunity to influence every stage of the purchase funnel. This study shines a spotlight on how Facebook influences mid-funnel behavior and demonstrates that automotive ads on Facebook make your overall campaigns work harder.
Readers: Has Facebook ever had an impact on your car search or purchasing decisions?
Top image courtesy of Maksim Toome / Shutterstock.com.
6 cent cost per click. 1,476 fans for only $210. That’s only 14 cents a fan. But look at the targeting.
They’re buying traffic from India, Pakistan, Mexico, Thailand, and all sorts of places. Traffic there is a fraction of the cost of the United States, UK, or Canada. Unless you’re able to monetize fans outside of your target country, don’t make this irreversible mistake.
Provided you have your campaigns properly split up into audience (fan growth), engagement, and conversion, the junk fans feed into the engagement stage campaign, clogging things up. That means your News Feed campaigns have to work harder, since they are having to also reach your junk fans.
That’s wasting money. You can’t remove these fans or exclude them in your targeting, unless you have .
We’d rather see your “always on” campaigns (page post ads targeting fans) feeding real fans, even though there is a marginal benefit in appearing to have a large fan base. This tactic is nearly as bad as buying fake fans.
What does a bad conversion look like?
Notice that the above ad had a 6 cent cost per click and 14 cent cost per fan. That means nearly half of the clicks turned into fans. Sounds good, right?
Not terrible, since averages are 50-70%.
But look carefully at the combination of ad copy and targeting.
This ad targets fans of Demi Lovato and then asks if they like Demi Lovato. 4 years ago, this technique could produced fans for .
But remember that when users click “like” on that ad, they think they’re clicking like on a post or saying they like that celebrity — not that they like your page.
Becoming a fan from the ad itself is called an in-line like. While it does drive the most effective cost per like, especially using this technique, if you want quality fans, we recommend using a page like story () or generating fans from page post ads.
You want folks who became fans because they love your content and are influenced by activity from their friends.
Facebook’s amazing assist
The good news in all this is that when you tell Facebook what your objective is, via the new objective-based ads flow, their system will automatically optimize.
The ad above got 1,476 fans on 1,711 actions, which means that 86% of actions were fans.
Optimized CPM is the default bidding mechanism when you create ads by objective. We strongly recommend you keep it there, unless you are sophisticated enough to override it with CPC bids by audience and placement.
There is no free lunch
Unless you’re growing your fan base to please an executive or client, you should always have your engagement and conversion campaigns tied into your fan acquisition campaigns. Never do just fan acquisition.
One-off tactics can boost you at one point in the funnel, but it won’t drive revenue unless you tie it all together.
