Facebook Exchange Proves Its Mettle: Adobe

With one billion impressions served, Facebook Exchange is performing well for advertisers, according to Adobe. The company analyzed the aggregate data from companies running retargeting campaigns via real-time bidding platforms using Adobe Media Optimizer. The result after 30 days: a 70 percent higher conversion rate.

To beta test the integration of Adobe Media Optimizer with Facebook Exchange, the company looked at an undisclosed number of advertisers using eight of the top real-time bidding platforms. In addition to the higher conversion rate, the cost per lead was more than 50 percent lower than the average of all the RTB supply sources. Everything considered, Facebook Exchange ended up being the second-best performing ad source overall. (Adobe won’t say which was the best, so as not to hurt feelings.)

Adobe thinks that some of that strong performance is due to cheaper prices for ads on Facebook Exchange – but that won’t last, says Justin Merickel, senior director of new product innovation, Adobe Advertising Solutions.

Right now, he says, not all of the real-time bidding platforms in the test access inventory from Facebook Exchange. “For bidded markets, as competition rises, you’ll see a commensurate rise in pricing. We hypothesize that, since performance is strong, demand will grow over time and prices will rise. We’re still in the ramp-up phase, so there is opportunity for marketers to capitalize on that favorable environment,” Merickel says.

Adobe Media Optimizer, Adobe’s ad solution for Facebook Exchange, lets marketers buy ads on Facebook via real-time bidding, and then retarget their audiences there. This is something made possible by the Facebook Exchange APIs, but not through the main Facebook ad platform. Ad management systems also have to enable it on their end.

Retargeting customers on Facebook is where the heavy juice is, according to Merickel.

“Bringing your own data assets to bear on how you buy audiences in Facebook is something we know is very effective in bringing people back to you and getting them to transact. Facebook Exchange lets us tie customers’ data assets into Facebook Exchange and target them at the right price based on performance.”