The key message delivered by Facebook was that Facebook Marketing Partners (FMPs) deliver value to clients ensuring business growth. By partnering with clients and agencies in the region, all parties benefit. So stated Paulo Picazio, partner manager for Facebook in the region.
Marketing and ad-tech is a relatively new key component to the African marketer’s mix with little understanding of profit-driven marketing that delivers on business objectives. As Joe Cummiskey stated at the event, “We (marketers) need to be having more relevant commercial discussions in business, not social ones”.
The Facebook Network, which includes Facebook, Instagram and the Facebook Audience Network, now ensures that 1 in 4 minutes spent on the internet on mobile is spent on Facebook platforms. The reason that so many engage is relevance, with a key focus on the user’s experience. For brands to maintain relevance, tech becomes an all essential.
CMO Survey reported a massive increase in spend on social (234% increase over this seven-year period). The study shows that brands are seeing the value of media spend on social. A disturbing outcome of the CMO Survey, however, was undoubtedly the finding that almost half of firms (44.1%) say they haven’t been able to show the impact of their social media spending; [lack] the ability to integrate customer information across social media, other communications, and purchasing channels is weak and not increasing; and only 4.6% say social media contributes very highly to company performance.
As a Facebook Marketing Partner, this finding is, frankly, unacceptable. As an organisation that is #BuildingBusinessesOnSocial, we are acutely aware of the potential for business growth through social media, and the millions of rands and dollars wasted daily on ill-conceived and badly executed social media campaigns is devastating for a country like South Africa, which desperately needs to nurture and grow our SME economy.
Being an FMP means we not only have access to beta testing and products, not available directly to brands and agencies, and have tech that allows brands to scale and save time, but most importantly to drive profit-driven marketing.
The qualifying criteria to become an FMP is very stringent, including a requirement for the tech to deliver on its promises, to create additional value than the platform itself offers and a data-driven approach to campaigns.
Studies have consistently found that clicks have no correlation to sales, conversion and business growth so why should marketers measure metrics that have no business correlation? The investment from Facebook into Facebook Marketing Partners in South Africa is an exciting one for us because it means that marketers are going to be exposed to and reap the benefits of ad-tech and #BuildingBusinessOnSocial.
