Facebook Sponsored Stories
Sponsored stories are a new way to increase click-through and conversion rates on Facebook. These ads, recently made to appear even in the News Feeds of readers, are more targeted and effective when done with the right strategy. Users will find that these ads will become more prominent as Facebook is banking on this platform to boost its revenues in the future when new-user registration levels off in the years ahead.
To the uninitiated, there are seven types of sponsored stories namely: Page Like, Page Post, Page Post Like, App Used/Game Played, App Shared, Check-in, and Domain stories. So how do they work? OK. If a user, say George, likes your business Page, plays a game, uses an app, or checks-into one a physical store, then it appears as a story on David’s friends’ pages. Sponsored stories highlight these events as news feeds in David’s friends’ pages or on the side in Sponsored Links. The idea behind this is that most of George’s contacts belong to the same target market as George and these sponsored links are a powerful word-of-mouth advertising medium.
Here are some examples of the different types of sponsored stories:
Domain Stories – This tool is for online advertisers who wish to increase traffic on their site. So, if George likes a website while browsing Facebook then this action can be turned into a sponsored ad. The idea is that Georges’ friends will then click on the website link from the news feed item they receive about this. This is a great tool to drive business to a website through peer recommendation. It is quite difficult to set up but it is a very good tool to advertise a website.
Page Post Stories– This is another smart service that helps to boost word-of-mouth advertising. If George likes the product or service of a certain company and writes a glowing review about it, on their Facebook page then his review can be turned into an ad. George’s friends will then see that he has reviewed this company highly and will want to learn more about it. This is a delightful situation for any social media marketer to be in as a positive review from a trusted person is likely to create a good impression and boost sales.
Check-in Stories – This service is primarily for mobile phones. When George checks into a physical store location, he can virtually check-in via his smartphone. This action can then be posted on the company’s Facebook page and then used as a sponsored ad. Georges’ friends can then see that George is at a certain store and may even decide to join him. If not, they at least become aware about George’s brand choice.
While there are many benefits to Sponsored Stories, advertisers have to really work hard to make sure they choose the ad in the right context. An example gone awry is on Valentine’s Day, an Iowa blogger, Nick Bergus decided to share a link about a huge barrel of personal lubricant that Amazon sold for $1,495 with a slightly ironic comment. But a few days later, the post started showing up on his friend’s walls and since the comments were hidden in the sponsored stories, it seemed as if he was endorsing a huge barrel of lube. While this is a humorous example, users might get more offended if similar instances turn out to be more offensive.
No tags for this post.
