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Social Ad Network Marketing Working?

The reviews are in - and they're still mixed!  Are you getting results from your Google, Facebook and Twitter advertising? Is it worth the investment, or is social ad network marketing a bust?

A lot of marketers believe that when you build up an official presence in one area and find success, that you should also find success in advertising within that same market.  Unfortunately, that's not always the case.  While many marketers have seen the proof of that theory in-action with Google search engine listings and Google AdWords advertising, not nearly as many have seen joint success between Facebook fan pages and Facebook Ads or Twitter accounts and Twitter advertising.

I really like the information I get from eMarketer.com.  Among many other points, I saw that because of the huge success to marketers who have used Google AdWords over the years, many have had high hopes they will see similar results with Google+. Sadly, the experts believe that because of the social networking similarities between Google+ and Facebook, Google+ advertising will ultimately have all of the same drawbacks and benefits experienced with Facebook advertising.  The problem, it seems, is not just in the type of people who use social networking, but the behaviors of those individuals.

In a study published by the people behind EyeTrackShop, [can you believe they are an online eye-tracking solutions firm?], well, they tracked the eye movements of participants in Sweden on a typical Facebook newsfeed layout with advertising placed in the right-hand column of the page.  They also tracked the eye movements of the same participants on a mock-up of a Google+ newsfeed layout with advertisements similar to those seen on Facebook in the right-hand column.  Google+ does not currently feature ads, but EyeTrackShop added them in the mock-up so they could simulate and track user behavior.

The users viewed both pages in much the same fashion, keeping their focus primarily on the center of the page and then moving to the left first, and then the right where the ads were located.  According to revenue estimates from eMarketer.com, Facebook will receive as much as $4 billion in ad revenue worldwide, so if Google copies this same format it could yield similar results. However, with the right-hand column being viewed last, Google+ might want to consider placing ads in the left-hand column instead.  plus.google.com

Real Results: Tracking Social Network Ad Engagement

Tracking the eye movements of typical social network users is one thing, but tracking the engagement of those users within the social ad network is another.  How many of those users are clicking on the advertisements or interacting with the advertising brands in some fashion?  Share your real-world experience and results…

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