Social

Q&A with Brian Carter Bestselling Author of 'Facebook Marketing'

By Tinuiti Team

Mar 27 2015

This week, Social Media Keynote Speaker and 18-year digital marketer, Brian Carter joins CPC Strategy to discuss Facebook and the evolution of ecommerce for 2015.

brian-carter Carter, the#1 bestselling author of The Like Economy and Facebook Marketing has keynoted and developed marketing programs for companies of all sizes, including top 50 companies in the Fortune 500.

He has written for many top marketing blogs including Search Engine Journal and is a speaker at several marketing conferences including The AllFacebook Expo.

Following Facebook’s purchase of the personalized ecommerce search app TheFind, their development of Facebook Product ads, and the adoption of payments, there is no doubt Facebook is building the foundation to become a key player in the ecommerce community.

In an interview with CPC Strategy, Carter shares his thoughts on the potential future of Facebook as an ecommerce infrastructure.

What are your thoughts on Facebook as it transitions to ecommerce?

“Facebook ads can reach the majority of your potential customers, even in B2B. They’re the most affordable ads in many ways and their targeting ability is unparalleled. The early days of social media were focused on Twitter and themes like transparency, authenticity and conversation. I like advertising because it’s a clear and clean relationship.

I don’t have to worry that as an influencer you’re being paid to change your opinion. I don’t have to try to manipulate people with influence principles. I just pay for an ad that does a good job of getting the right customers to the right products.

When that’s done well, it’s a win for everyone- except the people who think ads are evil. But they aren’t paying us anything, so who cares what they think?

Do you believe Facebook Product ads have potential to shake up ecommerce?

“I have a lot of faith in Facebook’s engineers- they’ve created something that’s pretty viral on a gigantic scale. The ads have grown so much in functionality and power that I think that- even though their are sometimes hiccups and missteps during growth- we can expect their system to become more and more effective.

One thing you see in the growing targeting options in Facebook ads is that they keep track of everything.

If they find out people are buying certain types of products, you can expect in the future to be able to target people who buy that kind of thing. It’s great target that leads to relevance, and relevance of ads is what drives great results.”

Additional ‘how to’ material continues to surface guiding businesses to the best practices for working with Facebook as an retail platform.

Just last week, Facebook announced the launch of ‘Blueprint’, a new free educational resource for marketers on its platform. The program has 35 courses including Facebook Terminology, Direct Response Marketing and A/B Testing.

Facebook also launched ‘Learn How’ a beginner program for frequently asked questions with videos, photos and step-by-step instructional guides on how to create a Page or Custom Audience. Learn How is available in 14 languages on the Facebook for Business website.