Adwords Advertising in Facebook Applications: Can I Vomit?
5 Comments Published by Rodney Rumford October 16th, 2007 in Facebook, Facebook Applications, Facebook Marketing.
Advertising in facebook applications has existed since almost the beginning of the launch of the platform.
There are a number of great advertising options for facebook apps such as: VideoEgg, Lookery, RockYou, Peanut, Cubics, etc.
But some people are talking about how google adwords is now making inroads to applications. I am not sure of the value of these ads, the relevancy of these ads and how this will cheapen/devalue the user experience. As a glaring example of an app owner going bad with google adwords I will call out the southpark character generator facebook application. They have 18,000+ daily active users so the application is driving reasonable traffic to be sure.
We reviewed this facebook app a while back and it is a fun app; be it relatively 1 dimensional. It allows users to creatively express themselves. So on that level I really like the app. But here is where someone (the application owner) has made a terrible wrong turn and is in the tall weeds and just might crash over the cliff.
This is the homepage of the application. I am not kidding. Try to find where I am supposed to interact on this page. I am surrounded by 5 ads. Ugggh.
Seriously; this is crap and it makes me vomit. HMMM do you think users will continue to engage with this app? I really don’t know. What i do know is this: Even though I tend to be relatively blind to google ads; I can’t even see the app through all the ads. WHOA. Advertising overload for sure.
The other problem here is that google adwords rarely delivers relevant ads for the users in the context of a facebook app. Using adwords entirely misses the point of the beauty of the social graph; knowing who the audience is, not what the page is about. They are 2 very different things.
The other thing about this is how relevant are the ads that are being served? HMMM… not very relevant at all. Psoriasis ads… give me a break. Google adwords in facebook apps is like shoving a square peg into a round hole.
And here is another kicker. The ads take ME OUT of FACEBOOK and I lose where I was at. So much for engagement. 
I suspect that eventually Facebook will address the ad issue with an ad serving platform that will do a much better job of keeping the user experience relevant, engaging, tied to user demographics, pleasant and still manage to make money for application owners.
In the mean time look at the other ad networks on facebook; they most likely can provide a better experience for app users and not make them nauseous or disengaged in the mean time.
As a final note: I made a review comment on the application on facebook) and it is no longer there. They deleted it. I guess the app developer did not like the fact that I told them these ads were killing the user experience. Boy i feel valued as a customer…lol. I guess they did not like my review that I posted there. I just wanted to help them understand what they are doing here. In her defense she can do as she wishes and just might be laughing all the way to the bank.
Technorati Tags: facebook news, adwords facebook, adwords
I think the best ads for many FB apps should be sponsorships. For instance the FoodFight app is going to have chicken wings from a bbq chain as a choice of food to throw. This type of promotion is great because most of the time people don’t even consider them as ads.
Rodney, I agree whole heartedly. AdSense is NOT the network that needs to be plugged into Facebook. There are few, if any apps, that the ads served would fit considering the non-textual elements of the most popular FB apps.
Here’s hoping FB’s network attempts get it right. I’m sure they will.
Sponsorships are already making their way into applications. This is a much more traditional model that actually works if the application is using that brand or a similar brand in the application itself.
Think of it as product placement which is very common in TV, movie and gaming industries already. This is very common and works quite well.
I think you’re both absolutely right, Andrew and Rodney about sponsorships. The only major problem with sponsorships is they’re harder to make for developers who are merely trying to support (or at least alleviate) their costs. That’s why websites abroad use Google AdSense – it’s easy and they’re system monetizes the long-tail. Now, if there was a list of advertisers indicating their willingness to sponsor brand-complementing apps, that would be great! Until the ease of AdSense implementation and the value of Sponsorship and/or CPM revenue models somehow merge, I believe monetization will remain a difficult task for developers abroad.
Jonathan you are correct. There needs to be a no brainer way for app developers to pair with willing sponsors in an online fashion. That is what adwords does really well.
Most app developers are the furthest thing from Biz Dev guys. They need a way to do “deals” with sponsors that want to participate.