Secure on a bank of 750 million members, Facebook has come out with a program targeted at advertisers. On Monday, the social media giant officially launched Ads API (Application protocol interface), for developers. The tool is expected to help marketers scale their Facebook presence across Pages, Ads and Insights.
“The Ads API doesn’t provide new functionality, but it helps people do things at scale,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Developers and marketing companies will likely be the ones to build on the Ads API, but this opens up the opportunity for businesses of all sizes to use it.”
Programmable access to Facebook’s advertising platform afforded by this tool will make it possible to create and manage campaigns in bulk, track ad performance and execute different bidding strategies. The tools is geared towards developers who manage campaigns for brands that are too complex to be conducted via Facebook’s self-serve ad tool.
For marketers, APIs will allow them to build the internal tools that best address their specific needs, integrate the tools within the system and thereby allow them to efficiently and creatively manage their marketing programs on the social network.
As far as tool developers and agencies are concerned, APIs will help their clients take full advantage of the array of solutions that Facebook offers for marketers. Use of APIs allows them to meet the needs of more specific markets such as very large advertisers, advertisers in specific verticals or communities with unique needs such as non-profit organizations.
How to get access to the APIs:
Page API and Insights API
The pages API and Insights API are open to the public and do not require an application. Any one can start building applications that help marketers with their Page management and Insights measurement activities immediately.
Ads API
To gain application to the Ads API an online application needs to be submitted. Those applications that will build value for both users and marketers are likely to be accepted.
Until now, the ads API which has been in the beta stage since 2009 had admitted only a few dozen developers, making those with access attractive for partnerships and acquisitions. With bid advertisers increasingly moving their advertisement spend to Facebook, those with API access had the potential to make a lot of money.
With the roll out of the API to a broader audience, both large and small advertisers could soon see the release of many new tools that will make advertising on Facebook a more efficient process.
Insidefacebook.com is of the opinion that the ultimate gainer of the Ads API will be Facebook itself. Competition among third-party providers would lead to reduced fees, thereby, attracting advertisers, and, improved ad performance would bring in more spends. The social media network now bills the Ads, Pages and Insights API under the combined Facebook Marketing API Program.
It remains to be seen whether Facebook ads will pose competition to rival Google AdWords. Though the two are different in many ways, the ability to create and manage Facebook campaigns just as easily as AdWords campaign might prompt some advertisers to allocate more to their Facebook budgets.