Inside Facebook

The following is an excerpt of entry in our Facebook Marketing Bible. The full version contains examples of how advertiser competition raises bid prices, and more strategies for when to pause or change the targeting of your campaigns to minimize your cost per click.

When running ads on Facebook, advertisers need to think about more than just creative and targeting to achieve optimal performance at the lowest cost.  By avoiding periods of high advertiser competition, the same performance can be achieved for lower bid prices.

Since Facebook has a limited supply of users that can be advertised to, it uses a marketplace system where the advertisers who bid the highest for a click from a certain demographic have their ads shown. To reach targets for the lowest cost per click, advertisers should consider running ads when bidding competition from other advertisers is low.

Here we’ll discuss strategies for maximizing advertising performance through strategic timing, and back up them up with data from AdParlor, a company that helps some of  the largest brands and game developers buy ads through the Facebook Ads API.

Avoiding Bid Competition

All advertisers on Facebook compete with each other to reach users, whether they’re targeting wide sets of demographics or specific niches. When more advertisers are trying to reach the same audience, the bid price required to secure impressions rises.

Facebook helps you gauge the overall supply and demand in the marketplace by providing “suggested bid” data. When suggested bid prices rise, that often means there’s more competition for the audience you’re targeting.

Ads API service AdParlor, which manages over 15 billion Facebook ad impressions a month and has provided us with reliable data on cost per click rates in the past, tracked the suggested bids Facebook provided across thousands of ads it ran each day. It compiled the data into this graph which illustrates how fluctuations in supply and demand influence the bid price necessary to attain impressions.

Near the end of the chart during early to mid August you can see a spike that’s likely due to advertisers running large “back-to-school” ad campaigns and therefore competing with each other for demographics such as teens, college students, and moms.

Minimizing Your CPC Bids

You can use an understanding of Facebook ad market dynamics to minimize the bids necessary for your ads to reach their intended audience. If your ad campaign isn’t urgent, consider pausing campaigns during seasons of peak advertising competitions such as just before the major winter gifting holidays, as well as back-to-school, Halloween, and Mother’s Day.

By closely monitoring your suggested bid prices, determining when prices are low enough to achieve a positive ROI, and pausing or shifting the targeting of your campaigns when bid prices peak, you can protect yourself from having market forces waste your advertising budget.

The full version of this article, complete with examples, and more strategies for reducing your CPC can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s complete guide to marketing and advertising through Facebook.

[Thanks to AdParlor for the data]

More Info on Facebook’s Spartan – TechCrunch reported more information about BoltJS, a UI framework designed by Facebook and written in JavaScript that runs in the browser. Apparently it’s part of Facebook’s Project Spartan, which may not be fully revealed until f8.

Facebook Settles With Lamebook – Lamebook, a humor site publishing funny Facebook posts, and Facebook settled this week. The judge refused to move the suit to California, and thus, some speculate that Facebook settled to avoid jury sympathy for the Austin-based company.

Facebook Extends Comment Period – Facebook extended the comment period for its new privacy policy to 5 p.m. Pacific on September 7. Comments may be left at Facebook’s Site Governance Page.

Facebook Testing Comment Ordering? – AllFacebook reported that Facebook seems to be testing a way for Page admins to order comments based on social ranking, chronology or reverse chronology. [Image via AllFacebook]

Facebook Pays $40,000 in Bounty Program – Facebook’s Bug Bounty program has, thus far, paid out $40,000 to people around the world who have reported issues to the company. Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan wrote a blog about the program this week with more information.

Interesting Insights on Facebook Ads – SocialCode reported some interesting trends about Facebook ads, including: women are 11% more likely to click, older women are more likely to click through and men are slightly more likely to Like an ad.

HTML5 Mobile App Allows for Connect – Nitobi, creators of PhoneGap, launched a new plugin, PhoneGap Facebook Connect. Essentially it allows users to login to HTML and JavaScript apps with their Facebook login.

Social Networks and Patents – Business Week published an interesting story examining the lack of a “patent war” when it comes to social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. One reason the magazine speculated, is that Facebook (for example) only holds 12 patents, which is to say, there aren’t as many patents to fight over.

Facebook Developer Blog: Fluid Canvas – Facebook’s Developer blog posted this week about how to build an app on Facebook with Fluid Canvas, to expand the size of apps, depending on a user’s screen resolution.

Other Announcements:

Appbistro Announces PPI Ads for Page Apps – Appbistro announced that the company now installs apps for Page admins, thus the company has seen a 190% increase in installs, recently hitting 100,000 registered Page admins.

Vitrue Releases SaaS 3.0 – Vitrue released version 3.0 of its social media platform, which includes new localization features, analytics and metrics.

Hootsuite Deepens Facebook Integration – AllFacebook reports that HootSuite has deepened its Facebook integration, specifically adding events, photos, groups, and geo-tool updates.

15% of Posts are Likejacked – Norton’s analysis of 3.5 million video posts in August found that 15% were scams, or like jacking. Norton Safe Web for Facebook is an app that may guard against this type of attack.

Music marketing software suite developer ReverbNation yesterday launched Promote It, a self-serve Ads API tool that lets musicians create automatically optimized Facebook advertising campaigns and landing pages for as little as $25. Musicians simply choose their spend, enter some similar artists, and pick a song or Facebook Page to promote, then ReverbNation targets, buys, and manages the campaign, optimizing for gaining fans and news feed shares.

Promote It appears to be the first vertical-specific self-serve Ads API tool targeting the long tail of advertisers. It could inspire similar tools aimed at retailers, local businesses, small game developers, and other advertisers who have too little spend and expertise to qualify for most Ads API tools and services aimed at bigger brands.

ReverbNation offers a comprehensive suite of email marketing, CRM, analytics and other business solutions for musicians. It includes Band Profile, the second most popular Facebook Page tab application for musicians looking to promote themselves and stream their music behind RootMusic’s BandPage. It also recently released Venue Profile which offers similar services to concert halls and bars.

Without Promote It, most musicians have had to manually buy Facebook ads to attract new fans for their Pages. At any scale, Facebook’s manual advertising interface doesn’t provide sophisticated enough A/B testing or bid management features to allow users to maximize the performance of their campaigns. Even if it did, most musicians and their teams wouldn’t have the know-how to optimize their campaigns or build compelling landing pages that convert clicks into fans and shares.

Promote It takes care of all these problems, asking musician simple questions and converting their answers into ad campaigns and landing pages. To attain the same outcome, musicians would have previously needed to spend many thousands of dollars a month with a managed spend Ads API service and thousands more for development of landing pages.

To use Promote It, musicians choose Here’s how Promote It works:

1. Which song or Facebook Page to promote
2. Five similar artists whose fans their ads will be shown to
3. Whether they want new local, domestic, any English-speaking or global fans
4. If they want to add any of their own ad copy or images to ReverbNations automatically generated ad creative variants
5. What Facebook account to sync the account with
6. How much they want to spend on the campaign, as little as $25

One drawback of Promote It is the lack of transparency in ReverbNation’s margins on ad spend. Rather than using a traditional cost per acquisition or percentage of total spend model, musicians don’t any goals for their campaign’s budget, and ReverbNation doesn’t cite how much it spends some on ads and how much it keeps.

The company’s COO Jed Carlson tells us that this is because the “quality of an artist’s music and photo is highly deterministic of what we pay for conversions”. Early tests of Promote It showed artists end up paying around $1 per new fan, though a catchy song and ad creative can significantly reduce this. Still, some musicians might not be comfortable allowing ReverbNation to decide how many new fans they deserve for their spend, even if the service is a big improvement over running the ads manually.

ReverbNation currently has 1.7 million total clients, and 250,000 more use its competitor RootMusic’s Facebook service. Promote It could therefore turn into a huge revenue stream for ReverbNation, as well as a key selling point for attracting musicians seeking to score new fans for their Facebook Pages.

Perhaps even more significant are the implications for the Facebook Ads API and advertising world as a whole. If similar tools for other verticals proliferate, smaller advertisers could gain access to the same performance-enhancing capabilities that major brands use to get the most for their spend. With Facebook recently opening the Ads API after years of private beta testing, developers could help level the playing field for advertisers in specific industries while taking healthy cuts of spend for themselves.

Facebook recently added the ability to target advertisements by Topic, as detailed in its new Interests Targeting guide (.PDF). Rather than targeting users that Like a specific Page, advertisers can simultaneously target all users who Like any variation of a word or phrase. For example, rather than just targeting fans of Lady Gaga, by selecting the #Lady Gaga Topic, an ad will also be shown to fans of any unofficial Pages for the musician, such as “I ♥ Lady Gaga”.

The new targeting option, available in both the self-serve ads tool and the Ads API, will help advertisers expand the reach of their ads to more relevant users. It will be especially handy for less experienced advertisers who might not know to explicitly target keywords related an interest of their customers.

Topic targeting joins Facebook’s two other interest targeting options: the original, default Precise Interest targeting for advertising to fans of a specific Page; and the relatively new Broad Category targeting for advertising to wide ranges of users with similar profile characteristics such as newlyweds, or Likes of any Page related to large category such as football.

Advertisers employing Precise Interest Targeting can miss out on showing their ads to relevant people because Facebook users sometimes Like related or unofficial versions of Pages rather than the official version owned by the company or celebrity the Pages represent. These users might be willing to click through ads and make purchases, so missing them through Precise Interest targeting hurts ad performance.

With the new Topic targeting option, when advertisers type in a keyword to target in the Precise Interest targeting section of the self-serve ad tool, the typeahead will now bring up Topics denoted with a hash (#) tag in addition to specific Pages. Advertisers can select these #topics to include anyone who Likes official, related, or unofficial Pages associated with that Topic.

Topics also now appear as targeting suggestions. This means if an advertisers targets Lady Gaga as a Precise Interest, Facebook will show suggestions to also target the #Lady Gaga topic to reach additional users. These suggestions might also include additional pop music singer Precise Interests such as Katy Perry or Beyoncé, and Topics such as #Beyoncé Knowles.

Topic Targeting Strategies

Advertisers using keyword targeting should consider simultaneously running Precise Interest targeted ads and Topic targeted ads as separate campaigns, as this will allow them to determine how effective Topic targeting is. Targeting multiple topics within the same campaign may make it difficult to refine targeting to the best responding demographics, so advertisers should consider running ads for different Topics in different campaigns.

Those targeting a variety of specific keywords should think about which are the most relevant to their customers and try also targeting the corresponding Topics. Targeting too many Topics may dilute ad spend. There may be a higher probability that fans of unofficial Pages encompassed by Topic targeting are less savvy Facebook users than those that are fans of official Pages. Therefore, advertisers pitching more sophisticated products and services may receive more unqualified clicks by targeting Topics.

Less experienced advertisers, those with smaller budgets, and those with less time time to spend managing ads have a lot to gain from Topic targeting, as reduces the need to identify a wide range of individual but related keywords. Advanced advertisers using the Ads API tools and services should consider adding Topic targeting into their A/B tests to determine when Topic targeting can improve ad performance for their specific business.

With Topic targeting and the recently launched zip code targeting, Facebook is significantly increasing the ways advertisers can reach potential customers on Facebook. By providing an easier experience for novice advertisers and opening new strategies for veterans, Facebook may be able to ride these new feature launches into increased advertising revenue.

More Facebook advertising strategies, including how to run integrated marketing campaigns that combine ads and Sponsored Stories with Pages and apps, can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible.

[Thanks to Eti Suruzon for the tip]

Last week, Facebook launched a new ad targeting option that allows advertisers to show their ads to users in specific zip codes. Blinq Media, a major Facebook Ads API tool provider for ad agencies, now tells us its early tests show that zip code targeted ads have nearly twice as high a click through rate than city-targeted ads, and have a higher frequency per use cap.

These findings indicate that zip code targeting could make Facebook Ads significantly more valuable to local advertisers, which could draw in more local and small businesses and drive Facebook’s revenues.

Previously, Facebook advertisers could only geotarget ads as specifically as the city where a user lives, leading them to pay for less relevant clicks. In many cities, and especially major metropolitan areas, advertisers might be trying to drive foot traffic from users who lived several miles from their business. Advertisers couldn’t target specific neighborhoods which house their customer demographics.

Zip code targeting is now available in the Facebook self-serve ads tool and the recently publicly launched Ads API. A Facebook spokesperson tells us that “Facebook uses a variety of information to help us determine a person’s zip code.” We believe this might include a user’s IP address and internet service provider as well as the current city and address information users list in their profiles.

Zip Code Targeting Performance and Strategies

Blinq Media received early alpha access to the zip code targeting option about two weeks ago and has been testing it since. Its CTO Luis Caballero tells us that “Zip code targeting allows you to be much more refined and exact with targeting, and  you can deliver a much more relevant message to a local audience.” This increased relevance led to a “click through rate that was nearly two times” that of ads targeted to a city.

Typically, the frequency of Facebook ads — the number of times a single user sees an ad — only reaches one or two in an average campaign. Caballero tells us zip code targeting appears to allow advertisers to surpass this cap and reach a frequency of three or four. This could significantly increase recall for these advertisers, and drive both clicks and foot traffic.

Caballero recommends that advertisers target their ads broadly at first, determine what cities clicks are coming from, then test to hone in on the optimal zip codes. He tells us that if advertisers “go through that approach and be methodical and scientific, they’ll probably get a much higher performance” than targeting cities.

The option opens up many new advertising strategies. Local restaurants or bars could advertise to those in walking distance. Non-local businesses could customize their ad creative to be especially relevant to individual zip codes by noting local landmarks. Similar to education history targeting, businesses with especially high-end or low-end products could target neighborhoods with the right socio-economic profile.

Blinq Media has already integrated zip code targeting into its licensable tool, and expect other Ads API tool and service providers to move quickly to add the option as well. If Facebook can raise awareness of this new tool for local advertisers and its performance potential, it could secure grow one of its core revenue sources.

In a move that could accelerate the consolidation of ecommerce, marketing games, and Facebook Ads API companies into Page management giants, Buddy Media has raised a $54 million Series D round of funding. The funding comes from late-stage investors GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Bay Partners and Insight Venture Partners. GGV, Institutional Venture Partners and Bay Partners and values the company at $500 million.

Buddy Media now has capital to acquire developers that can help its brand clients produce a direct return on social media investment, engage their fans, and efficiently run high-performing ad campaigns. The funding will also go towards building out its sales, support, and product teams,  and opening more  international offices.

Buddy Media has grown to become the largest of the Facebook Page management companies, helping brands run and promote their presence on the social network. The company succeeded by raising funding and scoring big name clients early, and now boasts hundreds of high profile clients, a team of over 200 employees, and European headquarters in London. Buddy Media raised a $23 million round in October 2010, part of which likely went to acquiring social ecommerce and analytics developer SpinBack in May.

An IPO could be in Buddy Media’s future as it recently hired Dennis Morgan as its chief financial officer, who helped led corporate finance for Yahoo! as it completed over $5 billion in acquisitions. GGV partner Jeff Richards will join the company’s board of directors, alongside Facebook’s first sales executive Kevin Colleran, who joined last month. The CEO of consulting firm MediaLink, Michael Kassan, will become Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow’s special advisor.

With time, Facebook has incorporated more native Page management functionality, and free tools have proliferated. Low and middle-tier Page management companies may face commodification of their services. However, Buddy Media’s focus on enterprise-level solutions is proving lucrative as the world’s biggest brands require advanced tools to apply the marketing spend they’re shifting shift to social.

Capital for Acquisitions in Ecommerce, Games, and Ads API

With plenty of cash on hand, Buddy Media could hire new product teams or acquire developers so it can widen and strengthen its service offering in verticals that emerging as important to Facebook brand presence.

It already acquired SpinBack, whose technology lets brands encourage sharing of ecommerce products and purchases, and track additional sales generated by these shares. Still, it could look to purchase a full-fledged ecommerce store, or the developer of apps that let users pay for purchases with Facebook Credits so clients can process sales from their Page a make a direct ROI. Potential targets include Beetailer, Zibaba, and Moontoast. Page management competitor and prevalent consolidation force Vitrue recently partnered with ecommerce developer Milyoni to gain access to these types of technology.

Marketing-focused game development is becoming more important to Page management as brands look to drive sustained engagement, exposure, and sharing. There are plenty of small game design houses ripe for acquisition that could bring their suite of games as well as their team to Buddy Media. GamesThatGive, which makes games that trigger charity donations when played, was acquired by Vitrue last month, and we believe this type of consolidation will become more common in the next year.

Perhaps the most important decision Buddy Media will have to make with its new funding is how to integrate with the Facebook Ads API, which lets tool and service providers programmatically access Facebook’s ads system to create, buy, manage, and track large scale advertising campaigns. Facebook ads help brands gain fans for the Pages, and the new Sponsored Stories ad unit is triggered by Page content and fan interactions, so having a combined Page management and Ads API solution is optimal for clients. Ads API tool and service providers can earn millions of dollars by taking a percentage of a brand’s total spend.

With the Ads API out of beta and now publicly available, Buddy Media could build its own team and develop an Ads API tool. Alternatively it could acquire one of the smaller brand-focused Ads API developers such as Brighter Option, GraphEffect, or XA.net. This would follow the trend of consolidation between social marketing and Ads API, as Experian acquired Techlightenment in January and Efficient Frontier acquired Context Optional in May.

One day, Facebook’s native tools may be good enough and brand marketing departments may become sophisticated enough to reduce the need for third-party Page management solutions. But for now, by buying or building out tools critical to a brand’s Facebook presence, Buddy Media can continue to sign  big clients as they wake up to social media and redirect marketing spend their from TV and search.

Facebook today announced it would be migrating the now publicly available Ads API from the legacy REST API to the Graph API by January 2012, and that programmatic access to new features will only be available via the Graph API. Developers of Ads API tools and services that allow for efficient management of massive Facebook ad campaigns should look to migrate as soon as possible to retain access to forthcoming improvements.

Facebook has also released the source code for the Ads Power Editor, its internally developed Ads API tool, to provide a development example..

The Ads API was officially launched to the public at the beginning of August after nearly two years of private beta testing with a limited set of partners. It joined the Pages and Insights APIs to form the Facebook Marketing APIs.

The Ads API permits developers to devise apps that manage Facebook ads programmatically, permitting simultaneous creation of thousands of ad variants, dynamic bid optimization, and deep analytics. These functionalities are crucial to running large scale ad campaigns for brands and game developers at the lowest possible cost.

The Ads API spawned a whole industry of licensable tool and managed spend service providers. We’ve reviewed the offerings of many of these companies, including those catering specifically to certain verticals such as TBG Digital for brands, AdParlor for game developers, Spruce Media for direct response advertisers, and Efficient Frontier for those also running search advertising.

The migration announcement should set the development teams of these companies into high gear so they can provide their customers with the latest improvement to the Ads API, such as new Sponsored Stories ad unit types, analytics data fields, and targeting options. With single clients sometimes representing millions in ad spend, no Ads API provider would want to lose their edge to competitors that have migrated from the legacy REST API to the Graph API before the January deadline.

Developers who’ve been approved to access the Ads API and have migrated to the Graph API will need users to authorize their ads apps with ads_management permission. The developers may then begin making Graph API calls on their behalf. The new Ads on the Graph API documentation provides for details on migrating and Ads API use.

By looking at the Ads Power Editor source code, developers can learn how to build basic functionality for creating campaigns, buying ads, managing bids, and reporting performance. By moving to the modern, widely used Graph API and providing example code, development of Ads API tools should become easier. This could lead to creation of more niche Ads API tools and services for specific industries.

Facebook today announced the official launch of Ads API, which allows developers to create tools and services that programmatically create, buy, and manage Facebook ad campaigns. The Ads API had been in limited private beta since late 2009, and has been used by brands via third-party providers to run and optimize multi-million dollar ad campaigns too complex to conducted through Facebook’s self-serve ad tool.

Developers can now apply to join the program, which may lead to the rise of many new Ads API tool and service providers. The influx might create new small acquisition targets for Page management companies, or commodify ads management, with an economy tier of tools and services emerging to serve smaller advertisers. Alternatively it might lead Page management companies to build ads products and services in-house, slowing the recent wave of consolidation between the two industries.

Before the start of the Ads API program, the bulk uploader system for the manual self-serve tool was the most efficient way to run ads on Facebook. This restricted large scale ad purchase, A/B testing and dynamic bid optimization, making it difficult for advertisers to obtain optimal performance and see the potential of Facebook ads.

Until now, only a few dozens developers had been admitted into the Ads API beta program, making those with access attractive for partnerships and acquisitions. With big advertisers increasingly moving spend to Facebook and few providers but few companies, those few with access had the potential to make a lot money.

Some offered full-service managed spend where the provider would collect the margin it could make after arranging a cost per click or cost per action with advertisers. Others developed licensable tools for advertisers and agencies and charged a percentage of total spend. The lucrative business led to the quick rise of companies such as TBG Digital, Spruce Media, and AdParlor, as well as Facebook ad divisions of search advertising providers like Efficient Frontier.

This morning, Facebook reached out to us saying “Today, Facebook’s Ads API is out of beta and available for developers”. Those with plans to build an Ads API tool or service can now apply for the program. The application process requires developers to explain what they plan to build, what resources they’re dedicating to the build, and to have run more than 10 million Facebook ad impressions. It says those planning to “build value for users and marketers” are most likely to be accepted, and those that apply can expect a response within two weeks.

This increase in access to the Ads API will undoubtedly impact that third-party Facebook tool and service provider landscape. Experian recently bought Ads API developer Techlightenment, and Vitrue partnered with TBG Digital, but these types of companies might now be more inclined to develop their own ads products. Before, most ad tool or service providers required a minimum spend on the advertiser’s part, but free basic tools might bring efficient ads management to local and small businesses.

In the end, the one standing to gain the most is Facebook, which is now billing the Ads, Pages, and Insights API as the combined Facebook Marketing API program. More competition among third-party providers should reduce their fees, drawing the long-tail of advertisers in, with improved ad performance inspiring greater spend. It will also allow big Page management companies with large lists of existing brands to integrate the Ads API, leading big brands to easily pair its Facebook Page and application campaigns with ads.

Facebook Set for Another Oregon Datacenter – Facebook announced this week that it would build another data center on its Prineville, Oregon campus. Construction is set to begin in October.

Facebook to Expand in Seattle – Facebook is currently looking for more office space in Seattle, according to GeekWire. The company wants as much as 40,000 square feet more that might accommodate about 200 more people (the office is currently at about 40).

Privacy Glitch Makes Videos Public – TechCrunch reported that this week Facebook’s video privacy settings stopped working, allowing users to see listings, names, thumbnails, descriptions and tagged users in others’ videos. The company reported it had addressed the issue.

Alleged Facebook Owner Ceglia’s Case gets Complicated – Paul Ceglia is the man who claims to own half of Facebook. His lawsuit against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg is playing out in New York, and he recently lost a fourth law firm in his case. Edelson McGuire just withdrew from the case, according to AllThingsD, as did DLA Pipe, Lippes Mathias, Wexler Friedman and Connors & Vilardo earlier this year.

Also, a Scathing Profile of Paul Ceglia – The Buffalo News wrote a scathing and very unflattering profile of would-be Facebook co-owner Paul Ceglia. Acquaintances and classmates basically call him a con artist, shyster, joke, grifter, lowlife and more. [Image Via Facebook]

User Ads Generated by Ad Companies – John Battelle wrote an interesting post this week detailing how he found out a company (AppSumo) that wasn’t Facebook was using his likeness in an ad, and that this apparently violated Facebook’s terms of service, promoting the social network to look into the issue.

Topps Buys Facebook Gift Card Provider – AllThingsD reported this week that Topps, the trading card company, purchased GMG Entertainment, the company which makes Facebook Credits gift cards. The terms of the purchase were not released.

Vodafone Releases Facebook Phone – Vodafone’s 555 Blue is a “Facebook phone” designed to be popular in emerging markets like India. The phone allows users to logon to Facebook when the phone is turned on, and open an account if they don’t already have one. [Image Via Vodafone]

LivingSocial Shutters Visual Bookshelf – AllFacebook reported this week that, after four years, LivingSocial is closing its Visual Bookshelf app and encouraging users to export their accounts to GoodReads.

Other Announcements:

Migrate Facebook to Google+ – Lifehacker reported this week on how to migrate your Facebook profile data to Google+.

North Social Releases Facebook Faux Pas – North Social released a series of 11 “fan Page fail” videos this week featuring the hapless Jonny Like who demonstrates what not to do to grow your Page’s community.

Trulia, Real Estate Social Search – Trulia.com is a social recommendation service using Facebook to leverage word-of-mouth when it comes to buying and selling real estate.

Shoutlet Releases 4.0 Analytics – Shoutlet released the 4.0 version of its platform this week with better analytics and the ability to take these and transform them into graphics.

Webtrends this week released a end-to-end Facebook Page management and tab application suite called Webtrends Social, which can manage Pages, build apps, and track ad conversions. Originally a web analytics company, Webtrends acquired custom social app developer and do-it-yourself app building platform Transpond in August 2010, and has since added more Facebook services.

The launch of free, middle-market, and enterprise tiers of Webtrends Social will put the company in competition with a variety of players in the Page management industry.

Webtrends Social combines a great deal of functionality, allowing clients to post to, moderate, and track performance of their Facebook Page; install pre-made apps or build their own, and track the conversion on custom events of ads leading to their Pages and apps. Webtrends will continue to offer its previously available Facebook ads managed spend, DIY app platform, and custom app development services.

The only thing really missing from the product is the ability to buy and target Facebook ad campaigns, which clients still have to do through Facebook.com or another Facebook Ads API tool or service. If Webtrends were to build or acquire an ad buying product, it could become perhaps the most comprehensive licensable Facebook marketing tool available.

Clients can get most of the functionality for free, though they can only use it on one Page, and they can only build one app. For $250 a month per Page with less than 100,000 fans they can build 5 apps buys the ability per Page. The enterprise tier offers unlimited app building for Pages of any size, plus collaboration capabilities and enhanced campaign analytics at the price of $3000 a month per Page.

This pricing model’s free tier lets potential enterprise clients get an accurate sense of the power of the product. For many smaller companies the free tier could be all they need — allowing Webtrends to edge out less robust free and even low cost tool. A mid-level pricing tier for Pages of any size could make the product better suited for the middle market. Also, the enterprise tier’s per Page model would become to expensive for companies with a corporate / local structure that have dozens or even hundreds of Pages to manage.

Wide Feature Set

The Pages dashboard lets clients view Page growth analytics, see where Page views are sourced from, and track the fan counts of competitors. The Page walls moderation feature lets admins assign posts to teammates, filter the stream to find objectionable posts, and set up keyword blacklists or use a pre-defined list of “bad words”. The Post tab lets clients compose and schedule news feed posts.

Webtrends Social’s app suite includes a wide variety of app templates that can be customized and installed on Pages. Some of the content apps clients can choose from include Twitter, YouTube, landing tabs, coupons flash and HTML, while engagement apps include a quiz, sweepstakes, polls, surveys, and photo manipulation. The product provides analytics on performance and user demographics of the apps so admins can determine what app types and designs best engage fans.

Advertisers can give Webtrends Social permission to access their Facebook ads account. They then import an existing Facebook ad campaign, assign it to the Page app it leads to, and select a conversion metric such as Facebook, Twitter, or email shares. Clients can then view a funnel to determine the post-click success of their ad campaign

Webtrends Social provides much more functionality than most free tools offer. Peter Yared, VP of social technology platforms for Webtrends, says the product will be a “signficant threat to those offering a free or low end tier” Page management solution. We agree, as most other free Page management solutions aren’t nearly as full-featured or polished, and clients could use another low cost app developer to round out their app selection.

The lower tiers should encourage potential enterprise clients to try out the product. Large businesses interested in executing their Facebook strategy themselves will now have another option in addition to Buddy Media, Vitrue, Context Optional, Involver, Syncapse, Wildfire, and other social media management platforms. A trend of consolidation in the Facebook marketing industry has been gaining steam, with a few of these companies having been partnered or been acquired by Ads API partners such that their clients can buy ads through their platforms.

While Webtrends Social can track ad conversion, it can’t be used to buy ads. Yared says the industry is “definitely going to see consolidation and roll up especially amongst players that are campaign based. Within a year, we expect to see about three to five players in the space.” Having already acquired Transpond, Webtrends might try to solidify its position by buying an ad buying tool and offering a truly integrated solution.