It's NOT a Slowdown

I've gotta get this off my chest. It's been bugging me for ten years now. If online ad spending grows X% from year to year (or quarter to quarter), and then in the next period the growth is something less than X, that's not negative news. It just means that it's growing, but not as fast as it did last quarter, year or whatever. And the failure for something to grow at a rate that is something less than last quarter is not a sign for alarm.

I don't care what industry it is. Eventually, growth has to become linear rather than exponential. You can't sustain growth in the double digits year after year and quarter after quarter. It's unrealistic for any industry. You're not measuring volume from time period to time period, you're measuring the rate at which volume accelerates from time period to time period. It's incredibly misleading.

So I wish we'd avoid treating a lack of exponential growth like it's some sort of warning shot.

Facebook Ads

I'm a bit underwhelmed by Facebook's announcement concerning its new ad programs. I mean, come on, do they really think marketers are going to do things any differently with Facebook Pages than they would with fake profiles on MySpace? A kazillion young people will friend a Wendy's hamburger page, Wendy's will pat itself on the back for being so successful, and it won't mean a damned thing. I am, however, really looking forward to seeing targeted flyers, groups and wall posts blown out. I mean, I was messing with the Facebook Flyers interface the other day, and I got really excited by being able to target people in New York who have "media" or "advertising" in their profile. But what I really wanted to do wasn't yet a capability. I want to be able to target job ads to people who say they work at Digitas or Universal McCann or any of the agencies in New York, or who have worked there at one time. I want to be able to target any interest, not just ones that have critical mass. I want to be able to overlay multiple targeting criteria and have the database tell me every time how many people are in my potential universe.

I'm nervous about Beacon. Unfortunately, I think it's going to come down to perception rather than reality. It all depends on how much of a frenzy privacy advocates are going to be able to whip up about the transfer of things like purchase data, as well as, frankly, how much money the public perceives Facebook to be able to make off of it. Right or wrong, people don't like it when others make money from their information.

I like the concept behind social ads, as long as the targeting criteria drill down far enough. Again, it's all about letting marketers set their targeting criteria, and not about herding them into "buckets."

Facebook Flyers?

I'm interested to know if any readers have used Facebook Flyers. Yesterday, I tried to use the product to get out the word on some job positions we're looking to fill here. Aside from some snags with underscoremarketing.com not fitting on one line, the ad was looking cool. Then I got to the payment page and discovered they didn't take American Express, so I bailed. I don't think we have a company Mastercard or Visa, but if I think the results will kick ass, I might fund it personally and get reimbursed by the company.

Any success stories?

I like the ability to target ads via profile information on the CPC product. I think that can go a long way toward getting the right target audience.

Another Productive Weekend

Saturday was a bust with the weather and all, but Sunday was pretty productive. I still have my work cut out for me in the spring, with plenty of brickwork to do and some more trees and stumps to take out. But there are still some small things that can be done while we're still getting sunny days. I ran to Home Depot in the morning and picked up a bunch of 2x4s and some rafter hangers. I could have used a bud to help, but I did get to run some new rafters in the garage, and I put two 4x8 sheets of plywood up with a gap between them so I can put stuff up. All the space is already spoken for - I put my spare quad tires up, as well as the fake Christmas tree, some spare luggage and other crap taking up space on my garage floor.

I also nuked the bushes in the front of my house under the window. For some reason, flies were attracted to these strange holly bushes we had growing out front. I tied chains to them and yanked them out with my pickup truck.

With the rest of my spare time, I put a new spark plug in my quad and let it run for a while to charge the battery. I was going to change the oil, but I discovered that the gallon container of what I thought was engine oil was actually premix. I suspect that Craig might have my engine oil and I might have his premix for some reason. Maybe they got mixed up on the last quad trip.

If the weather remains warm, I might transplant an arborvitae from the front bed and put it next to the new fence in my side yard.