Moving beyond the social network, Facebook ads will now follow you around the web. Leah Pope, the VP of Marketing at Synthesio looks at Facebook’s roll out of its new ad platform Atlas, and the impact it will have on brands and marketers.
The big question is what does Atlas mean for the marketing community and big brands? The answer, at the moment, is not necessarily a huge amount. Linking offline and online behaviour is something marketers have been grappling with for a few years. Tracking and analysing the interactions of customers on social media platforms for marketing purposes is what a number of services, including Synthesio, already offer.
Similarly, cross-platform marketing software is nothing new. What is interesting, however, is that this is Facebook, so the potential insights that can be gained from the volume of data available is exciting. I am also curious to see how Atlas will develop and link to other online platforms. Facebook has already announced that Instagram will use Atlas, however it is of course unlikely they will allow social networks that they don’t own access to Atlas’ tracking capabilities.
One of the more pressing issues is how consumers will react to Atlas. The uproar around privacy issues is not going to be helped if Facebook users find it intrusive that ads follow them around the internet based on in-store purchase or ‘likes.’ Although the number of users who adjust their privacy settings or delete their accounts to ‘opt-out’ of Atlas is likely to be small, a backlash of negative feedback could force Facebook to adjust how Atlas collects data, potentially affecting how brands run long-term marketing campaigns.
Atlas is unlikely to change the bread and butter of marketing content, however, any tool that can help marketers better target and understand customers is welcome. Bridging the gap between offline and online marketing is one of the big challenges facing the marketing industry today.
By Leah Pope
Vice President of Global Marketing
Synthesio