Facebook has quietly rolled out a new service to major mobile marketers which the social network says better measures the efficacy of their wireless provider ads. The move is the social networks newest attempt to showcase how advertising on the platform can lead to high-yield real-world returns.
Facebook began testing the new platform over the past year. The system analyzes a users’ mobile phones and wireless provider to see who switches handsets or carriers after looking at specific carrier-based and mobile handset-based ads.
The new system will roll out to telecom industry advertisers in nine more countries this week and Facebook hopes to broaden those efforts to 25 countries by end of year.
The move allows Facebook to broaden its advertising efforts by focusing on a very specific and large segment of industry. If the program is a sweeping success the platform could ultimately end up in other highly targeted demographics.
Facebook has been endlessly working to improve its data mining capabilities. In October the social network joined forces with Datalogix to show marketers of consumer packaged goods how their Facebook campaigns lead to in-store retail sales.
The move towards a telecom focused initiative makes sense since that industry is the third largest advertising brand initiative in the country. Telecom is only surpassed by retail and consumer packaged goods.
Along with telling advertisers when a user changes phone models or wireless providers the system also offers other insights. Brad Smallwood, who oversees Facebook’s measurements and insights group tells Reuters:
“We have the ability to understand how the ads actually influenced the device that somebody had, and all that data sits within Facebook.”
The service is being used by AT&T Mobility and two other US carriers at the moment.
Allowing advertisers to better manage their return on invest (ROI) for ads should allow Facebook to charge a premium for services that work as advertised. The new service will also provide Facebook with the ammunition it needs to sell more ads when they are proven successful.
A users personal data is hidden from advertisers during the entire analytics process.
With Facebook shares up 70 percent year-over-year this new initiative seems to be proving once again that Facebook’s future profits are anything but dead in the water.
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