Social media
networks are extremely popular and people are spending a lot of time engaging
with content across different platforms.
Facebook is the largest player, with more than one billion people
actively using it each month. American
users specifically spend an average of 40 minutes per day on Facebook. Other than surfing the newsfeed, how are
consumers spending their time on the platform?
They are
playing games! In a study performed at the
end of 2014, Facebook found that roughly a quarter of all its active users, or
375 million people, play at least one Facebook-connected game in an average
month. No wonder I get an invitation to
play Candy Crush at least once a week. I
don’t play any games (so I’m in the 75%) and if you send me an invitation to
play Candy Crush, I will defriend you.
Does anyone else feel the same?
Nevertheless,
the number of users playing Facebook-connected games has grown tremendously
over the last few years. Gaming apps
encourage users to spend more time on the social platform, offer additional
sharing opportunities, and of course, more ad opportunities. One unique format that Facebook offers
advertisers is incentivized views. That
means gamers have the choice to watch a branded video in exchange for virtual
currency or Facebook credits. Consumers
are more likely to engage with the content if they are rewarded, right? It begs the question of whether these “views”
are quality or not. If the user is rewarded
after they watch, are they more likely to be engaged during the video or are
they just waiting for it to be over? I’ve
seen research on both sides.
What do you
think? Have you ever watched a video in
exchange for a reward? Tell us if you
were engaged or can at least remember the brand.
First,
consumers using mobile are usually searching differently than they would on
desktop. Consumers often use mobile
devices for research and comparison shopping.
Other information that is immediately valuable are store hours,
directions, and a phone numbers. Google
has enhanced search features called ad extensions that allow marketers to
deliver the most relevant information to consumers. These extensions increase the size of the ad,
taking up more space on the page and usually generate higher CTRs than ads
without extensions. Extensions can
include extra links to different pages of the sites, directions right in the
ad, or click-to-call functionality. This
New York and Company ad has all three extensions, giving consumers everything
they need with one click. 
Last fall,
Google announced that ad extensions would factor into the ad rank algorithm,
making them crucial for paid search success.
Recently, Google announced the second line of ad copy will often be
replaced by an extension in mobile search ads.
See the example below. This
change will require marketers to look at their paid search copy for mobile and
make any changes necessary to lead with the strongest copy in the first line or
shorten overall ad text. Marketers
optimizing copy for mobile and using ad extensions will see the best paid
search performance. 