Best Place to Advertise Online in 2014?

Have you noticed more ads in your social media feeds lately? It may be something you have to get used to. Money spent on social ads is projected to reach $7.1 billion in 2014. That’s billion with a ‘b.’ It’s also projected to reach $11 billion by 2017.

Twitter has increased their ads since hitting the IPO scene, and Facebook introduces video ads to their news feed early on in 2014.

An obvious reason to why these sites are increasing advertising is easy: results. Facebook was expected to make nearly $1 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2013, and mobile Twitter users were 53 percent more likely to recall seeing an ad than average users.

But which social media site might be best for advertisers? The answer may surprise you. Right now, Pinterest may seem like the most appealing option. Why? Because Pinterest ads, so far, blend right in.

When a business has a Facebook or Twitter ad, the ads are in a designated area or, in Twitter’s case, are labeled with “sponsored tweet” somewhere in the post. Currently in Pinterest’s preliminary ad experiment, sponsored or promoted pins blend right in with the rest of the feed.

Why does this matter? What’s the longest you’ve looked at an ad on Facebook or a sponsored tweet on Twitter? Odds are, probably under five seconds. Consumers are way more likely to look a little longer at a post if they do not know right away that it is sponsored. Ads have the negative connotation of being annoying, eyesores and sometimes nagging. On Pinterest, they simply blend so well that consumers barely know they are there.

Is your business on Pinterest? Should it be? Whether your advertising on social media or not, it may be worth looking into.

Published on: January 24, 2014