• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 17, 2010

Marin Software on Tuesday will make available a Facebook application that lets advertisers and agencies manage Facebook campaigns alongside those running in Google, Bing and Yahoo. Advanced features include audience segmentation, algorithmic bidding and ad rotation.

 

The inability to target keywords, rather than audience segments, has become a challenge for advertisers running hundreds of campaigns simultaneously. Rather than buy the keywords "sleeping bags," advertisers might buy "people who like camping." It makes the audience too broad and their interest in buying patterns may vary widely based on gender, location and other likes and interests.

The platform will allow Marin clients to take broad audience segments and break them down into hundreds of focused campaigns, according to Marin Marketing VP Matt Lawson. "Our software takes the original campaign and targeting perimeters to split them out into more focused keyword groups," he says. "Let's say you define 25 segments. The tool creates each segment, generates all the URL codes to track it, and manages the conversion data to place bids."

Advertisers will spend $1.28 billion worldwide this year to reach Facebook's more than 500 million users, according to new research by eMarketer. Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst for the research firm, points to Facebook's self-serve ad system to the company's success. Advertisers use the tool to create, buy and target the small ads that appear on the right side of most member pages.

But Marin's Lawson believes Facebook's ad system can target much better. Facebook marketers have to continually refresh their creative ads to avoid a drop in click-through rates. So Marin created a tool that allows advertisers to upload multiple images to a live library for a campaign. The tool takes the multiple images, text and headlines and automatically creates combinations, rotating through them to keep ads fresh and interesting. It aims to eliminate what Lawson calls "ad blindness."

Marketers rely on Facebook as a place to engage consumers. With 63% of U.S. online adults on the site and a global reach of more than 500 million, Facebook remains at the top of many lists when marketers decide where to pursue their social strategies, but the size of the potential audience can overwhelm marketers and leave them feeling unprepared to engage, Forrester Research Analysts Melissa Parrish wrote in a report titled How To Create An Effective Strategy On Facebook.

For Marin enterprise clients, Lawson says it's not unusual for each to run about 200 campaigns simultaneously. When companies manage many campaigns, advertisers need the ability to filter content and get alerts.