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This isn't just a problem with facebook, but with marketing in general. People care about a lot of metrics (e.g., media metrics such as positive/negative buzz)
by bartread 8y ago
This isn't just a problem with facebook, but with marketing in general. People care about a lot of metrics (e.g., media metrics such as positive/negative buzz) that don't make a jot of difference to the top line of a company, and make a difference to the bottom line only because of the amount of money spent on trying to move them[1].
[1] Of course, there are exceptions: arguably Ratners jewellers in the UK would be an example.
- duxup 8y agoI sat in a meeting where the VP of marketing was touting the rate of users who viewed the entire YouTube ad for some new ads we put out, as opposed to users skipping the ads. This was a huge success, VP and CEO repeated this great news for a good year. Almost every ad was below the threshold where YouTube would put up the "skip" option at that time, so users really had no choice but to watch it all. "Success" was guaranteed purely based on the length of the ads. No effort was made to actually tie anything to sales, money of any sort, except MOAR marketing staff and budget... hiring freeze for tech support and so on...
- gamblor956 8y agoSounds like it was a terrific success based on the metric tested. They wanted viewers to see the entire ad, and making a shorter ad guaranteed that... Video advertising doesn't generally trigger an immediate call to action; it's always been a tool of brand awareness, so why would you want to have a longer ad if most users simply skip over it?
- duxup 8y agoIt was a success based on the metric. It also could not have had any other result than success based on the % of ads that could not be skipped. There was no other possible outcome.
- tazard 8y agoI usually close the tab if a YouTube ad starts. I rarely care about a video enough to sit through an ad for it.