Martech Rising: Watch Out Google, Here Comes Facebook

Google still ranks as the 800-pound gorilla on the advertising block, but if new usage data is any indication, it may be seeing stiffer competition from a familiar foe: Facebook.

Facebook Custom Audiences, which marketers can use to retarget website visitors with more relevant advertising, nearly tripled in usage share in a year-over-year comparison among major enterprise websites, according to new data collected and compiled by tag management provider Tealium (my employer), made exclusively available for Marketing Land.

Moving In On Google

Facebook Custom Audiences is now deployed on 25 percent of enterprise sites (as of April 2015), compared with only 8.4 percent the previous year, according to our findings. The advertising solution now ranks at No. 8 on Tealium’s list of Top 25 most deployed technologies, just behind Facebook Conversions, another pixel that is used to measure advertising performance. Google’s comparable solutions, AdWords Conversion and AdWords Remarketing, rank No. 2 and No. 3 on the list respectively (see full list below).

The new data suggest that global brands are looking at Facebook as a serious advertising partner; readers should examine whether Facebook fits into their advertising strategy as well.

Launched in late 2013, Facebook Custom Audiences enables advertisers to retarget consumers who have visited their digital properties. Facebook has been refining its solution by offering more format options (such as product carousels) and additional targeting options. When advertisers want to use Facebook Custom Audiences for retargeting, they are required to place a pixel on their website.

Tealium gathers its data from hundreds of enterprise clients worldwide, representing thousands of websites, that are using the company’s enterprise tag management system, Tealium iQ. The application helps marketers and IT professionals deploy any marketing vendor pixel or “tag” (code snippet) through a graphical Web interface compared to software coding.

Through its network, Tealium can see what some of the largest brands in the world are deploying on their Web and mobile properties on an aggregated basis, which it  extrapolates to the larger Web.

Despite Facebook’s recent growth in usage share, Google still ranks as the dominant force in digital marketing worldwide, accounting for the top five most deployed solutions on the Internet, according to Tealium.

Other Vendors To Watch

Here are some of the other movers and shakers in the world of martech:

• Google Universal Analytics now ranks as the No. 1 digital marketing solution, moving up from the fourth spot in April 2014. The solution, which features added functionality such as mobile app analytics, is now being used by 53 percent of enterprise sites, compared with 20 percent at this time last year when it officially came out of beta.Universal Analytics is an upgrade to Google Analytics, which dropped from 63 percent to 38 percent usage share over the last year. This shows a fast adoption rate, especially among brands using tag management vendors that help simplify these type of vendor upgrades and deployments.
• Counting both Google analytics products, as well as Adobe SiteCatalyst, IBM Coremetrics, Webtrends, and ComScore Digital Analytix, analytics-related services comprised 20 percent of the Top 25, reflecting the importance of measurement in today’s digital strategies.
• Facebook isn’t the only social marketing technology to see a boost in usage over the last year. Twitter Conversions, a pixel used to track advertising conversions, jumped from out of the Top 50 into the No. 11 spot in the latest data, showing brands are getting serious about social advertising. Twitter Conversions is now being used by 15.6 percent of enterprise sites.
• The first non-tech giant (neither Google, Facebook, Adobe or Microsoft) on the Top 25 list is … Criteo, a retargeting vendor geared toward the enterprise, which ranks at No. 10 on the list with 16.1 percent usage share. Along with Google, Facebook and AdRoll at No. 12, retargeting is becoming a leading advertising option for many brands.

Do the vendors in the Top 25 reflect your vendor mix for digital marketing? There will be obvious differences based on your business model, but the list should at least provide basic information on what the top brands are using to drive results.

It will be interesting to see how the battle between Google and Facebook plays out, as well as other key marketing technology usage trends.

Aaron Toledo, digital strategist at Tealium, contributed to this report.