Facebook ad spend increases

Spend on Facebook advertising has increased by ten times in the last year. Big brands who were just experimenting with Facebook ads; now satisfied with the results, are using the platform more and more. It is predicted that Facebook ad spends will increase to $1.4 billion for 2010.

Here at Jollywise we've seen a marked increase in interest in Facebook advertising. We've been running ad campaigns for some big brands for a while and have had great success with them. The targeting and reporting available means we're able to meet client requirements and give them real ROI.


Read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-04/facebook-advertisers-boost-spending-tenfold-as-site-grows-sandberg-says.html

Is Cost Per Action coming?

Google have launched a new mobile ad format (see article for full details), which only charges the advertiser when someone actually follows through with an action - in this case - clicks through to the website or calls the business.

Is this going to be the future of ads, that after pay-per-impression, followed by pay-per-click, we get pay-per-action - where advertisers are only paying when they get positive actions back.

Read the full article here:
http://www.marketingvox.com/will-googles-new-mobile-ad-format-usher-in-cpa-on-a-wide-scale-047462/

Google starts Twitter ads

Google has given a soft launch to Twitter ads within their Google Content Network. A "no-brainer" as far as I'm concerned and great that Google have created this ad format.

Read more about them here:
http://www.clickz.com/3640539

Facebook ads to see where you've been

Facebook is planning on using your browsing history to decide which ads to serve you. Although this might provide more accurate results, it isn't something that users like and could provide some embarrassing results.

People are rightfully protective over their browser history as it's quite a private thing, but some people know that and use it to their advantage, such as the creator of this recent virus.

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/19/facebook-rolls-out-web-ads-track-user-patterns/

Twitter Ad Platform Coming Soon

Plans are confirmed that Twitter will be launching it's ad platform soon. Seth Goldstein and Anamitra Banerji have both commented and although there is no confirmed date it is expected in the next month or so.

Personally I don't see how this will work. Most people don't actually go to Twitter.com and I can't see people putting up with ads within their tweets. I've never really thought that Twitter was a monetisable platform and I'll be interested to see how they roll this out and how the Twittersphere reacts to it. It may well not be positive and who knows Buzz might even benefit from it!


Read more:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=122950

http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/02/24/ads-coming-on-twitter-soon/

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/02/23/twitters-advertising-platform-launch-month/

DoubleClick for Publishers

Google have just launched their latest technology for publishers in the form of DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP). They will be removing the DART branding and replacing it with Google branding.
It's been a long awaited upgrade to their system and one that will include a variety of enhancements to keep DoubleClick at the forefront of the market. Included in these are the new Public API which has been opened up to allow third parties to create applications which utilise DFP.


Google blog post:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/next-generation-of-ad-serving-for.html

AdAge article:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=142237

YouTube to try out skippable pre-roll ads

YouTube have been experimenting all different kinds of advertising in their videos. Over the ad, next to the ad, during the ad, before the ad - they've tried it all.

I've previously said that I thought that YouTube would lose people if they put pre-roll ads onto their site. YouTube seem to have agreed, as they stopped testing them. But they are back with new pre-roll testing, however this time it will be skippable with a "No thank you" link. I think that this is far more likely to survive, as it has on other file sending sites, such as zshare and relay it. Maybe they've found a happy medium here? I still think that relevant ads alongside content are the way to go. Make them highly relevant and of a high standard and people are more likely to be interested and less likely to be annoyed.

Facebook runs a fifth of all UK ads

Apparently Facebook ran 21.6% of all ads in the UK. That's a lot of ads.

Read more:
http://www.nma.co.uk/new-measure-of-ad-views-finds-facebook-runs-a-fifth-of-all-uk-ads/3000814.article

Star Trek ads on your iPhone

An exclusive Star Trek ad has been launched for the iPhone, by MEC Interaction in association with VideoEgg.
As more and more people get on the mobile web I think that mobile ads will become more important in digital marketing. So keep your eyes open for similar things.

http://www.netimperative.com/netimperative/news/2009/april/star-trek-campaign-beams-up-on-iphone

Have they finally twigged?

That we want nice unobtrusive ads that if we are interested in them and click on them, then we want decent content. Videoegg seem to understand this.
They have come up with twigs. These "stretchy ads" as marketing-vox calls them, can be used on long pages that scroll. They stay in position at the top or bottom of a page, meaning users don't just scroll past them.

Marketing-vox article on the subject:
http://www.marketingvox.com/videoegg-sports-stretchy-ads-for-social-sites-043812/

Their introduction to twigs:
http://www.videoegg.com/press/videoegg_twig

And here it is in action:
http://clients.videoegg.com/preview/twig/

Report on Advertising on Facebook

Useful stuff here. All about advertising on Facebook and how best to do it.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-advertising-an-opportunity-to-reach-powerful-users-at-very-low-cost