Back in July we first wrote about the impending launch of the Facebook Ads API and today marks the launch of the first ad manager built on top of the Facebook Ads API. Alchemy, which has received just under $500,000 worth of initial funding from the TechLightnment team, is a proprietary tool for planning and buying social advertising. The initial campaigns have seen anywhere from 500 to 1,000 percent increases in click-through-rates according to the company.
TechLightenment is not exactly new to the social marketing scene. The company launched soon after the Facebook platform launched, developing custom applications for brands including the Bob Dylan application which garnered a lot of attention. The new Alchemy tool enables advertisers to create hundreds of ads for individual campaigns to run tests to determine the effectiveness of various images and copy combinations.
While I’d expect other companies to launch their own Facebook ad managers, this is the first one we’ve heard about. The company has told us that they are looking to accomplish performance at scale, which means running hundreds of ads to dramatically increase campaign performance. Want to get started with Alchemy? You’ll need an initial media spend of at least $16,000 to start working with TechLightenment.
I’d assume that we’ll see similar requirements as other third-party ad managers launch over the coming months. Scaling Facebook ad campaigns require a lot of testing and a significant budget, however investing in larger campaigns can produce better results. We’ve heard that many large affiliates are investing tens of thousands of dollars a day on Facebook Ads, making it necessary to have more robust ad manager tools.
Alchemy has already been used by companies like Samsung, GlaxoSmithKline, and Nissan. While I’m sure a number of other agencies will begin offering similar services, this is the most robust implementation of the Facebook Ads API that we’ve heard about to date. If you are looking for a robust Facebook Ads manager service, you can check out the Alchemy website for more information.
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Looks like they could use that funding to hire a proofreader. "Audiece by Location"
Comment by Jeremy — November 16, 2009 @ 8:48 am
This is a prescient move on Alchemy's part, and will no doubt; as you point out Nick; be just one of a number of companies offering such enhanced social network ad manager capabilities.
Being first will of course give them a leg up on these future competitors.
Relatedly; since they've implemented the platform for such; I would expect Facebook to at some point in the near future provide a "match box" on at least their home page, where the many millions of non-members could nevertheless also take advantage of being automatically matched (ideally with no personally-identifying information) to the products and services they're seeking (to say nothing of the obvious benefit to advertisers of millions of additional potential buyers/customers).
Doing so would also help further grow (and insure) Facebook's continuing membership increase for months and years to come.
I've posted a mock-up iteration of such a match box at MatchTo.com.
This would enable them to take advantage of the "Twitter Effect"; whereby quick, near-geometric user growth was obtained by the founders purposefully not requiring such "usage filters" as memberships, "friend requests," etc in order to follow and receive "tweets" from whomever everyone wished.
Would Twitter have even 10% of the users and followers they do today with such restrictions and requirements? Most experts think not.
Frankly, there's no reason for Facebook, MySpace, et al to limit demo/psychographic matching by keeping it tucked away behind access/usage "walls."
Like search, match should be readily available, accessible, and usable by all.
One last thought: Given their obvious difference from what have been known and referred to as "keywords" for many years now, it also wouldn't be a bad idea to clearly differentiate the superior-targeting capabilities of match over search by referring to demographic & psychographic traits by the more logical and appropriate, "keytraits."
Comment by Steve M — November 16, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
wow. steve m talks a lot of shit doesn't he?
Comment by anon — November 23, 2009 @ 11:11 am
ps: "…expect Facebook to at some point in the near future provide a “match box”…"
"Like search, match should be readily available, accessible, and usable by all."…
…conditioned on and subject to (a) proper licensing agreement(s), if available, of course.
Comment by Steve M — December 5, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
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