Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
| Posted: 05 Sep 2012 04:44 PM PDT
The feature allows companies to target ads to users by email, phone number or user ID if those users have previous opted into providing that information to the advertiser. For example, an online retailer would have a list of customer email addresses and developers would have UIDs for people who use their apps. The idea is to give companies like these an opportunity to reach their existing customers and leads through Facebook rather than increasingly less effective channels such as email. Businesses that set up Facebook pages often have a difficult time finding an audience to follow them there. Most people won’t “Like” a Facebook page unless they actually like the entity the page represents. Marketers have found ways to get users to do this anyway, for example, through fan-gated promotions or “Click Like if you agree” calls to action in ads. But these fans might not end up being valuable.
Now with custom audience targeting, companies can reach the people who are most likely to respond to their ads: those who have already connected with them in other channels. Advertisers can layer on demographic, interest or other targeting options to serve more relevant messages to different groups within their databases. Facebook says a financial services company involved in the beta doubled its fan base in two weeks, with a lower cost-per-fan than previous campaigns. Once a company has converted its email or phone number list into fans of its Facebook page, it can continue to remarket to users through organic and promoted posts that get seen in News Feed.
How it worksAdvertisers working with a Facebook ad rep will have access to custom audience targeting in Power Editor next to the Page Posts tab. If the option is not there now, they may have to request it from their partner at Facebook. Those who do not have managed accounts will not be able to use this feature yet.
Just as with other Facebook ads, the estimated reach can not be fewer than 20 users, so a company will not be able to serve ads to an individual user by email address, phone number or user ID. Some users have added backup email addresses to Facebook or listed a number of addresses on their profile over the years. Facebook will try to find a match among any of these. We imagine part of the reason why the social network hid users’ email addresses from Timeline earlier this year was to prevent people from scraping this data and using it for ad targeting. After the advertiser’s and Facebook’s hashed data is compared, ads will be targeted to matches that fit the advertiser’s overall targeting criteria. Advertisers will be able to see what percentage of their audience they reached, but if they want to run additional campaigns, they’ll have to upload and hash their data again since it is discarded each time for security.
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| Posted: 05 Sep 2012 11:23 AM PDT
The social network began upgrading mobile fan pages in July, but the process has been gradual. Our own accounts were updated this weekend. Page owners — especially those running mobile Sponsored Story campaigns – will appreciate that the mobile experience is coming up to par with the desktop version, though many might be disappointed that their third-party tab applications are still not available. Here are the key features that appear on updated mobile pages across iOS and Android. Cover photo and more infoSimilar to user profiles, mobile pages now include cover photos and info boxes. This additional context is likely to help convert users who see mobile Sponsored Stories to Like or interact with the page. Screenshots of the previous version of mobile Facebook pages are available here.
Page owners should be aware that designs that work on desktop may not work on mobile devices.
Native Facebook tabsNow in addition to info and photos, mobile pages display native Facebook tabs for events, locations and Likes. Custom tabs that pages build or buy are not accessible from mobile. Like on personal Timelines, users can swipe to the left to see more tabs if pages have more than three.
Social modulesUsers are now able to quickly see how their friends are connected to a page, whether through Likes, check-ins, page activity or things they’ve mentioned in personal posts. Previously, users could see some social activity on place pages, but now this is available for any fan page. And rather than being in a separate tab, it is in-line with Timeline.
On artist pages, users can see which songs are most popular and then click on them to play the songs through the Spotify app. This feature was brought to desktop in June.
Place recommendations, which used to be in a separate tab, have also been brought in-line with Timeline.
Pinned PostsUsers with the updated mobile page layout will also be able to see pinned posts. Previously, posts on mobile were in reverse chronological order. Now when a page owner designates a post to appear first on desktop, that will also appear first on mobile. This is especially important for pages running mobile Sponsored Stories so that users who visit the page for the first time see the most relevant post first.
Admin featuresPage owners with the new layout can now view the activity log and see which voice they are publishing from: theirs or the page’s. However, there doesn’t seem to be a way to switch voices from the mobile app like there is on desktop.
The activity log is useful for seeing the most recent fan activity and being able to quickly scroll back and find an action that happened years ago. There is an option to delete any activity from this section of the app.
Have you discovered other new features for pages on mobile? Let us know in the comments or send screenshots to mail [at] insidefacebook [dot] com. |
Power Editor users with managed accounts will be able to use the Facebook’s new 
Strategic marketers run page-Like campaigns targeted to users who are most likely to already like their business, though that isn’t always easy, even with Facebook’s extensive demographic and interest targeting options. For example, an insurance company might have a general idea who to target, but the parameters are likely to be so broad that millions of impressions are wasted on users who won’t convert to fans. Even a consumer product can struggle. A user who Likes one beverage brand on Facebook might strongly dislike their competitor, so targeting those interests might not be effective.
As for user ID targeting, this is ideal for app developers. Developers have long been able to target ads to users who had connected to their apps, but this can be too broad in some cases. There are options to target users by custom actions they’ve taken in an app, but only if the app has integrated Open Graph. Now developers can segment their users and create custom audiences for more or less engaged users. Then they can deliver the right marketing message to get them back in the app or to try a new one. Facebook tells us that a developer in the beta saw 2-3x the ROI it usually gets with re-engagement campaigns.
Marketers can upload CSV or TXT files to Facebook, which hashes the data so users’ identities and information are protected. Facebook then runs this list against its own hashed database to find matches that can be targeted with ads. When this is done, the data is discarded, neither side collects more information about users. Hashed data cannot be decrypted.
Facebook continues to roll out the Timeline design to fan pages on mobile devices, and now we’ve gotten a full look at what’s available. Updated mobile pages include most native Facebook features that are available on desktop: cover photo, friend activity, pinned posts, store locator, events, popular songs and more.
Place pages include additional information, such as whether the location is open, as well as a button to call the business.
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