A lot of buzz has been flying around about Web 2.0 and Social Media. However, when it comes to where ads are shown statistics released by Nielsen Online AdRelevance for September 2008 reveal that many B to B marketers are not keeping a close eye on where their ads are being shown. Five of the Twenty sites in particular really jump off the list at me and make me wonder what people are thinking?
#2 MySpace 153.7 million impressions. MySpace is cheap as far as both CPM and CPC goes. So most marketers don’t want to pass up on the possibility of cheap clicks. I have never seen a conversion from a MySpace based click in AdWords.
#8 YouTube 82.2 million impressions. YouTube is another Google AdWords accessible site, and unless excluded it will quickly generate a large number of impressions. YouTube clicks are even rarer than MySpace clicks, and conversions are just as sparse to non-existent.
#15 Photobucket 39.2 million impressions. Photobucket is a photo and video sharing site and much like YouTube it seems to generate a lot of impressions and very few clicks.
#16 NeoPets 37.8 million impressions. Yes you read that correctly, NeoPets. I don’t know about you, but my ten-year old daughter isn’t going to be making any B2B buying decisions any time soon.
#17 Facebook 34.5 million impressions. Facebook, along with MySpace, are the leaders in social networking, the only real reason MySpace has more impressions is they are served by Google and Facebook is served by MSN.
What do all five of these sites have in common? It's Social
Media. And why are they such bad places for B2B advertisers online? Social
Networks may include your business audience but they aren’t there to do
business. Even small business people who are using these social networks as a
primary form of marketing ignore the ads.
When choosing where ads will be placed online it is important not to only consider if your target audience is there but also why they are there. A person networking with friends or catching up with long distance pals just isn’t in the frame of mind to pay attention to the ads, and if they do it is often a negative reaction. Let people’s social time be social. Unless you are promoting a party at an upcoming convention or a sponsorship of a not-for-profit event keeping business and pleasure separate in online advertising increases click-through-rates by decreasing impressions that have no positive effect.
I have even tried using these sites as part of a brand exposure strategy. There were a few clicks but with a click through rate of less than one tenth of a percent and no increase in organic traffic discernible it made no sense to keep showing ads on social networks. If you want to dabble in Web 2.0 advertising on the social networks is not the way to do it. Put up one profile for a key employee and have them contribute to the community and answer people's questions in the forums or groups.
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