Facebook Ads: Retail and Food/Drink Get Best CTRs

Facebook advertisers in the retail and food/drink niches are getting a 257 percent better click-through rate when compared to lowest-charting categories, which are property and law/government.

TBG Digital, a Facebook specialty shop, revealed the data-point on Monday to ClickZ News as a preview of a larger research study to be released in July. The report will be based on cross-client aggregate data involving 150 billion impressions, the London-based company said.

"It's interesting because we feel retailers are currently underrepresented as Facebook advertisers," said Simon Mansell, CEO of TBG Digital.

Mansell added that ads with "social context" have a higher click-through rate, which subsequently lowers click costs. The term refers to ads that are served to friends of those who have engaged with a brand. In the ads, viewers see the names of friends who've taken the time to click a brand's "like" button, make a comment, or take some other action. Advertisers can choose between CPC or CPM pricing.

In other recent research, TBG found ads that kept viewers on Facebook cost 29 percent less than ads that did not. Indeed, he said Facebook is rewarding advertisers that direct traffic to landing pages on its own site.

Mansell compared seven-year-old Facebook's strategy to when Google was about the same age, saying that the latter at the time didn't incentivize marketers to keep users on the site post-search. "Facebook is creating a walled garden," he said.

When asked about rewarding advertisers for keeping traffic put, Facebook spokesperson Annie Ta suggested via email that what marketers end up paying is based on a set of nuances.

"We don't discount the price of advertising if the landing page directs to something on Facebook," she said, "but we do take various signals into account that help us determine the quality and pricing of ads."

TBG's upcoming research, which is being audited by the University of Cambridge, will likely dove tail with what seems to be an emerging Facebook ad sales talking point. In recent weeks, head of marketing Carolyn Everson and head of global agency relations Sarah Personette have echoed each other, stating their social platform can be the "underpinning of campaigns."

Not surprisingly, Facebook appears to be portraying itself the way some marketers see it, as the hub for online initiatives.

Monster Launches LinkedIn-Like Network on Facebook

Monster.com, a 12-year-old brand, certainly isn't denying Facebook's prominent place in the Internet ecosystem. Yesterday, the company launched an app called BeKnown that allows users to set up a professional network on Facebook.

"No one calls into question Facebook's popularity as a social network globally," Matthew Henson, Monster spokesperson, told ClickZ. "For us, it makes sense to launch the professional network where people are."

Meanwhile, Henson disputed the notion that Monster was in essence creating a LinkedIn clone. "I think if you look at BeKnown and LinkedIn, they are quite different offerings," he said.