Facebook Is on the Right Track

Over the past 4 months, I have written many articles on what the advertising face of social networks should  look like.  While I would like to think they were reading my columns (unlikely), I am happy to see my vision of user / community targeting is where it seems Facebook is heading.  I was actually surprised at how many of the people I spoke with at Adtech not understanding the potentially gigantic platform this can be.

Let’s start with the details of their new advertising program.  First, it enables marketers to build pages and spread their message virally among their network of fans.  It also enables consumers to broadcast their purchases on retail sites to their Facebook communities.  Lastly, it provides a dashboard for marketers to see how their campaigns are doing and gain valuable intelligence about their customers and brand advocates.

The key task for marketers on Facebook will be creating unique, interesting pages with fun applications that entice users to join the group.  Marketers can then purchase SocialAds through a self-service platform.  These are banner ads or newsfeed messages targeted to demographics or profiles of people who are friends of fans of the brand. 

SocialAds can be purchased on a CPC or CPM basis.  Presumably, ad space will go to a combination of the most relevant result and the highest bidder, or in other words, the one likely to drive the highest revenue.  Marketers can track their performance and gain information about their brand advocates using “Insight,” Facebook’s dashboard.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Facebook’s new advertising program is “Project Beacon,” which allows consumers to broadcast purchases on retail sites through their newsfeed.  For example, if I buy a Canon digital camera on Amazon, my friends could see that on their newsfeed, receiving a trusted recommendation.  This could result in more sales for the brand or retail partner, which could trigger more recommendations, increasing overall volume.