Sometimes, letting customers speak on behalf of products is a business’ best bet to building its brand. A statistic from Bazaar Voice shows that products with syndicated reviews have a 26 percent higher conversion rate than other merchandise. Now, marketers may soon have the chance to get product reviews from Facebook’s more than 500 million users to help them generate sales.
It seems some users have seen tests of new review ad formats on the site. While Facebook has made no official comments about if or when these ads will be universally available to users, site enthusiasts at AllFacebook.com report that ads boasting up to five-star user ratings have appeared on their homepages. The tested ads also feature recommendations from users’ friends who generated reviews.
This seems like the logical next step for Facebook advertisements, with its earlier released “like” feature for branded ads proving successful. An ROI Research for Performics study shows that half of all Facebook users take advantage of the “like” feature to promote brands, and several companies told the Wall Street Journal they have boosted sales from Facebook by up to 50 percent after adding Facebook “like” buttons on their ecommerce sites.
The new review formats could expand on this popular ad feature by giving consumers a chance to articulate why they like these products, which may help influence other users’ purchase decisions.
Whether the review ads come to fruition or not, incorporating Facebook into marketing campaigns is important as it seems to be consumers’ preferred social channel. Pew Research Center’s Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults report reveals that Facebook is the most commonly used online social network among adults, with 71 percent of consumers between the ages of 18 and 29, and 75 percent of consumers over 30 years old maintaining Facebook profiles.
