Thailand firms on Facebook ad radar

FACEBOOK sees high growth potential for digital advertising in Thailand, which as part of Asia-Pacific is in the most active digital ad-spending region for the US social-media giant. 
 In Thailand, the monetisation value – calculated from the gap between the ratio of digital media consumption (48 per cent) and the ratio of digital ad spending (1 per cent) – means that there is a US$1.41-billion (Bt49.7 billion) opportunity to connect on digital, according to the company.
 John Wagner, managing director of Facebook Thailand, said that in some countries, the ratio of digital ad spending is around 30 per cent, therefore it is possible for Thailand to have a ratio of between 20 and 30 per cent in the not-too-distant future. 
 This is not too high a level for the country, he added.
 The Internet advertising market in Thailand is expected to grow at a compound average growth rate of 22.5 per cent over the next five years, ranking second in growth terms among Asean countries. 
 Wagner also said that when considering the current level of digital ad spending in Thailand, it was very small when compared to the time spent on digital media. 
 However, mobile has changed the way people buy, with 70 per cent of shopping journeys in Thailand containing mobile, while mobile moves commerce on Facebook and Instagram in the Kingdom.
 Mobile is the main device platform, while video is the most attractive content format for the way people in Thailand consume digital content, Facebook said.
 Facebook sees Thais as truly “mobile-first”, with seven out of 10 people on mobile, each spending an average of 160 minutes on a smart phone per day. 
 Some 70 per cent of Thais do online research via smart phones, while half of them make online purchases via such devices. 
 Therefore, Wagner said, businesses in Thailand needed to be faster in adopting mobile strategies “to reach people at every step of the fragmented commerce journey”. 
 “Most marketers in Thailand are more familiar with the traditional media than digital media, so they need to learn a lot of new technology, and about consumer behaviour on digital media. My job is to help to close the capability gap,” the managing director explained.
 He added that to embrace the mobile opportunity, business must adopt “the new visual language”.
 Thais spend 160 minutes on a mobile per day, according to eMarketer as of February 2015, and 105 minutes watching video on their mobile devices, which is 60 per cent more than the global average, according to Millward Brown/AdReaction. 
 Moreover, business must understand the path to purchase, and shift measurement, Wagner said, adding that business in Thailand can “come across and utilise the full ad solutions across the Facebook family |to reach their business objectives, including brand-building, generating demand, driving leads or |sales”.
 Based on the company’s statistics, as of September 2016, 44 million people in Thailand used Facebook every month, representing 22-per-cent year-on-year growth, with 95 per cent or around 42 million of them accessing Facebook monthly on mobile – 23 per cent higher than in the same period the previous year.
 On a single day, some 30 million Thais accessed Facebook, up 20 per cent year on year, of which 29 million accessed Facebook on mobile, also 20 per cent higher. 
 More than 74 per cent of people on Facebook in Thailand connect to at least one local small business, according to the company. 
 “We are committed to helping business grow and connect with the 44 million people on Facebook in Thailand,” Wagner said.
 According to the Commerce Ministry, the e-commerce market in Thailand expanded by between 15 and 20 per cent last year. 
 The Thai e-commerce market is expected to more than triple in size to Bt138 billion by 2020, express courier DHL has forecast. 
 Meanwhile, Facebook has given examples of how the company helps business in Thailand get ahead in a mobile world. 
 Singha, which worked with Facebook Creative Shop to tailor a TV commercial for mobile, used mobile-optimised storytelling to connect with millennials in Thailand, as a result of which it reached 14 million people.
 Pomelo, the online retailer, worked with Facebook marketing partner Nanigans to retarget relevant product ads to potential shoppers at the right time. 
 The insight-driven retargeting won over new customers, with the campaign leading to a ten-fold increase in online conversations, an 85-per-cent lower cost per acquisition, and a 12.9-times higher return on ad spend, Facebook said.
 Advanced Info Service, or AIS, created an emotional video to run across Facebook and Instagram for two weeks, with the campaign |reaching 13.4 million people and doubling the targeted number of video views.