Why Can’t I Choose?
July 10, 2008 by OA Group
I don’t think I will be able to hold my frustration if I hear about another company trying to monetize social networking traffic. Ad networks such as Social Media and VideoEgg have probably done the best job in the industry up to this point with running campaigns on Facebook and the other social networks out there. However this post’s focus is different.
Is there an easier way to make money for social networks?
Most ad networks try to differentiate themselves by building targeting mechanisms into their service. If you’re in the online marketing industry, you’ve heard terms such as:
- Behavioral targeting (Blue Lithium)
- Contextual targeting (Google)
- Rich Media (Tremor Media)
- Along with a slew of others.
And what is the goal of each of these technologies? Getting the right ad, in front of the right user, at the right time. And as great as each of these marketing tools are, I personally believe that none of them are right for social networks by themselves. And I know I’m right because no one has been able to successfully monetize a social networking portal. And so my question is this:
Why can’t I choose my ads as a user?!
I think it’s a fair question and I haven’t seen any large social network attempt this approach. Let’s walk through how this could work practically: As a user, Facebook brings up a page on the screen the next time you sign in. This page would say something to the effect of,
“We at Facebook want to make sure that you have a great experience every time you log in, and we don’t want you to have to see ads that are irrelevant or annoying to you.” You then choose 1 or 2 verticals that interest you from a list on that page, categories like: auto, faith, finance, gaming, health, technology, travel, et al.”
Now all ads shown on Facebook would be user initiated and would have a much higher level of engagement since the user actually CHOSE the ads they are being shown. These ad units would increase dramatically in value since vertically themed ad networks are generating incredibly higher advertising rates than the other forms of interactive ad units. So hopefully these social networks will wake up realize that giving more control to their users will actually generate much more revenue.
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