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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK
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Capital One and Facebook
September 11, 2009
Social networks now receive more UK Internet traffic than any other categories of websites. They have also become the second biggest source of traffic for other sites after search engines; but, as we’ve highlighted before, social networks send much more of their traffic to other content-driven sites rather than revenue generating transactional sites such as online retailers and travel and finance sites. Therefore we are always on the lookout for examples of companies in those industries that have successfully used social networks to pick up traffic.
A fantastic recent example of a company that has picked up a significant amount of traffic from social networks is Capital One. The financial services company has shifted a significant proportion of its marketing budget online, and one of the sites that it has been working with is Facebook. As the chart below illustrates, the social network has become a major source of UK Internet traffic for Capital One over the last 12 months. Facebook is now its second biggest source of traffic, and even overtook Google UK for one month earlier this year.
Posted by Robin Goad at 11:30 AM
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Social network websites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc…) now receive more visitors than any other category of website in the UK. Many businesses are realising the benefits of marketing on social websites. Hitwise recently published an article ab... [Read More]
Comments
Robin
The stats clearly show that something has worked well.
Are you able to tell us what that something was?
Thanks
Jon Clements
Posted by Jon Clements | September 11, 2009 03:23 PM
Robin - lovely stuff but it would be better if you could cite the agency who worked with Capital One to achieve this turn-round. I guess they didn't do it singlehandedly?
Was it just in the US or in the UK as well?
Posted by Rebecca Caroe | September 14, 2009 08:54 AM
For those of you that asked, Capital One has been doing a lot of advertsiing on Facebook. The agency that handles the work is Starcom MediaVest.
Thanks, Robin
Posted by Robin Goad | September 21, 2009 12:04 PM
Interesting article Robin.
There are two pages on Facebook relating to Capital One. Both contain several negative comments from customers about the service they've received without any response from the company.
To me this shows that although they may be picking up traffic from Social Media they're not managing this channel effectivley.
Social media may be the 'place to be' at the moment but it really does need to be activley managed for it to work. Personally I believe this example highlights the ongoing issues Brands such as Capital one face when trying to utilise Social Media.
Posted by Justin | September 29, 2009 09:14 AM
Whilst the data looks pretty, on a chart for the management team. I wonder, did the extra traffic stream drive sufficient ROI and increase conversions? I doubt it.
Posted by Dave Dewar | September 29, 2009 10:59 AM
@Justin - good point, it is increasingly important for companies to monitor their reputation on social networks and engage with any negative comments / groups.
@Dave - from what I've gathered speaking to some of the people involved, Capital One's cost per acquisition has decreased since they shifted advertising from offline to online channels. Of course, I don't know the full ROI of their Facebook advertising specifically.
Thanks for the comments - keep them coming!
Robin
Posted by Robin Goad | September 29, 2009 11:46 AM
This is very important news as it shows at least in traffic terms that Facebook can deliver the goods as well as Google. As the advertising on Facebook allows an image and more copy than Google it has benefits for branding building as well as traffic. It may even offer better value than Google as this case study on the Adhustler Blog shows.
Posted by Ian Turk | September 29, 2009 02:21 PM
Just more proof that social media is one of the main places to be right now for business.
Posted by Affiliate Marketing Tips | September 11, 2009 12:53 PM