Effectiveness of Facebook Advertising Increases in The Third Quarter

LONDON, October 11, 2011 -

TBG Digital’s quarterly report uncovers increasing Click through Rates amid falling costs
to advertisers

TBG Digital, the leading global marketing and technology company specialising in Facebook and social media advertising campaigns, today launches its second global research report into the Facebook advertising market.  

Based on an analysis of 255 billion impressions and audited by the Cambridge University Psychometrics Centre, the report is headlined by the finding that advertising output on Facebook during the quarter has generated an 18.5% improvement in Click through Rates across five cornerstone markets - United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Canada.  At the same time, increased Click Through Rates on Facebook mean that it is earning more per impression, while advertisers continue to gain greater return on investment from their advertising spend.

Highlights include:

• Facebook advertising increases in effectiveness: An 18.5% increase in Click through Rates across the five major markets during the third quarter;

• Facebook earns more per impression whilst Cost per Click rates fall for advertisers: Cost per Click rates for advertisers fall by 10.8%, while cost per thousand impressions has increased by 7.1% across the five major markets;

• Brand advertising continues to grow: increasing by 6.7% to account for 53.7% of total Facebook advertising output;

• Hot sectors: top five sectors grow combined volumes of impressions by 117% during the quarter;

• Keyword Targeting can reduce the ‘cost per like‘ by up to $0.45: Brands and Keywords are biggest influence on the Performance of Brand (Fanning) Campaigns

Commenting on the report’s findings, Simon Mansell, CEO of TBG Digital, said:

“With Facebook’s recent announcements on Timeline and the expansion of the like button we are excited about the extra advertising inventory which will become available as a result of these developments. This makes the improving performance of campaigns on Facebook even more pleasing. With true global scale and massive levels of user engagement Facebook should be the first choice for any Brand campaign. At TBG we are proud to work with 100 of the world’s top brands and be able to use the data we aggregated from the 255 billion impressions in this report to help further develop the social media market.”

TBG Digital’s Global Facebook Advertising Report for the third quarter of 2011 analysed 255 billion impressions across 216 advertisers in 192 countries, with results, graphical illustrations and methodology verified by The Psychometrics Centre, University of Cambridge.

The report can be downloaded here:

clearslide.com/view/mail?iID=7HBPPCALV5G25LVEVF39

Notes to Editors

Report Authors

This report was written by TBG Digital with additional commentary and validation by Michal Kosinski and Stephen Haggard of Cambridge University Institute of Psychometrics.

About TBG Digital

TBG Digital is a global marketing and technology company, specializing in Facebook advertising and social media marketing. Combining technology with unparalleled experience, the company collaborates with clients to meet their marketing objectives. Founded in 2001, TBG Digital has offices in London, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Paris and Hamburg and manages campaigns for more than 90 advertisers targeting in 60+ countries. For more information, please visit our website at www.tbgdigital.com.

For further information:

FTI Consulting
UK/Europe: Sebastian Mathews/Jamie Robertson
+44-(0)20-7831 3113
US: Jessy Adams
+1-(212)-850-5684

.