Facebook pioneered social advertising: using user data for accurate delivery

According to foreign media reports, at this year's Cannes International Creative Festival, despite the large number of traditional advertising giants, but social networking site Facebook, with the rise of social advertising as the brightest star.

Just a few years ago, Facebook was nowhere in the advertising market and, according to emarketer, the market Research Institute, this year Facebook will be the largest online display advertising provider in the United States, with an annual revenue of more than $2 billion trillion.

In recent years, online advertising sales are hot, mainly online advertising can be more targeted to consumers than traditional print media and television advertising. Google and Amazon first began to analyze the user's web browsing and search behavior to the user's preferences to publish ads. Now, Facebook has brought online advertising to a new level, using a large number of user data on the social network, including user anger and friend information, to launch more targeted ads.

This "social advertising" model can be seen through a campaign launched by the current tennis racket maker head on the Facebook site. Visitors to the UK tennis superstar Murray (Andy Murray) Facebook page can see not only Murray's personal updates, but also his sponsored ads and hilarious YouTube videos.

Benefits and risks coexist

However, Facebook and other online advertising service providers are facing some risks as they develop more sophisticated ways to track users ' online behavior. Some regulators believe such tracking behavior violates user privacy, even anonymous tracking. The European Union recently made a request that the website collects user information must send the notice to the user, this caused the advertisement profession the noise.

The benefits of this social advertisement are huge: insiders and analysts in the advertising industry point out that companies are willing to put social ads at higher prices than traditional online ads because the advertising model is more effective.

"Companies are willing to invest in consumer and brand interaction," said Milkin Chickley Mykim Chikli, head of the Publicis Department, a large enterprise online advertising service. In this way, for example, you can target consumers who like golf, cars and mobile phones, and then launch ads to users. ”

Google has launched its social network Google +, the biggest in the social arena so far, and has demonstrated the current strength of Facebook in the advertising arena.

Accurate advertising Mode

The rise of social advertising shows that the internet is transforming the advertising industry. Big companies such as Nestlé and Ford, for example, are spending more and more of their advertising on the internet, reducing traditional print advertising and advertising companies.

The change has spawned a group of technology start-ups that have introduced more advanced methods of linking advertising to consumers, often through advanced data mining and analysis techniques.

RadiumOne is one of the companies that gets wind to invest in this support, by collaborating with social networking sites, blogs, and media sharing sites, the company can track users ' online social behavior and use the data to publish targeted ads.

"When you share an article, or send a link to a friend by e-mail, there is a very important connection that we will track through cookies," Gourlache Chahar Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne's chief executive, said. And then categorize the user. ”

"Social data is huge, and the advanced technologies we develop can understand the data, discover the user base in real time, and then launch the ads for them," says Chahar. ”

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world's largest advertising group, says there is still room to Martin Sorel the efficiency of online advertising. "Online advertising is more accurate than offline advertising, but it has not yet reached the most precise level," he said. ”

Wider impact

Facebook's influence extends beyond its own web site, as more and more pages allow users to log on with Facebook information without having to re-enter the password. After that, users can share content on these pages, like Facebook pages, and post messages, and Facebook allows them to get information about users to determine their preferences. Twitter also has a similar system.

Gigya, a California start-up company, provides this service to about 5,000 sites, such as ABC, sports apparel company Nike. Patrick Salyer, chief executive of Gigya, said in an interview: "Companies like Nike can get very rich data that they cannot access through other means." ”

In addition to more accurate advertising, Facebook is expanding the influence of traditional content, such as new movies and the latest smartphone. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, said: "If I have a crush on a brand, I might just tell my Lie Sandberg friends." But if I found a good brand on Facebook, I would tell 130 people on average. We believe that this is the reason why our advertising business is developing healthily. ”

This article source: Tencent Science and technology