No matter how much we go beyond CPM and other existing metrics to bring newer measures in this social web, CTRs won’t be buried away anytime soon. It might not be critical, however, the web made out of billions of hyperlinks essentially works on clicks, and therefore it forms an important metric.
Now according to a report by a social media metrics startup, Facebook can provide CTRs as high as 6.49% through wall posts. The system however as accepted by Virtue (the startup) isn’t perfect and the methodology though sound is still based on a few assumptions.The Click throughs measured were for URLs posted into users newsfeed and wall posts by brands on through their Fan pages. (Source- Adage)
The assumptions here to arrive at a figure are two fold. For one the number of fans a page has is not an indication to measure the CTR because all fans might not be online at a given time and that vastly reduces the target base. Virtue assumes that a twelfth of the user base is always online at any given point of time.
Virtue’s CEO Reggie Bradford put a better case for this:
Mr. Bradford explained: “If a site has 100 fans and your wall post gets five clicks, that’s a 5% CTR. But if you assume only about 20% of those folks actually saw the post, it’s really a 20% click-through rate.” That’s better than the click-through rate of the average e-mail campaign, he said, and certainly better than the rate for an online ad. It also doesn’t count how many people commented on the post or said they liked it but didn’t click through.
The figure of a 6.49% CTR came through with the assumption of one twelfth of the entire US Facebook population being online at a given time. Naturally the more users that are online the CTR further reduces.
What’s interesting about this news is that Facebook’s sponsored ads have historically seen far lesser CTRs, to the tune of .2 to .4 percent in fact. This was obvious given the fact that users are highly active on the network and that meant higher page views and higher ad blindness, metrics which essentially decide the CTR percentage.
This bit of news therefore, if pursued better with better measurement systems can vouch for Facebook’s ability to engage better than online banners and ads (which have lesser ratios of clicks).
It also perhaps will provide more track worthy details for brand managers who wonder what’s the whole point of having millions of Fans on Facebook.
