Facebook Blesses Adobe Social Marketing Apps

Facebook Apps In Action

Adobe this week announced it is the first of Facebook's 232 initial preferred marketing developers to be qualified for and receive Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) badges in all four of the social platform's marketing APIs: Pages, Ads, Apps, and Insights.

The PMD program, which was announced April 19, merges the company's Preferred Developer Consultant (PDC) program and its Marketing API program. The PMD program is intended as a seal of approval to help connect brands to "consultants who can work with them to build comprehensive Facebook campaigns and presences," wrote John Li, manager of Facebook's Marketing API Program, in a Developer Blog post. Its end goal, wrote Li, is to make it easier for brands to launch cross-platform Facebook campaigns and presences. "Clients can find developers by geography and expertise and read case studies and feedback," he wrote.

"The goal with the APIs is to let every marketer make every brand experience engaging and let advertisers understand what their Facebook investment returns for them--not just in dollars, but in time spent on [a] site, downloads of coupons, or trial offers," explained John Mellor, Adobe's VP of business development & strategy.

[ Graphic design software in the cloud? See Adobe Serves Up Creative Cloud Buffet. ]

Lawrence Mak, Adobe product marketing manager, detailed what each of the badges--and Adobe's support of the individual APIs means to customers on Adobe's Digital Marketing blog.

Some of the integrations include Adobe tying the Facebook marketing APIs to products such as its Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, which includes Adobe Social, a new offering that integrates Facebook page management, ad buying, and analytics, said Mellor. "Advertisers shouldn't have to approach social with one arm tied behind their back," he said. "We want to give them the complete buffet of what's available at Facebook. We work with a lot of agencies that provide services and we have a rich services team here ourselves."

Although there are sure to be other developers that earn all four Facebook PMD badges, Adobe's early success highlights the company's commitment to the social space, said Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst with the Altimeter Group. "Adobe has made several acquisitions [in social]. They have gone way beyond Photoshop," he said. The company has made a series of acquisitions and moves that solidify the company in the space. For example, Adobe in November announced the acquisition of digital marketing firm Efficient Frontier for an undisclosed amount. The deal closed in February.

Combined, the company has spent more than $2.4 billion over the past few years to extend its reach in the digital marketing space. While Mellor wouldn't comment on future acquisitions or announcements, he confirmed that Adobe is keeping an eye on the social space as a whole and expects to make announcements around platforms and services that achieve "scale."

"We want to have a complete offering," he said. "We never want to look at a client and tell them that they can't do something."

Follow Karen J. Bannan on Twitter @KarenBannan. The BrainYard is @thebyard and facebook.com/thebyard

The Enterprise 2.0 Conference brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today!