CEO Guide to Widgets

When Facebook Ads Flop

For every marketing widget that takes off on the social network, dozens bomb. A look at why

By Rachael King

Little wonder why big brands want their messages on Facebook. What smart marketer wouldn't want to reach the more than 60 million people who spend part of their Web surfing time on the social network? But conventional ads that show up as a banner alongside a person's profile have little effect, research shows. So advertisers are turning to so-called widgets, clusters of software in the form of games, quizzes, videos, or other tools that users can download, customize, and forward.

A widget success story is Parking Wars, a game created by the A&E Television Network to promote a new reality show about parking-meter readers in Philadelphia. Within eight weeks of its introduction, Parking Wars was installed by 151,294 Facebook users and by Feb. 11 had a daily active user rate of 51,440, or almost 34%.

For every marketing widget that takes off on Facebook, dozens bomb. "With nearly 17,000 Facebook apps available, having your own app stand out is challenging," says Eric Weaver, president of marketing consultancy Brand Dialogue. Data from Adonomics, a company that tracks Facebook user patterns, shows many brand-driven widgets had daily active user rates of as little as 1% to 2% on Feb. 11, 2008.

To find out why some campaigns fail, BusinessWeek.com consulted Weaver, as well as Sarah Hofstetter, vice-president of emerging media and client strategy at digital marketing agency 360i, and David Armano, vice-president of creative at Critical Mass, an interactive services company. The slides below highlight barely used applications, when they began generating enough traffic to be measured by Adonomics, and why experts say they failed.