A few page tab apps begin to recover losses following removal of default landing tab: here’s why

With the removal of Facebook’s default landing tab feature in March, most page tab applications have seen a significant drop in users, and many people in the industry predict the end for what had been a big business.

But now, two of the biggest tab app developers are experiencing a resurgence while others watch their monthly active users flatline well below their pre-Timeline peaks.

Customizable page applications from Woobox and Thunderpenny have re-entered our AppData gainers charts after weeks of being among the biggest losers in terms of daily and monthly active users on the Facebook platform. Woobox is even seeing numbers similar to what it had in January before the launch of Timeline for pages, which is when admins lost the ability to set a default landing tab for new visitors to their page.

A recent Mashable article suggested that visits to custom tabs were down about 50 percent, which Woobox founder and CEO George DeCarlo confirms was the case for his own apps. However, the data in the Mashable article only looks at January through mid-April. An analysis using our own AppData tracking service shows that for many tabs, monthly and daily active users continued to fall sharply during April and May, but that trend hasn’t held through June and July. In most cases, traffic has leveled off, looking something like this:

For Woobox and Thunderpenny, the No. 3 and No. 5 developers on Facebook, the numbers are swinging back up.

There are a few things going on here. Page owners who thought tab apps were eliminated completely with Timeline have realized this isn’t the case and begun adding apps to their pages again. Users are becoming accustomed to the new layout and learning where to find additional content through apps. Page owners are adapting and employing better strategies to support the tab apps they implement. And clever developers are taking steps to help page owners understand best practices for apps on Timeline. Pages and developers that haven’t changed their approach have seen their numbers bottom out, as in the first graph above.

The key difference since Timeline is that now page owners have to actively promote their tab applications, whereas previously the app was the first thing new visitors saw when they came to the page. Woobox’s DeCarlo says he immediately recognized this and when Timeline launched, Woobox added a feature to give page owners a short shareable URL with a customizable image, headline and summary that would appear when the link was posted to Facebook.

Thunderpenny, another page app developer that is seeing an increase in users, has a new Tips & Tricks section that explains what page owners should do now that the default landing tab option is gone. For example, the developer recommends changing the links on a company’s website to lead to a specific tab rather than the main page. It also recommends giving the app prime placement among other tabs and using the new “pin post” option to prominently feature a status update that links to the tab.

In reviewing other custom page tab apps, such as those from Wildfire and FanRx, we did not find comparable resources to help page owners maximize engagement with tabs.

The trend we had seen pre-Timeline was that marketers were investing too much in the development of tabs, but not enough in promotion and re-engagement through News Feed. Now that Facebook has made it more difficult for pages to claim success by launching a tab alone, marketers may be more strategic about the type of experiences they create in tabs and how they bring users to them.

DeCarlo also notes that just because page apps are receiving less traffic, doesn’t mean they are less effective tools for marketers. He says Woobox drives more than 2 million Likes per day to pages using its custom fan-gated HTML tabs. Other page owners might have their own goals, such as getting email subscribers, website visitors or coupon redemptions.

It’s unclear whether Woobox and Thunderpenny’s growth trends will continue. Users increasingly access Facebook on mobile devices, where tab applications aren’t always accessible. Advertisers are also moving toward Sponsored Stories and Page Post Ads, which cannot lead to custom tabs. However, if more developers and page owners adapt to Timeline and take advantage of new options like Facebook Open Graph, we could see other tab apps rise from the lows they’ve recently reached.

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Tab applications for musicians look to innovate after Facebook removes default landing function

Companies that create tab applications for artists’ Facebook pages are employing new tactics like Open Graph integration to counter the loss of landing tabs.

Most page applications have experienced significant drops in daily and monthly active users now that Facebook removed the default landing tab option for pages with Timeline. Apps like BandPage, Band Profile, Vevo for Artists and BandRx – which allow artists to put songs, tour information and commerce functions on their pages – used to make frequent appearances on our weekly top Facebook apps lists. Now they’re some of the week’s biggest losers, according to our AppData tracking service, losing between 80,000 and 670,000 daily active users since Timeline launched for pages on Feb. 29. These numbers are expected to keep falling as more pages switch to the new design, which is mandatory starting March 30.

Some of these apps have already taken steps to maintain relevance. BandPage announced Open Graph integration that shares stories about videos users mark as favorites and concerts they mark as “want to see.”

ReverbNation, maker of Band Profile, announced a suite of new apps for specific functions. The icons for these apps take advantage of the larger thumbnails now available for tab applications. Instead of having a single app with videos, tour dates, merchandise and more, musicians can add individual apps with easy-to-identify icons that users are more likely to click on and use. (See “Play,” “Join” and “Schedule” below.)

Vevo was one of the early adopters of Open Graph on its music video website. The company also offers a tab app for artists, but for now, actions within those apps don’t translate to Timeline. Vevo could do something similar to BandPage and allow users to share their activity like watching videos, commenting and adding favorites.

It’s unclear whether these measures can attract the same level of traffic band apps saw while serving as the default tab for a page, but these Open Graph integrations could increase engagement overall. Previously, users would land on an app the first time they visited an artist’s page, but they wouldn’t necessarily return because interaction with pages typically happens in the News Feed once users become fans. But with Open Graph integration, users might take more action in an app to fill in their Timelines. This activity is also sent to Ticker and News Feed, leading friends to discover the app content and ultimately the artists’ page. We’ll keep an eye on daily active users as a percentage of monthly active users to see if engagement does increase.

Companies that make band apps and other tab applications will have to diversify their offerings now that they can’t rely on default traffic. Developing mobile-compatible experiences — like Wildfire’s recent example — and helping clients take advantage of Timeline and Open Graph seem to be steps in the right direction.

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How to Build a Customized Facebook Landing Page Using Iframes

Luxury apparel brand Lacoste has built up a Page on Facebook that has almost six million fans, and it has done so with the help of a landing page that encourages first-time visitors to immediately interact with it, either by Liking the Page or by using a branded application.

While Facebook by default sends users straight to a Page’s Wall, Lacoste provides a good example of why you should consider a more sophisticated approach to engaging users — especially because Facebook itself has recently changed the options for what you can and can’t do with Pages.

In the following article, we’ll explain the necessary steps for creating a quality custom landing page for your Page.

In March 2011 Facebook removed the Static FBML app for Facebook, which was the popular choice for building customized landing pages and other tabs in Pages. While existing tabs using the Static FBML app continue to function for now, new tabs cannot be built in this way. Instead, customized tabs on Facebook Pages need to be created as a new app via the Facebook Developers site, with your chosen content then embedded using an iframe.

Although Page owners who use Static FBML will need to adapt, the change is overall a win for the ecosystem. Whereas Static FBML pages were fully hosted on Facebook and had some limitations, you can embed any kind of web page into an iframe, giving the developer unlimited possibilities. It’s now very easy to add crowd-pleasing functionality such as images, video and tweets, as well as back-end technology such as Google Analytics for tracking usage. And, because these pages are hosted on your website, you have complete control over how everything looks and works.

You can read the full article, including a step-by-step guide to setting up customized landing Pages using iframes, in our Facebook Marketing Bible.

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