Steve Hatch, MD, Facebook UK & Ireland
As marketers use ever-increasing levels of consumer data to tailor and target online ads, Facebook’s managing director, UK and Ireland, has urged agencies and brands to understand the “different degrees of personalisation”.
Responding to comments during a MediaTel mobile marketing debate on Friday that suggested increased ad personalisation is “spooking” users, Steve Hatch said he understood the issue was making marketers wary. However, he said that Facebook was fully endorsing “personalisation at scale” – ads that bring brands “one step closer” to users but without “overstepping the mark”.
Citing a test case with Ikea, in which some consumers were targeted with a regular Ikea ad and others with an ad for their local Ikea store, Hatch said the difference between the revenue outcomes was an 11% increase in footfall from the personalised ad.
However, the key, Hatch said, was making an ad that was personal without crossing a line and did not force a brand to create large quantities of bespoke creative.
“If we can go one step closer, but not so close that people reject the ad, we have something really compelling,” he said.
Hatch also cited a collaboration between Coca Cola during the US Superbowl that saw Facebook users targeted with one of 18 videos that was most “representative” of them. The result, Hatch said, led to higher click-through rates, higher levels of engagement and higher viewability.
Research produced by GfK earlier this year found that 69% of consumers find the way that some companies use personal information “creepy”, and 90% say that they prefer to do business with companies that respect user privacy.
According to Colin Strong, managing director at GfK Business & Technology, while there is an implicit assumption of a linear relationship between the personalisation of advertising and brand attachment, there comes a point when ads can become over-personalised, resulting in a serious drop-off in brand attachment.
However, according to a recent survey by Yahoo, 78 per cent of consumers said they want “some degree of personalisation” in their ads, with 62 per cent preferring a mix of algorithmic and curated content.
“To succeed in today’s fragmented media arena, advertisers will need to look beyond traditional measures such as reach and frequency, toward more contemporary and relevant metrics such as effective and engaging reach,” the company said.
“Personalisation is the pathway to advertising nirvana – placing the right ad in front of the right consumer at the right time, driven by the right data.”
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