Many marketing professionals profess a deep knowledge of marketing on Facebook. But the social network has its own, very selective group of marketers who it vets and designates as Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers (SPMDs).
These companies are "best in class," and understand the nuts and bolts of how Facebook's advertising products work together, and alongside digital marketing as a whole. Facebook often consults them on product plans. They have as close as it gets to an inside view on Facebook marketing.
In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we spoke to four SPMDs who revealed some of their strategies and insights for Facebook marketing, and what the future looks like for Facebook's preferred marketing developers. We also explore how brands and marketers can adopt a more holistic Facebook marketing approach, and measure results and engagement.
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Here are some of the top insights gleaned from our conversations with SPMDs:
- Moving beyond last-click attribution: One Adobe client, a hospitality and entertainment group, realized that their apps were driving sales through other online and offline channels. They only realized this once they stopped obsessing on the last click before a sale, and tracked customers across channels.
- Pre-Testing Paid Media: SPMDs like Brand Networks and Adaptly understand that owned and earned media isn't just valuable in and of itself. It's also valuable as a source of analytics and data that will hint at what types of content will work as paid media. One airline brand using this technique saw total reach more than double to 63% of its targeted fans.
- Measuring Quality Of Engagement: SPMDs understand that the best metrics don't just measure quality, but quantity too. SPMDs have the best technology and interfaces for sifting through data.
- Understanding Facebook Activity In Emerging Markets: SPMDs and PMDs more broadly can be marketers' field experts, sensitizing them to seasonal, cultural, and local economic factors that can make or break their campaigns in foreign markets where Facebook's growing the fastest.
- Influencing Facebook Product Development: SPMDs are the channel through which agencies and advertisers can gain a window into the inner workings of Facebook. SPMDs have influence at Facebook and have pushed Facebook to make many needed changes such as streamlining its paid media ad product line.
In full, the report:
- Presents interviews and quotes from our conversations with SPMD and Facebook executives.
- Examines the four types of Facebook expertise practiced by Preferred Developing Marketing (PMD) partners and Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers.
- Explains how the SPMD and PMD programs, after only 18 months, have emerged as cornerstones to Facebook's viability and development as a sophisticated marketing platform.
- Digs into the business models sustaining the PMDs themselves and addresses the future of the marketing developer industry.
To access BI Intelligence's full report on Facebook's Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers and the PMD ecosystem, including downloadable charts and data, sign up for a free trial subscription here.
