RFI - Social media ad monitoring.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR

BUREAU OF CONSUMER PROTECTION SOCIAL MEDIA AD MONITORING PLATFORM

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal

(RFP)/Request for Quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFP or RFQ. Furthermore, those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regards to its submission;

other than acknowledgment of receipt – IF a request for an acknowledgement is requested by the submitter. This RFI does not commit the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to contract for any supply or services. The FTC is not at this time seeking proposals or quotes but will accept budgetary estimates to assist in its research. Responders are advised that the FTC will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI will not preclude participation in the subsequent RFP or RFQ. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the FTC. All submissions become the property of the FTC and will not be returned.

1) Background

a) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the only federal agency with jurisdiction to protect consumers and maintain competition in broad sectors of the economy. It enforces laws that prohibit business practices that are anticompetitive, deceptive, or unfair to consumers, and seeks to do so without impeding legitimate business activity. The FTC also educates consumers and businesses to encourage informed consumer choices, compliance with the law, and public understanding of the competitive process. Through enforcement, advocacy, education, and policy work, the FTC protects consumers and promotes competitive markets both in the United States and around the world.

b) In order to identify unfair or deceptive business practices, FTC Bureau of Consumer

Protection (BCP) staff must be able to view and preserve advertising across various media platforms.

c) The Commission relies on contracts with professional services that provide access to archived advertising creatives for television, radio, mobile, magazine, and web as well as information and analysis about companies’ advertising.

d) The Commission is seeking to improve its visibility of the social media advertising market, with particular focus on providers of ad monitoring platforms, services, or databases that are dedicated to the identification, capture, and archiving of paid advertising that appears on social media networks. Given the increase in use of social media year-over-year, and the concurrent growth in marketing and ad expenditure by companies in social media, the Commission has placed a specific focus on improving its ad monitoring capability on social media as a high priority.

2) Scope

a) The FTC requires the services of a contractor that specializes in digital marketing research, specifically in the area of social media ad monitoring, and provides access to an online platform or database where users can view archived ad creatives, ad messaging, and associated metrics such as spend and impressions, for paid advertising appearing across a of variety of social media networks.

b) The contractor will perform the work detailed in the Specific Requirements outlined in this Performance Work Statement (PWS).

c) The contractor shall assign resources to effectively meet the requirements specified in this PWS.

3) Period of Performance and Place of Performance

a) The term of this contract will consist of a one (1) year base period with two (2), one (1) year option periods.

4) Performance Objectives

a) The contractor shall provide access to an online platform or service that meets the following criteria:

i) Performs digital marketing intelligence in an ethical and transparent manner, preserving the privacy of its users and without violating the terms and conditions of the entities where ads are found;

ii) Identifies, captures, and archives paid advertisements appearing on social media networks including, but not limited to, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, in both mobile and traditional (desktop) environments, where possible;

iii) Captures paid feed posts, story posts, sponsored posts, and/or promoted posts across various social media networks, and adapts to changes affecting how and where paid advertising appears on such networks;

iv) Captures information related to the ad creative, including creative text, creative type, landing page, call-to-action, etc.;

v) Captures paid advertisements that target non-English speakers; identifies and captures paid advertisements regardless of the language appearing in the ad;

vi) Maintains an archive of at least five (5) years of historical ad data;

vii) Provides users with the ability to download ad creatives;

viii) Provides detailed analysis of ad creative performance, including ad spend, impressions, duration of appearance, first- and last-seen dates, creative message, keyword use, and other metadata;

ix) Is transparent as to the methodology used to generate data estimations, including the use of statistical sampling, user panels, and data aggregators;

x) Utilizes a robust classification protocol to differentiate ads by brand, advertiser, and product category;

xi) Allows users to search by company, advertiser, ad campaign, product, or to filter by industry category, product type, or advertising keyword(s); and

xii) Provides users with up-to-date information through daily updates.

b) The contractor shall provide ten (10) licenses for simultaneous use by FTC staff.

c) The contractor shall provide online or telephonic product support and assistance to FTC users as needed.

d) The contractor shall provide formal training opportunities to FTC staff at least once per annual contract cycle, and FTC staff has the ability to request that such training is tailored to their specific needs.

e) Contractor shall provide an expert witness in depositions or trials to explain how the tool works or provide pricing for this service.

5) Contract Deliverables and Schedule

Number Deliverable Due

1 Consultation with COR and BCP stakeholders

2 weeks after contract award and within 2 weeks after the start of each option period.

Account creation and product overview for BCP

Investigative staff, including account holders from

Division and Regional offices

As requested by FTC.

3 Formal training opportunity for FTC staff As requested by FTC.

6) Performance Requirements Summary:

Performance

Objective

Standard Performance

Threshold

Method of

Surveillance

PRS # 1

Access to an online platform or service that allows the identification, analysis, and archiving of social media advertising in all languages.

Continuous and seamless access to the system.

Access to the system should be) continuous and seamless.

Government

Inspection

Commented [FA1]: Do we want to add a anything about the ability to capture ads in other languages? Do any of the tools you looked into offer that capability Will?

Performance

Objective

Standard Performance

Threshold

Method of

Surveillance

PRS # 2

Access to ten (10) licenses for simultaneous use by

FTC staff

All 10 licenses should be able to login in simultaneously.

Access to the system should be continuous and seamless.

Government

Inspection

PRS # 3

Online or telephonic product support and assistance to FTC users

Communication and support for FTC staff should be timely and thorough

Support for FTC staff should be in real time.

Government

Inspection

PRS #4

Formal customized training opportunities for FTC staff at least once per annual contract cycle

Service Provider should reach out to FTC POC at beginning of annual contract cycle to schedule training.

As requested by the

FTC

Government

Inspection

PRS #5

Contractor shall provide an expert witness in depositions or trials to explain how the tool works or provide pricing for this service.

Contractor explains how the toll works in a deposition or trial.

As requested by the

FTC

Government

Inspection

7) Submission Directions

Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a Capability Statement (CS) which addresses the areas listed above and contains the following information:

• Company name, address, Point of Contact name, phone number and e-mail

• NAICS Code

• Cage Code

• Dun and Bradstreet Number

• Product/Service Code

• Point of Contact

• Business Size (large, small, small disadvantage, 8(a), etc.)

• If services can be purchased from existing contract vehicle such as GSA Schedule, NASA SEWP, etc.

All documentation, CSs and other supporting documentation shall be submitted in pdf format.

Those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regards to their submission other than acknowledgment of receipt. The FTC reserves the right to review late submissions but makes no guarantee to the order of or possibility for review of late submissions. The CS document shall be limited to 20 pages. The complete package will be submitted via e-mail.

Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. To aid the FTC, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become the property of the FTC and will not be returned.

Responses to this RFI may be evaluated by Government technical experts drawn from staff within the FTC. The Government may use selected support contractor personnel to assist in the evaluation. These support contractors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary and source-selection information.

Responders are encouraged to avoid use of excessive marketing lexicon, submission of fancy brochures, unnecessary sales literature, and product puffery.

All questions should be submitted with the vendors CS by 4:00 PM EST on Friday, March 8, 2024.

Both questions and CSs should be sent to the FTC Contracting Officer, Willie Lindsey at wlindsey@ftc.gov.

mailto:wlindsey@ftc.gov