I’ve been pretty clear about my disdain for Facebook over the years. I found early versions of the graphical user interface (GUI) so bad that I thought Facebook would fail for the first few years of its existence.
I was, of course, wrong.
As it turns out, most of America could care less about elegant user interfaces and flocked to Facebook in droves. I’m still baffled by that — after all, the elegance of Google+ is just a click away, and yet Facebook is a monster compared to Google+.
Go figure.
But now, Facebook is doing some things in mobile that can’t be ignored.
As ADWEEK reported in a recent article, Facebook’s chief product officer showed ad buyers mock-ups of a new mobile format that could be a game-changer for marketers interested in leveraging Facebook’s dominance in mobile.
As you can see in the video below (published by Re/code), native ads that are in the newsfeed will take on a rich media format to make the ads more immersive and engaging.
Check out the video to see what I mean:
But wait, there’s more.
In addition to the rich media ads, Facebook is also testing a lead-generation-based mobile ad format that could be a game changer. This was also reported in ADWEEK (thanks, guys) and solves a major problem mobile marketers like me have had with mobile.
The best place to explain all this is by telling you about a failed mobile campaign we ran a while back.
Our marketing agency (60 Second Communications) had been hired by an international hotel chain to run a very sophisticated mobile marketing campaign.
The campaign went beyond the mobile spray and pray approach that so many people are using today. And it even went beyond the typical geo-locational campaign that many firms are claiming is the end all and be all.
We used our Mobile Mapping technology and injected data into it that allowed us to send the ads only to people who had bought hotel rooms online in the past.
In other words, instead of just sending the ads out to mobile users, or even mobile users who had visited the website before, we went a step further and targeted people that our data indicated had actually bought a hotel room online in the past.
(Side note: If you’d like to hear the full story about this, which is quite amazing, reach out to me via email. If I have the opportunity, I’ll fill you in.)
The campaign went off without a hitch, except for one thing — conversions were extremely low. In other words, our targeting and tracking worked like a charm, but our ability to convert a click to a customer fell flat.
Why?
Because no matter how good the targeting and tracking is, it’s nearly impossible to get someone to fill out a form on a mobile device.
Until now.
As you can see in the image below, Facebook is connecting the dots between their users and the information about the users that they hold in their database.
The ads allow people to sign up for newsletters, fill out forms, get price quotes, or just about anything else with just two taps of the screen.
Image courtesy of ADWEEK
This is a big deal and a major game changer for brands that struggle to get people to fill out forms on their websites via mobile. After all, it’s one thing to target the right people, and it’s another thing to get those people to click through on an ad, but if they don’t fill out the forms on the landing page, then the ads won’t generate the ROI you were hoping for.
Look to see more mobile advancements like this in the future from Facebook.
Despite the fact that I wrote Facebook off in the early years, they’re making some serious progress on the mobile front. (By the way, I wrote Madonna off in the early years, too, so I clearly have a knack for missing the mark on some things.)
Action Steps for You:
- Dive In: If you’re not using mobile marketing already, consider diving in quickly. After all, you customers are using mobile, so you should be, too.
- Read Up: You’ll find good articles about mobile on the 60 Second Marketer. You might also find ADWEEK and MobileMarketer.com helpful, too.
- Analyze: Check out the infographic below created by the 60 Second Marketer and AWeber. It’ll help you sort through which mobile marketing platforms are best for your business.
About the Author: Jamie Turner is the CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and 60 Second Communications, a marketing communications agency that works with national and international brands. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.
