• by May 23, 2011

  Following an eight-month month test that yielded 24 billion Facebook impressions for agencies and brands while helping the company improve its algorithms to reflect user behavior, Kenshoo has taken its social media ad management tool out of beta.

Agencies that tested the technology included Omnicom Media Group's Resolution Media, Havas Digital and indie Camelot Communications. Zappos was one of the brands involved.

Called Kenshoo Social, the technology joins Kenshoo Search and Kenshoo Local in the 5-year-old company's roster of campaign-management tools. It includes Facebook campaign creation, audience targeting, bid management, reporting, attribution and optimization, and features what Kenshoo says is the "first and only graphical bulk editor" designed specifically for Facebook advertising. The company said that other social-media channels may be added in the future.

While Havas Digital recently named BLiNQ Media as a "preferred partner" for Facebook ad campaign management, Rob Griffin, the group's executive vice president and global head of product development, told Online Media Daily that the BLiNQ deal was "not exclusive, and we are testing Kenshoo as well as other partners to ensure we bring best in class technology to our clients."

Sam Bloom, general manager-interactive at Dallas-based Camelot, praised the Kenshoo graphical editor for saving "a ton of time when it comes to setting up targeted campaigns and pulling actionable reports." He said he had seen "ROI increases of up to 70% for clients."

While it would not name the brand involved or its agency, Kenshoo Social also released a case study showing a 71% increase in ROI for an apparel marketer targeting college students. The brand's agency, Kenshoo said, was able to coordinate ad creative, target audience and landing pages to reach students via their own school colors and school-specific pages. This campaign alone received half a billion impressions, Kenshoo said.

As Facebook continues to increase its share of the online ad marketplace (accounting for more than 25% of display ads, according to the latest comScore figures, the race to better manage Facebook ad campaigns has assumed added significance.

Facebook itself is courting the advertising community with new tools such as Facebook Studio. The Facebook Ads API, still in beta, was launched in 2009 for third-party developers, and now has about 18 companies using it and offering ad managers to agencies and brands. They include MediaBrix Clickable, Efficient Frontier, TBG Digital, Spruce Media and AdParlor.