Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer Summit -- John Bohan

I attended the Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) Summit recently, and I thought you'd be interested in some insight into Facebook's latest direction as it relates to advertising. Of all the Facebook conferences that I have been to, this one was the most enlightening.

Without releasing any confidential information, I have listed my nine core "take aways" for brands and agencies with some insight into how to think about Facebook differently to drive your businesses forward.

9. Move Away From Social KPI's

Facebook is moving away from focusing so much on social KPI's (Likes, PTAT, etc…) and is moving toward measuring success based on KPI's you care about such as CPA, Video Views, Online Sales and Offline Sales. Socialtyze feels that the two can be work together with the goal of stimulating long-term customer relationships and sales.

8. Know Thy Customer

Currently you can retarget your customers via "Custom Audiences" (i.e., website visitors, e-mail addresses and Facebook ID's). Without question, "Custom Audiences" has been the most effective marketing method in driving sales.

What are the next steps?

Build powerful customer databases that are tied to Facebook. This can be done through App's. With authentication and the right privacy policy you can build a powerful connection to millions of customers for whom you can reach out to with relevant messages, whenever you want, based upon engagement and purchase behavior.

7. Close the Loop

By knowing and tracking your customers, you can close the loop between advertising, engagement and purchasing. You can then optimize, retarget, build loyalty and increase ROI.

6. Target People, Not Cookies

With Facebook you can target people, rather than cookies. Cookie blockers, multiple devices and users turning off cookies make cookie targeting much less reliable.

By targeting people, you can also connect and track the same person across desktop, phone and tablet.

66% of digital users access the web through multiple devices and 30% delete cookies every month.

Reach of a Narrowly Targeted Audience -

38% online

98% Facebook

(Nielsen, Aug 2013)

5. Utilize FB's Third Party Data Partners

Work with a Facebook PMD to align with third party data companies that will allow you to make the connection between your advertising and offline purchasing. In addition, create A/B testing to measure the effectiveness of your ad dollars.

4. Create & Target Look-alikes

Once you gather in-depth data on your best customers, work with a PMD to build new ones via look-alike targeting.

3. Capitalize on the Rapid Accent of Mobile

There is no question that Mobile is on fire. It now accounts for 49% of all Facebook revenue. FB's Mobile users were also up 40% to 874 MM in 3Q13 from a year prior.

What can you do?

Shape your ad strategy with mobile in mind. Focus on building and/or upgrading your mobile apps to build your databases, engage/convert customers, then measure and optimize.

2. Be Relevant

Advertising can be more about ADDING to life rather than ADVERTING customers away from what they really want to do.

Advertisers can be much more relevant in their messages. Ads need to inform, entertain and engage users. Make an effort to truly connect with customers. Use smart data tools to help you understand what your customers care about.

Use copywriters and designers that know social and rely on advice from your data partners to create the right message and optimize to constantly improve.

1. Should you double down on Facebook Advertising?

Socialtyze is very bullish on all Social Media, and we are particularly bullish on using Facebook.

Why?

For all the above reasons, and because:

"It is where you can find all the people that matter to you, where they find what matters to them."

In essence, most of your customers and potential customers are on Facebook and they are using it as a stream of information to gather updates on things happening in and around their lives, shaping their opinions on what to do, who to see and what to buy. We want our clients to be an integral part of those updates, particularly for their best and most influential customers.

In addition, by the numbers:

• Unparalleled Reach: 1.1 Billion Active Users; 750 MM Active Users Per Day
• More Time on Mobile than Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Pintrest, YouTube and Tumblr combined
• Incomparable User Data

Let me know if you would like to hear my 10th take away.

John Bohan is the CEO & Founder of Socialtyze (www.Socialtyze.com), a 5-year old SocialMarketing & Technology firm that specializes in helping top brands and agencies to assess the value of their social marketing efforts and then using data to execute relevant, innovative strategies that stimulate brand advocacy and sales.

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