The #RLTM Scoreboard: Social Networking Stats for the Week
| Facebook: | 901 million monthly active users | via Facebook |
| Twitter: | over 500 million users | via Twopcharts |
| Qzone: | 576 million active users | via TechCrunch |
| Sina Weibo: | over 300 million users | via Bloomberg Businessweek |
| Renren: | over 170 million users | via iResearch iUser Tracker |
| LinkedIn: | 160 million members | via LinkedIn |
| Google Plus: | 170 million “people who have upgraded” | via Google |
| Tumblr: | 60 million blogs | via Tumblr |
| Instagram: | 50 million users | via CNET |
| Tagged: | 20 million unique monthly users | via Tagged |
| Foursquare: | over 20 million users | via Foursquare |
| Pinterest: | over 11 million registered users | via Search Engine Land |
| Posterous: | 3.9 million members | via SF Gate |
Please email marissa@modernmediapartners.com if you have additional updates, or a social network that you feel should be on the list.
Facebook Mobile Ads Have Higher Click-Through Rates Than PC Ads
Facebook mobile ads are already getting more clicks than regular PC ads, according to new data from SocialCode.
Facebook’s mobile ads have only been available for a few weeks. Looking at more than 7 million Facebook impressions between June 8th and 18th for twelve SocialCode clients running fan-acquisition campaigns, this early research looked at around 242,000 mobile news-feed impressions, which generated 1,911 clicks.
The average click-through rate for Facebook ads was 0.148%, across all 5 types of ads: mobile, desktop news-feed only, desktop only (comprised mainly of right-rail ads), news-feed only (desktop and mobile) and the “control” group (uniform bids made across placements), as reported by AdAge.
The click-through rate for mobile ads was 0.79%, more than double that of desktop-only news-feed ads, with just 0.327%. However, the “click-to-like” ratio for mobile is lower than average, possibly because many clicks may happen by accident on mobile, with users hitting the keypad unintentionally.
Looking at effective CPMs, mobile ads were well above the average across all five types of ads, with $7.51 for mobile vs. the $1.62 average.
According to AdAge, these results come as no surprise. Mobile ads generally have higher click-through rates than desktop ads, and Twitter has been seeing higher engagement for mobile promoted tweets than those on desktop clients.
What do you think – are click-through rates an important metric? A recent study by Pretarget and comScore found that “ad viewability and hover time are more strongly correlated with conversions than clicks or total impressions.” In other words, it’s more important for your ad to be seen than for users to click on it.
And perhaps the most important question – will mobile ads make money for Facebook without becoming disruptive for users?
