Two new announcements were made today that will help ad agencies stay educated and up-to-date on products while also being heard. Facebook Studio Edge is an addition to the Facebook Studio that will keep agencies up to speed on Facebook products and best practices.  Facebook Studio was launched last year in April with a goal of helping agencies work more effectively with Facebook while showcasing top agency work.  Facebook Studio was a big step for Facebook as they embraced brands instead of selling direct, and the Studio Edge will continue the relationship offering 10-15 minute int [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

In the coming weeks, Facebook plans to allow advertisers to begin purchasing its Marketplace ads on a real-time bidding basis. The idea is to increase the value of this inventory by allowing advertisers to use their own data for targeting. Though there's been much speculation about Facebook starting an ad network like the Google Content Network, this is not that -- it will only involve Facebook inventory. Ads will be sold on a CPM basis via third-party demand-side platforms (DSPs) and will be targeted via browser cookies -- which will enable retargeting and other behavioral options. Bloo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Facebook: Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

Today, with the collaboration of Facebook, comScore unleashed a research report that examined the affect paid and earned Facebook media had on both in-store and online sales.  The data uncovered conflicts wholeheartedly with the recent statements made  by GM, that Facebook Ads don't work. For the findings, two comScore products were used to drive media exposure; Social Essentials for earned media and AdEffx for paid media.  Some of the main metrics utilized in the report were Fan Reach, Engagement, Amplification and sales.  The report tested programming targeted to Friends and Friends [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Bloomberg News is citing two sources "with knowledge of the matter" in a report that suggests Twitter could reach $1 billion in sales revenue by 2014. If accurate, that would about double previous estimates of Twitter's sales revenues. Earlier this year, eMarketer suggested that Twitter's 2014 ad revenue would be about $540 million, up from an estimated $260 million this year. Although Twitter launched in 2006, it didn't begin to monetize the service until 2010. Critics questioned if the service would ever make money; comedians did, too, with Stephen Colbert famously telling co-founder B [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising

Facebook has begun rolling out Promoted Posts, a new tool that lets Page owners spend money to show status updates to more fans. At the moment, we can use Promoted Posts from our Marketing Land page, but it's not available to us on Search Engine Land's page, which has about seven times more "Likes." Only new status updates can be promoted this way; you can't go back to an old post and pay to promote it. If Promoted Posts is available on your Page, you'll see a new "Promote" button below the empty status update box. Note: You have to be using Facebook as the Page in order to see this. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

It couldn't have happened at a worse time for Facebook, which has its initial public offering of stock later this week. General Motors has decided to stop advertising on the social networking giant, citing concerns about the site's effectiveness. Meanwhile, a Forrester analyst says other companies are having doubts The GM news comes from a Wall Street Journal report that relies on "people familiar with the matter." It's been confirmed by GM itself in other stories, such as at The Guardian. According to the story, the automotive company will still maintain pages on Facebook -- on whi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Business Issues | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

Social media ad spending is expected to double in the U.S. between now and 2016, according to a new forecast from BIA/Kelsey. The data are from BIA/Kelsey's U.S. Local Media Forecast, which sees a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent in social media advertising. The forecast estimates social media ad spend at $4.8 billion in 2012 and doubling to $9.8 billion by 2016. (That's slightly more than double, to be precise.) BIA/Kelsey estimates that about one-third of that ad spend will be from local advertisers, with their ad spending in the U.S to grow from $1.2 billion this year to $3.1 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Spend Projections

In the last 12 months, the percentage of Facebook ad budgets allocated toward social ads -- such as Sponsored Stories -- has increased from 5% to 23%, according to analysis of user data by campaign management software firm Marin Software. By the end of the year, Marin predicts, social ads will account for nearly half of Facebook ad budgets. The news is heartening for Facebook and potential investors, as the company prepares to go public later this month. It shows that Facebook's special sauce -- social connections -- seem to be returning meaningful results for advertisers, if an increase in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Location-based check-in service Foursquare is planning to launch an advertising platform this summer, according to an Ad Age article citing "a person familiar with the matter." According to the report, the new functionality will be a part of the company's merchant platform, which currently allows businesses to claim their profile on the service and offer coupons or other check-in rewards called "specials". Foursquare currently isn't compensated monetarily for including these specials. The new paid media offering will allow merchants to promote their specials within the app or site. The c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Foursquare | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Twitter has announced another incremental step in the development of its ad products: Promoted Tweets can now be targeted to users of specific mobile platforms. Twitter's also announcing that Promoted Tweets are now showing to Blackberry users. That gives advertisers the option to target Promoted Tweets just to iOS, Android or Blackberry users if they wish. Here's a screenshot from Twitter's blog post. Twitter originally expanded Promoted Tweets to mobile devices in late February, but there was no way for advertisers to target mobile users at the time. About three weeks later, the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Mobile

Word-of-mouth recommendations and reviews, either from someone they know or a stranger's opinions online, are the most trusted sources of information for buying decisions, according to the latest Nielsen's latest Global Trust in Advertising report, The findings speak highly for information gathered through social media or other forms of user-generated content. Meanwhile, though traditional paid media still are trusted by a great number of consumers, their influence is on the decline. Nearly half of consumers around the world say the trust ads on TV (47%), in magazines (47%) and in newspaper [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Email Marketing | Facebook: Advertising | Mobile Marketing | Search Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: General

Twitter's advertisers have new targeting capabilities that will let them advertise directly and only to mobile users ... or just to desktop users, if they prefer. The company has just announced an expansion of its mobile Promoted Tweets ad product, and it includes mobile-specific targeting. "...brands can target their campaigns specifically to desktop computers and laptops, iOS, Android, and other mobile devices. Or, the default setting setting simply targets campaigns to users across all devices." Twitter has previously revealed that 55 percent of its active users access Twitter via [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Mobile

If I were a Facebook advertiser, I’d probably still be holding meetings and sending emails about how to strategize around Facebook’s marketing conference late last month. Rightfully so. There’s a lot to digest. What’s interesting here isn't so much what was announced, which was better mobile experience for advertisers, bigger ads and better targeting. What’s interesting is the direction of the announcements: which is that Facebook is listening to advertisers and beginning to deliver what they want. The cause of this trend is of course the IPO, in a word: earnings. In three word [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Facebook | Retargeting & Remarketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Marshall McLuhan's statement that "the medium is the message" must be one of the most over-used quotes of the last hundred years. I even used it (or misused it, depending on your opinion) as the title of a post last year. But because it's such a flexible statement, which can be made to mean almost anything (which was kind of the point), it keeps on being used. In my previous post I argued that marketers need to stop getting excited just because something happened on Facebook, Twitter or the like, and also that we don't assume that just because something is social, it will necessarily be bet [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

For the first time, Facebook is making it possible for advertisers to reach the site's enormous base of mobile users. Speaking today at Facebook's first fMC marketing event, Mike Hoefflinger, Director of Global Business Marketing, announced that Premium Ads and Sponsored Stories now include distribution on mobile devices. They'll also show for the first time on the Facebook log-out page. It's the first time Facebook advertisers can reach the company's 425 million monthly mobile users -- and the first time that Facebook will begin to monetize the mobile channel. Hoefflinger introduced [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

Twitter is expanding its ad inventory with the announcement today that Promoted Tweets are coming soon to the official Twitter apps on the iPhone and Android devices. They're not, at this point, expanding to the iPad. But it's logical to assume they'll eventually make their way to the iPad as the fourth stage of Twitter's ad expansion (which began on Twitter.com, then rolled out to the m.twitter.com mobile website and now includes the iPhone and Android devices). It's an important step for Twitter as it aims to expand its revenue base. The company announced in September that 55 percent [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Mobile

Facebook remains the U.S. display advertising revenue leader, but Google could take over the top spot as early as next year. That's according to new eMarketer projections out today -- projections that suggest Google's effort to expand its revenue base beyond search ads is working. According to eMarketer, Facebook made $1.73 billion in display revenue in 2011, slightly ahead of Google's $1.71 billion. On a percentage basis, those two figures represent 14 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively, of overall display ad revenues. eMarketer expects Facebook to expand its lead slightly in 2012, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Facebook: Advertising | Google: Display Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: Online Advertising | Top News

"Anything you can do on your Page, you can do in ads." That seems to be the primary slogan/message for a set of new Premium Ads that Facebook will reportedly announce next week -- likely at its fMC Marketing Conference on February 29th. On GigaOm this afternoon, Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs posted a PDF and slide deck that appears to have come from Facebook and introduces the new Premium Ads product. The documents reveal that Facebook plans to make it possible for advertisers to take any type of content posted to their Facebook Page and turn it into an ad. The new Premium Ads will [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

Some small businesses can register now for access to Twitter's self-serve advertising platform, which will formally launch next month according to Ad Age. The program is open to American Express cardholders and merchants, and Twitter will include a $100 credit to help the first 10,000 eligible participants get started. The signup form is available at ads.twitter.com/amex. Small businesses that sign up will be able to use Twitter's regular ad programs, such the cost-per-engagement Promoted Tweets product and/or the cost-per-follower Promoted Accounts product. Both of those offer geo-level [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising

While you still may be arguing about last night's best ad, a handful of sites have compiled their top ads based on social media analytics.  New records were set this Super Bowl, with 12,233 tweets sent per second on the last play.  This social commentary didn't just pertain to the on-play action either.  A variety of methods were used to grade the Super Bowl ads including comments, mentions, and sentiment analysis.  Here's a roundup of sources who ranked ads based on social indicators. AdAge Using overall social comments as a main metric, AdAge generated a top ads report in conjunction [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Social Media | Top News