15 Questions About Online Advertising by Massimo Moruzzi - HTML preview

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13. Is the Free Lunch Over?

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You bet it is!


The free lunch is absolutely over. The real value of a Facebook like is close to zero. Want to reach more of your fans? Pay. Pay to give visibility to your posts, or just buy ads.


That’s right!


That's what this hyper-hyped social media thing will boil down to: ads. Ads against user-generated bullshit (UGB).


And the same thing is going to happen on every other social network. Pretty soon, your Instagram timeline is going to be choking full of photos of "cool" Ford Mondeos. That’s when Instagram will cut back on “organic reach”, just like Facebook did, and start charging Ford if they want reach a larger percentage of their followers. And who am I to blame them? It’s a brilliant strategy.