Social Media Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Appvertisements and How They Can Work for You

Another recent innovation in the online advertising space is appvertisements, which bridge the worlds of advertising and applications. (You get the word appvertising when you combine the first part of the word application with the last part of the word advertising.) These appvertisements are small applications (programs) that reside within social networks and tap into people’s social graphs. They provide direct entertainment or educational, social interactivity, or utilitarian value to consumers who install them.

When these appvertisements provide value, consumers are typically comfortable with the sponsored branding that comes part and parcel with them. The appvertisements are successful when they have the following attributes: emotional, engaging, social, and simple. We discuss these attributes in the sections that follow.

As you consider building and launching appvertisements on a social platform like Facebook, consider these numbers: The most popular appvertisements average 140,000 installations during their first month, according to Buddy Media Research. Users spend considerably more time interacting with these appvertisements than they do with any traditional display banner ads. These applications are extremely easy to build and can be personalized based on a user’s profile data. For more information on identifying someone to build your appvertisements, see Chapter 17. Here are the attributes that make an appvertisement successful. ...