What Mobile Advertising Means to Facebook

Written by Emily Friday, 14 September 2012 11:36

The most popular social network in the world knows exactly where their company needs to be in order to survive the coming years – leading the mobile atmosphere.

Earlier this week at San Francisco’s Tech Crunch Disrupt Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of the company’s mobile push, stating, “Over the next three to five years I think the biggest question that is in everyone’s minds, that will determine our performance over that period, is really how well we will do with mobile”.

So, what does this all mean for mobile advertising on the social network?

Currently, the primary way to buy ads on Facebook’s mobile apps is through Mobile Sponsored Stories. What is really going to propel the company forward in mobile advertising will be the technological transformation of its ad platform Facebook Exchange (FBX). As it stands now on PCs, Facebook Exchange allows advertisers to use automated systems to bid for ads and place them in real time, optimizing information about users gathered from their visits to other websites. Bringing FBX to mobile will put Facebook in a whole different advertising ball game, and could help them surpass eMarketer’s prediction of $387 million in ad revenue for the company in 2013.

With the mobile advertising industry changing by the minute, it will be all eyes on big networks, like Facebook, to see where it all goes.

Wendell... Who's Wendell?

Written by Cindy Wednesday, 12 September 2012 11:25

What you’ve heard is true.

Almost everyone has a cell phone.

Think about it – your kid brother, your best friend, the varsity football coach at your local high school, that homeless person on the street, and that person using their EBT card to pay for their groceries - they all have cell phones.

And this market is only going to grow. I’ve read various articles relating to predictions that mobile usage will dominate PCs by the year 2013. Wow! That is literally right around the corner.

This information has mobile advertisers panting like dogs waiting for a piece of freshly cooked filet mignon…  Or perhaps like an Olympic runner waiting for the go to start the race (if you prefer something less... sticky).

This so-called new and fresh market is a race, right? And what exactly will decide who wins? Is the winner going to be the person that gets there first? Or the one that manages to win the majority market share, making the barriers to entry difficult to cross? Or is it something else?

Well, I don’t know much about all this (yet), but my guess is something else (and luckily everyone here at Liquid Wireless has been doing this for over 4 years now). My guess is that the winner of this market is going to be the one that figures out exactly who Wendell is.

Now, you’re probably asking - who is this Wendell you speak of?

And the answer is… I don’t know.

Wendell is the mobile advertisers target market or the audience, if you will. Wendell is the consumer on the other end of the cell phone. That unknown person who is exactly that – a mystery. Perhaps, some information does exist about Wendell, like his income or education level – maybe even where he might live. But the thing is, even if we have some basic demographic information about our Wendell’s – it still doesn’t tell us how he interacts with his mobile device.

Mobile users are just different than PC users. Just like television users are different than PC users. And radio users are different from television users. Even though the users are the “same people” (in a sense) the advertising tactics have to be different and unique for each form of media; and so far – no one really has mobile figured out. Connecting successfully with Wendell while he is on his mobile device remains a mystery… just like him.

If you could ask your Wendell one thing right now, what would it be?