The Times They Are A Changin’

If you’re familiar with social media advertising, then you’ve probably heard about the recent changes that Facebook has made to their ad targeting. For most digital media marketers, these changes are making their jobs even harder by limiting the ways in which they can target their demographic.

You can really see this come into play when you are trying to target people with certain behaviors, such as what they like to drink, purchase, or consume. In most cases, you are no longer able to drill down into these behaviors with your target audience, and the result is less-accurate targeting with different campaign results. The main task for marketers in the next year will be how to combat Facebook’s recent changes and still generate results for themselves and their clients.

Here are some thoughts on how you may be able to re-structure your campaign to get around Facebook’s new policies:

• Transition some of your Facebook ad dollars to other platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. This strategy may not be for every company, but some may see it pay off. While Twitter and LinkedIn don’t offer as many targeting options as Facebook does, you may find new ways to target some of the audiences that are no longer available on Facebook.
• Google AdWords could come into play even more. By targeting people who are actively searching for your service, you’ve already won half the battle.
• Custom/Lookalike audiences on Facebook. For companies that have extensive email lists, this strategy could really pay dividends. Facebook allows you to upload an email list and from that list you can then create a similar audience (lookalike audience) that targets people who have similar behaviors and interests as your current subscribers.

With that being said, this is not a “one-solution-fixes-all” scenario. Facebook is an ever-changing platform, and various strategies will have to be tested to find the perfect solution for your company. It will be interesting to see how Facebook advertising evolves over the next year as strategies and capabilities change, but one thing is for sure, digital marketers are up for the challenge.

– Jenn Pirri, Digital Media Manager