Social Media

New Study Says Average Facebook Fan Worth $9.56

image from www.hubspot.comA new study by social-media marketing firm SocialCode puts the value of the average Facebook fan $9.56 per fan, assuming a constant cost-per-click of $1. The study looked at 5 million Facebook ads placed by  50 SocialCode clients between May and September 2011 measuring the cost of acquiring new fans and what it took to get them to perform a desired action. The study looked at 7 possible actions that might happen on or via a Facebook page :

  • app install
  • contest submission
  • contest voting
  • fan acquisition ("liking")
  • program sign-up,
  • purchase
  • sweepstakes

image from adage.com
As seen in the chart above, the rate of action-taking and fan conversions differ greatly by activity. Overall, the difference between the cost per acquisition (which was calculated by dividing the total cost of clicks by the total number of actions) for fans vs. non-fans is $9.56. Given, the loyalty of some music fans vs. the average consumer brand loyalty measured in the study, it could be argued that music fans on Facebook are worth more than $10 each.

image from adage.com

Even $9.56 is an impressive number. But it broad terms it has been born out by other studies, according to AdAge. Similar Facebook fan studies show a range from $3.60 per average fan to $136.38 over the lifetime of the relationship.

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8 Comments

  1. guys – your analysis here so so, amazingly off-mark that it hurts. like, physically, makes my brain hurt.
    these numbers do not denote what a fan is WORTH, they show how much a fan COSTS TO ACQUIRE.
    Value (per the adage article) does not in this instance mean worth.
    the REAL takeaway from the adage article is this: “According to the data, the cost-per-acquisition for a non-fan to purchase is $43.86, compared to $14.88.”
    ie: to go from non-fan to them BUYING SOMETHING costs $43.86
    &: to go from fan to BUYING SOMETHING costs $14.88

  2. Something is really messed up with this article. For example, how can you have the following:
    Fan Acquisition (“likes”):
    Non-Fan conversion rate = 19%
    Fan conversion rate = 29%
    How can a “Fan” even convert to being a “Fan” when they already are one, by definition. Either the study is flawed, or this summary of the study is flawed.

  3. Seriously? CPA = cost per acquisition. IE the OPPOSITE of the title.
    Go back to writing baseless rants from Jeff Price.

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