While News Corp. is thrilled about its social network's ad-revenue growth, Google and many marketers are frustrated about click-through rates. There was a time when Mark Seremet considered MySpace one of the best things to happen to his business. Seremet, then-CEO of customized clothing company Spreadshirt, saw sales jump sixfold in late 2005 and early 2006 after he ran ads on the popular social networks MySpace and Facebook. "Somebody would get the shirt, then tell a friend," Seremet says. "It was really an amazing change for the business." >>Full Story
Thoughts// Another good article on the subject of advertising on social networks, even thought it is a little short on solid numbers. According to Mr. Seremet, Spreadshirt was experiencing around a 1% CTR (click-thru rate) in 2006, but that dropped to .10% in 2007. Those numbers should hardly come as a surprise. MySpace was still relatively 'new' in 2006, so a lot of users were still open and interested in advertising.
The article goes onto say that 'only a fraction of 1% of the people who see the ads click on them.' And that many advertisers are not seeing a good ROI when advertising on social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.
Of course, this lends some truth to the argument that Mo and I have been making about advertising on social networks...people are on these sites to meet, talk, reconnect with friends, family and co-workers, not browse ads for the latest widget, car or other 'you need this' product. True, some advertisers are probably doing very well on MySpace, but unless you are in the business of creating custom MySpace skins and layouts, there might be a better buy for your campaign.
Case in point (from the article):
"There's too much [advertising] when you sign on," says John Sigona, a 32-year-old MySpace user who likes the site, though he ignores the ads. "They don't interest me."
Exactly.
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