D.I.Y.

How Facebook’s Changes In Paid Advertising Will Affect Your Marketing Efforts

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Facebook executives drew a line in the proverbial sand on Friday when they announced their plans to restructure the way posts placed by brands appear in newsfeeds. As if it hasn't been hard enough to gain organic reach, Facebook has essentially closed the door on anything other than paid advertising. Starting in January, as Facebook told marketers, if you want to reach customers on Facebook, you'll need to buy an ad. This change could arguably be long overdue for commercial brands raking in revenue at minimal advertising cost, but if you're a band on a budget or a musician trying to jumpstart a career, and you plan on using Facebook to reach your fans, it looks like you'll need to adjust your finances accordingly. 

Reporting a 64% increase in advertising revenue, a total $2.96 billion in Q3, Facebook says that the shift in exposure is not a ploy for more advertising revenue, but rather an answer to a survey posed to several hundred thousand Facebook users who reported being unhappy by the amount of promotional posts infiltrating their newsfeed. But, in the same breath, Facebook has been tireless in the promotion of their new advertising features resembling the platforms Messenger App notification invite. Regardless of which side of their position carries more weight, Facebook is changing the game. Again. 

Facebook-upwardsAd prices have already climbed in price by 274% in the last calendar year, but what users are going to find, is that they can't afford to ignore the data that having 1.35 billion global users provides. Facebook has the monopoly on targeted social media promotion – they know it, and they're going to make you pay for it because they can. 

What does this mean?

Creative Content is King
Traffic will be re-routed significantly in the absence of paid advertising, but organically engaging content will still get you mileage. 

Build a Budget
If Facebook isn't currently a factor in your advertising/promotional budget and you still hope to maintain or increase your reach, you're going to need to change that. Start constructing a strategy now so you can seamlessly implement it in January. 

Identify a Target Market
To continue to efficiently reach your audience, you'll have to employ the use of Facebook ads. Knowing who you're trying to reach, why you're trying to reach them, and how you intend to do so are all pieces of the puzzle you'll need to have in place come January. 

TimthumbWhen push comes to shove, you get what you pay for – and what Facebook has is unparalleled access and the upper hand on their genre of market product offering. Recently, Brian Boland, a Facebook Vice President told The New York Times in defense of the company's move, "An ad maker doesn’t want to serve content to people who don’t want to see those posts." In response to how this change will affect businesses and brands who rely on Facebook to reach their consumers, he minced no words, "If we are not growing your business, stop spending with us.”

Facebook claims that the shift in paid advertising will help advertisers reach the right audience and will allow for better analytics and data tracking than a standard boosted post. While their statement may prove true, it feels like Facebook flexing their money muscles while the rest of us find a way to pay for their gym membership. 

Source: The New York Times

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5 Comments

  1. Well … I know a new social network for the live music community of working original bands, live music venues and the fans who go to gigs: http://www.eatnoise.com
    It’s also a gig guide of an international capacity so bands can publish their gigs no matter where they tour, and has full-page individual landing pages that ties in all your social media related to music.
    But it’s only just opened and still in beta, but it’s free and easy to use. And it’ll stay that way as a helpful way for bands to reach fans and find venues to play in when they tour. I know because I built it.

  2. > What about independent artists who don’t have money though?
    Nothing…
    You’ll have to create a fake profile & add friends, until you reach 5.000.
    That stinks, fb should consider artists differently. But, hey, they’re American.

  3. Great article! Social Media presence is becoming increasingly more important as
    business owners. On top of that, SEO is starting to rely heavily on social media
    – more than ever.

    I didn’t have to much success with Facebook ads. (I’m just starting out)
    But
    I use my facebook fanpage to drive rougly 80% percent of my traffic. (I
    didn’t plan it this way, it just kind of happened.)
    In my opinion, Facebook is
    the easiest way to engage your users, and in return – get more leads, sales, and
    customers. If you want to check out a free tool I use to drive TONS of traffic
    with facebook, go here: http://bit.ly/1ozbGt2
    Once again GREAT article! I’ll be subscribing!

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