Candice Kilpatrick couldn’t help but laugh when she came across a novelty item on Amazon.com: a latex horse’s head with a bushy mane.
Knowing her friends would get a kick out of the mask too, she shared the link on Facebook.
Soon her friends began seeing an update from Kilpatrick on their Facebook pages that appeared as if Kilpatrick was encouraging them to buy the mask: “Good news everyone. These are 40 percent off today.”
But Kilpatrick had not posted it. Facebook had turned the link into a personal endorsement called a “sponsored story” paid for by Amazon.
“I was at the top of all of my 900-plus friends’ Facebook feeds for several weeks promoting this horse mask,” said Kilpatrick, a digital strategist from New York. “I am not comfortable with it.”
Like it or not, Kilpatrick and her friends will have to get used to it.
Any time someone “likes” or links to a product on Facebook, there’s a chance Facebook will put that person’s name and face in an ad endorsing the product.
More of these ads are flooding the Web as companies look to exploit what has long been so effective in the offline world: a personal recommendation from a friend.
Already when users click Google’s “(plus) 1” button, that endorsement can appear in an ad.
Google has announced that it also plans to expand the program next month and turn reviews, ratings and comments from users ages 18 and older into endorsements.
So if a user gives a Maroon 5 song five stars in the Google Play store or comments on the crunchy crust at that new pizza joint on Google Plus, the glowing review may find its way into an ad that the user’s friends see across the Web.
It’s part of the uneasy deal that consumers strike with social networks. In return for a free service, Facebook, Google and other companies collect reams of data from users for targeted advertising.
Social endorsement ads are one way these companies are boosting sales.
“What companies like Facebook and Google recognize is that the power of the personal recommendation is really huge,” EMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.
Web companies say the ads are more relevant and less annoying than some other more traditional forms of online advertising such as banner ads.
A survey conducted earlier this year by Nielsen found that 84 percent of Internet users around the world trust recommendations from people they know.
After seeing a friend “like” a product on social media, 29 percent of U.S. Internet users check out the product, 14 percent visit the product’s website, 11 percent visit the product’s social media page and 5 percent “like” the product, according to research from Adobe Systems.
But many advertisers aren’t completely sold on these endorsement ads – and with good reason, said Woodrow Hartzog, a professor at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala.
Too often a “like” or a “(plus) 1” is taken out of context. People “like” or “(plus) 1” products for different reasons. Many people do so to enter contests or get a coupon or other goodies.
“That action doesn’t necessarily mean ‘I approve this product,’ “ Hartzog said. “It can mean a lot of different things.”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology marketing professor Catherine Tucker says Google’s new approach – turning reviews and ratings into endorsements – will be a more meaningful personal endorsement than “low involvement” actions such as clicking a “(plus) 1” or “like” button.
Still, many users say they don’t think it’s fair that their name and likeness are being used without their consent or compensation.
“They are making me (into) a product they sell,” said Los Angeles marketing strategist Stephanie Piche, who opted out of Google’s “shared endorsements” program. “Do I like it? No.”
Bloggers who get paid to endorse products and actors whose livelihood is their name and likeness are some of those complaining the loudest. They don’t see why the proceeds from these ads are lining the coffers of Facebook and Google, not their own pockets.
“It could potentially hurt my income,” said Lise Dominique, a voice-over actor from Chicago.
Jonah Berger, author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” and a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, says people trust friends more than they trust ads. Word of mouth tends to be 10 times more effective than traditional advertising, he said.
“We know that when friends endorse something, it’s likely they mean it,” Berger said.
Knowing her friends would get a kick out of the mask too, she shared the link on Facebook.
Soon her friends began seeing an update from Kilpatrick on their Facebook pages that appeared as if Kilpatrick was encouraging them to buy the mask: “Good news everyone. These are 40 percent off today.”
But Kilpatrick had not posted it. Facebook had turned the link into a personal endorsement called a “sponsored story” paid for by Amazon.
“I was at the top of all of my 900-plus friends’ Facebook feeds for several weeks promoting this horse mask,” said Kilpatrick, a digital strategist from New York. “I am not comfortable with it.”
Like it or not, Kilpatrick and her friends will have to get used to it.
Any time someone “likes” or links to a product on Facebook, there’s a chance Facebook will put that person’s name and face in an ad endorsing the product.
More of these ads are flooding the Web as companies look to exploit what has long been so effective in the offline world: a personal recommendation from a friend.
Already when users click Google’s “(plus) 1” button, that endorsement can appear in an ad.
Google has announced that it also plans to expand the program next month and turn reviews, ratings and comments from users ages 18 and older into endorsements.
So if a user gives a Maroon 5 song five stars in the Google Play store or comments on the crunchy crust at that new pizza joint on Google Plus, the glowing review may find its way into an ad that the user’s friends see across the Web.
It’s part of the uneasy deal that consumers strike with social networks. In return for a free service, Facebook, Google and other companies collect reams of data from users for targeted advertising.
Social endorsement ads are one way these companies are boosting sales.
“What companies like Facebook and Google recognize is that the power of the personal recommendation is really huge,” EMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.
Web companies say the ads are more relevant and less annoying than some other more traditional forms of online advertising such as banner ads.
A survey conducted earlier this year by Nielsen found that 84 percent of Internet users around the world trust recommendations from people they know.
After seeing a friend “like” a product on social media, 29 percent of U.S. Internet users check out the product, 14 percent visit the product’s website, 11 percent visit the product’s social media page and 5 percent “like” the product, according to research from Adobe Systems.
But many advertisers aren’t completely sold on these endorsement ads – and with good reason, said Woodrow Hartzog, a professor at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala.
Too often a “like” or a “(plus) 1” is taken out of context. People “like” or “(plus) 1” products for different reasons. Many people do so to enter contests or get a coupon or other goodies.
“That action doesn’t necessarily mean ‘I approve this product,’ “ Hartzog said. “It can mean a lot of different things.”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology marketing professor Catherine Tucker says Google’s new approach – turning reviews and ratings into endorsements – will be a more meaningful personal endorsement than “low involvement” actions such as clicking a “(plus) 1” or “like” button.
Still, many users say they don’t think it’s fair that their name and likeness are being used without their consent or compensation.
“They are making me (into) a product they sell,” said Los Angeles marketing strategist Stephanie Piche, who opted out of Google’s “shared endorsements” program. “Do I like it? No.”
Bloggers who get paid to endorse products and actors whose livelihood is their name and likeness are some of those complaining the loudest. They don’t see why the proceeds from these ads are lining the coffers of Facebook and Google, not their own pockets.
“It could potentially hurt my income,” said Lise Dominique, a voice-over actor from Chicago.
Jonah Berger, author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” and a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, says people trust friends more than they trust ads. Word of mouth tends to be 10 times more effective than traditional advertising, he said.
“We know that when friends endorse something, it’s likely they mean it,” Berger said.