Facebook Exchange in Brazil

The market for real-time bidding has great potential for Brazil and is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. In this article we will look at the current status of Facebook Exchange in the country and how companies can benefit from this platform.

Programmatic Marketing in Brazil

The introduction of Facebook Exchange, or FBX, in recent years saw the potential for programmatic marketing in Brazil to expand greatly, mostly due to Brazilian users extraordinary affinity towards the social network itself. Research continuously show that Brazilians are deeply engaged with social networks and the opportunity to target and re-target specific users in real time during daily Facebook usage can be a powerful tool to increase sales and brand awareness.

The potential for programmatic marketing, and specifically in the case of FBX, is starting to grab the attention of the Brazilian advertising market, as recently published data shows the largely positive results from the growth of real-time bidding. According to the big data company Datamonk, Brazilian RTB ad publishers saw a 599% increase of traffic in 2014, and the Latin America market RTB spend grew 232% during the same year. A forecast by analyst e-Marketer indicates that the RTB market in Brazil could grow to USD 69 million by 2017, mostly driven by the introduction of FBX for the Brazilian market.

Brazilian Users Engagement Towards Facebook

To better understand the opportunities provided by FBX in Brazil, it is necessary to take a look at the engagement of Brazilian users towards social networks and Facebook itself. Research from September 2014 by market analyst ComScore regarding social networks in Brazil provides relevant statistics about engagement towards Facebook.

Number of Daily Users

Brazil has over 30 million daily social network users, or close to half of the total audience in Latin America, which is much further ahead than countries like Argentina and Mexico that has an average of 7 million daily users. Most of this audience is divided between the age groups of 15-24 and 25-34.

Time Spent on Social Networks

Perhaps the most interesting statistic about social networks in Brazil regard how much time is spent by the country’s users. The average number of minutes per social network visits by Brazilians was measured at 18.5, the highest average in all the markets analysed in the research. This leads the country to second place in the total amount of time spent on social networks in the world. In fact, this same research shows that 10% of all time spent on social networks globally comes from Brazil.

Facebook Relevance

ComScore’s research shows that Facebook alone is responsible for 96.7% of all time spent on social networks in Brazil, a number that combined with the total engagement towards social networks in the country shows its incredible relevance for the Brazilian audience. The research also highlights the heavy engagement of the country’s users in the network, as the rates of Facebook actions show the highest increase of all countries in Latin America.

Current Cases of FBX in Brazil

Facebook’s real-time bidding platform has already provided positive results for Brazilian companies. Retail giant Magazine Luiza has recently disclosed statistics about the effectiveness of its FBX strategy, which among other data shows that the targeted social network ads helped drive:

• 31% increase in sales revenue after the introduction of retargeted News Feed advertising
• 92% increase in sales revenue after the first month of FBX advertising
• 20% increase in News Feed Click-Through Rates compared to Right-Hand Column ads

These numbers establish an interesting case for the potential of FBX in Brazil. The combination of one of the largest and most engaged social network audiences in the world with a powerful tool for real-time user targeting and retargeting can lead to a profound change in the way digital marketing is perceived in the country, and provide unmatched opportunities for companies to reach consumers.