Facebook ad agency opens in Bangkok

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Facebook ad agency opens in Bangkok 
The Nation: 30 Jul 2010
Facebook agency opens in Bangkok

By ASINA PORNWASIN,JIRAPAN BOONNOON
THE NATION
Published on July 30, 2010

Encouraged by rapid growth in the number of Facebook users in Thailand, ihub Media, the official advertising sales partner of Facebook in Asia, has established an office in Bangkok.

It is ihub's seventh office in the region, and Thai specialists are being recruited to help marketers connect with more consumers as Thailand's Facebook users now number 4.5 million.

Ihub Media's chief operating officer George Foo said his agency's role was to take care of premium ads on Facebook users' home page throughout Asia. Its services included helping customers - advertising agencies and business advertisers - to manage advertising campaigns on Facebook's home page.

Ihub Media will market the full range of advertising products available through Facebook. Using the agency's services, customers will be able to reach Facebook's 85-million users in Asia. They will also be able to target 4.5 million users in Thailand, or 25.7 per cent of the country's Internet users, who spend an average of 3.5 hours on 21 Facebook visits per month.

The company's online-advertising services include home page advertisements and ad space units.
For a home page ad, it provides online advertising on a new feed page or Facebook's home page at a cost of Bt40,000 or US$1,200 per month,
and for ad space units, customers will pay between $0.35 and $0.70 (Bt11.29 and Bt22.58) per click.

"We are witnessing amazing growth in Facebook users in Asia - especially in Thailand over the past six months," Foo said. "The marketers are also showing huge interest in the Facebook Engagement advertising platform. Our objective is to provide maximum reach and minimum wastage for marketers."

Ihub Media already has 10 advertising customers, including Sony Thailand, AIS and Suzuki.

"We have been here for three months before establishing the local office with the first two staff. We hope to have many customers, but we have not set a target number yet," Foo said.

He said the top three customers were in fast-moving consumer goods, financial services and entertainment.

For advertisers who are buying on the self-serve platform, ihub Media has a team to support marketers facing constraints like payments by credit card and inefficient campaign management.

Foo said advertisers buying Facebook ads on the self-serve platform often found it time-consuming to manage multiple campaigns. They also face constraints like payment via credit cards and budget limits that ultimately reduce the efficiency of the platform.

With the Facebook Ads Bulk Upload Tool, ihub is able to achieve scale for the advertisers by offering the ability to upload 50 creative ads with a single click. This allows ihub to optimise the effectiveness and performance of campaigns involving multiple creative and targeting permutations. Advertisers who have worked with ihub to test the tool have seen an increase in returns on investment of at least 30 per cent, Foo said.

Ihub Media's chief executive Kyle Lim said Thailand was a big market in Asia with high potential for online advertising. However, the firm is currently studying the imminent expansion of its business in Vietnam.

Established in 2002, ihub Media is a sales representative for premium Web publishers such as Facebook, ESPNsoccernet, Disney, Garena and Tiger Airways. It is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.