Hey friends. Just observed some pretty intelligent marketing by JobsinSocial.com, although you might call it risque.

You know those Facebook ads on the side of your profile everyday? Mine are always related to social media marketing. Check out the four ads that loaded tonight:

Which one of those ads attracted your attention first? And why? I’m guessing the top image.

Sex Sells

It’s an age old saying that ‘sex sells’, and it couldn’t be more obvious than in this line up. Jobs in Social has no reason to use this image in their marketing, and it has nothing to do with their product offering. But they do understand the speed of social media and the need to attract attention quickly. Every time a consumer clicks on an item on Facebook, these ads re-load. Jobs in Social knew they would have to have an image that would catch the consumer’s eye, and encourage him or her to click through to their website. They went with the sex appeal of this photo.

Amateur Photos Work Best

But that’s not all. This is not a professional photo. It’s not staged, and it looks like what we’re used to seeing on Facebook: amateur photos. When advertisements looks natural, we are less likely to ignore them, because it doesn’t scream Ad! (source)

Overall, I say Jobs in Social is achieving one thing: attention. But not much more. I clicked through the ad, found out the content wasn’t relevant to me, and clicked away immediately. What does this look like on their ad stats? A click-thru. Which is ‘success’ according to common online measurements. But was it really successful? You be the judge.