Are You Being Followed? Yes, Soon — By Facebook
Maybe you don’t have to go to Facebook. Maybe Facebook will come to you, thanks to the emerging method of sequential mobile advertising.
It’s seen as a way for advertisers to better control their branding message with consumers on social media.
According to a post by Richard Byrne Reilly at VentureBeat, “sequential video advertising allows marketers to place targeted video ads in front of a user when they click an ad on their mobile device. Based on what the person clicks, and what the product or message is, marketers are then able to follow up with similar video ads as they hop from one device to another.”
That sequence of targeted ads can allow marketers to build up a pitch from one video to the next — starting with a “pitch” video and ending with a “sell” video intended to close the deal.
“Video is where it’s going,” said an advertising executive who works with Facebook, but asked to remain anonymous. “With unique profile IDs, you have the ability to better sequentially target content for users as they embark on their journey through the social media funnel.”
According to Reilly, another mobile executive who works with Facebook told VentureBeat that “advertisers want to better control, and deploy, product messages. But they are content, for now, in permitting Facebook and others obtain user data to target their ads.”
Facebook currently uses a combination of in-house analytics as well as partners mapping out ad targeting.
Of course, Facebook is able to amass tremendous amounts of user data based on information contained in in its users’ profiles as well as their activity.
“That includes information on who you interact with and where you like to shop, for example,” writes Reilly. “That data is gold to advertisers, keen to take advantage of Facebook’s 1.2 billion users.”
“The writing is on the wall. Sequentially targeted ads are hugely efficient and ultimately cost effective. They have greater relevance for advertisers and better targeting,” said the second source, who has knowledge of Facebook’s mobile ad strategy.
“Anecdotally, it’s very promising. Facebook is putting a lot of effort into it,” the same source added.
Facebook’s analytics and targeting capabilities are second to none, both sources revealed.
“It’s all in the context. Facebook knows more about you than Google does. They know who you’re friends and family are, and what kind of hair gel you use. They’re saying ‘we have more information on you and we know everything,” the second source said.
There’s much more in the VentureBeat about the sequential strategy, user data, and Facebook’s future plans for video. To read it all, go here.
