Corporate Eye

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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

Facebook CPC Ads Are Looking Better to Brands but YouTube is Stealing Visit Market Share

Facebook cost per click is going down in the U.K. while click-through rates are trending up. That’s according to the latest quarterly report from TBG Digital as reported by Brand Republic which showed Facebook cost per click ad prices dropped by 11% between the third and fourth quarters of 2011.

It’s important to point out that these results are for ads that led directly to another page on Facebook rather than offsite.

During the fourth quarter of 2011, the finance category accounted for the highest number of Facebook ad impressions but the food and drink category experienced the highest click-through rates.

For brands, the lowered cost per click for Facebook advertising mean lower investments and more testing. However, the story isn’t all positive. Facebook’s explosive growth hasn’t just slowed down in the U.K. According to Experian Hitwise, Facebook lost social networking visit opportunities to Google’s YouTube during December 2011 with its total share of social networking visits dropping from 58.5% in December 2010 to 51.5% in December 2011. However, Facebook’s overall number of visits in the U.K. remained stable during 2011 at 1.3 billion.

During the same time period, visits to YouTube grew by 45% from 417 million in December 2010 to 606 million in December 2011, and YouTube’s social networking market share grew from 23.6% to 25% during that time.

What do all these numbers mean for brands?

First, people are diversifying the way they consume content more than ever, and the idea that Facebook could be a one-stop shop for all content isn’t happening.

Second, the Facebook vs. Google battle is still in its early stages. With the launch of Google+ last year, this battle is likely to get far more heated in 2012.

Third, brands should diversify their social media marketing and advertising efforts to take advantage of lower Facebook advertising costs without placing too much focus on the social networking leader. Once you get executive buy-in to acquire a social media marketing budget, another challenge arises — convincing executives that there is more to the social web than Facebook. Diversification has always been the foundation for a successful marketing plan, and that should apply to your brand social media marketing efforts, too.

What do you think? What percentage of your brand’s marketing budget it allocated to Facebook in 2012? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr

Top 10 Brands of 2011 Ranked by Positive Buzz Score

Each year, market research company YouGov surveys American consumers to analyze positive and negative perceptions of brands based on brand reputation. Using the data, YouGov assigns each brand a BrandIndex Buzz score. At the end of 2011, the 10 brands with the best reputations that consumers feel the most positive emotions toward aren’t that different from the leaders of 2009 and 2010.

According to the YouGov study, consumer sentiment toward Subway in 2011 was so consistently positive that the brand landed in the #1 spot in the Brand Buzz Rankings chart for the second year in a row. Apple came in at #10. You can see the top 10 brands based on consumer sentiment with each brand’s YouGov BrandIndex buzz score below:

  1. Subway = 41.0 buzz score
  2. Amazon = 37.5 buzz score
  3. History Channel = 36.7 buzz score
  4. Google = 35.7 buzz score
  5. Cheerios = 35.5 buzz score
  6. Lowe’s = 35.5 buzz score
  7. Ford = 35.4 buzz score
  8. Discovery Channel = 34.8 buzz score
  9. Target = 33.7 buzz score
  10. Apple = 33.0 buzz score

While Subway held on to the number one position, Amazon took the number two position in part thanks to the successful release of the Kindle Fire. Ranking at #5, Cheerios was the only other food brand to make it into the top 10, and Ford was the only automotive brand to appear in the top 10 coming in at #7 in 2011.

Google was able to climb one spot to rank #4 in 2011 with the launch of Google+ undoubtedly driving the brand’s positive buzz in the latter half of the year. Also, the increased sales of Android mobile devices helped to boost the Google brand in 2011. However, Google still has a long way to go to recoup the #1 spot, which it held back in 2009.

A key Google competitor, Apple, made it into the top 10 list for the first time since 2007. The hype around the release of the new iPad and the new iPhone models brought a great deal of positive buzz to the brand in 2011. At the same time, the death of Apple’s leader and brand champion, Steve Jobs, added to the nostalgic sentiment consumers felt for the Apple brand overall.

What do you think of the top 10 brands based on positive consumer sentiment and buzz in 2011? Do any of the brands that made it to the top of the list surprise you? Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the top 10 brands by buzz score in 2011.

Image: Thomas Hawk

Marketing Your Brand with a Social App

Should your brand build a custom social app? That’s the question Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media, tries to answer in an article he wrote for Advertising Age. Michael summed up his opinion quite succinctly when he wrote, “Applications need to bring value to people and should be social by design.”

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of social apps, particularly when other brands experience great success with social apps that integrate directly into Facebook and puts the brand in front of a huge potential audience of over 800 million Facebook members. However, Michael warns us that the vast majority of social apps don’t work.

He reminds us that apps are not a social strategy. They’re a tool to help a brand connect with people. Your social strategy should be focused on offering those people something so you can interact with them and cultivate relationships with them. To support his view, he referred to a speech Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg delivered in 2011 and explained, “Facebook is not nearly as concerned with how many users they have, as much as how those users are interfacing with the platform and each other.”

With those tips in mind, Michael shared his suggestions for building a social app for a brand so it has a chance for success:

  • Useful: Your social app needs to be useful and actually do something for users by making their lives easier or helping them in some way.
  • Value-driven: Your social app needs to add value to the people’s lives who use it. Just as products need to benefit consumers, so must your social app or there is little reason to use it.
  • Social: Your social app should have built-in social functionality, so a user’s friends see them using it with no additional effort (e.g., on their Facebook News Feeds) and are intrigued enough to try it themselves.

You can read Michael’s complete article with more details about his tips for social app success and social strategy development here. What do you think of his view of social apps for brands? Will you re-strategize your brand’s social app plans? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on branded social app strategies.

Image: Babyben

DIY Trend Opens Opportunities for Brands

While the United States has been struggling through a recession, consumers have embraced the do-it-yourself (DIY) trend like never before. DIY has permeated all aspects of life and business. However, that doesn’t have to mean that brands end up losing business. In fact, the DIY trend can actually open new doors of opportunity for brands.

This week, JP Morgan’s Chase Card Services released the results of an online survey that revealed some interesting information about the DIY trend among American consumers. If the results of this survey are accurate, Americans have no plans to abandon the DIY trend anytime soon. Kate Rogers shares in her report for Fox Business that the DIY trend will stick around in many areas of consumers’ lives in the years to come.

For example, gym memberships and salon visits aren’t likely to pick up in 2012 as approximately one out of two survey respondents claimed they planned to skip paying for these types of experiences in the future. Beauty salon expenditures and tourism-related expenses will suffer similar fates in 2012 as respondents stated they would use DIY methods to keep up with beauty regimens and to enjoy time off from work.

For brands, this shift in consumer behavior means more than simply weathering the storm of the economic downturn. Instead, this shift means it’s time for brands to rethink their strategies and look for new opportunities to add value to consumers’ DIY lives. Launching a new product or service, rebranding with a new brand promise and focus, or modifying a brand’s message to communicate more relevant benefits and emotional triggers are all potential opportunities for brands to better connect with the DIY consumer mindset.

It’s a perfect time to conduct some research that gives you insight into the DIY consumer mind as it relates to your industry, so you can better align your goals and strategies with shifting audience preferences and behaviors. What do you think? Has your brand evolved to leverage the DIY trend? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the DIY trend and strategies to turn the trend into brand opportunities.

Image: Patrick Goossens

Social Media Marketing Gives Brands Measurable Long-Term Benefits

In a study by BzzAgent, the long-term effects of social media marketing were put into metrics that the numbers-hungry executives are sure to notice. At least, we hope they notice — and listen.

According to the study, social media marketing campaigns generate an immediate boost in the likelihood that consumer packaged goods brand advocates would recommend a brand to other people. Purchase intent also gets an immediate bump among brand advocates after exposure to a social media campaign.

However, those are results that brand managers have been showing to executives for some time now. The significant findings in this study come from the long-term effects that social media campaigns have on brand advocates.

First, let’s take a look at the data from the study related to the likelihood that U.S. brand advocates would recommend a consumer packaged goods brand before and after exposure to a social media campaign. Data was obtained between summer 2010 and summer 2011:

  • Pre-campaign = 39% likely to recommend the brand
  • Immediately post-campaign = 61% likely to recommend the brand
  • 3 months post-campaign = 57% likely to recommend the brand
  • 6 months post-campaign = 57% likely to recommend the brand
  • 9 months post-campaign = 56% likely to recommend the brand
  • 1 year post-campaign = 55% likely to recommend the brand

Next, you can see how the purchase intent of U.S. consumer packaged goods brand advocates was affected before and after exposure to a social media campaign during the same time period — summer 2010 to summer 2011:

  • Pre-campaign = 38% said they would purchase
  • Immediately post-campaign = 69% said they would purchase
  • 3 months post-campaign = 69% said they would purchase
  • 6 months post-campaign = 64% said they would purchase
  • 9 months post-campaign = 63% said they would purchase
  • 1 year post-campaign = 61% said they would purchase

As eMarketer points out, this data shouldn’t be used as a barometer for how all social media campaigns will perform. However, next time you’re trying to convince your leadership team to devote a portion of the marketing budget to social media marketing, this data can help you demonstrate the positive effects that social media campaigns can have.

The important thing to remember is just as not every television ad or print ad will deliver optimum results, neither will every social media campaign. However, if you’re not experimenting and trying to learn the best ways to connect with your audience, particularly brand advocates, and motivate them to recommend your brand and purchase it via social media marketing, you’re missing an opportunity that your competitors are happy to take from you. Is that an opportunity your executives are willing to miss by leaving social media out of the marketing budget?

Image: Brian Wilkins

Twitter’s Public Commitment to Brands

If you haven’t stopped by the Twitter home page lately, go visit now. Don’t just go directly to your profile, another profile, the advanced search page, or your account. Nope. Type “www.twitter.com” into your browser search bar and take a look at the Twitter home page.

It’s changed so much since Twitter started to get noticed in 2008. For example, Twitter’s current home page clearly communicates the company’s commitment to brands. Take a look at an image from the Twitter home page below and see for yourself.

Read the copy in the image above, and notice that the message makes a point of saying that Twitter helps you, “Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about.”

If there was any doubt about how Twitter feels about brands, that welcome message clears things up. Brands are a priority for Twitter.

In 2011, Twitter rolled out Promoted Tweets, Promote Accounts, Promoted Trends, and Enhanced Profile Accounts. Each promoted product helps Twitter earn the revenue it needs to generate and gives brands the opportunity to connect with consumers in a variety of ways. More recently, Twitter rolled out a quiet launch of self-service ads, which could open the doors for small businesses to invest in Twitter advertising and promoted products, too.

It’s safe to assume that this is just the beginning of initiatives that Twitter will launch to partner with brands. The opportunities for Twitter to make money and for brands to connect with the audiences they want to find online are huge and ready for the taking. 2012 should be an exciting year for brands to leverage Twitter marketing and the new opportunities that are likely to come along.

What is your brand focusing on as it relates to Twitter marketing in 2012? What do you think will be the big Twitter marketing trend in 2012? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

It’s funny to think just a few years ago there was a debate over whether brands should be on Twitter at all! There is no doubt who won that debate.