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Fight Night: Facebook Ads Vs. Google AdWords

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:54:05 +0000

When it comes to strategizing online media campaigns, it’s easy to fall in love with Facebook. The blue-bordered behemoth not only gets more traffic than a Chinese super highway, it lets us, the lovable advertisers of the world, target our ads in ways previously thought impossible. By knowing the age, gender, location, school, work place, sexual preference and interests of all its 3 gagillion+ users, Facebook lets you craft ads that walk right into your demographic’s house and put their feet up on the dining room table. So that’s it, right? Facebook ads are the greatest ads ever and they can beat up your ads. Well, not exactly. The defense calls to the stand Google AdWords. Google AdWords, are another form of cost-per-click (CPC) ad unit only they operate a bit differently than Facebook. Rather than appearing to only select users who fit a mold, they are only shown when users Google, or search to the laymen, for select terms. This means that as a BBQ sauce company, I can choose to only show my ads to people who are looking for “delicious ribs” or “creepy ways to spend a Saturday night with your dog.” So how does this advertising model stack up against Facebook? The answer is simply a question of stated versus actual interest. Here’s an example: let’s say you are secretly obsessed with show tunes, but as the captain of the football team, you’d rather be beaten with a sack of rusty nickels than have that information get out. So you do everything in your power to keep this private infatuation on the low, which certainly includes not posting “Hello Dolly” as your Favorite Music on your Facebook profile. However, when it’s late and nobody is home, you may find yourself googling the lyrics to “Oklahoma.” As a distributor of show tune karaoke CD’s, we’d have no idea that you were an interested consumer if we advertised solely on Facebook. Google on the other hand would basically give us the keys to your car. The point is that while Facebook presents companies with an unparalleled opportunity to target media, it doesn’t necessarily reach all of your brand’s potential consumers. However, the same can be said for Google AdWords. So ultimately it can be concluded that if you are planning on running a targeted and cost-efficient advertising campaign, the key is run both a SEM and social network campaign. Sound complex? It is. Which is exactly why if you want to do this you should Meet Jane first.

The Myth of Viral Marketing

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:40:15 +0000

It’s hard to be sure when the first time someone used the term “viral” to describe a campaign that spread through online networks or word of mouth actually was, but all scientific estimates have it falling shortly after the Paleolithic era in a time known as the late 90’s. The internet was proving itself as more than just a passing fad and businesses, fat with surplus, were eager to find the next best thing. It was at this time when the business school buzz word worked its way into more board rooms than pitchers of water.

Goatee-sporting executives, mildly buzzing from their wheatgrass smoothie with immune boost, would quizzically challenge the room “Yes, I like the concept, but how do we make it viral?” Silence would inevitably follow. Thus, began the near decade long hunt for “virality.” Every brand didn’t just want a marketing campaign; they wanted a viral marketing campaign. Everything needed a share button and a way for it to be emailed to your friends. Virality had become the white whale of the marketing world.

Today, the question of how to make something viral still burns in boardrooms around the world with companies doing everything but kill their first born to answer it. The answer, in fact, is rather simple: make it awesome. Putting people in a place to share something and giving them an easy button to share it, doesn’t make them any more inclined to tell their friends about it. People will only share something they consider awesome. Plain and simple.

When someone shares something, they are staking their reputation on the content they’re sharing. The delivered media becomes more a reflection of the person who shared it than the brand who created it. Nobody wants to be the guy who shared this. They want to be the guy who showed you something so incredible, you can’t wait to forward it on to your other friends so that you can take full credit for “finding it.” True virality is achieved only with an unparalleled wow factor that makes pants wet and jaws drop. This can’t be achieved simply by putting something on Facebook or Twitter. It can only be reached by demonstrating a level of creativity, previously thought unattainable. When you eventually get to that level, you’ll Meet Jane.

Welcome to The World of Jane

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:05:11 +0000

The communications industry is changing. Goldfish-like attention spans and octopussian multitasking have done to the paid advertising world what video did to the radio star. Million dollar television commercials are being fast-forwarded through, full page print ads are collecting dust on the racks of newsstands and radio jingles, which were always annoying, are now irritating just the small fraction of the population without an iPod or satellite radio. Yes, it is a brave new world we live in. Today’s consumers don’t have time to know what they’re too busy doing and if you want to tell them something you better do it in under 140 characters.

As a company trying to reach these consumers, you have two options. The first is denial (our personal favorite). You can maintain false hope in the old guard of advertising, insisting that it’s the creative that is faltering and not the medium itself, and bounce from agency to agency trying to “fix the problem.”