Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- New Facebook platform industry hires: HYFN, Identified, Shoutlet, Syncapse, Wildfire
- Early tests show mobile Sponsored Stories have higher CTR, lower CPCs than desktop
- Facebook to launch subscription billing for apps, transition from Credits to local currency
- A Look at George Takei’s Tactics in Engaging a Social Media Following
| New Facebook platform industry hires: HYFN, Identified, Shoutlet, Syncapse, Wildfire Posted: 19 Jun 2012 07:05 PM PDT Here's this week's list of hires in the Facebook platform industry, per LinkedIn and the companies themselves:
If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we'll get it into our next post. Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.
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| Early tests show mobile Sponsored Stories have higher CTR, lower CPCs than desktop Posted: 19 Jun 2012 04:22 PM PDT A number of third-party ad providers are reporting early success with Facebook's new mobile-only Sponsored Story advertisements. Nanigans tells us that its mobile campaigns have an average 45 percent lower cost per click than those on desktop. In some cases, CPCs have been as low as $0.20. The company has also found mobile Sponsored Stories to have an average 12 percent higher clickthrough rate than those on desktop. When combined with interest targeting, CTR has been as high as 2 percent.
These results support what others are reporting. TBG Digital shared data with TechCrunch that showed mobile Sponsored Stories with an average CTR above 1 percent and CPCs on average 2 cents lower than those on desktop. Besides being effective for advertisers, the new ad type seems to earn Facebook more per impression, as indicated by eCPM in the chart below.
AdParlor says it has seen an average mobile CTR of 0.821 percent, which is 25 times better than traditional Facebook ads. AdParlor CEO Hussein Fazal says that with the high CTR, Facebook's system has suggested bids as low as $0.02 to $0.04. And because Facebook limits the number of Sponsored Stories it puts in users' mobile feeds, a campaign's frequency doesn't get too high and drive down CTR. Here are the exact results from one of AdParlor’s mobile Sponsored Story campaigns.
AdParlor found the conversion rate of users who click a mobile Sponsored Story and then Like a page to be lower than it is on desktop — 55 percent versus 72 percent — but the higher mobile CTR makes up for this, Fazal says. This is to be expected because mobile pages do not have custom landing tabs. However, Facebook has been testing different designs for mobile Sponsored Stories to make the call to action more prominent within users' News Feeds. Conversion rate might also improve whenever Facebook updates its mobile site and apps to show pages in the Timeline format. New ad units tend to have higher CTRs and lower CPCs when they first launch since there is some novelty for users and little competition driving up bid prices. Although it is too early to make claims about the overall effectiveness of Facebook mobile ads, advertisers who begin mobile campaigns now are likely to see their dollars go a lot further than they would on desktop. Besides using mobile Sponsored Stories for page-Like campaigns, the new placement could be especially valuable for retail offers and mobile app promotion. For now, mobile-only Sponsored Stories are available through the Ads API and Power Editor, not the self-serve dashboard. |
| Facebook to launch subscription billing for apps, transition from Credits to local currency Posted: 19 Jun 2012 01:38 PM PDT
Subscriptions will launch to all developers in July, though Zynga and Kixeye are already testing the feature for their games. This change gives developers a way to charge users on a monthly basis, rather than relying on individual virtual goods purchases. The alternative model could help developers and Facebook better monetize. It could also be a start to getting non-game developers to try Facebook's payment platform. As our sister blog Inside Social Games explains, subscriptions could lead players to spend more in games and also makes Facebook a better option for developers of free-to-play browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games. We've previously written about how the social network was likely to introduce subscriptions as a way to monetize non-game applications. Because Facebook Credits aren't required for these apps, only a few developers use them. For example, some studios offer movie rentals for Facebook Credits. These companies might now consider testing a subscription model that gives users access to more movies or special features if they sign up for a multi-month package. Facebook subscriptions will also support free trial periods, which could incentive users to sign up.
Other businesses built on Facebook, such as professional networking app BranchOut or news apps like Washington Post Social Reader, might find uses for subscriptions, however the social network's 30 percent fee is likely to turn off many developers. For companies like Spotify and Netflix, which have to pay huge licensing fees to rights-holders, losing 30 percent simply isn't an option unless they significantly increased their prices. But at higher price points, consumers might not decide to subscribe at all. [Update 6/19/12 2:08 p.m. PT - A screenshot of a sample subscription settings page on Facebook's developer site includes Spotify, MOG and RunKeeper as sample apps using subscriptions. It's unclear whether these are simply examples or actual developers in the beta program.]
Although the 30 percent fee is standard for app platforms like Apple and Android, it is far more than what online payments systems like PayPal charge. PayPal takes a 2.9 percent fee plus a $0.30-fee for each transaction. Facebook acknowledged in a regulatory filing that it might reduce its fee, but for now the 30 percent seems to stand. Facebook, though, is in a unique position to streamline payments and offer developers useful data about who's paying for subscriptions. If businesses can automatically gather information they would otherwise have to ask users for through forms, Facebook's payments platform would be more attractive. Ease of implementation, increasing conversions and providing useful reporting are all areas the social network will need to improve as it expands its payments business. With the latest phase out of Credits and by now supporting pricing in local currency, Facebook can simplify the purchase experience and give developers more flexibility. Developers will be able to set more granular and consistent prices for non-U.S. users and price the same item differently on a market-by-market basis. This also eliminates any confusion that resulted from users trying to think about conversion rates for dollars, Credits and in-game currency. Facebook says it will convert any Credit balances into the equivalent amount of value in users' local currency, which they can spend on in-app items in the same way they do today. People can still redeem gift cards and store unused balances in their account. Any apps or games that sell virtual items will be required to use local currency by the end of the year. The company first introduced what it called "Pay with Facebook" in May 2009. That eventually got combined with the Credits program associated with virtual gifts that users could buy and post to each other's profiles. In July 2011, Facebook made Credits mandatory for social games, leading payments and fees revenue to make up about 18 percent of the company's revenue in its most recent quarter — up from a 13 percent in Q1 2011. Only 15 million users — fewer than 2 percent of total monthly active users — paid for virtual goods on the platform in 2011. Facebook has helped individual game developers who wanted to implement a recurring pay cycle in the past, but for the most part, subscriptions haven't been an option until now. |
| A Look at George Takei’s Tactics in Engaging a Social Media Following Posted: 19 Jun 2012 10:28 AM PDT George Takei, of original Star Trek fame, has most recently taken the social media world by storm with outstanding engagement numbers from a dedicated fanbase. Originally created in March 2011, Takei’s page now reaches more than 2 million fans. Impressively, Takei receives engagement numbers similar to that of Eminem and Rihanna, both boasting over 40 million likes. His is one of the few pages with more People Talking About This than total Likes.
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Facebook will soon support subscription billing for apps on its platform, according to a post on the company's 
However, Takei's user engagement is by no coincidence. He employs certain strategies and details that optimize his engagement numbers. He takes advantage of his audience's responsiveness and motivates them to engage with his posts. Takei is a great example of creating a following and engaging fans with posts that are relevant to fans. The page is built on the content, and self-promotion takes the backseat.
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