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Facebook's Ad Revenue Hit $1.86B for 2010

17 points by domino 16y ago

jacques_chester 16y ago
According to some random company's estimate their ad revenue hit $1.6Bn. We won't know until they go public, if ever.
iamwil 16y ago
How is facebook making money from ad revenue? It was touted before that ads on social networks didn't work well, because users didn't go to facebook to look for anything, so users didn't click on ads. But now, they seem to be making money hand over fist. How are the fb ads different now?
- waterlesscloud 16y ago
  This is purely anecdotal, but I've seen a wider range of ads beyond "Sign up for expensive college degree", which I wasn't al all interested in. Now I see very targeted ads that I sometimes actually click. Increased inventory diversity = better targeting = more clicks = higher revenue ????
- axod 16y ago
  The click prices are ridiculous. Expect to pay $.50-$1 per click on facebook.
- seunosewa 16y ago
  They are making it up in traffic volume, I guess.
- rossriley 16y ago
  I think it's more a matter of scale. If Facebook are serving 260 Billion pageview a month then even if they were making $3.1B a year we'd only be talking about $1 CPM. That is ridiculously low by industry standards, especially considering how well segmented they can supply an audience. As an advertiser buying on any other network I'd expect to be paying $20-30 CPM for the exposure so that's the scale of Facebook's underachievement.
- ladon86 16y ago
  I've used them and had some good results. By "good results" I mean a 1% CTR, which is actually an order of magnitude higher than a typical Facebook CTR. But because you can choose to pay CPM or CPC, for a high performing ad like mine I might only pay £0.20 per 1000, which means I can get a click with tight demographic targeting (and they weren't junk clicks) for only £0.02. Try doing that on Google! Of course, the other reason is that Facebook is the new hotness and lots of companies feel they ought to up their "social media spend". But if you're smart you can get yourself a pretty good ad deal there.
- patio11 16y ago
  How are the fb ads different now? They're for Farmville & company, and the goal is not achieving a transaction during this session but rather just setting the hook for gameplay. Many who start will successfully spam their friends (viral factors greater than zero mean the average CPA to get a new signup is lower than the CPA you paid for the signup from ads), and a few will become extraordinarily lucrative buyers of virtual goods that have very high margins.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]

17 points by domino 16y ago

According to some random company's estimate their ad revenue hit $1.6Bn. We won't know until they go public, if ever.

How is facebook making money from ad revenue? It was touted before that ads on social networks didn't work well, because users didn't go to facebook to look for anything, so users didn't click on ads. But now, they seem to be making money hand over fist. How are the fb ads different now?

waterlesscloud 16y ago
This is purely anecdotal, but I've seen a wider range of ads beyond "Sign up for expensive college degree", which I wasn't al all interested in. Now I see very targeted ads that I sometimes actually click. Increased inventory diversity = better targeting = more clicks = higher revenue ????
axod 16y ago
The click prices are ridiculous. Expect to pay $.50-$1 per click on facebook.
seunosewa 16y ago
They are making it up in traffic volume, I guess.
rossriley 16y ago
I think it's more a matter of scale. If Facebook are serving 260 Billion pageview a month then even if they were making $3.1B a year we'd only be talking about $1 CPM. That is ridiculously low by industry standards, especially considering how well segmented they can supply an audience. As an advertiser buying on any other network I'd expect to be paying $20-30 CPM for the exposure so that's the scale of Facebook's underachievement.
ladon86 16y ago
I've used them and had some good results. By "good results" I mean a 1% CTR, which is actually an order of magnitude higher than a typical Facebook CTR. But because you can choose to pay CPM or CPC, for a high performing ad like mine I might only pay £0.20 per 1000, which means I can get a click with tight demographic targeting (and they weren't junk clicks) for only £0.02. Try doing that on Google! Of course, the other reason is that Facebook is the new hotness and lots of companies feel they ought to up their "social media spend". But if you're smart you can get yourself a pretty good ad deal there.
patio11 16y ago
How are the fb ads different now? They're for Farmville & company, and the goal is not achieving a transaction during this session but rather just setting the hook for gameplay. Many who start will successfully spam their friends (viral factors greater than zero mean the average CPA to get a new signup is lower than the CPA you paid for the signup from ads), and a few will become extraordinarily lucrative buyers of virtual goods that have very high margins.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]