Online Advertising Rate Card for Facebook Abstruse

Here's a new Facebook acquirement appraisal to anticipate about: $90 actor a year — from sponsorships alone. Sure, I've poked fun at Facebook's absurd figures. The amusing network's lath members, afterwards all, can't get their belief beeline on how abundant the aggregation is authoritative — so why should we assurance their wild-eyed, multibillion-dollar valuations for the company, either? But now it gets real, folks. An adviser has forwarded me a Facebook rate agenda — a rate agenda the aggregation claims doesn't exist. It's anachronous February, so accumulate that in mind. And any rate card, of course, is a salesman's fantasy numbers, not the absolute ones that get formed out in a sharp-elbowed deal. But the capacity of the agenda aboveboard with what I've heard from insiders. Afterwards the jump, what it takes to buy your way assimilate Facebook.

At first, Facebook agent Brandee Barker says, "We don't accept a rate card." If I abreast her that the certificate I had was labeled "Rate Agenda / Snapshot of Integrated Opportunities," she backtracked and said, "I just don't anticipate it's a rate agenda in the acceptable sense." Of course. Only in the faculty that it lists advertising rates.

Even Facebook admits its banderole ads aren't decidedly effective. The "Homepage Sponsored Story" gets a click-through rate "10-20x college than banners." That would put it at a admirable ambit of 0.4 to 0.8 percent.

Those sponsored belief will rate you, though, at a CPM, or rate per thousand, of $10, and a minimum absorb of $50,000. Targeting costs $2 to $5 added in CPM.

Got added to spend? Go for a "Facebook Sponsored Group." There are currently 150 of these groups, and some accept hundreds of bags of Facebook users as members.

The rate agenda says that sponsored groups crave a $150,000 rate for three months. Annualize that and you've got a run rate of $90 actor a year — but that, of course, doesn't annual for any discounts or amalgamation deals.

Victoria's Abstruse and Dave Matthews Band are listed as sponsored groups here, in this February-dated rate card, and still accept alive groups. That agency that they've been spending steadily on Facebook for at atomic 5 months.


Apple, eBay, MTV, and Red Bull are just some of Facebook's sponsors.

So what to achieve from this? Banderole ads, clearly, don't calculation for abundant on Facebook; even Facebook admits as abundant to advertisers, which is why the aggregation has pawned off its banner-ad annual to Microsoft. (Microsoft, like a sucker, took the deal, which goes to the acclaim of Facebook's shark-like dealmarkers.)


The absolute advertising money is in sponsorships. Valley assembly knew that all along; they just didn't apperceive how abundant until now. Do the math, and at Facebook's accepted sponsor count, just the $150,000 minimum absorb could ability $90 actor a year.

The capital question, though, is how abundant its advocacy business can abound after behind users. Only one sponsored adventure can appearance up at a time on a user's homepage, which banned inventory. And with Facebook apps now allusive for users' attention, will sponsored groups still advance as bound from user to user?

Sheer novelty, too, may annual for the sponsored stories' top click-through rates. Online banderole ads had top click-throughs in the mid-'90s if they were aboriginal introduced; again Web surfers exhausted of them. Who's to say the aforementioned affair will not appear to ads in Facebook's newsfeed?

I say all that as a attention to abstract Facebook evangelists, of course. Facebook would be absurd not to accomplishment its users as continued as it can. But counting on a top click-through rate always would be appropriately foolish. And blame its advocacy business added Facebook is accomplishing today could just accelerate that rate's decline.
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