Lookery, a startup that places ads on social apps inside social networks like Facebook and Bebo, is already offering a guaranteed ad rate, and recently went to 12.5 cents for every thousand impressions in a promotion through April. Today CEO Scott Rafer announced to European web startups and developers attending The Next Web conference in Amsterdam (and 1,000 watching live online) that Lookery is offering an even higher rate on traffic from European countries.
I caught Scott after his talk and he told me: “If firms want to work with us exclusively on the European traffic to their applications such as on Facebook and Bebo, then we can guarantee 25 cents per thousand impressions per advert. There can be one or two ads per page, so up to 50 cents. They have to commit for 90 days minimum. We’re seeking another billion impressions from this.”
As we reported in February, Lookery is really going for volume. This certainly appears to be a bold move to capture European traffic inside social networks. In the UK alone Facebook and Bebo have had huge success, and they are gradually growing in continental Europe. However, few local application developers are able to monetise right now.
(Picture: Scott Rafer (waving) with Kevin Rose and Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten of The Next Web)
Its awesome how Butcher is the only one who never capitalizes the words in the title.
This is great news for social apps developers in Europe ! (where they have been slower to pick up)
That’s robbery. what percentage is it out of total they get?
Patrick – it’s a UK/ European tradition not to capitalise the first letters in headlines. Hard habit to kick!
Wasn’t the dude on the right in “Just Shoot Me” and “Galaxy Quest?”
@3 – hey Yakov, not sure what you are trying to say. We have two distinct programs we run – one is the Guarantee rate, and the other one is the Revenue Share rate.
The guarantee rate is a set rate, for EU traffic – 25 cents CPM as Scott just announced – flat rate, and the USA rate is 12.5 cents CPM. Now the RevShare (as we refer to it) rate is a variable CPM rate, it can go higher, but than there are times it sits pretty low. Of course both rates only apply to sites or apps within the social nets at this time.
With all that being said, if you think our margins are inflated, please think again. Right now our margins are razor thin as we grow by leaps and bounds. We prefer to offer great customer service and respond to our publishers needs vs offering unsustainable rates to them.
Rex Dixon
Publisher Relations, Lookery
Correction to my last – RevShare is available for all sites, in or out of the social nets; didn’t mean that Guarantee and RevShare is for only sites in the social nets – what I meant is the Guarantee rates only apply to sites in the social nets.
so why is this a good deal or newsworthy?
@uhh Unlike most ad networks I think this is news because we’re willing to guarantee rates to publishers and it’s a public offer. We’re the first to admit that better rates might exist out there and encourage pubs to get the highest rates they can. If Lookery is the best fit for a pub, then we’re happy to work with them. And if not, then we’re more then ok with that too.
i’m about to launch a site in the uk its predominantly a social networking site. I was basing my ad rev on $3 cpm. A i way off the mark? If os can you gve me a breakdown as to wht you base your reasoning on.
no mark, you’re right, $.25 cpm is really really low
@10 Mark – MySpace eCPM ~$0.10 Facebook is supposedly near the same. While e-commerce social nets can do better, we feel that our guarantee of $0.125 and $0.25 (EU) speaks to general market rates.
Uhh ~ 12 cents, why not just use adsense? what a waste of time.