Facebook recently updated their “Flyers” advertising platform. Previously, it had been limited to targeting by location or school, and ad buys were handled on a CPM basis. I remember the joy of waxing nostalgic after seeing flyers for Syracuse keg parties 2 years after I’d graduated. Early on, these flyers were mostly used in the same way that a flyer posted on a residence hall bulletin board is used: to promote parties, concerts, and used junk for sale.

As Facebook continues to evolve beyond a college-centric social network, so has their Flyer service. While you are still able to use the old CPM-based system, the new Flyers Pro system allows you to bid on a much more advertiser-friendly CPC basis. Additionally, you are able to go beyond demographic targeting and target users based on the interests listed in their profiles. We’re currently testing Flyers Pro with a few of our clients, and are excited to see how it all works out.

With SEM, we often make the assumption that when someone is searching for something, they have a genuine interest in that thing, or from a marketing standpoint, an interest in making a purchase related to that thing. While this is a fairly strong assumtion to make, it’s not always accurate. A lot of searching is done strictly for the purpose of gathering information. With a social network like Facebook, users are opting to display things that they are genuinely interested in, or even better, things they want everyone to know that they’re genuinely intersted in. Allow me to elaborate, and you’ll get a taste of how my mind works:

A girl hears a song on The Hills, and absolutely loves it, so she types some of the lyrics into Google. Now she knows who sings it, but she doesn’t want everyone thinking she just found out about it tonight, right? So she logs in to Facebook, and puts the singer’s name in the Favorite Music section of her profile (don’t worry, she’s savvy enough to know to how to hide this story from her News Feed). Now as far as her friends are concerned, this girl has been a fan since day one. In your wildest dreams, could you imagine a better person to show an ad for that singer’s new CD to? With Facebook’s new Flyers Pro service, we are able to do just that.

The ability to target users based on these self-selected interests has the potential to be valuable asset to our clients. If you’re interested in working with us using Facebook Flyers Pro, or if you have any additional insight on the new platform, feel free to contact us.