Facebook lays out plans to limit ad volume, clarifies stance on cross-border data
Yesterday was a busy day for Facebook. The company laid out plans to limit ad volume starting in 2021, and it also got hit with a data privacy order from Ireland – both pieces of news will likely have impacts on marketers.
Ready to see what’s going on with Zuck & Co? Let’s jump in:
- Starting in February 2021, Facebook will be limiting ad volume by spend. As part of an effort to get advertisers to streamline their efforts, Facebook will be limiting ad volume per page in 2021 based on spend in 2020. There are four buckets based on spend: 250 ads, 1k ads, 5k ads, and 20k ads.
- The Irish Data Protection Commission sent Facebook an order to stop data transfers to the US about EU users. The Wall Street Journal reported that the data commission has begun an inquiry on data transfers from the EU to the US, and has sent Facebook a preliminary order to stop data transfers. Soon after, Facebook published a lengthy blog post detailing their methods and plans.
The Crew’s take: Whew. That’s a lot to take in. For most marketers, the new ad volume limitations shouldn’t pose too much of an issue. The ad spend to ad volume limits are pretty reasonable, and Facebook’s making it clear that more ads do not equal better performance.
If the Irish Data Protection Commission is successful, there could be some fallout with advertisers – but, as is typical with these kinds of things, we likely won’t have a definitive answer for a while.
SEO
Is your content strategy a good one?
SEO can be a lot of things. But, for most people in the marketing world, content creation is one of the biggest puzzle pieces – there are entire agencies that revolve around writing content to bring in organic traffic.
However, there are lots of misconceptions about what constitutes a good content strategy. Yesterday, another episode of Google’s SEO Mythbusting series came out, and it’s a great one if you’ve got questions about content. Here are the biggest takeaways:
- Should you write new articles or update existing ones? This is a question that consistently gets brought up – can you just update existing articles to save time? The answer, according to Google’s Martin Splitt, depends on what the content is. If you’re only making minor changes to an article, it’s best to update the existing content. If not, it’s probably best to write a new article.
- There’s no such thing as too much content. While you shouldn’t create content for the sake of creating content, there’s no such thing as too much. Google won’t penalize your site for having lots of blog posts – but it might look awkward to users if your content is excessive.
- Are auto-generated pages OK? If you’ve got multiple pages on your site that are very similar, for example auto-generated pages for separate locations or products, it’s important to differentiate them so that Google doesn’t think they’re duplicate content.
There are plenty more questions answered in the full video, which you can check out here. It’s 11 minutes long, so you can watch it in the time it takes to make breakfast – and it could save you a lot of time down the road.
As usual, think about the user first and the algorithm second!
ADVERTISING
The great debate: impressions vs. engagement
It all started with this tweet from Toby Howell that set marketing Twitter aflame like a match in a forest on the hottest day of summer.
Toby, a writer at Morning Brew, makes the claim that impressions matter more than engagement. Here’s his point:
“If you post great content, then you want that content in front of as many eyes as possible. I don’t care if they don’t engage with it. Because we just made our first touchpoint with a potential follower who is now more likely to follow the next time they come across us”
Needless to say, the claim generated a moment of madness on Twitter.
Where do you stand?
If we know anything about marketers, we’re pretty sure you’re thinking “screw engagement and impressions, all I care about are those sales”
However, if you could choose, what would you want more for your posts and ads? More impressions or more engagement?
Let’s take a look at some responses on the Twitter thread:
*marketers on Twitter are talking to you now*
- The way social network algorithms work, more engagement will lead to more eyeballs.
- The value of all impressions is not equal.
- Engagement equals attention, not necessarily the same for impressions.
- People typically have to see your brand about 7 times before taking action. Thus, impressions are key.
- Impressions are more important than engagement. But still more important is reach. You can’t get impressions without reach. Damn, this takes the discussion to a whole new level.
- If you consider engagement as a measure an ad network shows you, then yes, impressions are more important. But as a measure of the cognitive involvement with the media, engagement is more important.
This last point is the one that caught our attention more.
Overall, we think that there’s no right answer. Plus, it even depends on what you’re trying to achieve – after all, engagement is a lower step in the funnel than impressions.
But if your goal is just awareness (like what Toby suggested for Morning Brew), then the more impressions, the better.
Which do you value most in your marketing?
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
INSTAGRAM: Your home screen on Instagram might start to look different in the coming days. The company announced yesterday that it’s beginning to test three separate layouts – all of which include a Reels and a Shopping tab.
TIKTOK: Craving some more TikTok drama? It’s been a while since we’ve heard much, but new reports are suggesting that the app may not be sold at all, and that ByteDance may instead work out a different solution with the U.S government.
E-COMMERCE: A new report from App Annie claims that we’re about to see the biggest year ever for mobile shopping, which means even more action for e-commerce stores!
SEO: In a recent Google webmaster hangout, John Mueller made some clarifications about core updates. The bottom line: Even if your site gets hit hard by a core update, it can still recover as internal algorithm changes are made frequently.
BRAIN TEASER
1=5, 2=15, 3=215, 4=3215, 5=?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
You have one hour…
…to think of new creatives for a client. What do you come up with?
Andrew Foxwell posted the question on Twitter yesterday, and there are some great responses – even if you’re not actively creating ad campaigns, this is still a fun exercise! Here are some the most creative responses:
- Take the best-performing video asset, then create new thumbnails and hooks for it. Also, make sure the current offer is shown throughout the entire video with a text overlay. Copy is short and explains what the product is.
- Use organic IG posts or stories. In addition to that, try split screen ads – with the product on the left and a lifestyle shot on the right.
- Take an asset that’s worked in the past. Then, add a new offer on the bottom overlay, transition to short and easy-to-read customer testimonials, and finish with a CTA that’s known to convert. For the copy: brand name + new offer + unique feature + CTA again.
Do you have any other ideas to pitch? This is a fun mental task to do – but please, don’t make your creative team do this for a real campaign!