“Avoid saying anything negative about YouTube – leave the impression of the user experience up to them” Facebook tells its adtech partners in a leaked, confidential deck that teaches them to sell Facebook’s video ads. The 32-page document details Facebook’s plan to beat television with reach and YouTube with targeting, and spills the beans about an overhaul to video insights slated for Q1 2014.
If Facebook’s plan works, it could lure in tons of ad revenue as marketers shift their focus from television to digital.
The full “Facebook For Business: Video On Facebook” presentation including slides and Facebook’s notes is splayed out below. It was sent to Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developer partners in late November to teach them to sell video ads to their clients. [Correction: This was sent to marketers, not presented at a meeting.] Facebook used NDAs to try to keep the presentation away from the public, but I’ve attained a copy.
Facebook’s pitch for video ads breaks down to three things, as explained in this excerpt from the presentation:
1.You want to be where people are. Changing consumer behavior should shape where you spend your marketing dollars.
2.You want to reach all of the people who matter to you. Facebook has unparalleled targeted reach.
3.You want to be in the most engaging digital real estate, which, as you just saw, is Facebook’s News Feed.
Fighting TV With Reach
It doesn’t take long for Facebook to start bluntly insulting the stalwart advertising medium. “Gone are the days when a family gathered around their TV on Sunday night to connect with the outside world. Television is no longer a guaranteed way to reach and engage your target audience,” Facebook writes. It cites an eMarketer studying saying time spent on digital will surpass TV in 2013, and notes people open their phone 100 times a day and Facebook 10-15 times a day.
Facebook then hits hard with graphs and Nielsen stats, saying that each major TV network only reach 55% to 61% of 18-24 year olds during prime time, but Facebook reaches 70%. Facebook later hawks its “Blast” campaigns that let brands reach the majority of people on Facebook with a video ad within one to three days.
Other than Google, few digital companies have the ability to reach an entire populace, which classically could only be found on TV. Facebook slams other digital properties, stating ”A lot of time is spent by people on mobile with Google properties, YouTube, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Twitter and Pinterest…And more total time is spent on mobile on Facebook and Instagram than all of those combined.” It’s that scale, the ability to reach hundreds of millions of people quickly, that Facebook hopes will attract the world’s biggest advertisers.
Fighting YouTube And TV With Targeting
“On TV, advertisers don’t always know who people are, and over deliver to certain people and can’t reach other people. So advertisers end up hitting the same people over and over again with a large portion of the audience being underexposed.” Again, Facebook isn’t pulling punches here.
One of the social network’s greatest assets is its trove of ad-fueling personal data. Users pour demographic and interest data into their profiles to share with friends and be found, but Facebook also leverages that data to be able to pinpoint them with relevant ads. Taking a dig at YouTube where a lot of demographic data is inferred indirectly and not always accurately, Facebook writes “In narrowly targeted campaigns, the average online reach is 38% accurate, but on Facebook, our average reach is 89% accurate.”
Facebook also touts that users volunteer to watch video ads on its platform instead of being required to watch on YouTube, so the impressions should be valued higher. “When you use video on Facebook, these are chosen views – the consumers clicks to play or scrolls through to watch the video as compared to an ad on YouTube interrupting the user experience and feeling forced.”
Still, Facebook doesn’t want its ad partners coming off as bullies so it explains “Avoid saying anything negative about YouTube.” Instead, partners are supposed to lay out the facts and just imply YouTube is inferior.
Except that it isn’t, at least not right now. And Facebook admits that.
“BACKGROUND FOR SALES RE: VIDEO INSIGHTS vs. YouTube
Currently, we only report on video plays, which is a weakness compared to YouTube, which reports on video views, completed views, and average duration of view. We are working on building out our video insights to give advertisers a better sense for how videos are performing. New video insights target launch: Q1 2014. [NOTE: Video insights improvements are highlight (sic) confidential]“
So by next year, Facebook’s video ad insights will be a better match for YouTube, but until then, partners are supposed to cite metrics about likes and comments, larger ad images, and a more “streamlined” post-click experience. The fact is that Television is the status quo for advertisers, and YouTube’s roadblock ads (even if you can skip them after five seconds) work similarly to traditional TV commercials. That means Facebook still has an uphill climb in selling its video ads.
While users might be scared that these video ads will stick out like sore thumbs on Facebook, the company is actually in the middle of a push to bring a lot more organic, user generated video to the site. It’s now rolling out its new auto-play video feature on the web and mobile. Facebook mentions videos ads you “scroll through”, which could be a subtle way of noting that auto-play video ads are coming.
But the big thing absent from this deck is measurement. TV and some other online ad platforms have a tough time proving that marketing spend on them generates a return on investment. Facebook may be discounting one of its most potent weapons in the ad war. Online, Facebook hooks into sales information through cookies, hashed CRM data, and Autofill With Facebook. Offline, brick and mortar data providers like Datalogix and Facebook’s Custom Audiences tool let advertisers see if showing someone an ad made them buy more.
It may not be the platform with the biggest reach, targeting, or engagement that captures the ad dollars fleeing television in print, but the one that can best prove its ads actually work.
Full leaked video ads deck below with Facebook’s presenter notes as captions.
Before we dive in, I want to give you a peek at what we mean by ‘video on Facebook.’We aren’t talking about video ads on the right column of desktop or even just in desktop News Feed – we are talking about video delivered in the palm of your hand wherever you go. Video that takes up almost the entire mobile screen and plays seamlessly in line. This is video on Facebook.
There couldn’t be a better time to invest in video on Facebook. Why? Three critical components of successful marketing are aligned to drive your business results:1. You want to be where people are. Changing consumer behavior should shape where you spend your marketing dollars.2. You want to reach all of the people who matter to you. Facebook has unparalleled targeted reach.3. You want to be in the most engaging digital real estate, which, as you just saw, is Facebook’s News Feed.
If you want people to see your brand messages, you have to reach them where they are spending time.
Consumers are changing the way they spend their time – with more and more people spending time on digital.Gone are the days when a family gathered around their TV on Sunday night to connect with the outside world.Television is no longer a guaranteed way to reach and engage your target audience
To get the best perspective on the changes taking place now, it might help to go back to the 50’sThat was the last time a new medium came along to capture the most time per day of people: TV surpassed radioIt was such an important medium that people significantly expanded the amount of time they spent with mediaSource: “Mobile helps propel digital time spent’, eMarketer, July 2013
Television quickly became the focus for people, and soon thereafter the advertising industry, and it ruled for over 50 yearsSource: “Mobile helps propel digital time spent’, eMarketer, July 2013
In the 90’s, we saw a new shift: people began to spend time on Digital media as wellAnd, according to eMarketer, in 2013 the amount of time people spend per day on Digital media will surpass televisionSource: “Mobile helps propel digital time spent’, eMarketer, July 2013
It’s important to point out that it was mobile (smartphones and tablets) that not only pushed Digital to this inflection point, but is also now the majority of time spent on DigitalAnd once again, people are adding to the total time they spend with media as they leverage the power of mobile to remain connected to the people and things they care about throughout the daySource: “Mobile helps propel digital time spent’, eMarketer, July 2013
Looking forward, it’s not hard to imagine time spent with Digital continuing to increase, and Mobile taking an even more dominant share of that time as technology makes staying connected even easierEven if you haven’t been investing in TV to date, this data should cause you to stop in your tracks because it speaks to the fact that we’re all now operating in a new paradigm and we have to take digital seriouslySource: “Mobile helps propel digital time spent’, eMarketer, August 2013
We can all relate to the shift of consumption to mobile because, for many of us, it’s now a device that is with us all day, every day.In fact, people check their phone 100x/ day and they check Facebook 10-15x/day.
Facebook’s role in the shift to mobile comes to life in terms of time spent on mobile.A lot of time is spent by people on mobile with Google properties, YouTube, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Twitter and PinterestAnd more total time is spent on mobile on Facebook and Instagram than all of those combinedIn fact, Facebook and Instagram make up 21% of total time spent on mobile.In the end, as marketers, this type of engagement gives you significant opportunities to connect with your core consumers.
But, it’s not just about the engagement we’re seeing on mobile. Facebook’s scale and targeting capabilities enable you to reach all of the people who matter to you.
In the US, you can reach 179M people every month. Many of these people are on Facebook every single day. In fact, you can reach 128M people every day in the US and 101M people every day on mobile.
[Customize this slide with your client’s demographics]
On this slide is an audience example for gamers, 18-34 in the US. It is based off of the FB BCT ‘Console Gaming,’ which includes ‘People that have liked pages related to console gaming or otherwise expressed interest in console gaming on Facebook.’
Facebook can help you access customer segments that have typically been hard or very expensive to reach. The size of our global audience coupled with our targeting capabilities enables advertisers to find audiences who they may not be able to find consistently or at scale on other media platforms.For example, on TV, advertisers don’t always know who people are, and over deliver to certain people and can’t reach other people. So advertisers end up hitting the same people over and over again with a large portion of the audience being underexposed.With Facebook, you can precisely reach the audience you want, and know that your impressions are being delivered to the right people.*Data: Network 1: 56%, Network 2: 55%, Network 3: 61%, Network 4: 59%, FB: 70%Uses Nielsen’s TV/Internet/ Mobile Data Fusion panel to measure differences in reach between Facebook (PC + Mobile) and TV networks looking at a full month of data.
But, you may be wondering how to consider Facebook in relation to your investment in TV advertising.Facebook delivers incremental reach above TV, particularly for the highly coveted 25-34 demoDuring daytime, Facebook can increase reach above each of the major broadcast networks by 125 to 160+% among 25 to 34 year olds.During Primetime, Facebook can increase reach by 25% to 38% among 25 to 34 year olds.Key Takeaway: Content consumption has changed dramatically in the past few years — shifting meaningfully toward digital channels, particularly mobile. As a result, online, and Facebook particularly, are able to deliver audiences at a scale that allows marketers to either efficiently drive incremental reach on top of TV or execute cross media campaigns with massive reach.NOTE: Significant incremental reach among 18-24 year olds as well (see slides in appendix)Daytime: 81-95%Primetime: 56% – 78%
People are themselves Facebook, which means we can deliver more accurate targeting, based on real information about our users. This also means that advertisers can deliver the most relevant and resonant messages to their target audiences.The same is true – and even more significant in narrowly targeted campaigns.In narrowly targeted campaigns, the average online reach is 38% accurate, but on Facebook, our average reach is 89% accurate.Because of this high accuracy on Facebook, businesses aren’t seeing wasted impressions like they do in other mediums.
So, how will your brand show up on Facebook? Facebook News Feed puts your brand in the center of the most engaging digital real estate.
The News Feed puts brands front and center for the consumer, offering rich ways to capture attention and engagement. The News Feed is a personalized newspaper – where people go to consume photos of their friends and family, news stories, and content from brands.Similar to television, mobile naturally lends itself to a linear experience, where consumers focus on one piece of content at a time. Every piece of content, whether a photo or an article or an ad, now has the opportunity to capture attention and engagement. Ads consumed in a linear format are 9X more effective than those consumed on a traditional web page, which typically contain multiple ads. The linear format can take up the full screen on mobile and provides a captive moment for marketers to capture attention.
[Datalogix]When you use video on Facebook, these are chosen views – the consumers clicks to play or scrolls through to watch the video as compared to an ad on YouTube interrupting the user experience and feeling forced.MORE DETAIL RE: CENTER OF EXPERIENCEThe News Feed is the main event on mobile. And, given businesses can appear in the News Feed, they can essentially takeover the entire homepage, resulting in the ultimate engagement with consumers. Our advertising units in News Feed are highly engaging given that they are equal in size and prominence as content from a user’s friends and family. They are not off to the side or secondary to the experience, but are central to the experience and delivered in a linear way.SIZENews Feed ads are 2x the the size of a 300×250 banner, and often can be full screen in mobile.STATSFB mobile Page post ads are 10-120% more likely to regularly draw attention than other ad typesLikelihood that FB ads and SS regularly draw attention on mobile as compared to other ad type10% more than Pre-roll or Mid-roll Ads22% more than Video Ads38% more than Banner Ads120% more than Pop-up AdsSource: Prosper Mobile Insights, July 2012.
Video ads deploy sight, sound, and motion to grab your audience’s attention in News FeedPage post video ads drive stronger performance than off-site video links given they are optimized for video views and provide a seamless experience to the viewer. Their images are also 11x larger than offsite video, ensuring your brand gets noticed.FB vs YouTube stats16.6% of YouTube visits came from Facebook in September 2013 (comScore MyMetrix Source/Loss report, worldwide, home and work – DESKTOP)OBJECTION HANDLING RECOClients may bring up YouTube and argue that it’s better to be on YouTube given they have access to the aggregate counter and more video views. Potential response:Yes, YouTube has the aggregate counter, but Facebook’s Ad Insights provides additional stats re: likes, comments, and sharesFacebook offers a larger image in the most engaging place on the web – thumbnail takes up a lot of space in News FeedThe post-click experience with native Facebook video is more streamlined than the experience when a user clicks on a link pointing to an offsite video player (see next slide)BACKGROUND FOR SALES RE: VIDEO INSIGHTS vs. YouTubeCurrently, we only report on video plays, which is a weakness compared to YouTube, which reports on video views, completed views, and average duration of view. We are working on building out our video insights to give advertisers a better sense for how videos are performing. New video insights target launch: Q1 2014. [NOTE: Video insights improvements are highlight confidential]
The experience with Facebook native video is much more seamless than when the user is taken offsite to view a video.This experience becomes even more choppy offsite for age-gated content (e.g., from an alcohol brand) given the person must sign-in to the other app to view the video.SPEAKING TIPS GIVEN SHOWING YOUTUBE COMPARISONEmphasize the informational/ educational nature of the videoAvoid saying anything negative about YouTube – leave the impression of the user experience up to them
Video can be used across the brand objectives you consider for media planning.Media planning – these three happen one after the other1.”Seed”: $50-$100/$200K hyper-targeted teaser to start generating buzz about your new product or brand campaign with your core target audience (e.g., using Partner Categories, Custom Audiences, Interests, competitor’s Interests)2.”Blast”: $500K-$1M campaign to drive mass awareness of your new product or brand campaign to your target audience (typically over a 1-3 day period)3.”Sustained” media: reinforce your message after the initial blast. You should tailor creative to specific audiences to drive the best results. These campaigns can range anywhere from a week to a few months.
For your blast period, combine the value of video and guaranteed reach in News FeedReach the majority of people on Facebook in one or three days with your Page post video message through News FeedRun campaigns on desktop and/or mobileOwn the segment: One marketer per audience per dayGuaranteed impressions to audience over 24 hours (Reach Block) or 72 hours (Target Block)Best use cases for mass awareness campaigns:Product or marketing campaign launchDrive mass awareness of a time-sensitive messageTeasers to build excitementBuild creative that speaks to the entire audience
You can precede a blast campaign with a ‘seed campaign’ and then follow-up a blast campaign with a ‘sustain campaign.’Achieve the lowest cost-per-view by combining our accurate, granular targeting capabilities with your compelling video messagesReach a custom cluster of people who will react favorably to a specific video creativeRun these sustained, targeted campaigns in tandem with mass awareness campaigns to drive the best resultsRecommendationsSelect a thumbnail that draws people inCapture their attention in the first 5 secondsKeep creative short and sweet: no need for an entire storyYou can also run sustained campaigns with a mix of photos and videos, depending on your objectives and creative available.
I’ve highlighted why there couldn’t be a better time to invest in video on Facebook.Be where people are – on mobile.Targeted reach – reach all of the people who matter to youPut your brand in the most engaging digital real estate – Facebook’s News Feed.Now, I want to tell you about a few brands that have had tremendous success using video on Facebook. These brands are driving business results.
comScore action lift study (March 2013) analyzed 10 gaming campaigns across multiple genres – campaigns included a variety of ad units, including video.Results are compared to a holdout group.
Brands can use high-quality content to build awarenessTo launch its new title, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Activision used Facebook ads primarily on mobile to drive video views of its game trailer at scaleObjective: Increase awareness of Activision’s new console game, Call of Duty: Ghosts, with males 18-44 in the U.S.Delivered 50M impressions over a 3-day period, with majority of impressions delivered on mobilePerformance55% of US males aged 18-24 were reached over 3-day period – Reached 20M US males 18-44 and 23M people in total85% of impressions delivered on-target, compared to industry norm of 41% (Nielsen Cross-Publisher Online Campaign Ratings)14% lift in brand awareness among the target audience (18-44)24% lift in brand awareness among males 25-34OMD, Activision’s media agency, leveraged Nielsen measurement solutions to validate and compare reach efficiency across its entire digital marketing plan, as well as determine the impact Facebook messaging had on shifting brand metrics such as awareness and message recall
Results50% ahead of goal for pre-orders of the game (the company was looking to achieve 10% of its total pre-order goal by end of its fiscal year March 31, 2012 and it achieved 15%).385% increase in people talking about this8% increase in fans, or nearly 200,000 new fans. The Resident Evil Page now has more than 3 million fans, which means Capcom can reach 350 million friends of fans.552% lift in viral reach for the PageGoalsWorking with its agency Tangible Media, Capcom wanted to engage with existing fans of the Resident Evil Page and acquire new ones:To make the launch of the new title feel like an event in a way that would generate buzz in the media and on the InternetTo drive pre-orders of the gameApproach[PAGES] Tangible and Capcom made Facebook the center of its campaign to create a massive event out of the announcement of the Resident Evil title on January 19, 2012, seven months ahead of the game’s actual release.Capcom created a mysterious microsite, nohopeleft.com, and Facebook Page to promote viral teaser content leading up to the official game announcement on the Resident Evil Page.The No Hope Left Page contained cryptic videos and photos featuring panicked citizens and deserted cities, which were hints for existing Resident Evil fans and engaged new fans through all of the viral sharing.[ADS] The media portion on Facebook had three main phases, all designed to create broad awareness in the gaming and entertainment community.:The first phase included a flight of Premium Ads designed to build pre-awareness and anticipation around the March 19 reveal of Resident Evil 6..:Ads included the scary videos and a poll asking people “What would you do when all is lost?”Another ad invited people to RSVP for a secret event set for March 19, 2102Ads were targeted at Resident Evil’s large base of then 2 million fans and the broader console gaming communityThe second phase was designed to reveal the announcement trailer created for RE6:A Target Block to U.S. males 18-34 featured Premium Page post Ads to promote the announcement trailer, encouraging people to watch and share the video with their friendsA portion of the video ads drove traffic to a custom tab on the Resident Evil Page with links to pre-order the gameIn the third phase, Capcom sustained enthusiasm for the game using a variety of Premium, Marketplace Ads and sponsored stories:Premium Ads featured the trailer and polls asking fans what characters in the game they were most excited forMarketplace Ads were used to grow the Resident Evil fan base and were targeted at console gamers
BackgroundWendy’s launched a product in 2013 – pretzel bacon cheeseburgerTypically run a product in a few select markets before launching across the USIn test markets, saw people were obsessed with itCreative agency came up with program called Pretzel Love Songs, essentially making fun of boy bands and love song genreAs people submitted their love songs, Wendy’s asked them if they could use them for advertisementsThe real hook was people got to be famous for a minute in a video that Wendy’s was pushing out to tens of thousands of people, primarily through Facebook – they shared these videos over time as different volumes.This was very different for their brand – typically very traditional with their marketingBUT, spoke directly to an insight – people want to be famousPerformanceReach: 83M unique individuals52.7% TV-only23.2% Overlap8.3% FB-only(persons 18+, Nielsen XCR reach)Typical media buy just talking about impressions and TRPs, but they were able to get MANY unique individualsOver 8% reached only through digital marketing (incremental reach through FB)62% of Facebook-only reach was with Millennials – a big deal for Wendy’s given they want to connect with that generationHuge engagement: 5M+ video views and 1.7B total impressionsMedia ROI: % reach from Facebook far exceeded % of investment on FacebookWhat does this mean for the company?Excellent sales results and ROIThey will emulate this strategy in the future b/c it worked so wellBackground available in Ad Week video: http://adweek.mlbam.com/video/v30927297 (22:00 – 35:00)
OBJECTIVE:Wanted to boost brand loyalty and drive viewership of its Ramadan Holiday videoSTRATEGY:Launched a combined TV and FB campaign4 videos showcasing banks reverence of traditional Saudi valuesTwo Reach Blocks guaranteed that the ads reached the entire Saudi Facebook audience that logged in that day.RESULTS:Strong uplift in brand awareness generated by Facebook campaign as found through Bank Albilad’s own internal study.“Facebook increased our brand loyalty given the valued interaction between our audience and us. This platform, Facebook, was one of the main channels for such a campaign and it will remain a crucial platform for future campaigns.”Mohammed R. Abaalkheil, Head of Marcom Division, Bank AlbiladImages: https://na7.salesforce.com/069A0000000eaSp