While display advertising does account for
approximately 80 percent of Facebook revenue,
and advertisers continue to add Facebook
to their online media plans, marketers and
commentators are divided on its efficacy. For
example, in the run-up to the Facebook IPO,
General Motors announced that they were
discontinuing display advertising on Facebook,
while in the wake of that announcement, both
Ford and Coca-Cola separately expressed their
intentions to continue to use the platform.
But in assessing the value of Facebook to
advertisers, to focus narrowly on the impact of
Facebook display may well be missing the point.
The real power of Facebook is realized when it is viewed and utilized not just as another display
channel but as a rich social ecosystem that
provides unparalleled opportunities for consumer
engagement. Advertisers that understand the
nuances of this system can deploy fan pages,
Facebook display advertising, and other
marketing channels to great synergistic effect.
Getting to Grips with Facebook
It’s not really surprising that advertisers have
struggled to understand the opportunity that
Facebook offers. Facebook takes some getting
used to, whether you are a user or an advertiser.
New users of Facebook—especially those over
40—are often confused by the multi-faceted
communication tool, which combines familiar
functions like email, IM, and photo-sharing with
the ability to broadcast news, comment on news
from others, and play games. But people try it
because their friends (or their kids) are using it,
and they don’t want to be left out.
And so brands were also eager to leap in first
and figure out the benefits later. They recognized
that Facebook was something new and different,
and they were ready to approach it in the same
adventurous spirit as its new users. As people
flocked to Facebook to have fun and connect
with others, advertisers recognized that it was
a place where they could connect too. They
needed to evolve along with their customers in
order to stay relevant. As Coca-Cola marketing
chief Joe Tripodi explained, “Sometimes you
have to take a little leap of faith.”