Omniture Connects With Facebook

Marketers struggling to measure investments in Facebook campaigns might have a better tool to determine budget allocations. Omniture expects to release an App Measurement for Facebook. The software development kit (SDK) is free to customers in the online marketing suite.

The Facebook application maps the process and follows people through the product review cycle, giving marketers insight on when users drop something in the shopping cart or make a purchase. In a nutshell, it connects the Facebook campaign to conversions such as the last click or product purchase.

"Marketers have had trouble connecting the dots between spending 'x' dollars in the Facebook application on promotions and generating 'y' dollars on the ecommerce site," says Matthew Langie, senior director of product marketing at Omniture.

Langie says retailers can now develop a Facebook page and determine how people convert. The SDK relies on a JavaScript tag developed by Omniture that works on any Facebook application. Developers "wrap the code around the application" and collect data on how visitors to the site interact with the campaign. "Pathing," which tracks how people flow through Facebook, gives marketers insight as to where people click. If 80% of the traffic doesn't use a particular feature, marketers can remove it and concentrate on something else.

Aside from App Measurement for Facebook, Omniture has released a similar product for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. It also has introduced an app that integrates with Twitter.

Marketers who want to measure metrics and investments in several channels can view the results in SiteCatalyst by setting up reports to analyze traffic, tying the numbers to orders received. If the iPhone application drives more traffic than Facebook, the marketer can begin investing more in the campaign, producing better results.

The National Hockey League (NHL) has not confirmed that it will tap App Measurement for Facebook, although the league relies on Omniture for analytics and Facebook to connect with fans.

The NHL does not harvest any data from Facebook and respects user privacy 100%, says a spokesperson. Fans openly offer in email sign-ups on the league's Web site information on who their favorite teams are. "Whether it's on a paper all-star ballot in an arena, or through an emerging online channel, the more our fans share about themselves with us, the better we can super-serve them with the most relevant content, services and merchandise," the spokesperson says.

With App Measurement for Facebook, online marketers can segment users better to understand the type of person adopting the application. For example, SiteCatalyst segments Facebook users by the number of friends they have such as "Users with 500+ Friends," or "Users with 100-200 Friends." Marketers can compare performance across multiple apps to understand the most popular among Facebook users.

Another view compares multiple TV Show App performances against user activities performed in each application, such as stories read and images shared. It also tracks the number of users who invite their friends to add the widget, for example, and provides a view of the conversion funnel to help marketers understand how Facebook app users are converting, enabling online marketers to improve conversions.

Omniture

Omniture 

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