• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 26, 2012

Most social marketing firms know they need tools specifically designed for Facebook. The trick is to make instruments that actually work, and help brands shine within the social network’s confining ad environment.  
 
Claiming to have cracked the Facebook code, BuddyMedia is adding new tools to its BuyBuddy self-service offering, which brands can use to create, track and improve their ad campaigns.
 
Using a “cost per engaged fan” model -- rather than “cost per fan” -- BuyBuddy is built into BuddyMedia’s existing platform so brands can more easily combine their owned, earned and paid media efforts on Facebook.
 
In addition, brands can use BuyBuddy to buy, manage and test premium ads alongside their marketplace ads.
 
Liam Doyle, chief product officer of BuyBuddy, says this is possible because Facebook began allowing brands to buy premium ad units through its ads API. Plus, marketers can now access both post-impression and post-click activity -- including the number of likes, comments, video plays, and link clicks -- driven by ads.
 
“Until now, marketers could not track conversions or downstream activity via Facebook and its Preferred Marketing Developer Partners like Buddy Media,” according to Doyle. “This limitation made it hard to prove how paid activity drove specific actions and to target people based on actions.”
 
Added Doyle: “Now, with Action Tracking, Facebook is providing the missing piece to help prove that ad activity is driving truly engaged fans."
 
With BuyBuddy, Doyle said brands can also now choose where their ads will be seen -- from the traditional right-hand rail to the desktop News Feed, to the mobile News Feed.
 
“The mobile capabilities of this have an even larger potential, as Facebook also allows targeting by mobile operating system,” Doyle explained. “By using these two targeting options together, marketers can cut through both App store and Marketplace noise to reach potential new users for their apps."
 
During the first quarter, BuyBuddy tracked more than 128 billion impressions and generated more than 90 million clicks on Facebook, with more than 1.6 million ads were created by users. The 128 billion total is up from 3 billion impressions in the year-earlier period, underscoring Facebook’s audience and ad growth in the last year.