Facebook rolls out logout page ad in Singapore with Singsale.com; experts sceptical

Media experts believe this is the first log out page ad for users in Singapore. It was only in late February at Facebook’s first annual marketing conference in New York that the company announced its plans for, Premium on Facebook. These are advertisements that will look like regular content and will be placed across peoples news feeds and log out pages. Some months back Hindustan Unilever and leading telecom company Bharti Airtel used Facebook India’s logout page to promote its brands.

Considered an equivalent of traditional banner ads, log out page ads were rumoured to cost advertisers a sweet US$700,000 per day in the United States. Facebook did not respond to emails from Campaign Asia-Pacific on the cost structure of these ads.

There are currently over 2.8 million people accessing Facebook in Singapore with a penetration of 59.5 per cent compared to the 76.5 per cent on the Internet. Facebook estimates that a third of its users log out daily, which, means that roughly 930,000 users would have seen Singsale’s campaign.

Media buying experts agree that log out page ads offer significant visibility, but they warn that because Facebook is used across multiple platforms and some people do not log out on their phones, the benefit is exaggerated. Moreover, smart phones are not suited to these ads and Singapore’s smartphone penetration is higher than most markets at 75 per cent.

“Log out page ads are experiential but brands still prefer sponsored stories and marketing on the newsfeed directly,” said Cedric Dias, digital director and head of social at Media Contact, Singapore.  

With sponsored stories, marketers publish positive messages that people post about their brand that appears on a user’s feed. 

“Log out page ads are here for now, but they can only be seen by users on desktops and laptops,” said Matt Sutton, senior director, Komli SEA.

Sponsored ads have another benefit, in that they are open to multipile advertisers with no budget constraints. As recently as August, Facebook opened up its mobile sponsored stories to Power Editor, a self-serving tool where people can create ads directly, whereas log out page ads have to be bought from Facebook.

“No doubt the log out page gives advertisers a large space but I see it being more suited for videos,” Dias added. 

Singapore is a high growth market for digital advertising. According to PwC, digital advertising will grow 18 per cent to 2016,  even as Global levels hover at 16 per cent and mature markets are at nearly 14 per cent. Meanwhile advertising in newspapers will grow just two per cent.