According to a study by Nanigans, ads that appear within a users Facebook newsfeed deliver an average increase in return-on-investment of 197%, compared with those on the right hand side of Facebook. And, comparatively, the News Feed had an average of 17.1 times higher CTR and 51 percent lower CPC than the Facebook sidebar.
This may be a tired analogy, but stick with me for a moment: There is something magical that happens when you mix a variety of bland, or even bitter ingredients (flour, baking soda, cocoa powder…) with a little sugar and bake. Who’d ever think it would turn into something altogether different — and wonderful. Brownie anyone?
Reaching social consumers happens in much the same way. Who would have ever thought that when you mix your company’s product or service, a rich video, and Facebook’s News Feed (or other social stream) it too would result in something altogether different — and wonderful? Proven results anyone?
But, daily organic posting isn’t marketing. We can’t expect sustained value at scale without applying the full set of resources and creativity of marketing to the challenge of reaching and converting social+mobile consumers. Additionally, marketers must go beyond native post types (photo and video, for example) and bring the power of rich media to the stream.
Not long ago, the idea of advertising a product or service in the social stream was considered taboo, and yet today it’s a technique proven to drive engagement and amplification. If getting consumers to discover and engage with your brand in the stream is so powerful, how does it all come together? It just takes three simple steps:
Step 1: Assemble your ingredients
Identify which products and/or services you plan to promote to your social customers. Pick a product or collection that’s worth talking about and sharing. Focus on items for which you can build up exclusivity, anticipation, or urgency. For example, products that have a story or you can wrap into a compelling package such as early access, exclusive fan-only products, limited edition or limited time all work very well.
Pick campaigns for which you have compelling and copious creative and content. If all you have are the photos from your website, pick something else.
Simultaneously, determine which audience you plan to target. Social audiences can be fragmented and specialized; “micro-segementation” is the here to stay; and having a basic profile of the audience you’re looking to reach is essential.
Step 2: Develop your campaign and posting plan
By developing your campaign and posting plans in tandem, you’ll be able to integrate rich content that helps move social consumers down the path to action. Rich interactive posts drive discovery and enable social and mobile consumers to explore more deeply without leaving their social context. Plan a pre-, launch, and post-campaign strategy by designing multiple posts and publish with a pre-determined cadence to achieve optimal results. Use media dollars to spike reach and amplification at the beginning of each phase and make sure that your campaign is equally rich and effective on smartphones by making the design responsive and keeping any videos and/or forms you choose to use short.
When it comes to social rich media campaigns, here are three typical approaches. The first is supporting a large brand or product campaign consisting of both off- and online components. For most brands, one to two very rich posts a week is the right rule of thumb. For this approach, marketers should dedicate budget to promoting specific posts that appeal to a large, general audience.
The second path is to build buzz or excitement around a new product launch or event. For these post campaigns, marketers should increase spend as they get closer and closer to the event, sustain the spend through the launch period and then end the campaign. Posts should be more social and viral in nature. Marketers traveling down this path should commit to promoting at least two to four posts every week.
The third path is a more sustained campaign either focused on a category or audience. A four month push around baseball apparel during the season, for example. For these post campaigns, marketers should allocate a quarterly budget to promoting consistent post types that are focused on engagement and/or product exploration — such as weekly deals, weekly curated collections, a series of Web videos, etc. Marketers traveling down this path should commit to promoting a post a week for a sustained period.
Step 3: Don’t skimp on the storytelling
Content and interactivity are the most important factors driving discovery and engagement. While there are a whole host of statistics about the significant impact video has on consumer confidence, likelihood to purchase and more, what is important here is how to create content strategies that drive these outcomes from the social stream. Not an easy task.
Storytelling formats that work really well in the social stream use brand and product stories as the foundation, adding details to carry consumers from one step to the next. Consider stories focused on the people behind your product, how it is made, why consumers choose your product, or simple how-to videos.
Short-form storytelling can also be remarkably effective in social. One minute videos or short audio interviews for example, can work quite well. Simple, useful interactivity should be at the heart of your strategy, with simple forms, easy to understand calls to action and sharing that is straight-forward and familiar. A note of caution: unlike e-mail, for example, linear storytelling across multiple posts does not work well in the stream. It’s almost impossible to ensure that an individual will see two of your posts so it’s essential that each post is self-contained. Each post can link to the other stories, or even contain the previous stories but never assume someone has seen any of your content before.
Marketing in the social stream will only continue to grow in importance as social networks mature the breadth and depth of social stream capabilities and look to sideline traditional right rail advertising. The capstone of all of this is that early research indicates consumers actually prefer the combination of rich, interactive content mixed with storytelling in the social stream. As these trends converge, it will be incumbent upon us all to be expert not just in social marketing, but in stream marketing that helps consumers discover and engage with our products and brand.
Marko Z Muellner is senior director of marketing at ShopIgniter and has been a digital marketer for more than 18 years. He has spent his time learning how digital marketing is applied at nonprofits, international digital agencies, dot-com startups, global sportswear and beer companies, and a top-tier Web analytics and optimization company. He can be reached at via e-mail at [email protected] and via Twitter @markozm.
COMMENTARY: Without a doubt, rich media ads have been delivering increasingly above-benchmark results for advertisers (see the rich media ad performance metrics infographic below), often boosting engagement rates to three times that of traditional ads! Rich media ads are attracting a growing share of marketing budgets worldwide, and have become such a powerful ingredient in marketing recipes that the IAB has even adopted a new set of ad units called "Rising Stars." These and other brand-friendly rich media placements tap into the latest animation technologies to provide a richer canvas for creating highly impactful brand experiences that reach and engage quality consumer audiences.
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Social networks offer marketers the chance to engage their audiences in an informal yet meaningful way, leveraging their real-time social interactions to become part of an authentic, relevant conversation. Social sites like Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter are tailor-made for bringing brands and consumers together. Social media advertising has been proven to boost engagement, so much so that research firm BIA/Kelsey predicts that social media advertising revenue will grow to nearly $11 billion in 2017, up from $4.7 billion in 2012 - an 18.6 percent annual growth rate.
So what happens when marketers integrate two of the most successful, engaging forms of advertising? The result, unsurprisingly, is engagement of super power strength! Combining an extremely compelling ad format with an authentic, personal communication channel results in consumers who are more open to engaging with brands, bring friends into the conversation, and complete calls-to-action like clicking through to websites and pressing "Add to Cart."
Rich Media Ads Very Effective On Mobile Devices Reports Celtra
In April 2013, Facebook reported that 751 million users, or nearly 70% of its reported 1.1 billion users worldwide, accessed their accounts on a mobile device. So what type of rich media ads work best on mobile devices? Celtra, a mobile marketing agency, analyzed the results 170 ad campaigns they designed for clients using rich media ads by type of device, ad format and mobile platform and came up with the following results.
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Brands Must Deliver Ad Experiences That Blend Into The Overal User Experience
With the increasing focus on native placements like Promoted Posts and Tweets, it remains imperative that brands deliver advertising experiences that seamlessly blend into the user experience, while offering content that is both relevant and compelling enough to stand out in the feed. And, as social networks offer up increasingly bigger canvases for brand advertisers, there's a growing opportunity to capitalize on rich media ads that include videos, product showcases, photo carousels, and more - all within a social, shareable environment. The challenge then is a catch-22 - brands must blend in yet stand out all at the same time!
The key to delivering this tall order is in leveraging social data to create even more resonant and powerful campaigns. The best social media marketers are great talkers, but even better listeners. An individual's likes, needs, opinions, and interactions - all readily available in real time across social networks - can tell a complete consumer story and enable marketers to determine the best way to reach that person and nurture a relationship. With the right tools to filter through the onslaught of social actions and chatter, advertisers can pinpoint and target niche audiences that are ripe for engagement and conversion, and then use rich media to tell the right story with sight, sound, and motion.
For instance, imagine a Promoted Post from an auto brand that displays the vehicle's features via video while playing heavy metal music; an individual who has posted frustrations with the car shopping process on his Facebook wall and lists Pantera and Iron Maiden as favorite bands on his profile would be likely to respond favorably to that ad. Or, envision a news feed placement showcasing an interactive closet full of designer clothes available on consignment, targeted toward moms who shop at Walmart but love Versace. The possibilities are endless.
Rich Media Ads Placed In Game Apps Report Great Success
Interactive games have also seen great success on social media, and "advergaming" has come a long way since the cheesy old days of flashing banner ads offering a free iPod if you hit the dancing monkey. Rich media posts inviting social media users to play a game or take a quiz and share the results are a great way to both engage a consumer on a personal level, but also encourage them to spread the word to their friends.
Ultimately, social media marketing leverages the fact that users are willing and happy to engage and take action in a fair exchange of value, and precisely targeted rich media ads give consumers what they want in return: relevant, compelling, entertaining, and useful content. By combining social media insights and rich media innovation, brands can enjoy increased user engagement, consumer loyalty, and - you guessed it - social ROI.
Facebook Newsfeed Ads More Effective Reports AdRoll
According to a new one billion-impression ad study by retargeting giant AdRoll, news feeds ads have a massive 21 times higher clickthrough rates than standard web retargeting ads and an incredible 49 times the clickthrough rate of Facebook’s right-hand side ads.
On June 27, 2013, AdRoll president Adam Berke told VentureBeat's John Koetsier:
“A year ago we were having the discussion that Facebook doesn’t work, and GM is pulling its ads. Now we’re having the conversation on whether this rivals Google!”
News Feed ads sit, as the name suggests, right within the flow of the feed of social news that Facebook users come to the site for. Sold via Facebook Ad Exchange, the ad units enable brands to target consumers who have previously visited their sites — hence “retargeting” — which enables advertisers to merge the intent graph (what people want) with a social site (Facebook). They’re larger than Facebook’s right-hand-side ads, and they’re qualitatively different in very significant way.
Berke says.
“Facebook hit on a winning combination from a direct response perspective by fusing two things. They combined the power of programmatic advertising with Facebook’s own secret sauce — this native environment which is very engaging.”
In other words, even though News Feed ads are sold programmatically via the Facebook Ad Exchange, they’re also social entities. News Feed ads are likeable, shareable, and commentable, and as such, they’re embedded into the fabric of what makes Facebook Facebook in a way that no other ads are. They benefit from viral effects, which means great ads will get great earned reach as well as paid, and the fit into the news feed in a very natural way.
Plus, Facebook only sells one of them per user per day.
The combination of all that adds up to crazy metrics that you just don’t see in today’s highly competitive advertising landscape. While AdWords advertisers scrape and claw for a percentage increase here and a fraction better there, News Feed ads are providing almost 50 times the clicks per ad compared to Facebook’s right-hand side ads and 21 times the clicks of standard web retargeting ads. That translates to massively lower costs: 79 percent lower cost-per-click compared to web retargeted ads, and 54 percent less cost than Facebook’s right-hand ads.
That’s important, because Facebook needs to compete with other advertising channels such as search and e-mail that have resulted in higher-value customers in the past.
While the clicks are so high that conversions are slightly down, overall that translates into 77 percent lower cost-per-action compared to web retargeted ads and 45 percent lower cost than other Facebook ads. That’s pretty impressive data. But it’s what AdRoll was seeing right from the beginning in April when Facebook launched the new ad unit.
Berke told VentureBeat.
“It didn’t blow our mind because we had anecdotal feedback from advertisers about how they were performing. From day one our clients were telling us it was working.”
As tempting as it is, the comparison to Google might be a little unfair, however. As Berke says, News Feed doesn’t have the scale of AdWords, and advertisers will still need to use multiple advertising methods to achieve the kind of reach they need. And if Facebook was tempted to increase the number of News Feed ads, the likelihood is that their effectiveness would diminish.
But by merging programmatic buying and social signals, Facebook has created a categorically new advertising world.
Berke told VentureBeat.
“It’s the first time we’ve seen those two big trends come together. And the fact that they came together in a very symbiotic way is really exciting.”
Now we know why Facebook put ads in the news feed. And now we have a clue how Facebook is going to monetize its massive web and mobile audience at something at least approaching Google-like levels.
Demand For Rich Media Ads By Brands Forecasted To Be High During 2013
Once more, rich media advertising units are garnering headlines, this time thanks to a new survey out from Jivox which found that a majority of brands are interesting in adopting dynamic rich media ad units through 2013. The report indicates that dynamic rich media ads could see increases of up to 70% this year.
All may not be sunshine and roses for those brands adopting or increasing their use of these units, however, as the report also shows that most (88%) feel rich media campaigns are 'somewhat' to 'very' stressful to execute the campaigns well.
Diaz Nesamoney, CEO and founder of Jivox said.
"From our survey we found the desire for highly engaging dynamic rich media ad formats has greatly intensified as more brands realize the opportunity to dramatically improve ad effectiveness. At the same time, the influx of mobile devices has created new challenges and frustrations for advertisers. These findings show that we need to move to the next generation of ad platforms that are adaptive, real-time and more efficient - only then can we alleviate some of the stress that traditional rich media causes."
Some interesting takeaways include:
- 51% of ad agencies report increased demand (clients) for dynamic rich media
- 42% of those running rich media across screens/platforms say the process is 'painful'
- 66% say they would recommend more rich media campaigns if costs, production time lessened
- 31% say they 'almost always' delay campaigns because of either creative changes or ad production issues
Of those already using dynamic rich media about half say it takes up to two weeks to complete ad production successfully; 40% say it takes longer than three weeks to complete production.
Meanwhile, those who haven't already adopted rich media say the costs to produce these types of ads are too great.
Courtesy of an article dated June 21, 2013 appearing in SmartBlog on Social Media, an article dated May 15, 2013 appearing in ClickZ and an article dated June 27, 2013 appearing in VentureBeat and an article dated March 6, 2013 appearing in BizReport
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