What: Facebook unveiled a new anonymous customer tracking tool called“Journeys” so brands can see where consumer interact with brand advertising and their paths to decision-making. We asked Andrea Lopez, head of the social media agency Socialyse in Miami, to evaluate this new Facebook tool for advertisers.
Why it matters: With Journeys, Facebook promises to make “the paths to conversion available in a single report.:This new tool will help brands decide which devices consumers use and where they convert into buyers the most, providing insight for strategizing where to best place online advertising assets.
Concerns about the privacy of users' data are rocking Facebooks world, especially in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Data, after all, is central to Facebooks business model, not to mention digital marketing at large.
Brands have a lot at stake in the effort to protect customer privacy. A single breach can destroy customer loyalty that takes years to earn.
At the recent F8 developer conference, Facebook unveiled new technology that will give brands a powerful tool to see how customers interact with their Facebook pages, web assets containing the Facebook pixel, and Facebook SDK for apps.
As with all measurement, Facebook is sure to limit third-party access and clarity on the exact measurements, leaving us to question how much stock to put in this analysis.
The bottom line is new tracking technology that both brands—and customers—can love since it gives brands powerful insights into customers behavior without revealing customers identities.
Aptly named Journeys, the new technology is part of Facebooks suite of analytics tools available to advertisers on the Facebook platform.
Journeys lights up the path customers follow when interacting with a brands presence online, revealing the multiple points customer touch online including at Facebook, on the web or a range of digital assets including apps and landing pages.
No Magic Bullet
“The new Facebook Journeys feature presents an interesting new opportunity in marketers' ongoing mission to understand how a consumer interacts with a brand or product, and the various touchpoints involved in the path to driving towards an ultimate action,” says Andrea Lopez, head of the social media agency Socialyse.
But she warned against believing in any “magic bullet” that could make advertisers jobs easier given the huge amount of information consumers are bombarded with and the devices available to them.
“As with all measurement, Facebook is sure to limit third-party access and clarity on the exact measurements, leaving us to question how much stock to put in this analysis. It will be interesting to see how brands and marketers use this data and how much of it is applicable and useful versus interesting.”
With Journeys, Facebook promises to make “the paths to conversion available in a single report.
Brands will be able to see where customers began, where they ended up and the points in between as they moved through the process of making a purchasing decision and how long customers spend on each asset and which channels they use.
“You can see omni-channel data and reporting, giving you a holistic view of the different interactions people have with your business before converting, making a purchase or subscribing,” Facebook explains on its analytics website.
Better placement of digital advertising assets resulting in increased conversions is any marketers dream.
But the way Journeys protects customers data is likely to please consumers, too, since Journey aggregates customer data anonymously to build its reports so individual data on consumers is not revealed.
Mark A. Browne
Mark A. Browne is Portada's Marketing Innovation Editor. He is a bilingual (EnglishSpanish) writer, media relations manager, and content creation professional with an established record providing journalism, copywriting and analytical content services to major publishers, PR agencies and businesses in the United States, Latin America and Europe. His award-winning career as a reporter and editor includes daily and weekly newspaper experience and free-lance writing for major print and on-line publications including US Banker, Bank Technology News, CardLine Europe, and CNSNews.
