Facebook allows targeting on page-created events

Facebook has added an interesting tweak to the event creation process for pages. Now, page admins can create events targeted with certain demographics, so only people within these subsets will see the event. For instance, if a restaurant wants to have a ladies’ night event, they could properly target so only women could see the event page. This capability is only for events created by a Facebook page — not a user.

A Facebook spokesperson commented on this new feature to Inside Facebook:

Pages can now target their events so that only people in the target group are eligible to see a story about the event’s creation in their News Feed. This will ensure that the people connected to a Page will only see the most relevant events in their News Feeds.

Page admins can target events with these qualifiers:

GenderRelationship statusEducational statusInterested inAgeLocationLanguage

Here’s a screenshot, courtesy of Inside Facebook reader Adam Rosenberg, who first noticed this feature:

Readers: If you regularly create events through your Facebook page, how do you feel about these targeting options?

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Guest Post: Advertisers Likely to Flock to Facebook’s New Self-Serve Targeting Feature

This is a guest post by Resolution Media Director of Client Strategy and Development George Manas.

Marketers seeking better ways to reduce waste, influence buying behavior and strengthen brand equity are likely to embrace Facebook Partner Categories. Launched on April 10, this new self-service capability puts a rich array of data-driven targeting segments at advertisers’ fingertips, helping increase the precision, relevance and effectiveness of their Facebook campaigns.

Partner Categories uniquely combines data describing both the online and offline purchasing behavior of consumers in more than 500 segments and relies on data from third-party firms Datalogix, Acxiom and Epsilon. Marketers of all sizes can benefit from Partner Categories’ easy access and no-minimum-spend requirement.

The new service is the latest in a series of targeting enhancements introduced by Facebook to improve advertisers’ results. Partner Categories likely will attract as many or more advertisers as has Facebook’s recently launched Custom Audiences program, which provides the ability to import customer data to improve targeting.

Partner Categories integrates with other targeting options within Power Editor (Facebook’s advanced self-serve platform) and is available through select paid media APIs. U.S.-based advertisers can begin using Partner Categories immediately, while advertisers based in other countries must be white-listed to use the service and may only target U.S. consumers at this time.

Although we see almost daily examples of new technology empowering the consumer’s evolution, it’s important to also acknowledge the vital impact of new advertiser services like Partner Categories, which keep marketers ahead of the curve.

Making It Work

Advertisers can leverage Partner Categories in designing Facebook buys through the Power Editor interface, selecting specific consumer segments much as they would select Facebook’s native targeting segments like Age, Gender, Broad and Precise Interests, and so forth. As with other Facebook targeting services, the advertiser only sees the size of the audience and receives no information about individuals included in a category.

To further refine targeted buying, advertisers may combine Partner Categories with native Facebook targeting filters, Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audience options. For example, an advertiser might target female yogurt buyers under age 35 by layering gender and age parameters to the “Yogurt Buyer” Partner Category segment. The ability to combine both native and third-party data gives greater depth and precision to the Facebook buy.

Partner Categories delivers three key benefits to marketers. First, it minimizes wasted spending by more precisely reaching and engaging the consumers that matter most to them, boosting cost efficiency and effectiveness.

Second, the service enables advertisers to influence buying behavior by delivering brand messages and incentives to consumers who are category buyers or in market for specific products. As such, Partner Categories can help drive purchases or influence purchase decisions.

Third, Partner Categories can build brand equity by providing advertisers with additional opportunities to drive visibility of their brands and branded content to core consumer segments at scale. Combined with Facebook’s self-serve targeting flexibility, Partner Categories enables advertisers to boost brand relevancy by delivering messages tailored to the precise purchasing behaviors of specific consumer segments.

Facebook’s Partner Categories demonstrates Facebook’s commitment to helping marketers better reach and engage the consumers who are most important to them. Advertisers can expect Partner Categories to help drive sales, build brand health, and ultimately achieve better ROI and more effective media buying.

George Manas is Director of Client Strategy and Development at Omnicom Media Group’s Resolution Media. Specializing in Search and Social Media, George helps some of the world’s most recognized brands navigate the transforming digital landscape that has become so central to today’s consumer. PepsiCo, Warner Bros, Discovery Networks, and Showtime stand among some of the brands with whom George has worked.

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Report: Facebook to match user profiles with offline purchases for ad targeting

Facebook is partnering with data vendors like Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon to allow advertisers to match data from consumer loyalty programs with user profiles in order to target ads by offline purchase habits, according to Ad Age.

The social network did not confirm the report or offer any comment, but Ad Age cited an OMD social media director who has been involved in beta tests. The news is also in line with what we have heard from sources familiar with Facebook’s advertising plans, who told us that Facebook would soon introduce new targeting options based on data from outside of the social network.

Last year Facebook began working with Datalogix to measure how Facebook ads affect in-store sales. Datalogix has information from loyalty cards and programs at more than 1,000 retailers. Facebook can then match email addresses or other information associated with those memberships with the email addresses or information associated with users’ Facebook accounts. All emails and personally identifiable information is anonymized, but the companies can compare the differences in sales among groups who saw certain Facebook ads versus those who didn’t. It makes sense that Facebook could also use the matches to create groups for ad targeting.

Many media companies, including DSPs, DMPs, agency trading desks, ad networks and exchanges, already partner with Datalogix and similar companies to target users by offline purchases in a privacy safe way. Most consumers are unaware that this goes on, but when Facebook moves into this area it is likely to face much more scrutiny. Not only is Facebook under a greater microscope, but users feel a personal connection to the service and often worry about who has access to their information and how it could be used. On the other hand, most people don’t think about browser cookies often, and they likely haven’t heard of companies like BlueKai or AppNexus, which already help advertisers target them by their online and offline behavior. Facebook will have to take extra precautions to prevent users from feeling exploited.

The social network has evolved its position on ad targeting in the past year. Instead of having advertisers target their ads only based on information users have added to their profiles, it now allows targeting by first-party data like CRM lists through Custom Audiences and cookies through Facebook Exchange. Now it seems to be letting in third-party data from vendors like Datalogix.

This trend was foreshadowed by a job listing Facebook added to its careers page in August 2012. The job description for a Product Marketing Manager, Monetization says, “Facebook is seeking an expert in data management platforms. This role will develop our plans and vision for how we can enable businesses to better reach their customers and prospects on Facebook.”

Data management platforms help advertisers organize their first party data (web analytics, CRM), second party data (from strategic partners that can match CRM records or cookies) and third party data (such as from Acxiom or Datalogix) to improve their advertising efforts. As we wrote about previously, Facebook is uniquely positioned in each of these areas, and because it can match data to a unique user profile, it has an advantage over other systems, which tend to rely on cookie matching. And with Facebook, advertisers can combine demographic, interest and other targeting to ensure they’re reaching the most relevant audience.

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Facebook updates Promoted Post targeting after page owners complain about reaching less relevant audiences

Facebook today released an update for Promoted Posts that will by default target a page owner’s ad spend to the countries where most of the page’s fans reside.

Promoted Posts are a way for page owners to reach more fans and friends of fans without having to create ads using the Facebook ad tool. Instead they can use the “promote” button directly under a page post they’ve made. Previously, Promoted Posts seemed to optimize for reach, which led to many impressions among audiences in other countries that page owners did not value as highly. Many page owners were frustrated to spend money and still not reach the fans they wanted to reach.

Facebook says it took this feedback into account and decided to focus the budget on where the majority of fans come from. This could help some pages reach more relevant audiences, however, it’s recommended that page owners select their own targeting criteria rather than relying on the default.

Page posts can be targeted to specific locations or demographics, such as age, gender, education or relationship status. Page owners must select these criteria before making a post if they want to ensure that their Promoted Posts are only seen by this audience.

It’s possible to use Facebook’s self-serve ad tool to select targeting criteria after a page post has been published, and also to add more detailed targeting parameters, such as ZIP code, interests or mobile device type. However, page owners who use the self-serve ad tool cannot control whether their ads appear in News Feed or on mobile, whereas Promoted Posts always appear in the feed, never in the sidebar. Marketers have to work with a third-party ad vendor or gain access to the Facebook Power Editor in order to create more highly targeted ads and control their placement.

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Facebook’s Rumored Read, Listened, and Watched Buttons: A Money-Making Fit With Broad Category Ad Targeting

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Facebook’s New Zip Code Ad Targeting Could Boost Local Advertising Revenue

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.

Advertising 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.

A 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]

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Sequoia-Backed Taykey Mines Trends in Real-Time to Power Cost Per Action Ad Targeting

Cost-per-action social media and search advertising service Taykey has just closed a $9 million second round of funding led by Sequoia Capital.

The company tracks social media mention and search trends in real-time to take advantage of urgent advertising opportunities and interest-based targeting parameters to power Facebook, Twitter, and search campaigns. Here’s a closer look at what it provides to advertisers on and off Facebook.

Let’s take a look at an example of an advertising campaign powered by Taykey. A singing contest television show such as X-Factor could hire Taykey for a month-long campaign on what amounts to cost per Facebook Like model, where the client pays a price per Like and sets a goal of the total Likes they want. Taykey would then monitor social networks, news, blogs, and searches for trends in the behavior and interests of the show’s target age and location demographic. It could determine what other TV shows or musical artists the audience Likes, and then run a series Facebook ad campaigns for the X-Factor Page targeted at people with those Likes.

Taykey co-founder and CEO Amit Avner tells us that “if X-Factor judge Paula Abdul falls off the stage, we’ll know in five seconds and go buy ‘Paula Abdul’ Google search keyword ads” to preempt the oncoming rush of searches for that keyword. Taykey might also purchase Twitter trending topics, or ads on Bing, Myspace, Digg in an effort to drive its own cost per Facebook fan as low as possible to make the maximum margin on the deal with X-Factor. Otherwise, X-Factor might just target 18-35 year old women, whereas Taykey would target those with interests related to the show, such as those who Like competing show American Idol.

Taykey says its patent-pending algorithm mines data from across the web, deduces keywords and sentiment, and maps the data to demographic and psychographic profiles. It then specifically targets those with the right profile, relieving brands from having to constantly discover new targets. Without using cookies or tracking of individuals, it shifts spend from one trend to the next attain the optimal CPA.

Avner explains to us that brands advertising on Facebook often target an age, gender, and location demographic that is too wide and unfocused, leading to lower conversion and rapid burnout. Taykey pinpoints the interests of these audiences to run a series of campaigns that keep conversion rates higher over time than more general campaigns. For instance, instead of targeting 18-24 year old males in New York City that Like ‘hip hop’, Taykey would determine specific artists such as “Jay-Z”, or television shows such as ’106th & Park’ to target the fans of.

The 19-employee Tel Aviv-based company was founded by three former members of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s intelligence arm, and has now secured a total of $12 million in funding. Several Fortune 100 companies have already run campaigns targeted by Taykey’s algorithm, including Pepsi, for which it attained 46,000 Likes in two days at half the projected spend.

It will use use the new round of funding, joined by Softbank Capital and Crescent Point, to hire engineers in Tel Aviv, Israel and to build out a New York sales office.

The “Related Adverts” real-time advertising system Facebook is testing that displays ads related to the content of a user’s most recent status update or wall post could be very useful to Taykey’s business. “We’d love to get in on it as soon as possible” says Avner of the beta product that doesn’t allow advertisers to choose if or which traditional interest-targeted Facebook ads are displayed in real-time.

As more brands realize the concrete value of Facebook fans, CPA ad services such as Taykey will become crucial to attaining large volumes of fans at the lowest possible price. While more well established Ads API tools and services will likely continue to manage much of the Facebook spend of the world’s biggest brands, real-time focused advertising services can complement a marketing mix by exploiting fleeting low-cost pockets of conversions.

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Facebook Tests Optional Broad Interest Category and Family Status Targeting

Facebook has made several new self-serve ad targeting options available to a test group of users, including family status such as “Parents”, “Engaged (< 6 months)”, or “Newlywed (< 1 year)”, as well as “Has birthday in < 1 week”. Those in the test group have the option to target ads to broad categories of interests, such as musical genres, types of sports, activities such as photography, and professional categories such as real estate, in addition to traditional precise interest targeting.

If the tested targeting options were fully rolled out, they could give novice advertisers easier ways to target large relevant audiences, and make Facebook a more accurate advertising channel for brands and small businesses with customers in specific life phases.

Facebook tested broad interest targeting last month, but as a replacement for precise interest targeting. While useful for those less familiar with targeting ads based on the Likes of their audience, it provided less accuracy and transparency, so we recommended Facebook test or implement broad interest targeting as on option rather than a substitute.

Now, those in the test group can click a “Switch to Broad Category Targeting” link to reveal the options in Facebook’s self-serve ad tool. Advertisers can include the audiences of as many of the broad categories as they want, and can pair them with demographic targeting such as age or relationship status. However, they can’t combine broad and precise interest targeting. In a tool tip, Facebook recommends advertisers to:

“Use Broad Category targeting to reach groups of people who share similar interests and traits, such as activities related to “Food & Dining”. These groups draw from the authentic information people have included in their profiles, allowing you to easily reach your ideal audience.”

The complete list of Broad Category targeting options can be found at the bottom of this post.

Advertisers can target sub-categories such as Music->Pop or Retail->Beauty Products rather than manually entering the Pages of several pop musicians such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and Katy Perry, or several beauty brands such as Aveda, Sephora, and Maybelline. This will help their ads reach users with more obscure Likes that advertisers might not know about but that still indicate they are the relevant audience.

It will also help them combine audiences of local branches of brands from a single region, such as Maybelline Singapore, Maybelline Philippines, and Maybelline Indonesia. It could also open opportunities for niche brands or services that might not have competitors with large Pages to target against. For instance, a company offering wine tours could combine the existing demographic targeting option “Married”  with Broad Category targeting parameters such as Interests->Beer / Wine / Spirits or Activities->Travel.

While the interest categories enhance the existing precise interest targeting options, attribute targeting offers ways to access demographics that were previously difficult to pinpoint. The new Family Status options for targeting parents with children of different ages could help advertisers of products and services such as baby food and clothing, toys for pre-teens, or even college admissions offices.

The existing “Engaged” relationship status has long been a target for wedding photographers and florists, but the “Newlywed (<1 year)” option available here could be popular with insurance and financial services providers. Bars, nightclubs, travel agencies, and big box retailers could target users with a birthday that week, while the existing option to target users on their birthday was too narrow.

Using Broad Category targeting doesn’t appear to disproportionately increase Facebook’s suggested bid price per click. For instance, an ad targeted to the estimated 408,420 US users who Like classical musician Beethoven has a bid suggestion of $2.69, while targeting to the Broad Category of Music->Classical reaches an estimated 1.7 million users for $2.46. Targeting US users who are married reaches an estimated 38.8 million people for $2.20, while targeting the Broad Category “Newlywed (< 1 year)” reaches 5.6 million people for $1.74.

Facebook has found a way to increase targeting options, and make the process simpler for new advertisers without cluttering the self-serve ad tool’s design. If rolled out, Broad Category targeting could further differentiate Facebook advertising from search advertising by leveraging its wealth of demographic and interest user data. After all, keyword targeting doesn’t work for everyone.

For more advertising strategies, including how to use Facebook’s new Sponsored Stories ad unit, check out our Facebook Marketing Bible.

CookingDancingDIY / CraftsFood & DiningGaming (Console)Gaming (Social / Online)GardeningLiterature / ReadingOutdoor Fitness ActivitiesPhotographTraveling

Birthday

Business / Technology

Personal FinanceReal EstateScience ProgrammingScience / TechnologySmall Business Owners

Family Status

Baby BoomersEngaged (< 6 months)Newlywed (< 1 year)Parents (All)Parents (child: 0-3 yrs)Parents (child: 4-12 yrs)Parents (child: 13-15 yrs)Parents (child: 16-19 yrs)

Interests

AutosBeer / Wine/ SpiritsCharity / CausesEducation / TeachingEntertainment (TV)EnvironmentHealth & WellbeingHome & GardenNewsPets (All)Pets (Cats)Pets (Dogs)Pop CultureTravel

Movie / Film

Action / AdventureAnimatedClassicComedyDramaFamilyHorrorIndependentMovie / Film (All)MusicalRomanceScience Fiction / FantasySportsSuspense / Thriller

Music

AlternativeChildren’s MusicChristian & GospelClassic RockClassicalComedyCountryDance / ElectronicHip Hop / RapJazz / BluesMetalMusic (All)PopR&B / SoulReggaeRock

Retail / Shopping

Beauty ProductsConsumer ElectronicsFashionLuxury Goods

Sports

BaseballBasketballExtreme SportsFantasy SportsFootball (American)GolfHockeyMotor Sports / NASCARSoccerSports (All)Tennis

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