Around the Net

Who Will Benefit From Facebook's "Engagement Ads"?

Cnet concludes that Facebook's new "Engagement Ads" will work well for some brands but could be a disaster for others. For a clothier, showing an ad for a 15% discount and allowing the user to pass it onto their friends is a good thing. But the tactic "simply won't work for most advertisers," according to writer Caroline McCarthy, especially for little-known companies.

"Engagement Ads" is a new social advertising tactic that lets users leave comments on participating ads, add brands to their list of fan pages and use brands to sell virtual gifts to friends. As Dave Gentzel, co-founder of ad start-up SocialMedia, says, this kind of advertising "already requires awareness, because a lot of this is driven through peoples' perception of the product," which will be problematic for small startups hoping to make a name for themselves selling interactive ads on Facebook.

McCarthy argues that established companies that don't have public opinion on their side would also have a hard time with Engagement Ads. Airline companies and cell phone carriers come to mind. She suggests that brands with cult followings will fare best: "Before signing on to something like Engagement Ads, companies need to have a grip on what the public -- more specifically, the largely young and Web-savvy people using Facebook regularly--thinks about their products. The reasoning behind this caveat is that when a social advertising campaign falls, it falls hard and loud."

Read the whole story at Cnet News.com »

Next story loading loading..