Dive Brief:
- In an effort to gain part of traditional brands' TV budgets, Facebook is using measurements more familiar to old school TV ad buyers than digital marketers looking to reach a social media audience, Digiday reports.
- The social platform is offering a new ad-buying option – target rating point (TRP) buying – that is similar to Nielsen’s gross rating points.
- Facebook will also use Nielsen’s panel-based measurement system for video ads and in-app polls to offer TV-focused brands familiar metrics.
Dive Insight:
Facebook’s almost 1.5 billion monthly users worldwide are an attractive audience for all marketers, but the social media platform is making concessions in a bid to gain a share of TV advertising budgets from traditional brands. Facebook will provide metrics familiar to those brands that spend a lot on TV.
"In many ways it might look like we are working in the past," Carolyn Everson, VP of global marketing solutions at Facebook, told Ad Age. "Yet the way I try to think about it is building a bridge to the future."
"We know the destination. The question is how do you best get there," Everson said. "And for us we have found by trying to provide solutions along the way that can bridge the gap is the better approach than being the former approach, which is no, everyone has to start doing it this new way."
Facebook sees the strategy as one that could help it break into TV's share of big brands' advertising dollars as TV viewership falls, particularly among the coveted millenial demographic.
After testing the new TRP process, Nielsen and Facebook said that the ads are twice as likely to reach their target viewer on Facebook than on TV. The TRP method will only be available for Facebook video ads, but the company has plans to roll it out to Instagram early next year.
