MySpace: We have targeted ads, too! Well, sorta
Tomorrow in New York, Facebook execs will pitch ad agencies on its SocialAds, which target users based on their activities on the site and place related ads in their news feeds. But today goes to MySpace. Or at least the next 5 minutes. Come on, 30 seconds? The News Corp.-owned social network will today formally launch "hyper targeting." Fifty advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Toyota, have already signed on to target some of MySpace's 100 million users based on the information they enter into their profiles.
Fox Interactive CTO Adam Bain told the FT that MySpace's hyper targeting will focus on user interests in subjects like film, music, finance and travel. Rather than true targeting like Google does, though, MySpace will just lump users into 100 different buckets for advertisers. We're sure "hyper targeting" sounded better than "pseudotargeting" in focus groups. Clickthrough rates are, Bain claims, 300 percent better than any previous MySpace ad product. But we want to know: 300 percent better than what? Crazy Frog ringtones?