Facebook collects more data than credit bureaus, banks, telcos and list cooperatives.
The combination of demographic and behavioral data is a potent tool for marketers assuming they can or will mine, package and share this data hoard. Best of all, this can be done in aggregate without identifying individuals or appending data to individual records, so privacy is assured as is the next premium priced level of service.
Here’s a quick rundown of what they are doing with this stash today and what is possible or likely in the near term.
Targeting. Currently Facebook has created more than 200 targeting channels based on demographics and expressed interests drawn from posts and profiles. Reaching moms, motorcycle enthusiasts or ballroom dancers is easier than ever. My clients have achieved cost efficiency, though response rates are a mixed bag suggesting that some of these channels need to be refined.
ReTargeting. The ads that follow consumers around, on the right rail or the timeline, are behavior driven based on pixels attached to sites visited. Messages are triggered based on pages viewed online or on Facebook. A visit or a page view is a signal of interest or intention and the relatively high conversion rates validate this assumption. Expect this to get more sophisticated and more widely used, especially since initial consumer shock has worn off.
Mirror Modeling. By scraping Facebook profiles brands should be able to efficiently find other prospects with similar interests, behaviors or psycho-demographic characteristics. The assumption is that future prospects look a lot like current customers. Facebook is not yet offering this level of service but is willing to match databases, using email addresses to match records, and deliver discrete messages to names on both lists. This is the next logical move because it ratchets up targeting efficiency using well-proven direct response techniques.
Influence Influencers. Facebook knows exactly who has large numbers of friends, who posts frequently, who reposts regularly and who draws big numbers of likes, shares or comments. Developing a consensus definition of influencers based on this behavioral information enables Facebook to identify people with greater influence over friends and family and make them available to seed campaigns, change opinions or make unique offers. Finding and persuading opinion leaders and opinion makers is on every marketers’ to-do list, so making this capability operational feels like a no-brainer.
Trigger Messaging. Facebook knows what time of day, how frequently and on which device each member accesses the site. With huge numbers of people checking their timelines each day, its possible to target members by day, by time of day, by number of visits and by device. My clients are already delivering direct messages to selected Android users and timing campaigns to impact on certain days or at specific hours across time zones.
This added level of behavioral data gives brands the opportunity to intercept and converse with customers and prospects as they go about their daily lives. This capability coupled with significant and growing access on mobile devices gives brands the chance to become a more integral part of consumers’ lives and habits.
Understanding that recency and behavior are much more predictive than demographics alone, Facebook has a huge potential to leverage data in ways that comply with privacy needs and potentially delight consumers. The outstanding question is will they be a creative and cooperative data partner for brands?
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