Last week I had the pleasure of attending the first Facebook Agency Expo in North America. Like many of the other agency professionals I spoke to at the Expo, I went into it cautiously optimistic but was pleased to leave with lots of helpful information and new ideas to bring back to our clients.

Facebook is rolling out a Marketing Partners Program to further solidify its relationships with all agencies, not just the big ones, that use their products. After more than a decade of working with Facebook, it was nice to finally see the love being spread to those of us who do a lot of innovative work with these platforms.

Here are five highlights that I took away from the Expo:

1. Facebook is taking steps to simplify its ad activation process so agencies can spend more time thinking strategically than activating and monitoring campaigns. As someone who has worked with this platform since it first started its ads offering, this is a huge step forward. It’s been a long time coming and many of the new features are doing just that.
2. Facebook is in love with the phrase “Best Practice”—they say it about 10-20 time per 30-minute session. My thoughts on this? Make your own best practices. Test what’s recommended, but don’t be afraid to deviate if it’s in your brand’s best interest.
3. Facebook is actively helping agencies sell their products by providing case studies, insights and best practices online.
4. “Dynamic Creative Optimization” (DCO) was not used a single time throughout the Expo. When I asked about this, they said they are no longer pushing that feature. Creative teams rejoice!
5. Business Manager is going to be the key to keeping agencies and brands in sync and in full control of all Facebook-related products.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to a media platform telling me as a buyer how to best use their offerings (and give them money), but I certainly appreciate the strides Facebook has made to foster two-way communication between themselves and agencies.