Dive Brief:
- Facebook is revamping its Marketing Partner program by more closely integrating smaller agencies and independent consultants with tech companies, Ad Exchanger reports. The goal is to better help advertisers with measurement and creative on the platform. The changes were revealed at Facebook's annual marketing partner summit this week.
- Facebook was previously managing tech companies separately from agencies and consultants. Facebook Marketing Partner (FMP) badges are now available to independent marketing consultants, which can include professionals with Facebook-specific client needs. Consultants in North America, the U.K., France and Germany have already received badges.
- Facebook is also introducing Facebook Pro, a program providing some smaller agencies with access to faster support using Messenger, live-streamed training and one-on-one consultations with the platform’s marketing science team for marketing measurement and attribution assistance. The program is in beta with a planned release in 2019. Another new tool, Creative Compass, will help marketers assess the performance of creative for clients before releasing it.
Dive Insight:
Facebook is looking to strengthen its relationships with advertisers as well as marketing partners at a crucial time, when revenue growth is decelerating, the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal continues to be felt and some partners are still feeling the negative effects of Facebook's changes to its API and app reviews as well as to some third-party partnerships.
Creative development on Facebook has been a headache for advertisers on the platform, especially for mobile video and creative developed for the Stories format, a Facebook executive told Ad Exchanger. Facebook clearly recognizes that this is a problem for advertisers and is working to address the issue with the expanded FMP badges, support program and Creative Compass. Streamlining the creative process could help attract advertisers to the platform at a time when Facebook’s revenue , with company still dealing with the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook accounts for 46% of all video ads created, topping Google’s YouTube, according to research by Clinch. Video ads are likely to be an important driver of growth going forward, meaning its important for Facebook to help brands get it rights. However, even as marketers invest more in digital video, the quality of their campaigns and adapting the format for the platform remains an issue. About 75% of marketers adapt their TV commercials for digital platforms, with 44% saying they don’t shorten the spots to meet a platform’s suggested length. About 90% of marketers who had customized their Facebook or YouTube ads reported seeing benefits.
Enabling faster access to support related to measurement and attribution will likely also score with marketers, who have been demanding more transparency around their digital ad buys, including better access to customer data and intelligence. Inaccurate, questionable or false media reporting has led 21% to cut back on their ad spend, a CMO Council report revealed.
Facebook has been rolling out new tools to boost transparency on the platform and help marketers create successful campaigns. In August, Facebook unveiled Create to Convert, a new production framework that helps marketers add lightweight motion to still images, including brand elements, benefits, offers or messages. Marketers can also demo how an app, service or feature works. Facebook has also recently added publisher lists and publisher deliver reports across in-stream videos, Instant Articles and audience network so that advertisers can see where their ads are being delivered before launching a campaign.
