Facebook is stepping up its pursuit of TV ad dollars by highlighting the "diminishing returns" of TV advertising. It's moving away from likes and into conversions. It's all about the buy.
Facebook client partner Phil Bonanno told delegates at the advertising, marketing and media summit in Melbourne yesterday that while TV advertising remained an "important component" of brand marketing, it was a question of "diminishing returns" once a viewer had seen the same ad many times.
He also noted the scarcity of genuine prime-time inventory. Facebook, he suggested was "prime-time all the time". Bonnano backed the claim with statistics that suggested 88% of 24-49 year olds in Australia checked Facebook while watching TV and that Facebook users on average check Facebook on their mobile phones 14 times a day.
"It's about weighting inventory to reach the right people and achieve the right outcome," said Bonnano, claiming that Facebook reach (based on Nielsen OCR) for narrowly targeted campaigns was 91%. "I've run dozens of campaigns and it has never come in under 92%".
Facebook was becoming "increasingly obsessed with measurement around reach, brand resonance and reaction," he said. "What did I get someone to do? There is no line action on any P&L that says 'likes'."
With the company going mobile first, he said advertisers needed to think about moving away from right hand side ad slots on web pages. "There is no right hand side on mobile, newsfeed is where you want to be."
While there is much debate around how much is too much advertising for Facebook users - http://www.adnews.com.au/adnews/facebook-our-users-can-take-more-ads-truckloads-more - and it had been reported that Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly delayed the launch of video ads for fear of annoying users, Bonnano said it was a question of good creative and context.
"Good creative on Facebook? It's just good creative. Everything in newsfeed has a voice, whether its a friend or The Economist. So for brands, the question is what is your voice and why are you in my newsfeed?"
For brands asking themselves whether Facebook is delivering results, Bonanno said there would be a "huge focus" on whether customers went on to make a purchase, or at least take action, "over the next six months". The firm last week announced a new update to its ad platform detailing how advertisers could choose their objective and measure the results.
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