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  • Facebook Launches Conversion Measurement For Advertisers

    Facebook has launched a new conversion measurement optimization system for direct response marketers to help them measure the ROI of their Facebook ads by counting “relevant” user actions, like registrations and shopping cart checkouts. The system can be used with all Facebook ads and sponsored stories, and in combination with any targeting.

    “Marketers can now also use optimized CPM (OCPM) to deliver ads to people who are most likely to convert on their websites,” Facebook says in a blog post. “Beta tests have shown that when conversion measurement is used with optimized CPM, ads reduced the cost per conversion by 40 percent when compared to CPC ads using the same budget.”

    “This means that marketers who are interested in using Facebook ads and sponsored stories to drive specific actions on their websites can now use conversion measurement both to understand the ROI of their ad spend and to improve that ROI on future campaigns,” the company adds. “This should be extremely valuable for marketers in e-commerce, retail, travel, financial services, and other direct-response industries that value actions taken on their websites. Early testing of conversion measurement with optimized CPM has generated strong results for multiple advertisers who are focused on driving user actions on their websites.”

    Specifically, Fab.com used Facebook’s conversion measurement and optimization to reduce its cost per new customer acquisition by 39%, according to Facebook. The company also says the Democratic Governors Association used the system to decrease its cost per conversion by 85% compared to any other campaign it had run online.

    Facebook notes that conversion measurement is the only solution that can report when a user views an ad on one device and converts on another.

    Facebook’s conversion measurement can be used in Power Editor, the Ads Manager and by API partners. Facebook provides step-by-step instructions here.

  • Google Launches Dynamic Links For Affiliate Network

    Google announced the launch of Dynamic Links for the Affiliate Network, which it says will help publishers serve more relevant affiliate ads to users. Features include inventory selection, ad trafficking and reporting.

    “Dynamic links enable new ways to create and serve ads that use Google’s best-in-class display advertising features, giving advertisers the ability to serve geo-targeted ads, rotate and optimize creatives, automatically schedule and update ads, and more,” says Google software engineer Matt Hansen. “Dynamic links can contain multiple creatives and also support Flash.”

    “Since Dynamic links automatically update based on changes an advertiser makes even after the ad has been placed on a publisher website, publishers will be able to serve the right advertiser creative to their audience, helping increase the opportunity for conversions and revenue via the affiliate channel,” he adds.

    Advertisers can chose optimized, scheduled or targeted options for Dynamic Links. With the first option, they can set up creatives to rotate evenly at first, then move to higher-performing creatives getting more exposure as the links generate activity. With the second, advertisers can set up limited-time promotions so publishers only have to use a single tag to show the most up-to-date ads. The third option simply lets the advertiser set up country or state specific targeting.

  • Facebook, GM Discussing Paid Ads. Again. Still. Kind of.

    The most noted Facebook ads ship jumper from 2012 is possibly considering a change of heart.

    Facebook and General Motors are still “actively talking” about a return to paid advertising on the site, according to a report from Reuters. Here’s a quote from GM’s interim marketing head Alan Batey:

    “We’re still actively talking to them and looking at opportunities that come our way…I wouldn’t tell you that there’s a Mexican standoff here. We just didn’t see the value [in the ads].”

    Alan Batey steeped in to replace Joel Ewanick, the former GM marketing chief who resigned back in July, barely two months after pulling the Facebook ads. Forbes reported that he was actually being removed for “failing to properly vet the financial details of a European soccer sponsorship deal.”

    In the time since General Motors publicly yanked all of their paid advertising on Facebook, plenty of companies have decided to spend a significant amount of money on Facebook advertising. Plenty of companies have also made the decision to lessen their Facebook ad budget.

    But we keep talking about General Motors and Facebook. Why? Because their breakup was just so juicy. You remember, right? Just days before the big Facebook IPO, GM announced that they were pulling all of their Facebook ads. They said that they weren’t sure about their effectiveness and how they fit into future marketing strategies. Of course, to the average reader that simply sounds like a bunch of jargon for “Facebook ads aren’t worth our time or money.”

    Sure, a few days later GM said that they were making big advertising decisions across the board. No hard feelings, Facebook. It’s just part of a bigger strategy, and a coincidence that it happened three days before the IPO. But the fact that it may have been a more innocuous move than previously thought didn’t do much to neutralize the sting of it all. And as Facebook’s stock price tanked out of the gate, people began to discuss monetization issues, and of course that led to talks about advertising strategies, which of course led to GM as the big example of a company who pulled the plug.

    Just a few weeks after all of this went down, reports emerged that Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg had talked to GM CEO Daniel Akerson about the car company reigniting the Facebook flame. Also, Facebook global sales head Carolyn Everson was said to have been preparing “better data on how their ads can turn into dollars.”

    So it appears that Facebook and GM are, and probably have been in discussions for some time. And that will continue. GM was reported to have only really been spending $10M in actual ad spend on the network, but for Facebook, getting GM back on board could signify to other companies that it’s safe to open up their Facebook ad budgets – if just a little more.

  • Hulu AdZone Kicks Off in Preparation of Super Bowl Ads

    Hulu AdZone Kicks Off in Preparation of Super Bowl Ads

    Last year, Hulu launched AdZone, their hub for all things Super Bowl ads. It allowed users to relive great ads from the past, as well as watch and vote on the new ads as they aired during the big game.

    Today, they’ve launched the site for Super Bowl 2013.

    As the game airs, ads will appear on AdZone in real time.

    “Watch, share and vote for your favorite Super Bowl ads during the big game. As soon as one team takes home the title of Super Bowl champion on Sunday, Feb. 3, we’ll tally the votes and announce your pick for the best ads of Super Bowl 2013 and share our picks for best celebrity cameos, cutest critters and more,” says Hulu.

    Hulu has also optimized their AdZone for mobile:

    “And if you’re craving another wing or grabbing a cold one during the commercial break and miss that ad that will have everyone talking, have no fear – with the Hulu AdZone mobile experience you can visit hulu.com/adzone from your mobile device to pull up that ad and watch, vote, share, Tweet and “like” it to your heart’s content (you’ll just need a Facebook account to cast your vote),” says Hulu.

    You can check out AdZone right now, even before the Super Bowl. There, you can relive all of last year’s advertisements, as well as browse through the best ads from 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

    Here’s what was voted as last year’s best Super Bowl ad:

  • Adobe: Google PLA Spend Nearly The Size Of Yahoo-Bing Spend (US)

    Kenshoo recently released some research about Google’s Product Listing Ads (PLAs), the ads that power Google Shopping. The report indicated that PLAs are more effective than text ads, with higher return on ad spend, clickthrough rates, and conversion rates and lower cost-per-click.

    Today, Adobe released some new findings on the U.S. search advertising industry, with more ubpeat news for PLAs. We spoke with Sid Shah, Director of Business Analytics at Adobe, who walked us through the findings. According to Shah, Google’s PLA model has had a major impact on overall retail.

    He says Google increased its marketshare of retail spend by 0.6% in a year to 86.5%, and that almost all its growth came from PLAs. In Q4, PLAs accounted for 10.7% of overall spend, he says, indicating that Google’s PLA program is only a little smaller than the Yahoo Bing network, which is 13.8% of total retail ad spend, he says.

    Retail Spend in Q4

    Perhaps this has something to do with why Bing has been campaigning so hard against Google’s switch to the current PLA-based Google Shopping model. Shah would not comment on Bing, but tells us he thinks the marketplace is moving toward this kind of model, noting that Amazon also has a PLA program. Any savvy search engine, he says, will try different formats.

    “The growth of PLA spend was gradual,” says Shah. “As Google transitioned its Google Shopping program to the paid model in early October, PLA spend and impression share increased with the onset of the holiday shopping season. By mid December PLA spend accounted for 17% of all advertiser spend on Google. As the holiday season ramped down, PLA spend dropped too. Thus, it remains to be seen at which final level PLA spend stabilizes.”

    PLA as percentage of total Google

    “Comparing PLA vs. standard text ads provides us with some interesting insights,” says Shah. “First, PLAs have a 34% higher Click Through Rate (CTR) than non-PLA ads, which is not surprising given the ads pictorial format (compared to standard Google text ads). Second, the average order value (AOV) for PLA ads is 12% lower than standard ads. Again, this is not surprising given that prices are shown on PLA ads. We surmise PLAs attract more bargain conscious shoppers who pick retailers offering the lowest price for a product of interest. Third, ROI and CPCs on PLA ads are comparable to standard ads too. Thus, the market has seamlessly rationalized the price of PLA ads so that their performance is comparable to the standard ad ROI.”

    PLA vs Text

    One of the main takeaways, Shah says, is that retailers should consider how PLAs played such a significant role during the past retail season, and think about optimizing coming PLA campaigns for from both the bid and feed management perspectives.

    For more of Shah’s findings, take a look at his blog post, which also looks at some interesting trends in mobile and tablets.

  • Instagram’s New Privacy Policies Take Effect on Saturday

    Just a friendly reminder: those new Instagram policies that caused such a ruckus back in December go into effect this Saturday, January 19th (but without the clause that caused most of the ruckus).

    The new privacy policy and terms of service documents add a few new elements such as affiliate sharing and new arbitration rules, but do not contain any of the advertising language that led many users to accuse Instagram of trying to sell their photos without compensation.

    Here’s that language that Instagram attempted to slide into their privacy policy, but public backlash forced them to remove:

    Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

    What we pointed out as sounding a lot like Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ad product sounded a lot like the selling of photos to many people. Instagram, who I don’t believe ever had real plans to “sell” user photos in that way, screwed up by using tricky, vague language to describe a future ad product that doesn’t even really exist yet.

    They acknowledged that inside an apology to users in which they pledged to remove the new ad terms from their proposed documents.

    “You also had deep concerns about whether under our new terms, Instagram had any plans to sell your content. I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don’t own your photos – you do,” said co-founder Kevin Systrom.

    “Because of the feedback we have heard from you, we are reverting this advertising section to the original version that has been in effect since we launched the service in October 2010. Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work.”

    Basically, we got caught putting the cart before the horse and we’re sorry.

    So that doesn’t appear in the revised documents set to go into effect this weekend. But what does?

    First, there’s a new arbitration clause that forces users to opt-out if they want the ability to join class action suits in the future.

    “ARBITRATION NOTICE: EXCEPT IF YOU OPT-OUT AND EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DISPUTES DESCRIBED IN THE ARBITRATION SECTION BELOW, YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND INSTAGRAM WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION,” says Instagram in big, bold lettering in the new terms of service.

    Instagram also put a clause in their privacy policy that mimics a change made by Facebook (after that meaningless site governance vote), which allows for sharing of user information back and forth between “affiliates.”

    You should read the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service before they take effect in four days.

  • Google PLAs Proving Way More Effective Than Text Ads

    Say what you want about Google’s transition from the free-to-list Google Product Search to the paid inclusion model of Google Shopping, but the product listing ads (PLAs) that Google Shopping is based on are performing quite well.

    Have you seen improved performance with PLAs? Let us know in the comments.

    A new Kenshoo report about global online retail in 2012, covers search advertising trends around the world. The firm analyzed data of its own clients, which include advertisers and agencies, managing paid search programs for the retail vertical across Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. They tracked impressions, clicks, conversions and revenue for over a year – from November 2011 to December 2012.

    The analysis spans all major retail categories including (but not limited to) electronics, books, apparel, appliances, shoes and sporting goods. It also includes over 24 billion paid impressions and clicks on search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL and Baidu, delivering over $1.7 billion dollars in revenue. Suffice it to say, it’s a pretty comprehensive data set, and I encourage you to read the report (pdf) in its entirety.

    The Google Shopping model has not rolled out to all markets yet, so the Product Listing Ads data is all from advertisers in the U.S. The comparisons of PLAs to text ads come from the same advertisers, but they exclude seasonal, special promotion, and brand campaigns.

    According to Kenshoo’s findings, “eye-catching” PLAs draw about one and a half times the clickthrough rate of regular text ads, and convert 23% better, resulting in a 31% higher return on advertising spending (ROAS).

    “It is interesting to note that CPC remains low as competition for PLAs is currently less than other ad formats,” the firm says.

    “Looking at how PLAs performed in the U.S. during the entire holiday season, we can see that ROAS spikes on Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” Kenshoo adds in the report. “We also see that PLAs maintained a very high ROAS for the first three weeks of December and the format seemed much less prone to the weekly fluctuations that we saw from the overall holiday numbers including paid search text ads.”

    Product Listing Ads Stats

    The move to Google Shopping has been a controversial one for the company. Competitors have repeatedly spoken out about Google’s paid inclusion model. TheFind CEO and co-founder Siva Kumar recently told WebProNews, “Google’s switch to an all-paid model is likely to confuse many consumers who will no longer see every product for their search, but will instead only see paid placements. It will be interesting to see how Google communicates this change to consumers who have come to trust that search results are a combination of ads and organic results.”

    Bing has gone so far as to create a whole campaign called “Scroogled” to disuade users from buying into Google’s new model.

    Not all of the criticism has come from competitors though. One CEO even compared Google to a drug dealer over the move.

    Even former Googler Vanessa Fox, who created Webmaster Central, told us in an interview, “I’m not super happy about the shift to paid placement in product search. I can see the rationale of why they did it, but doesn’t reflect the stated mission all that well.”

    Based on Kenshoo’s report, businesses are still getting quite a bit of value out of the product listing ads.

    “The same retailers that thrive in paid search today will have the highest chance of being successful with PLAs,” said Michael Griffin, founder of Adlucent, which exclusively managed Amazon’s paid search until Amazon took it in-house in 2009. “Since the bids a retailer can afford are dependent primarily on a retailer’s ability to convert buyers (conversion rate) and maximize cart value (average order values), the best retailers will continue to dominate. Important to note, we are in a period where competition is low and CPCs are somewhat depressed. Right now, PLA CPCs are about 20% lower than paid search CPCs. Eventually, we expect CPCs to be 15-20% higher than paid search CPCs. Retailers moving quickly are being rewarded with the opportunity to test and gain market share at a lower cost.”

    “Retailers in commoditized categories will struggle the most as CPCs increase,” Griffin told us. “Retailers with low conversion rates and low average order value will eventually be pushed out. Additionally, smaller retailers with low IT resources and/or agency support will struggle. Not only will it be harder for them to produce the right feeds, but it will be difficult for them to optimize them in real-time.”

    Google made the full transition to the Google Shopping model in the U.S. in October, and announced the following month that it was beginning the gradual rollout in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia and Switzerland. Google said users in these countries would start seeing the new results on February 13.

    In December, Google said it would be releasing a new set of Google Shopping program policies in January, as it announced that it is offering promotional credit to merchants in Australia, Japan, Brazil, Italy, France, The Netherlands, The UK, Germany, and Switzerland to make the transition to Google Shopping as it rolls out to these countries. We’ve yet to see the new policies so far.

    Google recently launched some social features for Google Shopping, including the ability to read reviews from people you know and the ability to share reviews with friends on Google+. The company also added tools for 360-degree product images, shortlists and discounts/promotions displayed on products. More on all of that here.

    Have you used Google’s Product Listing Ads? Have you seen a noticeable difference in your CTRs? Conversions? Let us know in the comments.

  • Cuoco Joins Shatner In New Priceline Ad [Video]

    Priceline has put out a new ad in which The Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco joins longtime Priceline spokesman William Shatner as his daughter.

    The ad is titled: Priceline Shocker: The Negotiatior’s Secret Daughter Revealed”. The company uploaded it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

    “The Negotiator harbors many secrets, and this is just one of them,” said Shatner. “It’s another layer to the enigma of The Negotiator that shows us there are many different ways to find great hotel deals. And, as in life, there is something new he can learn from a younger perspective.”

    “It’s definitely exciting working with Bill, and being part of a campaign and a brand that I’ve pretty much grown up with,” said Cuoco. “He has single-handedly built the Priceline Negotiator into a pop culture icon. I think there’s a lot of overlap in our fans, who will appreciate seeing us together as a father and daughter team. And who wouldn’t want to be William Shatner’s daughter?”

    The campaign is set to begin running on January 14.

    This week, Priceline reportedly gained FTC approval for its acquisition of Kayak.

  • How Twitter Understands Why You’re Really Searching For ‘Honey Nut Cheerios’ (And Decides What Ads To Serve You)

    Twitter’s Edwin Chen and Alpa Jain wrote an interesting post on the company’s engineering blog about improving Twitter search “with real-time computation”. They discuss the challenges of real-time search from an advertising perspective.

    I’ve written quite a few articles about real-time search, often comparing Twitter’s offering to Google’s lack of one since the deal between the two companies came to an end, effectively killing off Google’s. Yet, I’ve never really talked about the advertising-related challenges that must accompany such an offering. Twitter’s post makes you consider what’s going on behind the scenes.

    “The queries people perform have probably never before been seen, so it’s impossible to know without very specific context what they mean,” the two say. “How would you know that #bindersfullofwomen refers to politics, and not office accessories, or that people searching for ‘horses and bayonets’ are interested in the Presidential debates? Since these spikes in search queries are so short-lived, there’s only a small window of opportunity to learn what they mean.”

    “So an event happens, people instantly come to Twitter to search for the event, and we need to teach our systems what these queries mean as quickly as we can — because in just a few hours, the search spike will be gone,” they add.

    To tackle the problem of serving relevant ads on real-time queries, Twitter monitors for which queries are popular at the moment, tracks stats on them, and then sends them to human evaluators, who are tasked with answering a variety of questions about them. To make a complicated story simple, when a response from the evaluator is received, Twitter pushes the info to its backend systems, so the next time a user searches for the query, it can serve a relevant ad based on context.

    “For example, suppose our evaluators tell us that [Big Bird] is related to politics; the next time someone performs this search, we know to surface ads by @barackobama or @mittromney, not ads about Dora the Explorer,” Twitter explains.

    Today, it might be better to see ads for Knicks tickets than for cereal on a Honey Nut Cheerios query.

    So, when you see ads on Twitter as you’re searching for information, just know that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to make it fit the scope of what you’re actually looking for. Check out Twitter’s post for a much more in depth explanation.

  • Bar Refaeli Is The New Go Daddy Girl For The Super Bowl

    It almost wouldn’t be the Super Bowl without Go Daddy advertising with scantily clad women. The company announced today that it has signed actress and model Bar Refaeli to star alongside longtime Go Daddy girl Danics Patrick in one of its two 30-second Super Bowl spots.

    The one with Refaeli is titled “Perfect Match,” but the company isn’t releasing details of the ad’s concept.

    “The opportunity to be in a Super Bowl commercial is thrilling … and to partner with Go Daddy is something I just couldn’t resist,” said Refaeli, who was number one on Maxim’s Hot 100 list for 2012. “I feel like the ‘Perfect Match’ commercial is a chance to be in an iconic Super Bowl spot that not only leaves people talking, but shows everyone what Go Daddy is really about. I really look forward to meeting Danica too!”

    Patrick will have appeared in 12 Super Bowl commercials after this year’s game. She has already appeared in more than any other celebrity in history, according to the company.

    “Go Daddy attracts a lot of marketing attention,” says Patrick. “What really makes Go Daddy special, though, is the way they ‘get it done’ for their customers – their brand of personalized service is unlike anything in the tech industry … the commercials are just the icing on the cake and I think ‘Perfect Match’ will be one of those ads people rewind to see over and over.”

    “We think we’re going to make special Super Bowl magic with ‘Perfect Match,’” adds Go Daddy Chief Marketing Officer Barb Rechterman. “This ad marries Go Daddy’s edgy brand with our reputation for taking care of customers in a way we think will be surprising and, more importantly, entertaining.”

    Perfect Match was developed by Deutsch NY and is being filmed in Los Angeles today. I would imagine that we’ll be seeing it show up on YouTube before too long.

    Image: Bar Refaeli’s Facebook Page

  • Google Gives You A 30-Minute Presentation On Getting Started With AdMob On Android

    Google has put out a presentation about getting started on Android with AdMob on its Developers YouTube channel. If you want to monetize your business using Google’s mobile platform, it might be worth a half hour of your time.

    Earlier this year, Google integrated AdMob with AdWords.

  • U.S. Online Advertising Hits Record High In Q3

    The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers announced on Wednesday that Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. reached $9.26 billion for the third quarter, marking the biggest quarter on record.

    Revenues climbed 18% year-over-year. In the third quarter of 2011, revenues hit $7.8 billion. The revenues also mark a 6% increase from Q2, when figures were $8.72 billion. Here’s a look at the growth dating back to 1996:

    Online ad growth

    “These historic investments in interactive point to the strong results that marketers are receiving from digital marketing,” said IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg. “It is a highly effective medium for interacting and engaging consumers, who are no longer passive, but are active participants in contemporary media online, through social media, and on-the-go with mobile.”

    Sherrill Mane, SVP, Research, Analytics & Measurement at the IAB added, “Sustained growth in internet ad revenue despite economic head winds is a testament to the value marketers get from using digital media.”

    “This uptick goes beyond a significant year-over-year increase at 18 percent, and also shows a climb from last quarter as well,” said PricewaterhouseCoopers partner David Silverman. “Clearly, digital advertising is continuing its positive trajectory with incredible momentum as it heads into seasonally strong Q4.”

    It’s been a good year for online business. This comes after huge amounts of online spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

  • We Might Be Waiting A While For That Facebook Ad Network

    It appears that Facebook is prolonging the inevitable. The industry has been waiting for Facebook to launch an ad network that would rival Google’s AdSense for years at this point, and finally since the company went public, it was starting to look like it was going to happen very soon.

    In fact, Facebook has been testing ads on third-party apps, and has has indicated that it could run ads on third-party sites as well.

    Today, All Things D’s Peter Kafka reports that Facebook is shutting down the test, at least for now. He shares a statement from Facebook’s Brandon McCormick:

    “We are pausing our mobile ads test off of Facebook. While the results we have seen and the feedback from partners has been positive, our focus is on scaling ads in mobile news feed before ads off of Facebook. We have learned a lot from this test that will be useful in the future.”

    So, it sounds like they do intend to move forward with this at some point, and the way Facebook has been cranking out the ad-related efforts, I’d be surprised if it turns out to be the distant future.

    In November, Facebook introduced Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities changes, which included changes that would make it more clear to users that Facebook can use their data in ads off of Facebook.

    In other news, online advertising has hit a new record in the U.S.

  • Instagram Is Not, Nor Were They Ever Going to Sell Your Photos

    Instagram Is Not, Nor Were They Ever Going to Sell Your Photos

    Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom finally made a move to stop the bleeding with a blog post directed at users who feel betrayed by the company’s new privacy policy.

    “To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear,” said Systrom.

    In reality, Instagram was never going to “sell your photos,” at least not in the manner that caused millions of users to freak out over. Although the new policy added quite a bit of new language, one part in particular seemed to be the source of all the hullabaloo.

    “Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you,” says Instagram in their revised terms.

    Many jumped to the conclusion that this meant Instagram was about to be in the business of selling users’ photos to anyone and everyone, for any unspecified use. In reality, this simply wasn’t true. Instagram still said that users own their photos, but gave themselves “transferable” and “sub-licensable” rights to all content on the site. Those are the same kind of rights expressed by Facebook (and YouTube, and Twitter). Instagram was never going to allow your photos to be taken and modified. What was more likely is that the company was setting the stage for a Sponsored Stories-like ad product, similar to the one used on Facebook. That’s an in-house advertising product that allows companies to pay to promote already-taken actions in relation to their product or service. Think taking a photo of Caesar’s Palace and having Caesar’s Palace use that unmodified photo in a promotion within the Instagram ecosystem.

    Still not ideal for most users, I’ll grant that. But far from the apocalyptic scenario imagined by some.

    In his blog post, Systrom reiterates that users own their content:

    “Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.”

    He also talks about advertising on Instagram:

    To provide context, we envision a future where both users and brands alike may promote their photos & accounts to increase engagement and to build a more meaningful following. Let’s say a business wanted to promote their account to gain more followers and Instagram was able to feature them in some way. In order to help make a more relevant and useful promotion, it would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business. In this way, some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business.

    The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things like advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.

    Instagram says that they will revise the new terms of service to reflect people’s concerns. One of those changes will be to remove the language that appeared to pave the way for Sponsored Stories on Instagram.

    But Systrom makes an important point. “From the start, Instagram was created to become a business,” he says. The point here is that Instagram will most likely continue to look at way to construct ad products, and those may involve user data. “Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one,” says Systrom.

    “Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing.”

    We’ll have to wait until we read the revised terms to make a final determination, but we predict that this little privacy uproar will soon be forgotten.

  • Instagram Is About to Make Pretty Little Ads Out of Your Photos

    Instagram just updated its privacy policy to fall in line with Facebook’s updated data use policy allowing the transfer of user information back and forth across both services (or affiliates, as they call each other). That move was expected after Facebook recently adopted their own proposed policy changes after the third and final Site Governance vote failed to produce a binding mandate.

    Although the free flow of data across Facebook, Instagram, and its affiliates may be enough to cause concern, some added content to the latter company’s privacy policy has large-scale implications for not only user privacy on the site but also for how the service fundamentally operates.

    The updated terms of service, which go into effect on January 16th, include a good amount of new content. Instagram has taken the time to expand upon the terms & conditions, as well as the sections on proprietary rights in content. They’ve also included new sections on arbitration and added a few new disclaimers and liability waivers. The changes range from new language about bullying and harassment of other users on the network to new language concerning arbitration and Instagram’s opt-out process for participating in class-action lawsuits.

    Do you use Instagram? How do you feel about its new ability to share data with Facebook and vice versa? Will this new policy affect how you use the service? Will you stop altogether? Let us know in the comments.

    You can check out the updated terms of service here.

    But it’s one change in particular that hints at a new ad product that users could be really uncomfortable with – and it sounds a lot like one Facebook users should be all too familiar with – Sponsored Stories.

    Facebook Sponsored Stories, as you’re probably aware, use your friends’ already-completed actions across the site in order to promote a product or service. Burger King, for instance, pays for Facebook to display user actions concerning Burger King in their friends’ news feeds. You’ll recognize this as the “John Smith, Dan Baker, and Julie Clark like Burger King” stories on your news feed. Sponsored Stories can also include posts from the page in question, or check-ins and more. The idea behind them is that they feel more organic than traditional side-bar ads – and they do. Sponsored Stories pop up inside users’ news feed and are sometimes indistinguishable from non-sponsored stories, except for the “sponsored” tag that is easily glossed over. If done right, a Sponsored Story doesn’t really even feel like an ad – except for the fact that it’s totally an ad. A social media-specific, clever ad, but an ad nevertheless.

    On Facebook, Sponsored Stories are already prevalent on both mobile and desktop. That’s to say that they are hard to avoid. An average Facebook user that checks their news feed a couple of time a day will be hit with multiple Sponsored Stories ads. But starting soon, that same Sponsored ad saturation may affect everyone’s favorite hipsteriffic photo-filtering community, Instagram.

    Call it the Facebook influence on a company they just purchased, but Instagram has modified their terms to explicitly allow for the use of users’ likeness in connection with sponsored content. Here’s the new addition to the policy:

    Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.

    And here is the old version, which doesn’t mention using users’ likeness in promotion, only that promotional content will in fact exist on the site:

    Some of the Instagram Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions, and you hereby agree that Instagram may place such advertising and promotions on the Instagram Services or on, about, or in conjunction with your Content. The manner, mode and extent of such advertising and promotions are subject to change without specific notice to you.

    So starting January 16th, Instagram has to go-ahead to use your photos in ads. Simple as that.

    Let’s take a look at what those ads could look like. Instagram gives itself the ability to let “a business or other entity pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take.” That could be something as simple as displaying the fact that Josh Wolford “liked” a photo by Starbucks on other users’ Instagram feed. That’s using my name, likeness, and actions to create an ad.

    But when you really look at the language, you see the type of ads the company is really planning on cashing in on.

    By giving Instagram the ability to use your photos with associated metadata in promotional content, you’re giving Instagram the ability to turn your pretty little lo-fi photos into incredibly organic-feeling advertisements. If you take a photo at a beautiful resort, that “associated metadata” knows where you took it. That means that your filtered photos of your toes in the ocean can be quickly turned into an ad for “Sunset Resort” in Key West.

    This is the first real attempt to monetize Instagram.

    Declan McCullagh over at CNET says that another tweak in the policy language could also mean that Instagram now has the authority to license your photos to anyone for use outside Instagram – think a giant stock photo database.

    “One section deletes the current phrase ‘limited license’ and, by inserting the words ‘transferable” and ‘sub-licensable,’ allows Facebook to license users’ photos to any other organization,” he says.

    Although that exact same language is repeated in Facebook’s ToS, nobody has complained that Facebook is creating a giant stock photo database of users’ personal photos.

    For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

    To me, Instagram’s new policy language seems to suggest Sponsored Stories inside the service using user photos, not turning the service into a Getty images of sorts, full of user-generated content. Although the language does discuss “sub-licensing,” meaning that sort of thing is not entirely off the table.

    We also have to consider what this means for the future, as Facebook and Instagram become closer. With Facebook and Instagram freely sharing information now, and with Instagram’s assurance that it “reserves the right, in our sole discretion, to change these Terms of Use from time to time,” who’s to say that an Instagram-Facebook ad product isn’t feasible? Your geo-tagged Instagram photos sure would look pretty nice as a Sponsored Story on a Facebook news feed, right? It sure feels like this is the logical conclusion of this whole thing.

    It appears that someone at Instagram/Facebook did their homework (as we would hope they would). The language of the new policy seems almost tailored to address all of the concerns brought up in Facebook’s very public Sponsored Stories legal battle, which has just entered its penultimate hour. In that case, a handful of users sued Facebook for using their likenesses in Sponsored Stories without their expressed consent and without compensation.

    With this privacy policy rewrite, Instagram is setting the stage to be able to make very pretty, very organic-feeling ads out of your content. Instagram has to start making money, and this is certainly a viable revenue source. Nobody should be surprised by this, considering the company was bought by Facebook for nearly a billion dollars.

    And as users, to think that a free service as popular as Instagram wouldn’t have to eventually come with ads, is short-sided and entitled. I guess you could always pay a subscription fee instead…

    But the bottom line is this: next time you snap a lo-fi filter on that burger photo, just know that you might be doing some unpaid photog work for whoever made it. You know what they say: if you’re not paying for a product, you are the product.

    What do you think about Instagram deploying Facebook-like Sponsored Stories? Should users accept that a business has to monetize, and this is just part of it? Or is this the kind of thing that would force you to stop using Instagram? Let us know in the comments.

  • Everyone Should Probably Just Put a Dick on All Their Instagram Photos Now

    UPDATE: Instagram Is Not, Nor Were They Ever Going to Sell Your Photos

    ORIGINAL ARTICLE: [Possibly NSFW drawing below]

    I know you’re mad about Instagram Facebook deciding that they wanted to make money from your favorite app. I know the fact that a free app may have to support itself via advertising is a total bummer. Nobody likes ads, no matter how “organic” companies make them. And nobody likes being an unpaid ad photographer.

    Because that’s what’s going on here. Instagram has updated their privacy policy to allow for the use of users’ likeness in ad products inside the service. That means that your photos (geotagged and all) can be promoted by companies who pay Instagram for the privilege. Take a gorgeous lo-fi photo of Caesar’s Palace? Well, it may wind up being used in an ad for Caesar’s Palace on Instagram.

    Sound familiar? That’s because it’s just like Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ad initiative. Here’s what Instagram has to say about what it’s going to do with your likeness and your photos:

    To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

    Despite the epic freakout going on around you, Instagram can’t just up and sell your photos to anyone. They can allow companies to pay to use your photos in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions. But Instagram is not creating some giant stock photo database of your personal photos. They could, but they aren’t. Neither is Facebook, by the way. As Nilay Patel at The Verge points out,

    “…an advertiser can pay Instagram to display your photos in a way that doesn’t create anything new — so Budweiser can put up a box in the timeline that says “our favorite Instagram photos of this bar!” and put user photos in there, but it can’t take those photos and modify them, or combine them with other content to create a new thing. Putting a logo on your photo would definitely break the rules. But putting a logo somewhere near your photos? That would probably be okay.”

    You can still choose to hate this. That’s well within your rights, and it’s understandable. But you should know that Facebook has had the same kind of language in its ToS for a while now. Both companies have expansive license on your content. The only way to escape all of this is to simply not use Facebook or Instagram.

    But in case you want to stick with Instagram, may I suggest placing a NFSW watermark on all of your photos.

    Like this guy. Instagram user mattonlymoore has decided to fight fire with dick. “If Instagram is going to sell my photos, they will be selling photos with a dick and balls watermark,” he says.

    And that’s what you should do, if you’re mad about the possiblity of your photos being used as ads. Simply make your photos unusable in most ad scenarios. Problem solved.

    Or use another app. Whatever works.

    [via reddit]

  • Facebook Is Planning News Feed Video Ads [REPORT]

    After the Facebook-owned Instagram pissed people off yesterday by altering their terms of service to allow users’ photos to be used in ads, Facebook is reportedly working on another way to piss people off: Video ads in the news feed.

    AdAge paints a pretty bleak picture of what the Facebook of the future will look like. And of course, by Facebook of the future, we mean Facebook in a few months. According to “several industry executives who have been briefed on the company’s plans over the past few weeks,” Facebook is planning on rolling on video ads to your news feed before April of 2013.

    According to the report, Facebook will probably limit the length of the ads to 15 seconds, and they will appear on both the desktop and mobile version of the site.

    AdAge says that the “video ads are expected to grab a user’s attention by expanding out of the news feed into webpage real estate in both the left and right columns,” but will surely begin in the news feed. There’s no word on how this would look on the mobile app.

    Unfortunately, it only gets worse from there. Apparently, Facebook is toying with the idea of autoplay – although maybe not for the audio portion of the ads. Either way, people would border on apoplectic if their news feeds began filling up with autoplay ads, I suspect.

    When you think about it, there would be plenty of ways for Facebook to incorporate video advertisements into already-existing products like Sponsored Stories. Let’s say Warner Bros paid for a Sponsored Story about one of your friends liking one of their movies. Why not show a trailer inside the news feed story?

    Of course, this is just a a single-source report from “industry execs,” so we can’t confirm that Facebook is on the verge of cramming annoying video ads into your news feed. We’ve reached out to Facebook and will update you if we hear back (although I highly doubt we’d get a lot of additional info). But this would be a pretty significant instigating move for a company who already walks a fine line with many of its users. Sure, Facebook could make a huge push toward big-money media advertising with this initiative – but they would have to be sure that users would eventually accept it (even with a strong initial backlash).

    But, even if users complained, Facebook has one thing going for it: Facebook users are usually all bark and no bite when it comes to action after the airing of grievances.

  • Samsung May Have Ruined Christmas with an Ad Referencing a Mrs. Claus Sex Tape

    Samsung May Have Ruined Christmas with an Ad Referencing a Mrs. Claus Sex Tape

    A few months ago Samsung released a 30-second ad for the Galaxy S III called “Work Trip,” which promoted the NFC-beaming of information from phone-to-phone with a little joke about a NSFW tape made by a wife for her traveling husband.

    “I also made you a video,” says the wife before bumping phones with her departing husband. “But you probably shouldn’t watch it on the plane.”

    Ow ow, right? Here’s that ad, for reference.

    But now, Samsung has taken it too far with a Christmas-themed version of that ad that involves another, more famous couple. In the following ad, dubbed “Santa’s Work Trip,” Mrs. Claus informs Santa that she also made him a video that calls for discretion. Ah come on, Samsung.

    Never has the phrase “coming down your chimney” sounded so wrong. And to sell a phone. For shame.

  • Google Adds Click Confirmation To In-App Mobile Ads

    Google has launched a “confirmed clicks” feature for all in-app image and banner ads on smartphones, in an effort to reduce the number of accidental clicks the ads attract. Users will be prompted to confirm that they intended to click on ads.

    “Ads on smartphones are effective, but many of us have at some point clicked on an ad by accident, which ultimately is a bad experience for the user, the publisher, and the advertiser who pays for clicks that may not be valuable,” says Allen Huang, Product Manager, Mobile Display Ads. “Our team has been analyzing the types of ad formats where accidental clicks are more likely to occur due to ad layout and placement, and are constantly looking at ways that we can combat them.”

    Confirmed Clicks

    “We find that most accidental clicks on in-app image ads happen at the outer edge of the ad unit, likely when you’re trying to click or scroll to nearby content,” adds Huang. “Now if you click on the outer border of the ad, we’ll prompt you to verify that you actually meant to click on the ad to learn more.”

    Google already offered confirmed clicks for text ads and banners on smartphones. In fact, it has done so for a few years now.

    The company says it this is only the beginning in its fight against “the fat finger” problem, and that it will face new challenges as devices continue to converge.

  • Twitter Adds Trend Matching, Negative Keyword Targeting to Promoted Tweets in Search Campaigns

    Twitter has just unveiled some new options for advertisers who use Promoted Tweets inside search results which allow them to both manually and automatically improve their campaigns across the platform.

    First up, Twitter has added new manual features for negative keyword targeting that allows advertisers to keep their Promoted Tweets out of certain search results. For example, Dick’s Sporting Goods may want to stay out of searches involving Dick Cheney. To do this, they could add “Cheney” to the negative keyword list.

    They’ve also added a bulk import tool so advertisers can import keywords lists from other ad programs they’re involved in. Or, they can just cut-and-paste the list into the tool as well.

    When entering positive keywords, advertisers can now choose between three different options for how (specifically) they want the Promoted Tweets to be activated – exact match, phrase match, and basic keyword match.

    On the automatic help side, Twitter is also announcing trend matching for advertiser’s campaigns. Here’s how Twitter explains it:

    “[E]ven more exciting to us is the new option to automatically match your Promoted Tweets in search to relevant and related trending topics. Trends can rise and fall quickly with world events, TV shows and sporting matches, or memes like #OneOfMyFavoriteMovies. If you use this new matching option (which is enabled by default for new campaigns), we use relevance signals about your Promoted Tweets and the Trend itself to help increase your campaign’s coverage automatically. For example, if a celebrity’s pregnancy news starts trending, and you’re a retailer of baby clothing, your Promoted Tweet may be entered into the auction for that trending search.”

    Twitter says that all of these new ad options should be ready to use starting today.

  • Samsung Ribs Apple for Australian Maps Fiasco with Hilarious Ad Installation

    Samsung Ribs Apple for Australian Maps Fiasco with Hilarious Ad Installation

    Earlier this week, it was pretty big news that Apple Maps was apparently leading Australian motorists into the middle of a national park instead of the cozy confines of Mildura. Sure, Apple Maps had seen plenty of bad press before, but until then they had never been accused of endangering lives. Despite the often over-the-job jeering, you can’t really feel sorry for Apple. If you’re going to rush out a maps product to displace one as solid as Google Maps, you should be prepared for ridicule if that maps product starts dumping people in the scorching-hot Australian bush.

    The opportunity to turn Apple’s bad press into an advertisement was apparent not lost on Samsung, who recently created one of the most timely and most clever physical advertisements you’re likely to see.

    Spotted by CNET Australia, Samsung’s ad installment on George Street in Sydney is pretty simple, yet so funny. A dirty SUV, complete with camping gear, sits next to a folding chair and a pitched tent. Beside it stand a sign that says,

    Oops, should have got a Samsung Galaxy SIII. Get navigation you can trust.

    Three points. Nothin’ but net.

    Samsung is no stranger to sharply targeting Apple with television ads, but this one is on a whole other level. Advertising as art as great joke.