Facebook (FB) Debuts Mobile Bandwidth Targeting for Advertisers

People in high-growth countries around the world are coming online at a staggering rate, and a majority are accessing the Internet via mobile networks.¹ In these countries, a mobile phone is much more than a way to place calls and send messages. It’s often a true lifeline, providing information about prices at markets, health care, banking, employment, entertainment and everything in between.

The flip side of this rapid change is that network speeds in high-growth countries can vary and infrastructure is constantly changing. This fragmented environment makes it difficult for businesses to reach people with valuable experiences on their mobile devices. That’s why we’re launching a new feature that enables advertisers to reach people based on the network connection — 2G, 3G or 4G — they most often use when accessing Facebook.

Facebook already offers the option to reach people based on the type of device they use (smart phones, feature phones and tablets), as well as device model and operating system. However, advertisers also told us that having the ability to segment based on network connection type would help them create better ad experiences.

Targeting by mobile network type helps advertisers choose creative that will run smoothly on any given device and connection speed. For example, serving a video ad to people in Indonesia with 2G connections may mean wasted impressions if people are unable to load the video or it buffers for minutes when clicked. Optimizing the creative — for instance, targeting a video campaign to people with high-speed connections, and swapping in an image or link ad for people with slower connections — means ads can perform more efficiently for the people seeing them.

Paying attention to the details of how people are connecting can also help advertisers craft more compelling localized campaigns. For example, say a device manufacturer in the Philippines is launching a new model designed for first-time smart phone buyers. In order to reach people who may be ready to upgrade their phone, the manufacturer might want to reach an audience of people that use feature phones and also have access to a 3G or 4G network.

Advertisers like Vodafone in India are testing these new targeting capabilities with good early results. “We are excited about the new mobile targeting option on Facebook which allows us sharper targeting to a relevant audience,” says Ronita Mitra, Senior Vice President, Brand Communication, Insights and Online, Vodafone India. “We hope to see more such technology innovations across the industry.”

Beginning today, bandwidth targeting is available to advertisers around the world via the Ad Create tool, Power Editor and the API. As with all targeting options we offer, this feature was built with privacy in mind. All data is anonymous; audiences for mobile network targeting are developed by aggregating groups of people based on primary connection-type.

People want fast, efficient experiences on their phones. Our hope is that mobile network targeting can improve the experience people have with Facebook ads by helping advertisers deliver the right experience while respecting people’s device bandwidth and data costs.