BIG Partnership’s Social Media Team discusses how Facebook is still an effective channel for marketing.
But isn’t Facebook dying? That’s one of the more common retorts we get when talking to clients about social media, and in particular, Facebook.
However, stats released this week on active users by social media channel show that Facebook and its portfolio of platforms, comprising Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, are very much alive and kicking.
Although the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 purportedly hurt Facebook’s reputation and trust, it doesn’t seem to have affected its member base, with daily active users actually up year-on-year (YoY). An average 1.59 billion people browse Facebook each day, according to stats for June 2019. This represents an 8% increase compared to 2018.
The FTC’s $5 billion fine was the biggest in its history, however this is akin to fining a Premier League footballer £35 for receiving a red card (this was a surprising fact I learned at a pub quiz). A token slap on the wrist, which clearly didn’t affect business, as revenue has since grown by 28% YoY.
A lot of brands are seeing a decline in engagement rates. However this is mainly due to Facebook suppressing organic content. Advertising is a very successful tool for reaching new audiences (awareness), driving traffic to a website (interest), remarketing (consideration) as well as lead generation and e-commerce (conversion).
The number of Facebook advertisers has grown significantly in recent years due to the self-serve nature of the Ads Manager. However, while on the surface Facebook makes it very easy for users to sign up and create ads, it’s also very easy to spend money without seeing any real results if not managed correctly.
The relevancy score on Facebook was always a benchmark of how your ad was performing and would affect metrics like reach, link clicks, click-through rate and ultimately the total campaign spend. If Facebook didn’t think your ad was relevant to your target audience, you would be punished with lower reach and a much higher cost per click or cost per mille (thousand impressions).
This has now been replaced with a new system that has been rolled out to accounts since earlier this year. This new system considers:
Quality Ranking: Perceived quality of your ad versus competitor ads with the same target audience.
Engagement Rate Ranking: Your ad’s expected engagement compared with other ads competing for the same audience.
Conversion Rate Ranking: Anticipated rate versus other ads with the same audience and conversion as a goal.
Using this new system and our years of expertise, in just one month, one of our clients was able to achieve amazing results.
- 28% increase in reach month-on-month (MoM)
- 136% increase in website sessions MoM
- 158% increase in enquiries MoM
- 52% decrease in cost per click MoM
Some may say Facebook has risen from the ashes, but we think it was just a little under the weather for a while and is now stronger than ever before. The potential to reach new people within your target market is incomparable to any other channel, with Facebook’s ever-advancing audience criteria and the opportunity to use Instagram as a placement.
If you’d like to explore Facebook advertising in more detail or find out more about social media advertising on other channels including Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Spotify or YouTube, then get in touch today.
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