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This is, hands down, the easiest way to drive a marketer crazy…
Usually, we don’t really like to be apocalyptical. But we have to face that Facebook is in crisis on many fronts.
Users are worried about their data and Parliaments are worried about Facebook influencing democracies. Besides, there are other two things that keep Mark awake at night: internal conflicts with Sheryl Sandberg and angry, mad, annoyed advertisers.
Yesterday, Facebook’s Business page stated these words:
“We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing Ads Manager.”
Some people? Really?
You can flag our account for no reasons. You can be extremely volatile. But you can’t melt down right before the fattest shopping day of the year. We are the people that bring you the cash. We deserve a better treatment.
But yesterday Mark drove us crazy: some marketers couldn’t access their Ads manager. Some people experienced high spends but few clicks and impression. The lucky ones, instead, got cheap clicks.
Some said that Facebook is a fraud and want their funds back. Other ones want their flagged accounts back as a refund.
But in the storm, Depesh shared his emergency plan:
Pause your campaigns by dropping ACCOUNT SPEND LIMIT to a single digit number. This is quicker than pausing campaigns. But most important, it allows you to bypass the cracked Ads Manager.
This is a great tip for the next crisis. We aren’t saying it will surely happen. But we have a feeling…
However, while we are writing, it looks that Facebook is back to normal! That means just volatility and random ad account suspensions are left to deal with. Good luck!
Just another mess for Mark
As we said, Facebook is navigating bad waters. And its PR is as much in shambles as its advertising system.
After that New York Times report, a crisis has been triggered. Mark blamed Sandberg for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, leaving the COO fearing for her job.
Sandberg is still the one who steered Facebook from a rising tech startup into a viable global business. Yet, she could be the scapegoat of this giant scandal.
Fortunately, Sheryl Sandberg still has the support of her staff. And of Mark too.
But many shareholders want Mark out as well. He said neither him nor Sheryl are going anywhere.
Rough times. We really don’t know what will happen. And we hope that Mark will stay on board. Good guy to poke fun at.
Influencer marketing with FB by Van Oakes
Van Oakes recently shared his simple yet super effective 3-Step Process at AWC. He used these steps to generate a 17X ROAS with a mix of Facebook Ads + Influencer Marketing and it’s a complete masterclass on Influencer Marketing.
In Step 1, which he calls the “Influencer Brand Recognition Share”, Van uses his Self-Shot Engaging & Sharable Video. He recommends having a shock effect in the video in order to get many engagements and shares. Plus, he makes a point that your influencers share the video from your page.
RECIPE – campaign objectives
25% Adspend: PPE objective
50% Adspend: Video Views
25% Adspend: Conversions objective
In the 2nd Strategic Step called “Influencer Video Campaign”, Influencers create their own Self-Shot RAW Video along with the same lines, asking him further questions, creating CTA urgency and thus making it engaging.
RECIPE:
50% Adspend: Conversions objective.
25% Adspend: Video Views
25% Adspend: PPE objective
+ target LLA audiences
+ broaden targeting to similar niches.
+ IG story w/ swipe up.
In the 3rd Strategic Step, called “Turning the Profit Tap”, he simply retargets the engaging audience with Dynamic Ads, excluding the previous purchasers.
RECIPE:
VC – 2,7,14,30 Days
ATC – 2,7,14,30 Days
Engage w/ IG
Engage w/ FB
Engage w/ post
OK, that’s a rough guide. The nice add-on is that Van is open to any questions that you may have on this Hot-Sauce-Recipe which you can ask him here, on Affiliate World’s FB page.
GENERAL
Five alternative advertising platforms
As we said, we don’t want to be apocalyptical, but if yesterday Facebook made you rethink your strategy… And you understood that it’s not safe to have all your eggs in one basket, here are 5 alternatives to the Crazy Social Network, with their strong points that should make you consider them!
1. Twitch It!
If your audience consists of millennial males, who are interested in gaming, technology, and gadgets, Twitch is the platform you should advertise on. Sponsorships are well received by the audience there. What are some of the possible adverts, you may ask?
Since it’s a video-streaming platform, video-based ads are highly recommended. Though there are Banner and Carousel Ad formats available too. However, Video Ad formats work wonders as people are more engaged with videos on this platform.
They may cost a bit more but they bring more conversions too. Hence, prepare your budgets accordingly, and don’t advertise things like make-up there. Seriously, don’t.
2. Pinterest-ing!
So where to advertise for a female based audience? Pinterest is the way!
87% of users save Pins they like or look forward to purchasing and then revisit them and purchase those sooner or later. Similar to Twitch, Sponsored Content is welcome by the users, as they see the platform more relevant and hence useful.
Ads options include “Promoted Pins”. These are designed like normal, unpromoted Pins, so they blend in easily. These Pins can include photos, videos, or a carousel.
A recent update in the Ads formats is the “Pinterest Shopping Ads”, which works like Google Shopping Ads. In addition, Pinterest now allows CPA based bidding, which along with Conversion objective, can be beneficial for your ROI.
3. LinkedIn To It!
The businessman’s Facebook. LinkedIn is most useful for B2B advertising and has great conversion rates. Particularly because of the accurate targeting factors like Job title, Skills, Interests, Employers and many more, making it easier for advertisers to choose a specific group.
LinkedIn has many options for advertising, but the 3 most popular are Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, and Text Ads which is the most popular among affiliates.
The downside? A ~$5.74 CPC. Not very desirable, considering an average of $3.35 CPC on Google Ads
However, the high conversion rate makes up for it, with around 9% on LinkedIn, and 2.58% on Google Ads. Sometimes a bigger buck is really worth it.
4. Did You Reddit!
A not so well-known platform, as far as advertising is concerned, is Reddit.
Did you know Reddit has more US users than Facebook?
Even here, high engagement is common. While there are some challenges in advertising on Reddit, with right ad message and the right targeting, any campaign can be successful. There are many targeting options, including location, subreddit, interests and devices.
Ads options are Sponsored content, Banners (these are not available on the self-serve platform) and Mobile Ads.
The mistake advertisers starting on Reddit do is disrupting the subreddits with irrelevant ads. Why have a tea Ad on the r/Coffee subreddit, right?
CPM based buying can be incredibly cost-effective at as low as $5 per 1000 impressions, which means you don’t really need to stress much about the budget. The great news is Reddit recently introduced video Ads with CPV bidding which is a great addition for building highly engaged audiences.
5. YouTube It!
Largest video platform on our list, operated by the big G, which can be incredibly cost-effective with TrueView Ads. Targeting is easier, thanks to the huge network of Google accounts, where advertisers have access to each & every targeting options you need like age, location, affinity and interests.
Advertising options go beyond video ads which, some can be a bit expensive and some not, depending on where you are advertising on. TrueView Discovery Ads are on the homepage, YouTube’s search result and on the side of the screen of related videos.
Another positive is that you don’t need to pay for your ad if the consumer doesn’t watch at least 30s, or if he doesn’t click a TrueView ad.
So, there you have them. Five of our alternatives to Facebook. Do you use them on a regular basis? Let us know how well you performed on them!
If at first you don’t succeed…
Try again, and again, and again.
That’s what Snap does by planning to release a new $350 version of its Spectacles by the end of the year.
The new version has two cameras and will make it possible to create “augmented reality effects in videos.”
No, you won’t be able to overlay augmented reality effects in real time. You still need to use the Snapchat app to edit your videos and images afterwards.
Will it work this time? We will just quote ourselves when we wrote about Spectacles 2 in April.
“We have not seen anyone use Spectacles yet and we’re not holding our breath for the new version either.”
While Snap focusses on Snap products that don’t seem to work, others borrow ideas from Snap that seem to work.
After Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google, now also LinkedIn is implementing a Stories like feature called “Student Voices”.
The big difference between the original and Student Voices is that on the latter, content won’t disappear after 24 hours. After a week, videos disappear from the playlist but stay permanently visible on a user’s own profile.
Does LinkedIn need a feature like that? Unlikely. But it seems LinkedIn is trying to become the cool place to be for the younger generation.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Track your FB addiction
Fifteen weeks after Facebook announced its “Your Time on Facebook”, the feature is finally rolling out around the world.
This tool reveals how many minutes you’ve spent on Facebook’s app on that device each day for the past week and on average. You can set a daily limit and receive a reminder to stop after that many minutes each day.
Yes, despite all his problems, Zuccc is worried that you don’t waste time on Facebook. Don’t you love him?
Sure you don’t. You’re probably thinking that he should focus on more important things, ads manager platform for instance. But maybe he wants us to stay focused on our campaigns.
Thanks, Mark! Yet, we have a request for you: why don’t you make a tool to measure all the times we screamed and sworn due to Facebook’s madness?
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