How Paid Advertising Is Working on Social Media

Social-media content has recently grabbed the spotlight, as marketers figure out how to engage consumers through tweets, posts and viral videos, but what of paid advertising?

With Twitter's recent initial public offering, paid social-media advertising is back in focus. Facebook, and the experiences marketers have had with its paid ad options is one way to gauge how ads may perform on other social networks just as others are seriously starting to figure out their own paid models. This latest Advertising Age Research Report, Social Media Advertising, looks at what's worked and what hasn't when it comes to paid social-media advertising, and what marketers should be trying as they experiment on emerging platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. The reality is that beyond their stock prices, social networks will live and die by advertising. The truly remarkable development is that Facebook, in just under a year, created a network of agencies with privileged access to its data -- and granted the rights of cohabitation with that data -- and in the process is managing to move billions of impressions, drive billions in revenue and just possibly revolutionize the entire ad industry. Content sites and ad agencies -- indeed the entire media ecosystem -- should be aware of this, the biggest of big-data scenarios in action.