Facebook Aims for Mobility, Integrated Dialogue with Robust ad Platform Changes - Todd Steinman

For several years Facebook has held f8 a developer39s conference designed to generate enthusiasm about the social networking platform Now with fMC Facebook has made an equal show of commitment to the advertising community with a marketing first event Beyond catering to the Madison Avenue crowd the event was used to announce the biggest ad platform shift for the social network todateIn a series of meetings prior to the event GroupM was provided access to the pending changes in order to better place the ad ecosystem changes into context for brands The company39s advancements will reshape the way brands interact with the platform publish content and buy mediaFacebook39s Ad Ecosystem is now comprised of three segments most impacted by the shift of Sponsored Stories moving into News Feed Marketplace Ads amp8211 NO CHANGE These will remain crafted targeted ads not pulling content from page posts and is good for brands acquiring new fans Reach Generator NEW This new ad program is always on Its reach is limited to fans of a brand39s page To Facebook this has the flavor of a loyalty program for advertisers Premium ALTERED Changes to the Premium platform give brands a new package of ads and sponsored stories It is good for campaigns with flight dates awareness and offers Premium will give brands the ability to target fans friends of fans and nonfans NOTE More details on these segments can be found in the complimentary document Facebook Ad Ecosystem ExplainedThe structuring of its new ad platform is the notable shift from Facebook in its effort to monetize the social network by way of ad delivery that compliments user habits and experience Four key themes emerged that are critical for brands that interact with Facebook mobile targeting content and loyaltyMobileMobile is the biggest story here for Facebook Todate Facebook hasn39t had ad inventory on mobile because mobile real estate has been limited to the News Feed Now that sponsored stories are moving into News Feed Facebook will open up an enormous amount of ad inventory across its 425 million and growing mobile users With more than 50 of users accessing Facebook via mobile and 57 of sharing taking place on mobile devices the monetization impact is significantTargetingPreviously brands could only earn broader News Feed distribution by delivering quality content that frequently drove high levels of engagement Even the bestmanaged brands on Facebook are not achieving high percentages of reach amongst their fans and Page Post reach on average is down to approximately 16 Reach Generator will instantly allow you to guarantee 75 reach per month This has a variety of implications Brands will have to deploy specific strategies when buying fan reach because they will be likely hitting a lessengaged fan Brands should anticipate content decay unlikes and 39hides39 to increase initially because the algorithm isn39t doing the job for them anymoreFor brands that build a sizable following via fan acquisition campaigns utilizing contests and incentives Reach Generator may prove an enabler for future engagement Historically fans acquired in this manner created an overall lower interaction rate ratio and actually drove reach percentage down Now that brands can guarantee reach and can buy Sponsored Stories to get in front of fans and friends of fans those vacant 39likes39 have newfound value and will extend the reach of the brand39s networkContentThe new Sponsored Stories and Reach Generator seriously blur the lines between paid earned and owned on the platform Brands will no longer develop ads they will produce content If done correctly brands just may achieve the coveted objective of Word of Mouth at scale through better user experienceThe value of the community manager and production resources who know how to develop and populate a superior content calendar will be on the riseLoyaltyTimeline gives brands broader opportunity but potentially a lot more upfront work Some brands will want to publish a detailed history of their company with milestones and events Timeline will also force brands to address things like PR crises that have played out on their PageTimeline will also affect tabs and apps brands currently host on their page They will be even further veiled in the favorites section and brands should consider using a 39verb39 to hit a user39s ticker or News Feed like Spotify The Washington Post and Pinterest have doneThe cost of being socialFacebook has the potential to flood the market with its new supply of ad inventory It will be interesting to see whether this drives prices down or if these highly39social39 units otherwise known as content delivers on the anticipated increased levels of engagement and ROI which would keep demand and prices up Also worth monitoring will be the costperfan CPF pricing model associated with Reach GeneratorPutting the new Ecosystem to work for a brandNow that these ad platform enhancements have been formally announced brands need to mobilize in the following ways over the next 30 days to be ready for the public launch Get your Timeline in order Brands can opt in immediately Develop a reputation management strategy for your Timeline as users add milestones Community managers will be spending more time managing Timeline Reevaluate media budget for the year because new ads are Premium only and some are sold in threemonth increments Determine how to modify existing apps to integrate actions into News Feed if applicable Mobility is a central piece of the changes for Facebook Prepare your content and media strategy to match that effort with targeted messagingFacebook is soon to be a public company and has shown the maturity of one by dramatically advancing its efforts in the marketing arena with brands The integration of Timeline for brands and the reach and Sponsored Story vehicle evolutions are significant opportunities that all brands must assess and be ready to make decisions to act on in the neartermTodd Steinman is CEO of M80 He can be reached at toddm80comRead all Todd39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Musings from GroupMCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Facebook Aims for Mobility, Integrated Dialogue with Robust ad Platform Changes - Todd Steinman

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