Monday, October 21, 2013

Facebook making the hard referral play



Referral traffic has been a significant revenue driver for brands, and Google has continued to own the bottom of the funnel in regards to consumer purchasing online. Facebook has been investing heavily into referral and affiliate interaction with their social network, in order to capitalize on the growing spend of CPG marketing departments. These brand marketers are becoming increasingly more comfortable with spending their dollars online, however, they come from a traditional mindset where ROI is king.
Facebook no longer has the luxury of pitching brands on their social benefits, since multiple case studies have proven that “likes” do not necessarily result in sales. They have been working arduously on developing data-driven insights that are valuable for brands, and referrals have been tracked effectively.
On Monday, Facebook announced that the average referral track from Facebook to media sites jumped 170% last year. Social news sites like Time, BuzzFeed and Bleacher Report experienced 6x-10x increases. This trend proves that more content is feeding from Facebook, and retail spending will soon follow. 

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