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GDPR – do you need to change your approach to your Facebook advertising?

The 25th of May 2018 was an important and equally scary date for many businesses. It brought about the new rulings on date protection; the EU’s attempt at making your online experience a safer one.

There were a lot of scare tactics, to the point that businesses were deleting all their records – will there be a date blackhole because of GDPR?

 

Without getting distracted, what we are really here to address is will GDPR effect my Facebook advertising in any way?

The answer is yes, but not to anywhere near the level you might think/fear. The only businesses that will need to make any changes are those who were actively using custom audiences created with mailing lists from external sources. ie. if you had a list of email addresses that you imported into Facebook to then target with an advert. If you have done this and haven’t sought permission of every user on that list, STOP the advert immediately.

The reality is, however, that very very few businesses utilise Facebook advertising to anywhere near this level and as such the vast majority of you will not be affected.

Facebook Pixel tracking

Interestingly, the use of Facebook Pixels has not been affected by GDPR. Facebook Pixels are a fantastic tool that allow businesses to track Facebook users to visit their website, to then retarget them with specific adverts when they next visit Facebook – a hugely effective tool and one you should be using if you don’t!

The reason for Pixels not being affected by GDPR is that no personal information is gathered by Pixels – you are not able to select specific individuals in any way. Great news!

If you would like to learn more about Facebook advertising, please get in touch.

By complete coincidence, I had planned to write an article today on how I feel Facebook’s gradual changes through 2017 and into 2018 are changing the platform for advertisers.

If we wind the clock back to 2007, when Facebook first introduced Pages for businesses, a high organic reach meant that business, both large and small were reaching a large percentage of their page audience with each and every post/update.

Since 2007, Facebook has gradually decreased organic reach to the point that, currently, organic reach is well under 5% (if 1,000 people like your Business page, an average of <50 people will see your post, on average). Why? Facebook realised they could make A LOT of money here.

By the end of 2017, Facebook ad revenue exceeded $10bn. This is $10bn from businesses paying to reach people with their posts/adverts. The more Facebook restrict organic reach, the more businesses need to pay to reach their customers.

There are positives to this however. Over the past 5 years, Facebook have worked hard to improve their advertising platform. They have introduced new advert types, targetting options, Ads Manager, Power Editor, Creation Suite and much more. The result of all this is that, if you are paying, Facebook has been/is a very effective form of advertising. Both in terms of sheer volume and also in targetting ability.

As athe director of Kilted, I am a big advocate of Facebook, and particuarly of their paid adverting platform. We have achieved truly staggering results for clients, all on modest ad spend.

What has not been mentioned in yesterdays press releases surrounding newsfeed changes is changes to paid reach. We would bet a lot of money that this will remain unchanged. This, in theory, will mean a big spike in ad revenue as businesses will now be forced to spend to reach their customers.

My concerns lie with small to medium sized businesses

Larger business that are able and comfortable to set aside a budget each month for Facebook advertising will continue to do so, and as a result they will continue to reach their customers. Their posts may even perform better as a result of newsfeeds being less saturated by other organic page posts.

It is the SME’s that will suffer. Over the past 10 years, Facebook presented SME’s with a new opportunity – an effective form of advertising that did not require the big spend of print, OOH etc. There have been many SME’s who have built their businesses almost entirely on Facebook and are reliant on the platform for revenue. There are two issues that I see arrising from the announced changes:

• Businesses who are largely/entitely reliant on Facebook could see huge drops in revenue.
• Loss of opportunites for new businesses who may previously have flourished on Facebook.

I have been encouraging clients to utilise a paid advertising budget for some time now. In fact, every client currently on our books has a monthly paid advetising budget. I predicted that organic reach would continue to drop but hoped it would not be as sudden as this. There has been talk of a double newseed, with friends and family updates on one side and page posts on the other. We can only hope that this is introduced at some point.

If you are concerned about how these changes will affect you, or you require help with paid advertisng then please get in touch.

 

James. Director @ Kilted.

Christmas = Gift Voucher sales?

We see this every year. Many business, by default, drive/promote/force gift vouchers sales at this time of year, killing their brand loyalty as a result. The assumption is that having lots of online followers, a large email database or large store footfall, that you will automatically strike gold with Christmas gift vouchers. This is NOT the case. Or at least, not anymore.

Is it a generation thing?

We certainly think so. The younger generation is definitely more aware of ‘over-selling’ online and the dangers of ‘spamming’ customers. We do feel gift vouchers were more of a ‘thing’ 10 years ago, with a lot less choice, no online shopping etc.

With so much choice with where to spend your money at Christmas, if a customer wants to buy a gift voucher from you, they will come to you.

What am I actually doing by constantly promoting my gift voucher sales?

Does it annoy you when a company gets hold of your information and then proceeds to email you repeatedly every day? Of course it does; it annoys everyone. This is essentially no different to repeatedly serving your customers with an advert promoting your gift vouchers each and every time they login to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc etc. Your customers will get frustrated that you are spamming them with direct sale efforts and switch off (unfollow you, unsubscribe to your emails and hide your posts on Facebook). This KILLS your brand loyalty. You work hard all year, publishing content your followers want to see, nothing to sales driven, always engaging, only to spam them for the entire month of December (often longer) with the same sales pitch.

Does this mean no gift voucher promotion at all?

No. Definitely not. There is nothing wrong with a little gift voucher promotion. Make your customers aware that you do offer gift vouchers. Maybe pin a post to the top of your social profiles for the Christmas period and publish a couple of posts. Just not 10 posts and on-going advertising for 30+ days!

Buying Facebook likes is a very bad idea

 

We have recently noticed a resurgence in the number of companies who are buying Facebook likes. By this we mean paying a third party company to increase the number of likes on your business page by ‘X’ amount.

A few years ago we were asked about ‘buying likes’ on a regular basis – it was a new thing back then and people were curious about the legitimacy of doing this. Recently, it seems the race for likes is back on. We think this is due to the increasing importance/influence of larger online audiences combined with the increasing competitiveness on the social platforms.

Regardless, we cannot emphasise enough how BAD AN IDEA doing this is.

 

What happens when you buy likes?

When you buy likes from a company, they hand the task on to a ‘click farm’. A click farm is a group of individuals who are paid per like (usually around 1p/like). Their Facebook profiles are created for this sole purpose.

The result of this is that your valuable audience is significantly diluted by the Facebook profiles of individuals who are not interested in your business whatsoever. So, even though you have 20,000 likes your page’s engagement, and therefore organic reach, will plummet. We have seen companies who have built up an audience of 5,000 people – genuine happy customers – who receive an incredible amount of support from this relatively small audience. They have built this audience through regularly engaging their audience with great content and giving something back to them.

Nothing worth having in life is easy and building a large loyal social following is no different.

 

I have already purchased Facebook likes. Is there anything I can do to fix my Facebook business page?

Unfortunately, the only way to rectify this is to start a new page. There is no way of removing fake likes from a business page.

 

Need help building your Facebook audience the proper way? Contact us today!

According to research compiled by Hubspot, Facebook ad revenue grew from just under $2 billion in 2010 to $12.5 billion, with ads on the popular social platform accounting for “more than 9% of total digital ad spending and 18.4% of global mobile digital advertising.”

The platform’s success is due, in large part, to its unparalleled targeting capabilities. Currently, there are no other paid advertising opportunities that allow you to target messages to such specific demographics as 35-year-old women who live in Dallas and like the band Slipknot.

Of course, with great targeting power comes great responsibility. Facebook ads are far from beginner-friendly, and the huge range of ad options make it tough for newbies to get started. To some extent, you just have to dive in and get your feet wet. But as you’re learning what works and what doesn’t, steer clear of these 6 common beginner mistakes.

1) You don’t have any goals

We can’t emphasize this enough: if you want to know whether or not Facebook ads are working for your brand, you have to know what metrics you’re holding them accountable to.

In the case of Facebook ads ROI, you could track a number of different actions:

• New page “Likes”
• Post-level engagement
• Email opt-ins
• Website click-throughs
• On-site sales or lead generations

3) You’re using the wrong ad format

This typically happens for two reasons: either you’re new to Facebook ads and don’t know how to choose the right ad format for your specific campaign, or you’ve had your ads running for a while and haven’t stopped to analyze whether or not you’re still using the right formats.

Facebook rolls out new ad formats all the time, one of its most recent being the Canvas ad type that enables in-page launching of full-screen rich media assets. Study the platform’s ad types carefully, choose the one you think will best suit your audience and goals, and iterate as needed, based on your campaign performance.

4) Your targeting is too broad

Remember those targeting features I mentioned earlier? Using them appropriately can mean the difference between an ad that hits audience members who are primed to respond positively, and tarnishing your brand image by displaying your messages to Facebook users who don’t care.

In fact, this is one of the places I recommend starting if you’re seeing low engagement with your campaigns. Try adding further targeting criteria one at a time to increase your accuracy.

5) Your images aren’t eye-catching

At the same time, consider not just the size of your image, but its ability to attract eyeballs. We’re guessing you’ve seen ads that feature distorted images or images that are intentionally unrelated to the product being advertised.

Advertisers do that because they know eye-catching graphics get clicks. And while you don’t need to be manipulative, you should follow best practices to capture attention. Wishpond’s blog, for instance, recommends running ads featuring reds, oranges and greens to naturally contrast with Facebook’s white and blue color scheme.

6) You’re saturating your audience

Finally, although you’re undoubtedly excited to get started with Facebook ads, remember that it’s possible to saturate your audience with too many messages.

Users browse Facebook as a social experience; for relaxation. They aren’t there to see ads, and if they start to see yours too many times, they’ll start tuning you out (or worse, start thinking negatively about your brand).

It’s tough to determine when and if you’re hitting that saturation threshold, but one warning sign is diminishing engagement that doesn’t change when you narrow down your targeting criteria. If you suspect saturation, pause your campaigns for a bit and come back only when you have something truly valuable to offer your audience.

Social Media, brand loyalty and purchasing behaviour

A study conducted by McKinsey & Company found that social media has a much greater influence on purchasing behavior than originally thought.

Recommendations through social media were responsible for 26% of all purchases across the product categories studied – up from the estimated 10-15%.

Furthermore, this number grew by 10% in just one year from 2013 – 2014 and so could now be significantly higher.

In certain categories, including travel and investment, social media influenced for as many as 40-50% of all purchases.

Their conclusion to this research?

“Companies can’t afford to fall behind this powerful curve”.

Why?

The simple answer is brand loyalty.

In a study by Laroche et al., 2012, structural equation modeling showed that brand communities established on social media have positive effects on customer/product, customer/brand, customer/company and customer/other customers relationships, which in turn have positive effects on brand trust, and trust has positive effects on brand loyalty.

To increase brand loyalty you must regularly and positively engage your audience with content that they want to see. Flood them with repetitive, low-quality sales driven content and you will quickly loose their attention.

High levels of brand loyalty produce brand ambassadors – individuals who support your brand and recommend you to their friends and family because they like what you do. These individuals are more likely to be repeat customers and if you continue to grow your relationship with them, they will continue to support you. Remember to give something back to your fans!

We still get asked ‘how long or how much will it cost to reach 10,000 likes on Facebook?’. The number of likes you have on your business page is irrelevant if your engagement levels are 0.

Page likes will come as a result of engaging content.

 

When a prospective client came to us with the common complaint of ‘My Facebook posts only get 1 or 2 likes’, we told them…

‘You have no idea what you are missing!’

Why? you ask. Did you know that if you have 10,000 Facebook likes, your average post will be seen by fewer than 500 people? (without paid advertising). This us due to the decline in Facebook’s organic reach (how many people see your post without paid advertising), which is now sitting at around 5%. That’s 5% of your audience that you have worked so hard to build over the years. 5% of your audience that will see those all important updates.

That’s Rubbish!

What’s the solution? Spend money. Give Facebook a little of your cash and this will completely change the effectiveness of your Facebook page.

The image above shows the increase in sharing activity, page impressions and new likes that came as a result of paid advertising from our start date on 1st October (ongoing). Their page transformed overnight to a hub of activity, interaction, and new enquiries.

Why do we see these increases? There are two main reasons. Firstly, we can effectively increase post reach to 100%. Secondly, we can reach users who have not yet liked a page with targetted adverts – without paid advertising, you will never be able to reach users out with your page audience (unless they come specifically looking for you).

We must emphasise at this point that this is not just a case of boosting your posts. Post boosting should form a very small part of a paid advertising campaign. Facebook advertising is becoming an increasingly complicated platform, with a myriad of different advertising options that can be selected depending on your objectives.

We firmly believe that Facebook Paid Advertising is going to become a huge focus for many businesses. Don’t believe us? Forbes have predicted Paid Advertising as 1 of the 7 trends that will dominate social media in 2017. See the article here.

Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about our paid advertising services.

It is no secret that here at Kilted Social Media, our favorite platform is Facebook. The majority of (b2c) businesses can use Facebook to their benefit and built a strong online following. Facebook is by default the platform that we visit first when speaking to or approaching prospective clients. The problem with Facebook is that 60% of the UK’s population have Facebook, from your Grandma to your friends’ dog, this platform is everywhere. This makes our job difficult as everyone knows a Facebook ‘expert’ (self-proclaimed). On a daily basis, we speak to businesses – some of considerable size – who simply have Facebook because they know they should (box-ticking) but are not interested in what could happen if their Facebook was run properly. This is not just the case in the Highlands, Scotland or even the UK, we receive the same response in the USA!

Are you making the most of Facebook Insights?

Are you using Ads Manager (not just boosting posts)?

Are you using custom audiences?

Are you implementing a strategy?

Are you over/under-posting?

Are you ensuring all content is of a certain standard? Remember your Facebook page is a public showcase for your business.

We could go on…. If you have someone posting a few updates per week on your Facebook, this is NOT utilising the platform to its potential and unfortunately, you will get nothing back.

It takes us seconds to find out if a Facebook page is performing as it should so if you are unsure about your own Facebook page then get in touch.

Scottish Enterprise recently published an article on the effectiveness of well run digital campaigns (the focus was on social media and web design).

Mikes Bikes and Wilderness Scotland are two great case studies and examples of what can be achieved with a little time, knowledge and investment. There are still a vast number of businesses, from sole traders to significant operations, who refuse to make the move to digital. It is enlightening for us to see Scottish Enterprise speaking to the local businesses and highlighting just what can be achieved. We would go as far as to say that even greater results can be achieved than those referenced here…! If you would like examples of what we have achieved for our clients then please get in touch.

If you own a business based in the Scottish Highlands – your audience is online and connecting with them is far easier than you think.

See the original article from Scottish Enterprise here:

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/insight/dts-webinar-what-makes-digital-success