BuzzFeed Unveils Two New Ad Products at NewFronts

BuzzFeed has launched two new advertising products that make it easier for brands to visualize how ads and videos are performing across social media over time.

At the NewFronts 2015, BuzzFeed publisher Dao Nguyen introduced POUND, the process for optimizing and understanding network diffusion. The product is a tool for understanding content journey across the Web, from the original source through the often tangled network of social media and “dark social,” like Gchat and email.

“It’s a forest, not a tree,” Nguyen said of social sharing. “People are distributing content on Twitter, then it’s getting shared on Facebook, blogs, and dark social,” she added, pointing out that while content often first appears on Twitter, more people distribute content on Facebook and that, from what BuzzFeed has observed, sponsored content is not different from editorial content in the way that it’s passed across the Web.

BuzzFeed‘s video dashboard for brands will now be available to all of the site’s video advertisers. The product aims to look at engagement trends for different social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook to find out what type of content resonates on each site. For example, according to Nguyen, informational videos perform better on YouTube while videos that appeal to identity see more likes and share across Facebook.

“[The products] are really valuable for our partners,” Nguyen said at the event. “We can look at data, learn from it, and make more content.”