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Andrew Bosworth, the new VP of advertising at Facebook, has had a long career at the company and is a close advisor to the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. He has recently been assigned to better the newsfeed appearing to consumers, in addition to coming up with effective mobile advertising strategies. Bosworth has voiced his opinions about the direction he sees Facebook advertising going and how he envisions brands can use the platform to enhance customer experience.
Bosworth believes that people do not use their smartphones in their daily lives as much as they possibly could, but the answer lies in hyper-localising the digital network; this is the next step to improve the overall user experience and make better use of technology we have. He believes that Facebook should be the platform where people can buy products straight from the app. If you look, some of this has already begun to take place, as Facebook integrates live chat functions into its platform to help people order products from third-party partners. There really is a world of opportunities for mobile eCommerce sites to cash in on the consumer interaction through social media platforms; all they must do is cut through the noise and offer their customers something useful, insightful or entertaining, and maybe Facebook is the platform to offer ways brands can do this.
Talking about the social media platform with AdWeek, Bosworth commented: “I think 2017 is going to be a time to chip away at all these daily annoyances we all have that should be a lot easier… And it’s not just used, but as an industry, we’re trying to finally make these devices live up to their potential.”
So, where exactly does Bosworth see Facebook going for 2017?
He believes that more personalisation within Facebook adverts will help brands to better target their consumers who have already displayed an interest in the brand through their interactions. However, Facebook can only do a limited number of things within its systems, although customised media buying and data collection from Facebook can be a tremendous help to distribute advertising, brands need to be able to gather and use more informative and creative audience data in the creation and audience assignment of their online advertising.
“At the end of the day, our ability to drive results is only as good as the creative we get and only as good as the audience we’re given to target,” noted Bosworth.
Bosworth has praised brands who try many creative advertising ideas on the platform, rather than staying with one safe campaign; he strongly believes that brands should be trying a multitude of creatives with varying audiences, as an analysis of what works and what doesn’t. Brands should not just rely on their initiative or assumptions, as they could miss out on a big market they are not currently targeting or engaging. He believes for this method to be truly effective brands should be repeating this process a couple times over, and then trimming back on what they distribute, once they have a clear idea on who interacts with their marketing and who doesn’t. The most sophisticated marketers, coming from the gaming and eCommerce industries according to Bosworth, are seeing great results from being able to tell this difference.