Acquiring GIPHY was a smart move by Facebook – which has become “increasingly unavoidable in life online”.
But, the big question here is – What sort of further integration with the family of apps will justify this $400M acquisition?
Facebook can replicate the Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) business model – which has evolved into Alphabet’s main source of revenue.
Let’s take an example of Starbucks.
Suppose the coffee giant created a GIF to promote its new latte in a fun way. Starbucks would now head to Facebook Ads and create a pay-per-click (PPC) ad to build hype around it.
They would choose the right keywords to increase CTR (Click Through Rate), decide what location to target, attach the latte GIF, set a budget cap and go live.
Now every time users type the term ‘latte’ in the GIF search bar, Starbucks’ new GIF would surface at the very top – with the ‘sponsored’ tag.
Like Google Ads, the cost of the campaign would depend on various factors like the company’s bid (maximum amount they are willing to pay for a click on the ad), keywords and quality of the ad.
I believe FB might leverage GIPHY to build similar advertising capabilities within its products.
Photo Credits: Marketing Interactive – https://bit.ly/36okSJj
Prashant Bagga 