Hootsuite Acquires Facebook Ad Manager AdEspresso
Now that organic social post reach shrinks, marketers and brands are looking for ways to further leverage their social media posts and propel engagement. For that reason, Hootsuite, the social media management platform, has decided to expand its focus to include social advertising operations by acquiring Facebook ads manager AdEspresso. In conjunction with the deal, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company also announced the re-launch of Hootsuite Ads, which will provide organizations enterprise-grade features such as testing hundreds of Facebook and Instagram ads in a shorter time and connecting an organization’s CRM with its Facebook ads account.
CMS-Connected reached out to Richard Hungerford, Sr. Director, Business & Corporate Development
at Hootsuite, who was heavily involved in the AdEspresso acquisition, to inquire about the primary driving factor behind the deal. "As the reach of organic posts has declined, paid content is becoming vital for organizations to drive business results. Compelling content must be coupled with a social advertising solution that can effectively connect that content to customers,” he said and added: “AdEspresso was a natural fit with Hootsuite for a number of reasons. They are one of Facebook's largest marketing partners globally, with over 5,000 customers and also one of the fasted growing companies in the space. Their customers have seen tremendous value from AdEspresso and we see this as an opportunity to combine paid and earned in a really powerful way for our 15 million+ users."
Founded in 2013, AdEspresso specializes in providing agencies and brands ways to create and optimize their Facebook ads through a subscription service. Since the company was launched, AdEspresso has grown 300 percent and been profitable in the recent 20 months. The company currently employs 40 people and has raised $3.2 million in venture funding from 500 Startups, Texas Atlantic Capital, VTF Capital, VentureFriends, SierraMaya360, and angel investors.
Since October 2016, Hootsuite had an alliance with AdEspresso along with five other social ads networks and referral partners, and with the inclusion of AdEspresso, the social media management platform will enable companies to not only monitor what’s being said about them but also to actively engage with their audience through the topics they are talking about online from one dashboard.
“Millions of organizations use Facebook advertising to drive the outcomes that matter most to them,” said Blake Chandlee, VP of Marketing Partnerships at Facebook. “Hootsuite’s acquisition of AdEspresso, a fast-growing Facebook Marketing Partner, shows that there’s a huge opportunity in building customized services on our open APIs to help each business meet their unique goals.”
This acquisition is part of Hootsuite’s years-long effort to fit its platform for the enterprise. The ability to connect Hootsuite with Microsoft’s chat platform Yammer announced in 2012 marked the platform’s first enterprise social network provider integration. In 2015, Hootsuite expanded its partnership with Microsoft by announcing its native integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office 365, and SharePoint as well as more capabilities tied into Yammer. Shortly after, the company also partnered with IBM by moving its App Directory, a marketplace of social applications, to IBM's SoftLayer cloud infrastructure in hopes of gaining a broader global footprint and data centers in multiple locations. In July 2016, Hootsuite has added integration with a set of cloud content platforms, including Box, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive in an effort to enable its users to access cloud-based digital content such as images, videos, and GIFs from their cloud content repositories from within Hootsuite.
Are Organic Days Really Over?
Paid and organic social media typically complement each other as each method achieves different objectives. While paid social media increases revenue in a short period of time and provides tangible and measurable values, traditionally in the form of conversions and click through rates, organic social media on the other hand, builds a long-term relationship with the audience through a brand voice. Both efforts, basically enhance each other, and those who are not doing both to some extent, are unfortunately missing out as paid advertising now accounts for 83% of marketers’ social media spending.
Between 2012 and 2014, organic reach on social dropped from 16 percent to 6 percent, and since then the trend has been declining. On the other hand, global digital advertising spend continues to soar. In fact, ad spending growth will hover between 5 percent and 9 percent each year of the forecast, with total spending climbing to $724.06 billion in 2020, according to eMarketer. The same study also predicts that by 2020, mobile’s share will climb to 73.7 percent of digital and 34.2 percent of total media ad investment.
According to the research by Clutch, the B2B ratings and reviews firm, nearly 60 percent of social media marketers say their paid social media efforts are most effective for their business while 86 percent combine organic and paid approaches. Although many industry insiders agree on the importance of prioritizing paid social media, the study surveyed 304 social media marketers from medium and large organizations in the US with 100+ employees illustrating that 54 percent of B2C marketers and 47 percent of B2B marketers are using organic social media more often than paid options:
Organic reach is the most accurate way to listen to what the community is talking about/to you while paid campaigns can reinforce your marketing efforts to convey your core message to the right audience at the right time. Combining them is an art and yet is the most effective way to engage with your community. Brands need to be extremely careful when they orchestrate both of these approaches as there is nothing more impulsive than seeing a promotion about the company when you are currently experiencing a service issue with them. Fortunately, thanks to the technology providers like Hootsuite, it is getting much easier to monitor those marketing efforts for companies.
Venus Tamturk
Venus is the Media Reporter for CMS-Connected, with one of her tasks to write thorough articles by creating the most up-to-date and engaging content using B2B digital marketing. She enjoys increasing brand equity and conversion through the strategic use of social media channels and integrated media marketing plans.