Facebook Marketers Reveal States Where Users Click on Ads Most [EXCLUSIVE]

Facebook Marketers Reveal States Where Users Click on Ads Most [EXCLUSIVE]
April 4, 2012 by Sam Laird on Mashable

Facebook users in South Dakota, Tennessee and Colorado click through ads on Facebook at record rates. In South Dakota, Facebook users click on ads at a rate of 174% the national average.

Meanwhile, residents of Vermont, Alabama and Indiana are the least likely to take the bait. In Vermont, the click-through rate (CTR) is 57% the national average.

This is according to data provided exclusively to Mashable by marketing agency TBG Digital, which works with high-profile clients including jetBlue, Heineken and Coca Cola.

TBG analyzed more than 7.6 billion Facebook ad impressions from its client base during December, January and February. Here are the top and bottom 10 states for CTR, according to TBG’s data:

While the click-through data is powerful information for online marketers, TBG CEO Simon Mansell cautions that it’s not the be-all end-all for advertisements.

What people do after they click on ads, for example, is among a host of other factors that determine an ad’s ultimate success.

“It’s like any data — useful to know but you shouldn’t look at it in isolation,” Mansell told Mashable in an interview.

And where does Facebook earn the most money off the ads it hosts? Not surprisingly, South Dakota — the state with the highest click-through rate — has the highest cost per thousand impressions (CPM), at 190% the national average.

Vermont — where people click on ads with the least frequency — has the lowest, at 53% the national average.

Here are TBG’s top and bottom 10 states for CPM:

There are obvious parallels between the states that have the highest CTRs and CPMs. But Mansell says, the lists aren’t more proportional as a result of variables in the Facebook ad-bidding process. Facebook charges on a cost-by-click basis. Advertisers who gain more clicks are allowed to buy ads for discounted rates.

What’s most interesting about these data to you? Let us know in the comments.

Millions of Americans Cut the TV Cord [STUDY]

Millions of Americans Cut the TV Cord [STUDY]
April 4, 2012 By Alissa Skelton on Mashable

Users aren’t completely ditching pay-TV subscriptions, but a new report says 3.58 million people in the U.S. will have cut the TV cord by the end of 2012.

A report entitled “The Battle for the North American Couch Potato: Online & Traditional TV and Movie Distribution” [PDF] is just one indicator that paid online streaming TV and movie services are growing and pay-TV subscriptions are slowing.

From 2008 to 2011, the Convergence Consulting Group estimates 2.65 million — 2.6% of the U.S. population — ended their pay-TV subscriptions and replaced them with online streaming services such as Netflix. More than 40% of U.S. pay-TV subscribers became non-subscribers by dropping their service in 2011. According to the report, Canadian TV services have seen a slower bleed — about 83,000 Canadians, or .7%, dropped their pay-TV subscriptions in 2011 to watch online subscription services.

Compared to 2010, U.S. TV services added 160,000 fewer subscribers in 2011. The number dropped from 272,000 in 2010 to 112,000 in 2011. Convergence Consulting estimates 185,000 people will start new TV subscriptions in 2012.


SEE ALSO: We Now Watch Less Live TV, But More Programming Thanks to DVRs [STUDY]
“Kiosk, mail and now streaming rental (assuming sufficient usage) offer a lower-price value proposition and have radically altered the rental channel while negatively impacting DVD/Blu-ray/Download sales, and encroaching on TV subscription,” the report said.

Online TV watching is expected to increase in 2012 and years to come. In 2011, about 18% of U.S. broadcast specialty-network viewers watched an average of one to two shows online per week — an increase from 16% in 2010.

Advertisers are following their viewers onto the web. The research firm says online ad revenue is increasing. Broadcast and cable network’s online TV advertising revenues reached $1.9 billion, or 2.8% of U.S. Broadcast/Cable Network TV advertising revenue, in 2011. Online TV network’s ad revenue is expected to climb 3% in 2012, Convergence Consulting estimates.

Which do you prefer to use: TV subscriptions or online subscriptions? Tell us in the comments.

Google cookies bypassed Safari privacy protection

17 February 2012 Last updated at 18:28
Google cookies bypassed Safari privacy protection

Google has been accused of bypassing the privacy settings of users of the Safari web-browser.

The Wall Street Journal said Google and other companies had worked around privacy settings designed to restrict cookies.

Cookies are small text files stored by browsers which can record information about online activity, and help some online services work.

However Google says the story "mischaracterises" what happened.

Advertisers can use cookies to track online behaviour, helping them to target the commercials they show to internet users.

Some think this use of cookies erodes online privacy. In May, European Union laws are due to come into force which will restrict the use of advertising cookies.

But cookies are also essential to some web services like those Google offers.

Cookie control
The Safari browser is produced by Apple, and is the browser used by the iPhone.

By default Safari only allows cookies to be stored by the web page a user is visiting, not from third parties such as advertisers.

However, Stanford University researcher Jonathan Mayer found that advertisers were still able to store cookies on the computers of internet users browsing with Safari.

It was his discovery that formed the basis of the Wall Street Journal's story.

Many Google services use cookies, for example to remember when someone is signed in to a service, but they are also used by the firm to help personalise advertising.

It was when Google attempted to find a way to enable some of its services and personalised advertising to work on Safari that, Google says, it inadvertently stored cookies.

Side-stepping Safari
In a statement, senior vice president Rachel Whetstone said that last year the company had decided to "enable features for signed-in Google users on Safari who had opted to see personalised ads and other content".

Continue reading the main story

She added: "To enable these features, we created a temporary communication link between Safari browsers and Google's servers, so that we could ascertain whether Safari users were also signed into Google, and had opted for this type of personalisation."

Ms Whetsone said the company had created new systems to make sure the information it collected was anonymous, but this had led to unintended consequences:

"The Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser.

"We didn't anticipate that this would happen, and we have now started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers. It's important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Google "disabled the code after being contacted by the paper".

Google declined to provide further comment to the BBC.

Privacy warning

Online privacy advocates were highly critical of Google's actions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote: "It's time for Google to acknowledge that it can do a better job of respecting the privacy of web users."

Although much of the criticism has been directed at the search giant, the Wall Street Journal said that in addition to Google, a number of advertising companies had been using the work-around which had been known about for some time.

An Apple spokesman said in a statement: "We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari's privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it."

Source: BBC