According to a new report by TBG Digital, the pace of brand advertising on Facebook is skyrocketing. The report shows that in the second quarter of 2011, advertising on Facebook by brands surged 104 percent and their year on year increase is 1900 percent. Sounds unbelievable? Believe it. TBG Digital indicated that in Q2 of 2010, number of ad impressions by brands was approximately 1.4 billion. That means in 2011, the number went up to almost 26 billion.
The report has surfaced two very important findings; one of which is B2C advertising prevailing over B2B advertising. The growth of ads by retail channels is way up above business to business advertising. The second finding showcases the importance of social media as a whole and some of the newly introduced Facebook tools like ‘Sponsored Stories’. This new feature by Facebook lowered brand’s CPA (cost per acquisition) by 32 percent. This is quite a significant discovery as the report shows how hard liners the brands have become for securing slots on Facebook platform. The reason is simple. It helps them to manage their fans effectively. Given this, if any tool facilitates brands by reducing their CPA, they will up their thumbs for that tool.
Maintaining the existing fan base is often difficult for brands. But in 2011 year on year improvement in campaign conversion rate of advertisers saw a mammoth raise (435 percent). CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and CPC (cost per click rate) also hiked 45 percent and 74 percent respectively. What do these figures signify? It demonstrates the recursive importance of social media ad spending. Once the value of search marketing ad campaign dropped, it is still on the falling side. But, social media, particularly Facebook, is still a flagship area where brands can and should invest.