Highlights from Facebook's Global Partner Summit 2017

Facebook Global Partner Summit 2017

Our team traveled to San Francisco last week to attend the Global Partner Summit, Facebook’s annual event for Partners to hear about product roadmaps, trends and best practices for Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. The theme for this year’s summit was ‘Build Beyond,’ an invitation for Partners to be bold in how we build and grow with Facebook’s products.

The first day of the summit focused on Facebook’s current products and solutions and how to best leverage them. Day two introduced holistic solutions and opportunities for serving small businesses and industry verticals. An enormous amount of information and case studies were presented in two days, but we’ve highlighted three of our top takeaways below:

Key Opportunities for Facebook Advertisers

  • Video- There’s been an 80% growth year over year in the amount of time people spend watching videos online, so it’s no surprise that video was one of the main topics of the Global Partner Summit. Many of the talks and breakout sessions discussed creative ways to use video to increase ad engagement and why it’s important to take a mobile-first approach. The consumer shift toward video content is evident in the introduction of products like Instagram Stories and Facebook Watch, as well as an increasing number of ad types that support video.
  • Creative Measurement– Good creative is an important part of any ad, but how can you know what makes “good creative”? The answer is found by constantly creating, testing and iterating. Speakers highlighted examples of companies who have successfully grown by using substantially more creatives (some using as many as 45 images in a single campaign). Facebook is introducing tools like Creative Hub to help advertisers test, collaborate, learn and explore new creative possibilities.
  • Segments– 70 million businesses are using Facebook, but only 5 million are currently advertising. Facebook hopes to increase this number by focusing on high-value segments like small and medium businesses (SMBs) with special attention on growing verticals such as automotive and entertainment. To grow the travel vertical, this will involve creating more solutions and support for sub-verticals such as cruises, transportation, travel agencies and more.

We look forward to seeing how the advertising trends and products that were presented at the Global Partner Summit will develop over the next year. One of the biggest reminders from the event is that the advertisers that are willing to “move fast and break things” will see the most success in a platform that is ever-changing and improving. As a Facebook Partner, we’ll do our part to test and measure new products and features while continuing to grow and serve the travel industry.

Facebook Global Partner Summit 2017

To learn more about the Facebook Global Partner Summit, check out Facebook’s Partner News page. You can also catch some of the recorded keynotes speeches on the Marketing Partners Facebook page.

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