Will Facebook Graph Search On Mobile Help Brands Improve Campaign Performance?

It took nearly two years for Facebook to take Graph Search to mobile, but the company did it without a focus on local. The update allows users to search for specific posts, but the real question for brands becomes whether "search at Facebook is a long-term effort," Tom Stocky, the company's VP of search, wrote in a blog post Monday. "Today is a step toward helping you tap into the experiences and perspectives of your friends."

Stocky explained that after researching required features, the company found that searching for old posts was the most important thing to users who have tested Graph Search. The issue of not being able to find something that friends posted just a few days ago becomes frustrating.

The real question is whether Graph Search will help brands improve return on investments for social and search campaigns.

Aaron Goldman, CMO at Kenshoo, says it's too early to tell what implications the updated Facebook Search Graph on mobile will have for advertising campaigns. Kenshoo research has proven that Facebook ads have an impact on search campaign performance. "We've seen tremendous lift when search keyword data is used for Facebook ad targeting, so we're bullish on the prospects for using native Facebook search data as a proxy for consumer intent," he said

"Yes, the new Facebook mobile graph search will help brands improve on campaign performance as it solves a big problem for Facebook mobile users," said Roger Barnette, president at IgnitionOne. "Mobile Graph Search allows users to search using keywords through friends' news feed posts and photos so they can easily recall things they have seen rather than hunting through old posts. These new search results also return brands and services that their friends have liked, which strengthens well-executed campaigns. As Facebook time on mobile devices is significant, mobile graph search is very powerful new tool that definitely ups their game in the search space."

There's no indication that Facebook will introduce paid-search ads in its social stream, with the updates of Graph Search for mobile -- but one way they could introduce search data is as a targeting criteria that could become an add-on. Today, brands can target advertisements by Likes, interests, age, gender, and location.

In the future, brands could target by keywords or a higher-level category related to search intent to use as a targeting criteria. It would mean targeting women in Los Angeles who like Yoga, or have searched for the keyword "Yoga," per industry insiders. 

Mark Ballard, director of research at RKG, a Merkle company, doesn't think Facebook's desktop search efforts have had had much impact for brands. "Even though bringing Graph Search to mobile will certainly increase total query volume, it may still not move the needle much," he said. "If Facebook eventually expands the types of posts that will show in its search results that could change."

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