Back in January, the question of whether or not
Facebook's Facebook Exchange (FBX) would truly be a game changer was raised. We asked: would it threaten Google? In March, Newsday wrote that Facebook and the FBX had their targets locked on Google.
In April, FBX ads made their way on to the news feed.
Long story short: FBX hasn't gone away, and it's only getting bigger and better. Just today, Adara, a big data company focused on targeting traveler audiences, announced that it now
participates on FBX.
The company claims to receive "real-time search and booking data directly from 45 of the world's leading airlines, hotel and travel
distribution companies." With that kind of data to work with, users could start to see very relevant advertisements popping up all over Facebook.
But it also got me thinking that
travel advertisers make perfect sense as the ultimate FBX-ers. Think about it for a second. Big, beautiful pictures of the destination, a social atmosphere to talk about upcoming trips, something that
people truly plan and get excited for, and individuals prepared to spend lots of money. What's missing?
Does a company like Adara hold the blueprints for the perfect FBX campaign?
Can they get the right mix of people that have looked at a certain destination, a mix of people that have booked it, a mix of people that have already been, and get all of them talking about it? That
doesn't just seem great for the advertisers, it seems great for the consumers too.
Proper retargeting, to me, only seems like half of the potential on FBX. The rest of the potential
revolves around getting people to talk -- in real-time.