Facebook has introduced a new slate of tools as part of its ongoing efforts to woo advertisers from the small screen to the even smaller screen.
New tools announced Sunday include a buying metric that enables advertisers to purchase Facebook similar to the way they purchase TV commercials, as well as new optimization tools, a new video add-on for its carousel format, and the expansion of its mobile polling capabilities through a new partnership with Millward Brown Digital.
Facebook announced it now has 2.5 million active advertisers, a 25% increase from February. “With that comes a need to find tools for advertisers and agencies to deliver mobile solutions and give them a better experience that is effectively measured,” said Jake Norman, who joined Facebook’s Canadian office as head of agency development in May.
While Facebook is a Goliath in the digital ad space, with projected revenues of US$16.29 billion this year, according to eMarketer (a 41.8% increase over 2014), the company has made no secret of its desire to capture a larger share of the lucrative TV market.
“Video is something that has been part of the way that many brands have been built over time,” said Norman, explaining Facebook’s rationale for enhancing its video capabilities. “It’s amazing how quickly we’ve gone from conversations about the potential of mobile to [it becoming] a fact, and now it’s about taking advantage of that fact and catching up with how people are spending their time.”
In an attempt to demonstrate its value to TV advertisers, Facebook commissioned a study of 42 U.S. ad campaigns, releasing the findings prior to the start of Ad Week in New York.
According to the study, advertisers experienced a 19% increase in targeted reach when TV and Facebook were used in combination, compared to TV only, while incremental reach increased 37% among millennial audiences only.
Facebook also claimed its impressions were twice as likely to hit their intended audience than TV impressions, citing a Nielsen study of seven recent campaigns that found people exposed to both TV and Facebook ads demonstrated a 3.2% increase in ad recall, an 11.5% increase in brand linkage and a 22.7% increase in likeability linkage versus people exposed to TV alone.
“What agencies and marketers are looking for is a way to complement what’s happening on television, in order to reach the audience they want in the way they want,” said Norman. “With the combination of the two comes an increase in memorability, an increase in brand linkage and likeability.
The four new product announcements from Facebook include the introduction of the new “TRP” (Target Rating Point) metric, which enables advertisers and agencies to buy Facebook using the same principles of TV buying.
The company defines TRPs as the percentage of an advertiser’s target audience that will see an ad, enabling them to plan a campaign across TV and Facebook with a total TRP target in mind.
Advertisers can buy a share of TRPs directly with Facebook, using Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings system to verity Facebook’s target delivery, and its total ad system to verify the combined reach across both TV and Facebook.
“One of the challenges in mobile has been around currency,” said Norman. “[TRP addresses] the three pillars from the television language in the way that [campaigns] are planned, transacted and verified. They’re very familiar to the TV buying community. It’s a bridge between the two worlds.”
UM Canada client Hershey Canada was the first Canadian advertiser to test the TRP system, with UM’s vice-president of digital Matt Ramella describing it as a way to complement the client’s TV investment.
“This new buying method offers UM’s clients that ability to effectively plan cross-screen video campaigns with TV-comparable currency, along with verification in delivery through Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings,” he said in a statement.
In addition, Facebook announced the launch of a new brand awareness optimization tool that enables advertisers to specifically target audiences who are most likely to remember their ads.
“We’ve found that when it comes to brand awareness, it’s not just how many people you reach that matters – it’s also critical to break through and earn people’s attention,” said the company in a blog post announcing the new tools.
It also announced the introduction of video ads to its carousel format, which it said gives marketers additional options for “compelling storytelling” in users’ news feeds.
EMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said the announcements are proof that Facebook is listening and responding to the ad community, which is seeking better tools for measuring the results of advertising on the social channel.
She said the new tools could help Facebook make inroads against TV, which has remained stubbornly resolute in the face of increased competition from digital competitors.
“Digital video ad spending is growing rapidly, presenting new opportunities for Facebook,” said Williamson. “Even as digital video grows by double-digit percentages year over year, TV ad spending is still expected to increase. We are not seeing TV spending falling at the expense of digital video.”
She said the introduction of the same measurement tools used for TV will enable clients to make an “apples to apples” comparison of the two, and determine which performs better.
Facebook has 1.28 billion users worldwide – an 11.5% increase from 1.15 billion users in 2014 – according to eMarketer. The company expects Facebook to take in US$12.52 billion in global mobile ad revenues this year, a 68.7% increase over 2014 – when it captured US$7.42 billion.
