Click Through Rate (CTR) and Facebook
In lecture on October 17th, the concept of a Click Through Rate was discussed with the primary focus on search engines such as Google. With proper selection of key words, it can be very simple to obtain a high CTR on search engines if one is willing to pay a certain price (although advertisement quality was ignored for the purposes of establishing a simpler matching market in lecture). On social networking sites, however, it is not always as easy to obtain a high CTR simply by targeting the right social demographic (the equivalent of targeting users searching for specific key words on a search engine). The article “Beer boosts Facebook CTRs, but not conversions” on Econsultancy.com helps to explain this phenomenon.
The primary consideration that advertisers must take into account when using Facebook to advertise as opposed to a search engine is that Facebook users do not utilize the site with the intention of finding a particular product or service. Rather, they are looking to catch up and communicate with friends. Because of this, advertisers attempt to make their ads particularly catchy to draw the users attention away from the newsfeed and personal profiles. This is done through a picture, whereas search engines typically only feature text ads.
The article on Econsultancy.com highlights an example in which an image of a beer is utilized in an advertisement to help draw in Facebook users. While the advertisement dramatically increased CTR, it did little to drive new business for the company, Fee Fighters, as users were simply not looking for their service as they were instead interested in a beer. Although the advertisement was likely targeted to specific Facebook users, for example 20-30 year olds with high credit card debit who might be in a group called “Fight the Credit Card Companies,” these users had clicked with the intention of stumbling upon a different result (maybe free beer). Thus, although a catchy image can be critical to obtaining a high CTR, it seems additionally important to make that image relevant to your product in a way that draws in the users you are targeting.
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7802-beer-boosts-facebook-ctrs-but-not-conversions