Facebook has impressed analysts and investors in each quarter so far this year by reporting strong growth in mobile ad revenue. The company revealed that mobile ads accounted for 41% of total ad revenue in the second quarter this year, up from 30% in the first quarter and essentially nothing a year earlier. If that growth continues, Facebook could approach or even surpass the 50% mark this quarter.

Facebook has taken steps in recent weeks to make mobile ads more effective, including testing autoplay video ads in the news feed and introducing more calls to action on mobile app install ads to entice users to click, though it’s doubtful either had much impact on the previous quarter results.

Beyond the mobile ad stats, analysts will likely be looking for any updates or hints about the company’s new and as yet unannounced ad products. Instagram is expected to introduce ads this week, perhaps finally justifying the amount Facebook paid for the company. On the other hand, Facebook has repeatedly delayed introducing video ads on the homepage raising questions about when and how the company will choose to go this route.

Overall, Facebook is expected to report earnings per share of $0.19 on revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, up from earnings of $0.12 a share on revenue of $1.26 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

Facebook stock has been on a tear this year, rising to as high as $54.83 earlier this month, roughly three times the low of $17.55 a share it hit a year earlier. The stock was hovering just below $50 a share in early trading Wednesday, an increase of 1% on the day.

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty

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Facebook has impressed analysts and investors in each quarter so far this year by reporting strong growth in mobile ad revenue. The company revealed that mobile ads accounted for 41% of total ad revenue in the second quarter this year, up from 30% in the first quarter and essentially nothing a year earlier. If that growth continues, Facebook could approach or even surpass the 50% mark this quarter.

Facebook has taken steps in recent weeks to make mobile ads more effective, including testing autoplay video ads in the news feed and introducing more calls to action on mobile app install ads to entice users to click, though it’s doubtful either had much impact on the previous quarter results.

Beyond the mobile ad stats, analysts will likely be looking for any updates or hints about the company’s new and as yet unannounced ad products. Instagram is expected to introduce ads this week, perhaps finally justifying the amount Facebook paid for the company. On the other hand, Facebook has repeatedly delayed introducing video ads on the homepage raising questions about when and how the company will choose to go this route.

Overall, Facebook is expected to report earnings per share of $0.19 on revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, up from earnings of $0.12 a share on revenue of $1.26 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

Facebook stock has been on a tear this year, rising to as high as $54.83 earlier this month, roughly three times the low of $17.55 a share it hit a year earlier. The stock was hovering just below $50 a share in early trading Wednesday, an increase of 1% on the day.

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty

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The study, published by the Pew Research Center on Thursday, found that almost half of American users click on news in their Facebook feeds. Since 64% of adults in the United States use Facebook, that means one in three Americans consumes news on Facebook.

However, only 22% of the 30% who get their news on Facebook think the site is a useful source for information about the world, and only 4% of those think Facebook is “the most important way” to get their news.

“People go to Facebook to share personal moments — and they discover the news almost incidentally,” Amy Mitchell, Pew Research Center’s director of journalism research, said in a statement. “The serendipitous nature of news on Facebook may actually increase its importance as a source of news and information, especially among those who do not follow the news closely.”

The study quotes one respondent, who said he believes “Facebook is a good way to find out news without actually looking for it.”

The importance of the social network also depends on how much of a news junkie the user is.

Among those who click on news links in their Facebook news feeds, just 38% of heavy news followers think the social network is “an important way to get the news,” but among those who follow news “less often,” 47% consider Facebook as an important source.

On Monday, Facebook announced that it was driving 170% more traffic to media sites this year than in 2012.

This is the first of a series of studies on social media and news published by Pew in collaboration with the Knight Foundation. For this study, Pew surveyed 5,173 Americans ages 18 and older. You can read the full report here (.PDF).

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Nanigans is one of Facebook’s largest ad buyers specifically focusing on retail advertising. According to the company (via VentureBeat), iOS-based ads have shown a surprisingly high click through rate:

“Retailers are realizing significantly greater return from audiences on iOS than audiences on Android,” the report says. “For the first three quarters of 2013, RPC [revenue per click] on iOS averaged 6.1 times higher than Android and ROI [return on investment] on iOS averaged 17.9 times higher than Android.”

“Audiences cost more on iPhone, and the reason is that it’s worth it,” Slagen said. “Typically, we’re not looking to acquire one-time customers, we’re looking to invest over time … so we pay more up front for better long-term results.”

The graph above shows retailers’ return on investment for Facebook mobile advertising. It’s definitely an interesting study considering that Facebook seems to be deeply integrated with Android. It’s also important to note that these results will vary across different industries.

According to VentureBeat, Nanigans SVP Dan Slagen said that this data is very different when looking at the gaming or e-commerce industries, but when it comes to retail, iOS is the clear winner. Apparently, iOS users click on ads and buy more merchandise than Android users. Could it be that the mobile shopping experience across various sites caters to iOS devices over Android devices?

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Flickr, Simon Q

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Nanigans is one of Facebook’s largest ad buyers specifically focusing on retail advertising. According to the company (via VentureBeat), iOS-based ads have shown a surprisingly high click through rate:

“Retailers are realizing significantly greater return from audiences on iOS than audiences on Android,” the report says. “For the first three quarters of 2013, RPC [revenue per click] on iOS averaged 6.1 times higher than Android and ROI [return on investment] on iOS averaged 17.9 times higher than Android.”

“Audiences cost more on iPhone, and the reason is that it’s worth it,” Slagen said. “Typically, we’re not looking to acquire one-time customers, we’re looking to invest over time … so we pay more up front for better long-term results.”

The graph above shows retailers’ return on investment for Facebook mobile advertising. It’s definitely an interesting study considering that Facebook seems to be deeply integrated with Android. It’s also important to note that these results will vary across different industries.

According to VentureBeat, Nanigans SVP Dan Slagen said that this data is very different when looking at the gaming or e-commerce industries, but when it comes to retail, iOS is the clear winner. Apparently, iOS users click on ads and buy more merchandise than Android users. Could it be that the mobile shopping experience across various sites caters to iOS devices over Android devices?

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Flickr, Simon Q

The post Facebook Ads Are 1,790% More Profitable on iOS Than Android appeared first on Digitrock.

Previously, teens using Facebook were only able to share content with friends, friends of friends and custom groups like “family.” Now, they can choose to share posts to anyone on Facebook, just like users 18 and older.

“Teens are among the savviest people using of social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism, or their thoughts on a new movie, they want to be heard,” Facebook wrote in a blog post. “While only a small fraction of teens using Facebook might choose to post publicly, this update now gives them the choice to share more broadly, just like on other social media services.”

Any teenager wishing to share a status update or post publicly must first manually change the audience setting on his post to “public” before sharing. After doing so, a pop-up explains that the post will be visible to everyone on the site. The post will go live once the user clicks “ok” on this pop-up box, acknowledging he has seen the warning and intends to share publicly.

Facebook’s audience settings remain unchanged from post to post for all users, including teens. For example, if a user shares a post publicly, the audience setting will remain on “public” for the user’s next post. For teens, a second reminder message will pop up if they choose to post publicly the next time around.

Teenagers can also change settings to allow non-friends to follow public posts. Users who choose to follow a teenager will be able to see these public posts, with the exception of posts that have not been shared with them. Teenagers will not be followable automatically, and will need to manually update their settings to enable follows.

A new teenager who join Facebook will have his audience settings automatically set to “friends,” and will need to manually change that setting in order to share with the public.

Wednesday’s update will not impact existing Facebook posts from teens, and it won’t automatically change the audience for any future posts. That must be done manually. The update simply gives teenagers the ability to share publicly, just as they can on other social sites like Twitter.

The new update will begin rolling out slowly to all users starting Wednesday afternoon.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

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Those who have used Ads Manager and Power Editor in the past know that neither tool is the simplest or most logically designed. Previously, ad buyers were asked to choose from a range of ad options and then select their campaign objectives and optimization methods.

Now, more reasonably, advertisers are first asked to identify their objectives. That could be a sales conversion on a website, for example, or an increase in mobile app downloads. Other objectives include increasing total page Likes, increasing engagement with particular posts or a Facebook app, boosting in-store Offer claims and upping RSVPs to a Facebook event.

Once an objective has been identified, Facebook guides advertisers to the most appropriate ad. It’s up to the advertiser to choose where that ad appears — in the News Feed, for example, or alongside it.

In addition to the new ad-buying interface, users can also now upload multiple images for a single campaign, allowing five different ads to run at once. In the analytics dashboard — also part of the overhaul — they’ll be able to quickly assess which images are performing best. They can also easily sort all of their campaigns to see which delivers the best conversion value.

Although their interfaces are the same, the Power Editor will continue to offer additional functionality to ad buyers. In addition to the new streamlined buying process, Power Editor users can also manually select their ads.

“Ad managers know how to buy ads already; we don’t want to make ad changes forced,” David Baser, product manager at Facebook, said.

Images: iStock, hh5800 and Facebook
Source : Mashable 

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One of the owners, Admir Adil, noticed his 15-year-old daughter was incessantly checking Facebook, so he thought it only appropriate to create a flavor for other fans obsessed with the social media behemoth.

Admir and his brother Ibi Adil created their Facebook-flavored ice cream by simply mixing blue syrup atop vanilla ice cream and placing a small sign with a Facebook logo on it. Selling a scoop for a euro ($1.32), the ice cream apparently tastes like sugary sweets and chewing gum, but it’s become a hit as many passersby were immediately drawn to Facebook’s trademark logo — as well as the novelty.

The duo said they have not contacted Mark Zuckerberg for trademark use.

Image: Dusko Jaramaz/PixSell

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There’s still plenty of debate about whether advertising on Facebook (or social media in general) is worth it, and whether it’s more useful as a lead generation tactic than a direct driver of sales. But as anyone on Facebook can see from the sheer number of promoted posts and sponsored stories, that businesses large and small are opening their wallets.

We wanted to learn what’s actually working on Facebook for startups, so we asked a panel of successful entrepreneurs which Facebook advertising strategies they find most useful — and what kind of ROI they’re seeing so far. Here’s what they had to say:

• Using Facebook Paid Ads With a Darwinian Approach

  

We primarily use Facebook paid ads for ultra-targeted user acquisition for our freemium product. We are Darwinian in our approach in that we experiment with hundreds (if not thousands) of different images and copy combinations that go to a plethora of landing pages. We double down on the ones that convert at a high rate (assuming the costs are reasonable), and we quickly kill those that don’t.

• Using Facebook Ads to Grow Email Lists

  

We’ve used Facebook ads to grow our email lists at very affordable rates. The steps we’ve taken? 1) Define your target. 2) Find out what your target wants. 3) Advertise what your target wants to your target and offer it to them for free or at a discount in exchange for their email address. One example is we identified that an author’s audience was closely aligned with our business philosophies. We ran Facebook ads at the author’s audience and offered our target a free download of the author’s presentation slides in exchange for the target’s email address. By giving a little to get something in return, we spent about 10 cents for each email address, which is something we were happy with.

•  Working With a Growth Hacker

  

We have a great growth hacker working on our team. He uses Facebook in combination with PR to drive traffic to a specific target and has used this for events. Instead of trying to send Facebook traffic to a sales page, he might just send Facebook traffic directly to the article in the press publication. In the past, this resulted in a 7 percent conversion rate and a sold-out event he was promoting.

• Boosting Mobile App Installs

  

We have successfully used Facebook ads to drive installs of multiple iOS apps. One great thing about Facebook is the degree of targeting you can employ. By getting laser focused with our targeting and rigorously testing our ads, we were able to drive app installs for less than 49 cents.

• Retargeting on Facebook Exchange

  

Retargeting on Facebook works the same as other retargeting. It’s a cost-effective way to market to potential customers who have been to your site but did not make a purchase. You bring the visitor back to your website, and you get a second chance to prove how great your product or service is and keep your brand top of mind. With retargeting on Facebook exchange, we are seeing a 200 percent ROI.

• Hitting Specific Targets

  

 Our company has used Facebook marketing to directly target users we want. We found that the Facebook app Install Ads is showing amazing results in certain markets. It’s a newer feature that they have rolled out, which is how they are planning to monetize their mobile users. But while it’s new, it’s pretty affordable on the conversion rates and relatively easy to use. I can tell you without disclosing too much information that it is a very good medium for now, and the pricing will increase probably four times the amount over the next two years. If you are smart and know your user and your budget to pay for your user, it’s an amazing platform for app installs.

•  Buying Advertising to Find Discussion Group Members

  

Hands down, the most effective Facebook advertising money I have spent was on finding people to participate in our Facebook discussion group for college parents. We did a sponsored story to people who were not currently our fans. We spent $199 for nearly 200 members. Although this isn’t a ton of people, the real value for me is in having our team see firsthand exactly what issues parents are facing. It really opened our team’s eyes to the emotional difficulties and challenges that our company is focused on solving. This made it worth every penny! Because our company produces a website, we don’t often see the impact we have on families. This group has made our impact real for the team.

• Offering Contests

  

We have used Facebook to promote contests run on our site. Facebook ads got us a ton of entries at a cost below 49 cents per entry, and for each entry, the customer was required to submit his or her email address. This was a very affordable way to grow our list.

Image: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

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Mobile Technologies, founded in 2001, built Jibbigo, an app for iPhone and Android that the company describes as “the world’s first speech-to-speech translator on a phone that runs online and even off-line.” The company will join Facebook at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

“Voice technology has become an increasingly important way for people to navigate mobile devices and the web, and this technology will help us evolve our products to match that evolution,” Tom Stocky, Facebook’s director of product management, wrote in a post. “We believe this acquisition is an investment in our long-term product roadmap as we continue towards our company’s mission.

Image: Mashable composite, Facebook and Jibbigo

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