Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Updates APIs, Canvas, Home Page to Improve the Games Experience
- Facebook’s New Zip Code Ad Targeting Could Boost Local Advertising Revenue
- Facebook to Migrate the Ads API to the Graph API, Releases Ads Power Editor Source Code
- Facebook Adds “More Online Friends” to Chat, Returning the Complete Buddy List
- Facebook Hires and Departures: Interns, Engineering, Account Management and More
- Facebook Careers Postings: Recruiting, IT, Dublin, Operations and More
| Facebook Updates APIs, Canvas, Home Page to Improve the Games Experience Posted: 11 Aug 2011 06:56 PM PDT Facebook posted updates to its developer blog today detailing changes to the Canvas Page, Graph APIs and bookmarking, and games stores in the news feed. The changes are designed to improve game discovery, retention, and user experience. features that better surface games stories. Home Page Changes
Facebook is also changing how game stories appear in the news feed. This could improve discovery for all Facebook users after nearly a year of non-gamers only seeing the occasional story about a friend installing a new game. “We've begun rolling out a new ranking system that better surfaces app stories to the people who will most likely to engage with it, including those who don't already use the app. Games that publish stories that receive high volumes of Likes and comments will be more likely to have their stories appear in the news feed, while those whose stories are often hidden from the feed or marked as spam will be less likely to appear. Depending on how the system is tuned, it could reduce the reliance of developers on paid marketing channels. Canvas Page ChangesAs you can see from the screenshot below, game discovery is now available through Bookmarks that appear at the top of the right-hand corner of Facebook while users are playing games. The Bookmarks with red numbers indicate apps without outstanding requests, prompting the user to click on the Bookmark for quicker re-engagement with games requests.
> Continue reading about the changes to the Canvas page, including information on the new dedicated games ticker on Inside Social Games. |
| Facebook’s New Zip Code Ad Targeting Could Boost Local Advertising Revenue Posted: 11 Aug 2011 01:49 PM PDT Facebook has made several improvements to ad targeting in its self-serve tool, including the ability for US advertisers to target specific zip codes through the self-serve tool, Ads Power Editor, and Ads API. Previously, advertisers could only geo-target ads to cities, states/provinces, and countries. This will be beneficial for small and local businesses who can now target potential customers within walking distance. The option could attract the long tail of small businesses to Facebook Ads, driving revenue growth.
Several other targeting options are also being tested, including suggestions of broad category targets based on selected precise interest keyword targets, and the ability to target a previously used strings of Liked Pages. These will make creating similar campaigns easier, and help advertisers expand their targeting to reach more users who will find their ads relevant. Driving Local Advertising RevenueAdvertising is Facebook’s main revenue source. Early on in 2009, reports indicated that local advertising made up the majority of Facebook’s ad revenue. However, the launch of the Ads API later that year, and its recent official public launch, made it much easier for big brands to run larger and more sophisticated advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, city targeting has still been an invaluable tool for restaurants, night life establishments, retail, and professionals. Local businesses owners don’t usually spend enough to be eligible for Facebook Ads API managed spend services. This forces them to use the self-serve tool, but some don’t have the expertise or resources necessary to develop social ad campaign strategies, test creative variants and targeting options, and understand analytics on the relatively young advertising channel. A June MerchantCircle report showed that 94% of local businesses are aware of Facebook Ads, though only 22% use them. This indicates that Facebook has a lot of runway to increase local advertising spend if it can improve the self-serve tool with targeting options that appeal to small businesses, and educate them on how to use these options. With the addition of zip code targeting, local advertisers have more reason than ever to spend on Facebook. Over the past few months Facebook has been showing sidebar modules asking users to confirm which of several zip codes they are closest to or live within. These may have been designed to establish a zip code for users that don’t list one so they could be accurately targeted by the new Facebook Ads feature. Using Zip Code TargetingA Facebook spokesperson has confirmed with us that “zip code targeting is now available in the US for advertisers through the Power Editor and the Ads Manager”. When advertisers create a Facebook ad campaign, they’ll see the zip code option under location targeting. They can then enter one or more zip codes to target users who live in any of those areas.
Zip code targeting will make Facebook Ads more useful to many verticals, including local politicians as Politico points out. Businesses with multiple franchises in a single city could advertise for specific branches. Businesses that have many competitors in big cities in which customers choose where to go based on what’s closest could use the tool to make sure those nearby know about them. It could also help event promoters increase attendance by drawing those that only have to travel a short distance. Facebook should consider promoting the new targeting option with Page posts and perhaps even ads on other sites to raise awareness amongst local businesses. It should combine this outreach with education that increases the likelihood of new advertisers running a successful first campaign. This could lead local advertisers to stick with Facebook Ads and boost the site’s revenue for years to come. For Facebook advertising strategies that can help you grow your Page, drive sales, and push traffic to your website, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s comprehensive guide to marketing and advertising through Facebook. [Thanks to Amit Lavi for the tip] |
| Facebook to Migrate the Ads API to the Graph API, Releases Ads Power Editor Source Code Posted: 11 Aug 2011 11:24 AM PDT Facebook today announced it would be migrating the now publicly available Ads API from the legacy REST API to the Graph API by January 2012, and that programmatic access to new features will only be available via the Graph API. Developers of Ads API tools and services that allow for efficient management of massive Facebook ad campaigns should look to migrate as soon as possible to retain access to forthcoming improvements. Facebook has also released the source code for the Ads Power Editor, its internally developed Ads API tool, to provide a development example..
The Ads API was officially launched to the public at the beginning of August after nearly two years of private beta testing with a limited set of partners. It joined the Pages and Insights APIs to form the Facebook Marketing APIs. The Ads API permits developers to devise apps that manage Facebook ads programmatically, permitting simultaneous creation of thousands of ad variants, dynamic bid optimization, and deep analytics. These functionalities are crucial to running large scale ad campaigns for brands and game developers at the lowest possible cost. The Ads API spawned a whole industry of licensable tool and managed spend service providers. We’ve reviewed the offerings of many of these companies, including those catering specifically to certain verticals such as TBG Digital for brands, AdParlor for game developers, Spruce Media for direct response advertisers, and Efficient Frontier for those also running search advertising. The migration announcement should set the development teams of these companies into high gear so they can provide their customers with the latest improvement to the Ads API, such as new Sponsored Stories ad unit types, analytics data fields, and targeting options. With single clients sometimes representing millions in ad spend, no Ads API provider would want to lose their edge to competitors that have migrated from the legacy REST API to the Graph API before the January deadline. Developers who’ve been approved to access the Ads API and have migrated to the Graph API will need users to authorize their ads apps with
By looking at the Ads Power Editor source code, developers can learn how to build basic functionality for creating campaigns, buying ads, managing bids, and reporting performance. By moving to the modern, widely used Graph API and providing example code, development of Ads API tools should become easier. This could lead to creation of more niche Ads API tools and services for specific industries. |
| Facebook Adds “More Online Friends” to Chat, Returning the Complete Buddy List Posted: 11 Aug 2011 09:08 AM PDT
Facebook redesigned its instant messaging system last month such that instead of showing the online status of all of a user’s friends, it only showed around 20 of a user’s closest or most recently interacted with friends. The only way to determine the online status of other friends was search. Some users complained, and we wrote an article discussing the merits of being able to easily Chat with all friends, even distant acquaintances. The change will allow users to quickly start conversations with the friends they Chat with most, but still be able to send Chats to the rest of their friends without conducting time consuming individual searches. The modification also shows Facebook is listening to feedback on product changes, despite some believing it ignores its users. Typically when Facebook changes its interface, a small but vocal minority denounces it and demands Facebook revert to an older version. Often it’s not so much that the functionality is worse, but that it’s different than users are accustomed to and they don’t want to adopt a new behavior pattern. But with so many users and a readily available medium for sharing their discontent, a fraction of the user base can make it seem like there is larger disapproval. Facebook has come to expect this, giving users time to adjust and looking at the actual usage data before considering whether additional changes are necessary. It famously watched hundreds of thousands of users protest the addition of the news feed to the home page, only to see it become one of the site’s most popular features. In this case, though, press criticism, analysis of the design, and possibly the data pointed to users preferring the option to see the online status of all of their friends without having to search one-by-one. Users now get the best parts of both the old design and recent redesign: prominent access to their closest friends alongside options to scroll through all their friends and search for particular ones. The re-redesign should be especially helpful for users with large numbers of friends that had many hidden from view in the previous design. It will help users reconnect with those they don’t interact with often, and make it easier to know who could be invited to an ad hoc group chat. Users may also notice a new mobile phone icon next to some friends. This indicates that person is available to chat via Facebook’s new standalone push notification-delivered group chat iPhone and Android app Facebook Messenger, or the Chat-enabled primary Facebook mobile apps like Facebook for iPhone or BlackBerry. The icon will help users determine that it may be better to send shorter, simple messages rather than links or attachments that are more difficult to consume via mobile device.
The addition of “More Online Friends” to Chat should serve to improve Facebook’s relations with its users. It could rally users to be more vocal about future redesigns in hopes of attaining a similar outcome, but at least they know Facebook isn’t deaf to the opinions of those it serves. [Thanks to Kevin Evanetski for being the first to tip us to this.] |
| Facebook Hires and Departures: Interns, Engineering, Account Management and More Posted: 11 Aug 2011 09:05 AM PDT
New hires per LinkedIn and Other Sources:
Prior listings now removed from the Facebook Careers Page:
Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry. |
| Facebook Careers Postings: Recruiting, IT, Dublin, Operations and More Posted: 11 Aug 2011 08:22 AM PDT
Posts added this week on Facebook's Careers Page:
Jobs posted by Facebook on LinkedIn:
Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry. |
Facebook has returned to showing users their complete buddy list in Chat with the addition of a “More Online Friends” section. Now users see their closest and recently interacted with friends at the top of the Chat buddy list, and can independently scroll down the Chat bar to view the online statuses of all remaining friends. Update: The change has since been 
Facebook hired interns, engineers, account managers, marketing strategists, and more, from the looks of listings removed from the company's | You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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