Does Facebook open a new chapter of social media advertising by launching its text-based ad?
This may be a new chapter for Facebook, but actually this is not a brand new concept in the social medial adverting space – Twitter began its Promoted Tweets nearly two years ago.
Facebook launches its text-based ad in New York on February 29. It seems like that this is a fairly significant step for Facebook, adverting practitioners and advertisers. But is it really a new concept? Let’s think about Twitter Promoted Tweets. What do Facebook text-based ad and Twitter Promoted Tweets have in common? They both are contextual ads, an ad format that officially removes the line between ad and content. In this sense, content is ad, and vice versa. How we usually define ad is no longer valid in this social media space. How we usually strategize and create ad is probably no longer effective in this space either.Â
From the consumer’s point of view, there is only one thing matters – relevancy. They don’t bother glancing any ads unless it is relevant to them. Maybe we shall say unless it is “highly relevant” to them. From this perspective, content is the key to win the battle in both Facebook and Twitter contextual ad platform, as your content is your ad now. Consumers define what they want to see. In this case, it means what an ad will be. They even decide how much media dollars advertisers are going to pay. According to Twitter, Promoted Tweets are priced on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis. Advertisers only pay media fee when there’s engagement, such as when someone retweets, clicks, or favorites a brand’s Promoted Tweet.
Nearly two years ago, I had a question “Will Promoted Tweets survive?” As of now, while Facebook launches its text-based ad, Twitter pushed its Promoted Tweets to mobile devises. I can’t help but have a similar question “Will the Facebook text-based ad survive?” Â
