Facebook to offer conversion tracking and optimization through self-serve ad tool

Facebook today announced that it will offer a self-service conversion measurement feature for direct response marketers and expand the capabilities of its Optimized CPM bidding option to incorporate conversion data.

Facebook tells us marketers will be able to use its tool to generate a unique bit of code to add to any page on their website where they want to measure conversions, for example, checkout pages or registration forms. When marketers choose Optimized CPM bidding, Facebook’s system will show ads to users who are most likely to convert.

Most significantly, this new tool will be available via the self-serve Facebook ad platform, which could help a range of advertisers improve their campaigns and see more results. Some of the social network’s top advertisers have been able to work with the company to do this type of conversion tracking for about a year, if not longer. Other large advertisers work with third-party ad companies to track and optimize their campaigns for conversions. This new tool will allow conversion tracking for smaller advertisers who are using Facebook ads to drive online actions.

For Facebook, it will be important to keep the process for the advertiser very simple and provide enough education about tracking and optimized bidding. The company tried implementing a conversion tracking tool in 2010, but ended the beta less than a year later. A Facebook engineer said the test resulted in a lot of confusion among advertisers and required too much overhead to provide user support. The company says the difference now is the combination of conversion measurement and Optimized CPM.

Facebook began testing the Optimized CPM bidding option late last year. The feature allows advertisers to set their marketing goals, and then have Facebook’s system automatically serve ads in a way that achieves those goals as efficiently as possible. Some advertisers are initially skeptical of this because it means they do not control their own bids, but Facebook says it can capture the highest-value impressions for an advertiser’s goals, and the total ROI on a campaign is likely to exceed that of either a CPC or a traditional CPM campaign. Fab.com, which beta tested Optimized CPM with conversion tracking, saw 39 percent lower costs per action using this type of bidding.

Preferred Marketing Developers who offer self-serve software or managed services for Facebook advertising typically have their own conversion tracking tools that go beyond the basic functionality Facebook is making available. Optimal CEO Rob Leathern says his company and other PMDs are focused on larger enterprise customers that need advanced features like view-based conversion and engagement tracking, server-side conversion tracking and return on ad spend metrics that consider conversion values like purchase price. Still, he’s glad to see Facebook taking steps to prove the value of its ads across the board.

“This is a positive development for everyone in the ecosystem. Any movements towards more accountability and the ability to track ROI will just lead to more ad spend and more activity in the Facebook ads ecosystem, so we welcome it,” Leathern says. He added, “We also allow companies to create their own completely flexible optimization rules that refer to any Facebook-supplied metrics (e.g. likes, video views, photo views, whatever), use Facebook’s bidding optimization or combine them, so this will add additional value for our customers.”

Social Media Newsfeed: Mumbai Arrests Over Facebook Post | Amazon Posts

2 Indians Charged Over Facebook Post on Dead Politician:

Two Indian women were arrested Sunday after one criticized Mumbai authorities on Facebook for shutting down the city for the funeral of a powerful Hindu nationalist politician, and her friend clicked “like.” The 21-year-old students from Pulghar, about 40 miles north of Mumbai, made bail Monday for their opinions involving the death of 86-year-old Bal Thackeray, the controversial founder of the Hindu-centric, anti-Muslim Shiv Sena (“Shiva’s Army”). Mashable “People like Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a bandh for that,” Shaheen Dhadha wrote on her Facebook wall. NDTV reports that the Facebook post also said, “Respect is earned, not given and definitely not forced. Today Mumbai shuts down due to fear and not due to respect.” AP Clearly terrified by her arrest and the attack on her uncle’s clinic, Dhada told NDTV television she would never again make comments on a social networking site. Both women said they have deactivated their Facebook accounts. AllFacebook With Black Friday just days away, mentions on Facebook containing words related to holiday shopping are up 160 percent compared with one month ago, while mentions of Christmas are up 157 percent, according to the social network. Facebook also revealed the top 10 brands in terms of people talking about this, as well as 10 brands on the social network offering interesting applications or promotions. Inside Facebook Some Facebook users now have the option to sync their iPhone photos to a private album on the social network. This feature was previously available for the Android app but is newly being tested on iOS.

Amazon Offers ‘Amazon Pages’ For Brands to Customize with Their Own URLs, and ‘Amazon Posts’ for Social Media Marketing (TechCrunch)
Amazon is quietly pushing a service called Amazon Pages, which lets companies set up their own pages on Amazon.com as “custom destinations,” complete with www.amazon.com/brandname URLs and dynamic designs with large photos and social media links. Along with this, it is also offering Amazon Posts for companies to market themselves across Amazon and Facebook, and Amazon Analytics to measure how well all of the above is working.

President Obama’s Digital Team Shares the Secret to its Success (SocialTimes)
For the first time, members of President Barack Obama’s digital team are sharing some of the secrets behind their groundbreaking strategy, including how they happened upon the now-famous photo that was used in the most tweeted and shared Facebook post in history. A member of the usually tight-lipped crew gave her first extensive interview to the Daily Beast in which she discussed the iconic photo, the election night strategy, and how a team of four oversaw all social media accounts — including more niche platforms such as Tumblr, Pinterest and Spotify — on behalf of the president, first lady and vice president Joe Biden.


Twitter Ditches ‘Casual Friday,’ Lets Employees Do #FridayForGood Community Service (TechCrunch)
This past Friday, the Twitter apparently did some work around its New York City offices to help out Hurricane Sandy victims, as well as do some hunger drives in San Francisco. Here are some photos that the company posted on its Flickr account from its last Friday For Good day in San Francisco.

YouTube Now Lets You Link Your Channel with a Google+ Profile, and Google+ Page Support Coming Soon (The Next Web)
Google on Monday announced even more Google+ integration for YouTube that allows you to link your channel with a Google+ profile and still keep your channel name. Although the company is still pushing out the prompt to all its users, if you want to opt in right now, you can do so in your YouTube account settings.

What the Viggle-GetGlue Acquisition Means for the Battle Over the Second Screen (LostRemote)
Viggle has scooped up GetGlue, combining to form a second screen powerhouse in an increasingly competitive space. GetGlue has the bigger audience, but Viggle has the deeper pockets, a publicly-traded company founded by former American Idol exec Robert Sillerman that acquired Loyalize and quickly ramped up an aggressive team.


How to Solve the Racist-Teens-on-Twitter Problem (ReadWrite)
If the social media shaming of racist teens over the past few weeks has revealed anything conclusive, it’s this: There’s a large amount of hate speech floating around on Twitter. One reason could be that Twitter actually doesn’t have a hate speech clause in its Terms of Service.

How To Get a Twitter Username You Love (and How to Change it if You Hate it) (AllTwitter)
Setting up a Twitter account for the first time is not as simple as it seems. You’ve got to brainstorm a killer username, a label that people will know you by, one they’ll want to retweet and something with that X factor of cool.

Zynga Loses the Deal Guy Behind Lady Gaga and Snoop Marketing Stunts (AllThingsD)
After three-and-a-half years at Zynga, Jonathan Flesher, vice president of business development, has left the social games company, the latest in a string of resignations. While at Zynga, Flesher worked on a number of partnerships, including deals with Yahoo, Google+, MSN and AOL.

Facebook brings photo-syncing to iOS

Some Facebook users now have the option to sync their iPhone photos to a private album on the social network. This feature was previously available for the Android app but is newly being tested on iOS.

Photo syncing helps users save their mobile photos to the cloud and makes them easy to share on Facebook. Google has had a similar option called “Instant Upload” for Android and Google+ since it launched its own social network in 2011. Facebook replicated the feature on Android earlier this year. However, perhaps because of development challenges on iOS or because iOS users may be less familiar with the option, Facebook did not begin offering it on Apple’s operating system until now.

Photo syncing could encourage users to share more images on the social network, while also serving as backup storage for users who aren’t already saving photos to another cloud service. Facebook will store up to 2GB of photos. Google+, on the other hand, has unlimited storage. However, so far Facebook hasn’t positioned the feature as an alternative to Dropbox or Apple’s Photo Stream. Instead, it highlights that users can “get the photos in your camera roll to Facebook automatically.” This might not be appealing to users who are more distrustful of Facebook. The company tries to make it clear — using boldface and an underline — that photos stay private until users decide to share them.

Users who are in the initial test group can turn on photo syncing by visiting the photos section of the Facebook for iOS app — this is possible from a user’s own Timeline or from the bookmarks menu. Users can tap “sync” from the bottom of their screen if it is available. So as not to consume a user’s data plan, Facebook will sync photos at a smaller file size if users are on a cellular network. When users are on Wi-Fi, which does not cut into a user’s data plan, Facebook will sync larger versions of photos. Users have the choice to sync over Wi-Fi only if they wish.

More details are available from Facebook’s Help Center.

Facebook suggests upcoming events and recently released albums in News Feed

Some Facebook users are seeing stories about upcoming events and recently released albums in their News Feeds, we've found.
The new stories are similar to the “upcoming concerts” module that some users began to see last month. Now, Facebook is suggesting some non-music events, as well, based on their location, pages they Like and friends’ plans. Previously these suggestions appeared on users’ event calendars but not in the feed. Users don’t typically visit their events page very often so they were less likely to discover these options. As long as the recommendations are relevant, users may welcome seeing suggested events in News Feed.

A new music-related module highlights a recently released album by an artist that a user has listened to on Spotify. Users can click to begin streaming the album through Spotify. It is unclear whether Facebook is offering the same feature for Rdio users.

News Feed has always been a place to see stories and activities from friends and pages users have explicitly connected to, but these modules show how Facebook can use Open Graph data and other cues to generate new types of stories. We may begin to see more News Feed items like this, which do not come directly from a user’s friend but might be interesting to users. Trending articles and trending videos were an early example that seemed less personalized, but for example, Facebook could let users know about a new movie opening this weekend if the user watched a trailer for the new release or likes a similar film.

Another benefit of these types of stories that don’t come directly as the result of a user’s friend taking an action or making a post is that they lend themselves well to sponsorship. Upcoming events, recently released albums, the hypothetical movie module or other similar features could easily be options for ads in the future. If Facebook moves toward a feed with these algorithmically generated stories — as opposed to straight friend activity and page posts — new ad units will feel more native. For instance, there could be a “Happy Hour” module for bars and restaurants or “Ongoing Sales” for retailers or online stores. Businesses could pay to be featured among other organic recommendations.

For now, the upcoming events and recently released albums modules are not sponsored. Facebook is likely gauging how interested users are in seeing these types of stories by how frequently they click through.

Data visualization company SumAll raises $6M, including $500K for charity foundation:

Data visualization company SumAll today announced it raised $6 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures. The funding agreement includes $500,000 for SumAll.org, a charitable foundation established by employees of the company.

SumAll’s free service helps companies understand how their social marketing efforts have an impact on sales. Users connect their Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics, eBay, PayPal, Shopify or other social networks and payment processing accounts to SumAll. Through an interactive dashboard, they can select which data sources to compare over different time periods.

For example, a business could look at whether an influx of new fans on Facebook correlates with revenue in any way. It could see whether Facebook engagement leads to additional transactions, or if fan advocacy has more of an effect on sales from new customers or existing customers.


CEO Dane Atkinson told us in August that the company may begin to charge for access to deeper insights down the line, but he believes that people should be able to see their data for free.

The New York company previously raised $1.5 million from Battery Ventures, Wellington Partners and General Catalyst Partners in June. Battery Ventures and Wellington Partners both participated in this latest round. SumAll says it now reaches 15,000 users in over 30 countries and tracks $1.5 billion in e-commerce data.

The company’s employees donated 10 percent of their personal holding in the company to found SumAll.org, an organization that aims to “elicit change in people’s lives through data.”

Platform industry hires: Adknowledge picks up 4, Syncapse forms advisory board

This week Adknowledge announced four new hires in its social advertising division, formerly called AdParlor.

Social marketing platform Syncapse announced that it formed an advisory board with Chris Burggraeve, former CMO of AB-InBev, and Ted McConnell, EVP of Digital at the Advertising Research Foundation, as industry advisors.

Please note that due to recent changes in the way Linkedin displays hiring information we have have changed the format of our weekly new hires posts. Companies who want their new hires included in the post must contact us directly at mail (at) insidesocialgames(dot) com.

Adknowledge

Andrew Leschinsky, Senior Software Engineer – previously worked at Sharingforce and Dealfind
Jorge Khouzam, Account Manager - previously worked at Latin America Cabana de Minas – Brazil
Kimberly Le Sueur, Sales Planner – previously worked at Whiz1
Yigeng Sun, Account Manager – previously worked at Ideaca and Electronic Arts

Kit Kat, P&G, Pet Centric and others among this week this week’s PTAT gainers for product and service pages

Kit Kat is this week’s top gainer for the People Talking About This metric among product and service pages on Facebook. The page has seen huge weekly growth as it earned over one million stories across their pages.

The top 10 product and service pages saw PTAT growth between 85,211 and 1,063,923 engagements. We compile this list with our PageData tool, which tracks page growth across Facebook.

# Name People Talking About Daily Growth Weekly Growth
1  Kit Kat 1,077,156 0 +1,063,923
2  P&G 475,216 0 +224,385
3  Petcentric by Purina 444,555 +22,076 +168,847
4  Under Armour 174,580 +6,927 +151,494
5  慕妮佧 Muñeca 185,775 +87,529 +150,528
6  AXE 297,351 +26,332 +134,358
7  Amazon Kindle 179,246 -59 +132,748
8  supportstore.us 120,609 0 +114,135
9  Grandparents.com 186,302 +9,006 +97,517
10  RebelsMarket 114,207 +103 +85,211


Kit Kat is one of the brands that received early access to global pages, a new feature allowing international brand pages to maintain to a single fan page with localized experiences for users in different countries. The page’s has more than 10 million Likes, which is a sum that includes its different local pages. From Kit Kat Malaysia, Kit Kat Netherlands and Kit Kat Japan, the brand’s PTAT includes all these pages’s engagements as well. Kit Kat has largely benefit from this new feature. As more brands adjust to use this new feature, it will be interesting to see how dramatically it affects the growth of these pages.
Another page that has seen substantial engagement this week is Petcentric by Purina. Instead of heavily advertising one of their products, the page is dedicated to creating a community of pet lovers. The page draws engagement from pictures of pets with specific calls to action as well as user submitted pictures. By focusing on posting branded content instead of overtly marketing their products, Purina is able to see a more dedicated community. It is a subtle way to brand a user’s experience on Facebook.

The Inside Network Job Board: King.com, Tetris, Velocidi and more

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best social media job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms. Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at: Aarki, BrightRoll, King.com and more.

Orange telecom announces partnership with Facebook to launch social calling app

French telecommunications company Orange today announced a partnership with Facebook to offer a social calling application that will allow users to call each other via mobile or desktop.

The service, called “Party Call,” is set to launch in France in summer 2013. Although Orange is building on Facebook APIs that are available to any developer, the company has an official partnership with the social network, which could help it in marketing the service. This could also be the start to future collaboration that leads to more integrated services, similar to how Facebook works with Skype.

The social network is in a position to connect people through a single identity rather than through phone numbers, of which people can have multiple (work, home and cell) and that can change when a person moves or makes other changes in their life. Plus, there are costs and other frustrations associated with cellular plans that can be reduced by voice over IP solutions that build on Facebook’s identity layer and social graph.
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Facebook proposes data-sharing with Instagram, end to site governance voting

Facebook today proposed changes to its Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that will allow the company to share information with affiliates like Instagram and put an end to site governance voting, among other more minor changes.

New language about “affiliates” has been added to the Data Use Policy to cover Facebook’s relationship with Instagram, which it acquired this year. The proposed policy reads:

We may share information we receive with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Facebook is part of, or that become part of that group (often these companies are called affiliates). Likewise, our affiliates may share information with us as well. We and our affiliates may use shared information to help provide, understand, and improve our services and their own services.
Even though Instagram is continuing to operate under its original brand rather than Facebook’s, the company is legally considered an affiliate and the two services can share information, for instance, to personalize a user’s experience or target ads.

The company is also looking to change a policy that it believes promotes quantity over quality feedback. In 2009 Facebook decided to give users the option to review proposed policy changes and then offer a vote if more than 7,000 users comment on those changes. This led to a situation where users copy-pasted the same comment over and over to trigger a vote on policy changes earlier this year. However, not enough users ended up voting to prevent Facebook’s proposal from going through, since results are only binding if at least 30 percent of users participate. Nonetheless, the entire situation was less than ideal and so Facebook is looking to remove the voting option completely.
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Cityville 2, Instagram, MyLife.com, Gogobot, and more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps by DAU

Zynga’s CityVille 2 gained the most daily active users this week on our list of top growing apps by DAU with 91 percent gain.

The titles below grew between 100,000 and 2 million DAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering growth for apps on Facebook.

Name DAU Gain Gain %
1. CityVille 2 4,200,000 +2,000,000  + 91%
2. Pet Rescue Saga 1,500,000 +820,000  + 121%
3. Instagram 14,600,000 +600,000  + 4%
4. Candy Crush Saga 5,700,000 +500,000  + 10%
5. FarmVille 2 8,700,000 +400,000  + 5%
6. Birthdays 6,400,000 +300,000  + 5%
7. TripAdvisor™ 3,300,000 +300,000  + 22%
8. FarmVille 2,800,000 +300,000  + 12%
9. MyLife.com 260,000 +240,000  + 1,200%
10. Horóscopo Diário 2,300,000 +200,000  + 10%
11. Microsoft Live 15,100,000 +200,000  + 1%
12. Gogobot 230,663 +160,663  + 230%
13. 21 questions 600,000 +150,000  + 33%
14. My Photos+ 260,000 +120,000  + 86%
15. Birthdays 1,000,000 +120,000  + 14%
16. Hay Day 1,200,000 +100,000  + 9%
17. Dragon City 3,800,000 +100,000  + 3%
18. Subway Surfers 1,200,000 +100,000  + 9%
19. Static HTML: iframe tabs 660,000 +100,000  + 18%
20. برجك مع مـاغـي فـرح 3,000,000 +100,000  + 3%

Report: Facebook Exchange seen as key influence on real-time bidding growth

Advertising spending through real-time bidding is expected to nearly double this year, and the maturation of the Facebook Exchange likely to be a key influence on future growth in the industry, eMarketer reports.

Real-time bidding is a form of programatic buying where advertisers bid on each ad impression as it is served. Facebook entered the RTB market in June with its Facebook Exchange. Through the exchange, approved third-party platforms (DSPs) can place retargeting ads on Facebook after users visit external websites marked with cookies.

eMarketer’s report says real-time bidding will account for 13 percent of all U.S. display advertising spending this year, more than triple its share in 2010. The overall U.S. display ad market will grow 21.5 percent to $14.98 billion compared to $12.33 billion in 2011. RTB spending grew 98 percent to an estimated $1.9 billion this year, the report says. eMarketer predicts that by 2016, U.S. RTB ad spending will reach $7.1 billion.


This bodes well for the Facebook Exchange, also known as FBX, which marketers have been speaking highly of since it launched this summer. Early partners are reporting lower costs per acquisition than on other exchanges, and many advertisers are pleased that their ads appear above the fold and on brand-safe pages, which is not always the case with other exchanges where advertisers can’t be sure where their ads are being placed or how many others they’re competing against. The Facebook environment is much more controlled.

eMarketer says there are four key influences that will determine the growth of RTB, including the maturation of FBX. Other factors include the availability of video and mobile inventory, more premium ad inventory and an demand for better transparency across all display advertising.

Facebook hires: machine learning engineer, direct response specialist, SMB growth analyst and more

Facebook removed about a dozen job listings from its careers page this week, likely after making hires in the areas of engineering, data center management, marketing and business operations.

The company also seems to have hired a new product marketing manager focused on advertising experiences.

Prior listings removed from Facebook’s careers page:

Software Engineer, Machine Learning (London)
Credit and Collections Analyst (Menlo Park)
Data Center Construction Project Manager (Luleå)
Data Center Lead (Luleå)
Site Coordinator (Luleå)
Data Center Network Technician (Luleå)
Product Marketing Manager, Advertising Experiences (Menlo Park)
Account Manager, Global Marketing Solutions (Austin)
SMB Growth Analyst (São Paulo)
Account Manager (MENA) (Dubai)
Client Partner – Denmark (Stockholm)
Business Operations Associate, Platform (Menlo Park)
Direct Response Specialist (London)

Facebook careers: investigator, executive protection leader, BI engineer, SMB growth associates, client partners, more

Facebook added 22 new positions to its careers page this week, including a number of openings on the data analysis, business intelligence, recruiting, data center operations, sales and security teams.

The company added listings for an Executive Protection Detail Leader to manage a protection program and an investigator to look into direct and implied threats to its executives.

New listings added to Facebook’s careers page:

Data Engineer (Menlo Park)
Strategic Sourcing Manager – HR and Other Services (Menlo Park)
Internal Product Manager Collaboration (Menlo Park)
Partner Manager, Latin America Preferred Marketing Developer Program (Sao Paulo) (São Paulo)
Business Intelligence Engineer (Menlo Park)
BI Engineer, Visualization & Reporting (Menlo Park)
Internal Product Manager Collaboration (Menlo Park)
Executive Protection Detail Leader (Menlo Park)
Investigator (Menlo Park)
Security Project Manager (Menlo Park)
Recruiter – Contractor (Tokyo)
Recruiter (Contractor) (São Paulo)
Data Center Network Technician – Dublin (Dublin)
Data Analyst, Content Operations (Menlo Park)
Small and Medium Business Growth Associate – Portuguese Speaker (São Paulo)
Small and Medium Business Growth Associate – Spanish Speaker (São Paulo)
Account Manager Korea (Seoul) (Seoul)
Client Partner Korea (Seoul) (Seoul)
Client Partner (Melbourne) (Sydney)
CPG/Retail Management Analyst (London)
Small and Medium Business (SMB) Analytics Associate (Singapore) (Singapore)
Data Analyst, Content Operations (Menlo Park)

Zuckerberg says building a phone ‘wouldn’t really make much sense for us to do’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on today’s investor call that building a phone “ wouldn't really make much sense for us to do,” addressing rumors that the company was working on its own mobile device.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Facebook was working with HTC to build a smartphone for release next year, citing “people with knowledge of the matter.” The article suggested Facebook is developing a modified operating system for the device.
The social network responded with the following statement:
“Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.”
Zuckerberg echoed this on the earnings call today, saying the goal is to “be as deeply integrated as possible” in mobile experiences and noting how the company worked with Apple to become part of the upcoming iOS 6. He said Facebook is working to increase depth of experience on mobile devices and build an ecosystem that other apps can build on top of.
Many have speculated over the years whether Facebook is working on its own device, possibly offering its own mobile operating system as a modified version of Android. Based on Zuckerberg’s comments today, it’s unclear how things will turn out, but it’s worth noting that HTC and Facebook collaborated last year on the HTC “ChaCha,” an Android-based phone with a dedicated Facebook button to share music, photos and messages. The company could continue this strategy and partner with a number manufacturers and mobile providers rather than limiting Facebook to its own device and system.
[Update 7/27/12 12:42 p.m. PT - The full quote from Zuckerberg, according to VentureBeat:
“We want to not just have apps that people use, but also be as deeply integrated into these systems as possible. We want to support a development ecosystem where other apps can build on top of Facebook, so that’s why you’ll see us do things like support Apple in the iOS integration that they wanted to do. There are lots of things that you can build in other operating systems as well that aren’t really like building out a whole phone, which I think wouldn’t really make much sense for us to do. So I do think that there’s a big opportunity for us here.”]

Zuckerberg tight-lipped about lack of progress on Instagram deal

It’s been over three months since Facebook announced it would buy mobile photo sharing application and social network Instagram for a combination of cash and shares worth up to $1 billion, but nothing has come of it yet. When asked about the status of the deal during today’s second quarter earnings call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s answer was short and to the point, saying as the deal hasn't closed and there has been no integration between the two companies at all.

Although the transaction was originally pegged to close during Q2, Facebook later changed its estimates to sometime in 2012. It’s likely that a Federal Trade Commission investigation of the deal — a standard procedure for acquisitions over $66 million  — has slowed down the proceedings.

The majority of deals reviewed by the FTC go through after the first, preliminary review, but until the deal is approved, the companies have to operate independently. According to the S-1 Facebook filed in advance of its initial public offering, the company has agreed to pay Instagram a $200 million termination fee if the acquisition doesn't close.

What we found interesting about Zuckerberg’s comments on the deal were the lack of positive forward-looking statements. He did not say anything about working with the company in the future, or allude to any possible integration. He also declined to provide any additional information about when the deal is expected to close, simply saying that Facebook would issue an update.

The entire deal was reportedly made over a weekend, mostly between Zuckerberg and Instagram founder Kevin Systrom alone. Surprisingly, Facebook launched its own photo filtering and sharing iOS app called Camera just over a month later.