With the economy still teetering and many businesses and consumers still gasping for air, it's nice to hear a success story every once in a while. For example, social media giant Facebook’s global revenues are projected to hit $4.27 billion in 2011, up from $2 billion in 2010, according to the latest estimates by eMarketer.
Most of those incoming dollars will be the direct result of social media advertising, which will rise 104 percent to $3.8 billion worldwide. These numbers demonstrate the social network’s sudden power in the world of display advertising. Display advertising encompasses items like banners, digital video ads, rich media and sponsorships and other similar advertisements. They're among the most popular and effective types of online advertisements.
Despite the site enjoying massive popularity and the profits to back it up, some marketers are concerned with the site's ability to improve click-through rates on advertisements. It seems that some marketers are still hung up on the clicks-equal-sales mentality.
Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst, isn't contented with the site's new direction, despite their record projections. "Facebook must either work to improve its click-through rate or show advertisers that advertising on the site is effective even without a click or other action," she said in a statement.
Williamson may be onto something when she says that marketers need proof that their ads are working, even without the reassuring quantity of clicks. The proof, however, is in the sales.
With more and more companies turning to social media as a way to target prospects, it is more important than ever to make sure that your advertisements are reaching the right consumers. Click-through rates are no indicator of this. People click on ads for all sorts of reasons, and in most cases it doesn't mean they're a good candidate for a sale. For example, a young woman might dream of taking a cruise to the Bahamas, so she clicks on an advertisement that depicts her dream vacation. However, she can't actually afford that vacation just yet, so her click isn't indicative of a potential sale. Marketers need another way to know for certain that their ads are reaching the right prospective buyers.
Semcasting’s facebook microTargeting provides a unique solution to this quandary. Using Semcasting's enhanced demographic targeting method that encompasses more than 750 different variables from their offline database, it can help you create predictive models of customers who look just like those you already serve. You can target your audience by geographic location, and even by time of day, so that you know the consumers you're trying to reach will get the message.
Ray Kingman