As social media have evolved, AdParlor has been at the intersection of users and social networks. You might have read last week’s news announcement that we’re doing that again as we integrate TriVu Media—a YouTube advertising expert—with our AdParlor social media marketing platform.
For reference, TriVu pioneered technology that helps large advertisers target and curate brand safe YouTube content aligned with the client’s target consumer. The next logical step was to fold this technology into AdParlor so we could cover the broadest range of social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, all from one platform.
Let’s Talk Social Video
While Adknowledge now has the ability to provide ad placement on all major video sources with built-in transparency and scalability, it’s easy to see that social video—the marriage of video content and advertising on social networks—has become an essential part of the consumer experience. In fact, that important point is becoming even more critical as younger generations spend more time on mobile platforms. A five-ounce phone has replaced the 50-inch living room TV; advertisers need to understand that social is where eyeballs are going, and ad budgets necessarily need to follow.
Naturally, we’re placing emphasis on YouTube not only because of its massive worldwide user base, but also because of targeting capabilities—both for users and content. Think, for example, about the power of this scenario: you search “2016 Toyota Corolla test drive” on YouTube, and before the video runs, a pre-roll ad for the Honda Civic pops up. That kind of a campaign not only (momentarily) steals share of voice, it would have the added benefit of driving a competitor a bit crazy!
Making the Social Connections
The social media marketing questions are clear: How can we take what we’ve learned from video on Facebook and translate that into targeting users and consumers on Twitter? How do we take what we’ve learned from running a campaign across YouTube and use that information to do a better job segmenting and targeting on Instagram? It comes down to understanding and properly interpreting the insights those campaigns yield. And because we can do that—across all four big social networks—we make the next campaign more effective. For our clients, that improved efficiency translates into better results and stronger ROI. We live for that stuff.
Another big issue: understanding how to work cross-channel and how videos run across those social networks. It’s an important concept because many brands are confused about what it means to run an ad on YouTube versus Facebook versus Twitter versus Instagram. For those advertisers that think they can just take their 30-second TV spots and slap them onto Facebook, well, they’ve got a learning curve to navigate.
What’s the Takeaway?
AdParlor’s clients will now be able to engage audiences on the four most important social networks in the world from one place, a level of service no other company in the industry can offer. In addition to helping brands and agencies develop, launch, manage, optimize and analyze campaigns, AdParlor’s ability to provide cross-platform insights distinguishes us from the rest of the industry. We can take what we learn from a campaign on, for example, YouTube, and apply those insights to audience targeting on other social networks. That’s a game-changer.
Like most game changing scenarios, it hasn’t come easy. But we’ve figured it out—and the brands and agencies doing business with us are reaping the benefits.