Magpie has been on the Twitter scene for several weeks now, but I’m just finally getting around to discussing them here. Simply stated, Magpie is a network that matches advertisers’ messages with willing Twitter users.
How It Works
- Advertisers create campaigns providing a message and some keywords.
- Matching Twitter users are selected, costs are calculated based on # of followers and hotness of the topic.
- Ads will be blended into the message stream at a rate determined by the user.
Community Feedback
The Twitter community has been talking about Magpie with fervent opinions on both sides (take the Twittrratr stats lightly, as this is a good example of where their algorithm hasn’t quite yet been perfected). The blogs have also been abuzz, with great opinions and evaluations from thought-leaders in the industry:
- Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) concludes that Magpie’s advertising system is self-diminishing,
- Cory O’Brien (@CoryOBrien) lays out why Magpie has failed as an ad network
- Kerry-Ann Gilowey (@kerry_anne) says, “Magpie is a noisy bird“
- Rick Turoczy (@turoczy) maintains he’ll keep posting annoying content on his own, for free
- Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) started a huge discussion about Magpie on FriendFeed
Interestingly enough, the last comment on Scoble’s FriendFeed discussion is from Magpie’s CEO, Jan Schulz-Hofen (yeah).
Thanks, Robert for starting the discussion. These are very intersting views, positive and negative. Thank you all for the feedback. We’ve silently introduced a number of changes to Magpie yesterday to give tweeps more control over their magpie-tweets. You can now hand-select ads, put up your own disclaimer (other than #magpie) and control the tweet/ad-ratio better. I’m looking forward to reading your blog post and to getting more feedback in the comments. Thanks again. (I’m the CEO of Magpie & Friends Ltd.)
It’s difficult for me to pass a thumbs-down judgement on Magpie, as I feel they have come up with a unique way to advertise on Twitter. Many have been put off by the amount of Magpie ads flowing into their timeline as a result of the people that they are following, but I see that as the ad-publishing user’s problem, and not a problem for Magpie.
Magpie Tips for Users Considering the Service
Tweak Your Frequency
If an individual user were to get a lot of feedback from their followers, it’s easy for them to tweak the Magpie tweet/ad ratio. Magpie confirmed “you can customize the tweet/ad-ratio. Find your sweet spot: annoyance vs. earnings.”
Also, Magpie makes it possible to disable ads temporarily without removing your account from the network. This could be convenient if there are certain periods of time where you don’t want advertiser tweets breaking into your stream, like when live tweeting an event.
Whatever your ratio may be, Magpie will try to find a matching ad and tweet it per your preferences. However, just because you have signed up and set a ratio doesn’t mean an ad will always be served. Magpie notes, “Ad delivery depends on availability. Setting a low ratio (20 tweets/1 ad) doesn’t guarantee a matching ad at every round.”
Since joining the service over a month ago at the 20 tweets/1 ad ratio, I’ve only had five Magpie ads published on my behalf.
Adjust the Label on Your Ads
Magpie ads were first introduced with the #magpie hashtag at the end of the tweets, but since then have been moved to preface the tweet. Now, Magpie lets the user decide where the label will go (before, after, not at all) and what the label will say (up to 10 characters).
Serve Relevant Ads with Improved Matching Algorithms
Although Magpie had some difficulty with their matching algorithm in the begging, I’ve actually seen some very well-related ads recently, including an ad published on my behalf about BlackBerry phones for sale, based on a previous tweet of mine asking about syncing email on BlackBerry phones.
As I described to Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at Hubspot, “It’s almost like wearing a brand’s t-shirt, but only briefly.” The ads don’t pop up at you over or under your screen, they don’t flash and blink or tell you to punch the monkey, they simply appear and then fall off like any other message.
Pre-Approve Ads Before They are Launched
Another new feature Magpie has included is the ability for users to pre-approve ads before they are published into their stream. If Magpie finds a matching ad for a user, they will email the ad and ask for approval before posting (if the pre-approval option is turned on). Otherwise, Magpie will post matching ads at your desired frequency.
Can’t Stand Magpie Ads? Hide Them With Scarecrow
If you’re not a participating user and you can’t stand seeing those ads in the timelines of those you follow, Stuart Robertson (@designmeme) has created a GreaseMonkey script to block Magpie, appropriately named Scarecrow, which will automatically filter those tweets from your timeline (when viewing on the web).
Listen to your Followers and Make a Decision for Yourself
The thing that has me scratching my head is why so many people are upset about ads in tweets, but they’re willing to accept them (and sometimes be beat over the head with them) in blogs. Jeremiah Owyang points out in his post that, “advertising in social media is already well accepted.” Maybe it’s because Twitter is still too new and people feel protective. Maybe it’s because Twitter has taken on a more personal sense of ownership than blogs. Whatever the reason, everyone needs to make their own decision about whether or not to include ads in their microblogging activities.
Rob is one of the founders of Microblink. His interests include how people are using microblogs and the community growing around them.
Mike writes and edits for Microblink day-in and day-out. He is known as the marketing guy and handles most of the microblogging accounts.
Mark writes development-oriented posts as well as news items. He's not afraid to dive headfirst into technical topics for the sake of the team.
I have not run any magpie ads but I did signup and was curious to try it out.
I even asked my friends on twitter who are following and the majority of them really didn’t care as long as it wasn’t more than one or so a day.
I mean with all the auto blog post tweets, good nights and hello’s, there is enough noise already that the occasional ad won’t make a difference I believe.
Then there are some people who will absolutely unfollow you if you do. I mean I think it’s up to everyone to do as they please. Ultimately those who are deadly against or for will be the loudest and most vocal. I do believe most people wouldn’t care. I know I wouldn’t; I had seen #magpie several times but it never really clicked what it was.
Magpie seems to hit a nerve with some people. Personally, I wouldn’t block someone using magpie, but I could see why some may see magpie ads as intrusive. I’m eager to see what Twitter’s monetization plans will be for next year.
I was actually disappointed to see Magpie allow users to self select how their ads are identified, or even remove the identification entirely, since I think that even if the user is pre-qualifying the ads, they need to be labeled as such, just as we expect any paid content on blogs to be labeled as paid.
At least when every Magpie tweet began with #magpie, they were easy to filter. With custom labels, automatic filtering becomes difficult if not impossible, and the ads start to blur into the conversation. When that happens, the value of Twitter starts to diminish, and it can quickly become just another medium that we stopped using because the advertisers took it over and turned it into a shell of its former self.
Cory,
I completely agree. I was disappointed to hear that they were going to allow users to basically “hide” the fact that they are sending out ads in their Tweets.
I fully expect the MagPie model to not survive in its current model, based on pricing and also on the supply and demand of the ads. Every single big Twitter user has expressed concern over the model. And while MagPie claims that they are making changes based on what the recent feedback has been, the idea of sending out ads in conversation is just something that users will be suspect about for as long as Twitter is running. It is one thing to be the person/company behind a Tweet that you send out promoting your blog, product or website..it is entirely something else having people send out messages about your company to all their followers, and paying them to do so.
What we have done at Twittad is introduce a model that is non-intrusive. Our technology allows advertisers to place a ad on the background of a users profile page. We also send out 1 Tweet announcing this sponsorship. Recently we have been running several tests and case studies on the effectiveness of advertising through Twittad, and I think everyone will be surprised at the results. These case studies will be up on our homepage next Tuesday.
Regards,
James