Social network advertising: not your father’s banner ad

by on November 26, 2008

When i visited the San Jose Mercury News yesterday, what did we talk about? Advertising and how newspapers were going to make it online.

Well, one trend we’re seeing big time is the move to social networks. Facebook alone has more than 100 million people on it. When you add MySpace, Microsoft’s new network, Hi5, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, and others, these networks are seeing some sizeable traffic.

But how do they monetize? Well, Facebook has been seeing a bunch of ads lately.

Problem is banner ads just aren’t working well anymore. Most users ignore them and the smartest users use software that blocks them from being seen at all.

So, how do you overcome those problems? Make ads that people play with and want to talk to their friends about.

That’s what Kevin Barenblat’s firm, Context Optional, does. One of his Facebook apps is driving 60,000 users a day to the website that sponsored it.

In this two-part video we take a look at both the kinds of apps that Context Optional is building, but in the second part we look at the whole Facebook marketplace.

Part I, six-minute video.
Part II, 10-minute video.

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  • I would agree that the plain old banner ad is going out of style, but those interactive flash ads can be very distracting.
  • hmmm...

    But the bottom line is that no matter how entertaining the ads are - are they driving prospects to buy???.

    Giant companies still manage to get their tech products reviewed by many to blogs - so ads really are not that vital when you have permanent viral marketing. However, for the vast majority, having innovate ads that don't generate an measurable, immediate ROI (especially in THIS economy), may not really be helping your finances all that much. :-|

    Of course, one benefit is branding and even getting exposure for possible venture funding, but there is no guarantee that will happen.
  • The Context Optional website is actually rather good too - thanks for sharing that.
  • Spaces?
    What is Microsoft's "new network"? Am I that far out of the loop or is Microsoft just not that newsworthy anymore? What is that, link me...
  • davemall
    What's the attraction of social networking? What's the attraction of Twitter? I've logged into Facebook, MySpace, Wayport, and Twitter multiple times. Still don't get it. What's the attraction? Why does anyone find these sites of interest? I just don't get it.
  • Sai
    Thanks for telling this dude........hit on banner ads really have decreased a lot....this may be quite helpful....i'm gonna try it now !
    And have u tried it yourself too?
  • Don
    Well now that I know I'm not supposed to follow that seagate ad in the upper left of this page ...

    Really I went here:
    http://www.contextoptional.com/index.php

    They have flash running a bit in the upper left on nine images of something they have done and it goes so fast you cannot read it and if you try clicking on one of the images it double loads one over another ... and it that is to convey what they do???

    I waited a while and it seemed to then work as planned. Maybe it is a slow download or something? But it was run-away and annoying and I'd never have stuck around if I wasn't planning to complain about it ...
  • Hi Scobleize,

    Does Social media really works to rank well in the SE's?

    Yes, Social networking sites like facebook, myspace and twitter will really helps your business to grow well in the market.

    Thanks Scoble... having Survey on these sites...

    Cheers :)
  • Facebook is Alexa 5, it gets more traffic then even google.com
  • Sorry, now in english. i think that the advertising in social networking is still in its infancy.
  • Bah, banner ads are going anywhere for a good long while, especially on non-social sites. Too much branding to give them up. I still see excellent CTR on plain ol' static image banners. As long as they continue to produce good revenue I am not going to dispense with them.

    Allen
  • Not sure why a lot of the posts above are so negative on this. Facts are banner advertising on Facebook, MySpace, and etc are horrific. CPMs there are microscopic so anything that engages users is a huge improvement.

    Thanks for posting.
  • well and informative post .

    www.facebookster.com
  • Context Optional is in the industry for quite long time and performing very well.

    Thanks
  • very thanks for article
  • I appreciate you for providing very informative and helpful post, keep it up good work thanks
    http://www.facebookguru.com
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