MySpace MyAds: Target Ads to "Drinking" and "Partying"
When in doubt, follow the leader. That's what MySpace seems to be doing with the release of MySpace MyAds, a service that - on the surface - appears to have a great deal in common with another successful ad model, Google AdWords.
Like Google's ad platform, the new MySpace ad platform allows anyone to establish an account and begin targeting ads to a particular demographic. Unlike Google, however, MySpace allows users to build image-based ads on the fly. What's more, advertisers will find the targeting options get exceptionally "granular."
With MyAds, MySpace offers familiar demographics to advertisers interested in using its service. Among the targeting selections are gender, a range of ages from 14 to 65+, geographic targeting for the United States, and a series of highly targeted interests:
Unlike traditional online advertising demographics, however, the MySpace targeting includes some very MySpace-specific options, including "drinking," "partying," and professional wrestling:
And this type of granularity - providing a true view into its user base - could be the key to MySpace's success.
In fact, when announcing the private beta of the service last year, MySpace claimed that this new "hypertargeting" technology would drastically improved online advertising with results "as high as 300% over demographically tageted ads."
To date, all popular social networking sites have struggled with converting a wealth of users into a sustainable revenue stream. MySpace is no different.
Advertising seems to be the most viable means of doing that. And with the information at its disposal, perhaps no one is better positioned to provide targeted advertising than MySpace.
Will advertisers adopt this "hypertargeted" platform with the same vigor that has catapulted Google to such incredible heights? That remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, with myAds, MySpace has taken a decided step forward in attempting to drive revenue using its most valuable asset: its users.
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This is a nice move by myspace; but it continues to follow their stale old act of creating large amounts of revenue on the backs of members and their content.
myspace is easily worth at least a billion, and where is the value coming from other than members/the communities content and activities.
How much ad revenue is myspace sharing with members that generate ad revenue for them ? Are they giving anything back to the community that has put them where they are ?
I am technology consultant, and this summer I became so feed up with the share cropper mentality of sites like myspace that I decided to build an application that shares the wealth that is created with the community.
We also have a stand alone ad service and we have a granular micro revenue sharing service that allows members to share their revenue with Friends, Groups, or Causes.
And unlike myspace and the rest we will be releasing most of the service to the open source community because we know we are not the smartest guys in the room.
Smart move for MySpace, but do you think it's too late? Although user numbers are incredibly high, they are losing steam to Facebook and users are leaving because the pages are already so cluttered. I personally do not have a MySpace page and never will, I enjoy using Facebook. They will make money, but the ROI won't be nearly as much as it could have been if they instituted this system 2-3 years ago. Do you agree?
Craig
www.budgetpulse.com
This seems like a very interesting development to monitor. More than copying adwords it seems like a knockoff on Facebook's PPC engine which got some initial buzz and then died off.
I've heard of many advertisers quietly making a killing by 'hypertargeting' their demographics to FB users. If MySpace does it right it should be a significant improvement to their financial bottom line.