Facebook advertising shakeup – what’s happening to Facebook advertising this year?
Facebook reported last year that the social platform was running out of advertising inventory. Or, in simpler terms, there are too many ads, and not enough Faces to show them too.
There are two simple ways for Facebook to combat this. Firstly, they could focus on growing users, which means there would be more timelines to advertise on, and therefore more ad space. Or secondly, get smart with advertising and branch out from the timeline-advertising-mothership & find other ways to advertise to an increasingly switched-on userbase.
What are some ways that Facebook are set to do this?
Facebook Messenger
The way people use social media is always changing, and over the past 2 years we’ve seen a huge spike in the use of dark social. From Whatsapp to Facebook Messenger, there are record amounts of people using private messaging apps to share content, and Facebook are doing pretty well in terms of keeping up with the trend. Facebook-owned Whatsapp is gaining new features every day (is anyone actually using ‘Whatsapp Status’?), and Facebook are testing out interesting ways for advertisers to use Facebook Messenger.
One example of this is in-messenger games. There are now a whole host of games available to play within Messenger – these can be played both with friends and against a computer, meaning they’re always accessible. And what’s to stop advertisers sponsoring games or promoting themselves through this? Snapchat Filters have shown us that consumers are willing to share branded content with their friends if it’s fun & interactive, and branded games are a perfect way to do this.
E-commerce capabilities
Facebook have introduced new capabilities for e-commerce advertising, including showcasing certain products & click to buy options. The adverts work similarly to the Canvas style posts in Facebook. If you click on one of the products, it leads you to a fast loading microsite within Facebook, which can show up to 50 different products which you can then browse through and shop.
This works because it shortens the gap between viewing an ad and purchasing. It makes it easy for the consumer so transactions are more likely to happen.
Some of the adverts that I think work the best on Facebook are ASOS retargeting ads and if these were also combined with click to buy capability, I think my bank account would be empty within days.
Cracking down on the newsfeed & only showing users relevant content
Facebook have already begun cracking down on content being shown to users. Earlier this year there were many reports on how Facebook was removing fake users, spammy adverts & more importantly, fake news. Facebook CFO Dave Wehner describes the optimal ad load as “a mix of art and science”, and at the moment it seems like Facebook are still mixing around with paints and haven’t quite started on the masterpiece yet. Spam adverts are already becoming less of a problem for Facebook though – which is a positive for both users & advertisers.
Are you planning to change up the way you use Facebook this year? I’d love to know, tweet me at @rubyl0ve.
By Ruby Lowe
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