MBuzz: Unfriended: Is It Time to Move on From Facebook Ads?
Fill Me In:
Recent news beyond the marketing realm has been painting Meta (Facebook’s parent brand) in a bad light. There have been rising concerns from investors regarding CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence on committing to the Virtual Reality world coined the Metaverse. However, public opinion has been teetering towards apathy towards the new technology, leading to concerns for the tech leader’s direction and future. Many have begun to reflect on Facebook’s status as a social media giant and their place in the digital landscape. Is it time to log off your timelines for good?
What this means:
Facebook still dominates the social media space with the largest platform of 2.9 billion monthly active users. YouTube trails behind as the second largest platform with 2.2 billion users. However, Facebook’s user base has one noticeable callout that may be leading to its eventual decline: it is a platform primarily used by older generations. When looking at the Baby Boomers that are active on social media, the vast majority use Facebook as their sole connection to the online public space. However, as you go down the generations, we see Facebook take up a smaller percentage of time spent online. Gen X and Millennials are still on the platform, but many use multiple different platforms a day and their focus are spread out accordingly. Gen Z has all but eliminated the use of Facebook as a form of social media; preferring other platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter (although they do still enjoy Instagram, a Meta property). Unless your audience is tailored toward the older demographic, Facebook may soon not be the best solution for a wide reach.
Another thing to consider is that ads are becoming increasingly more expensive on Facebook. There has been about an 89% uptick YOY in Facebook CPMs, averaging around $11 on average per campaign. Compare this to a growing social media platform such as TikTok, who is averaging CPMs around $10 and is continuously growing. This rise in CPMs is related to several factors such as privacy changes, a continuously shrinking younger audience, and other online trends. These issues don’t seem to be top priority for Zuckerberg and team now, and your ad dollar may only get weaker on the platform as time goes on.
Regarding recent news, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing the company in the direction of the VR world known as the Metaverse. This, combined with recent layoffs affecting the majority of the tech world, has led many to start wondering what will become of the original Facebook platform, and with it the ad space it provides. The Metaverse is Zuckerberg’s white whale and he seems willing to do whatever it takes to make his dream a reality. Many departments within Meta have been told that Metaverse expansion is priority #1 for the future. With the Facebook platform seeing a reduction of staff members on the back end, there is a growing elephant in the room as to the status of the main site and how effective it will be at both drawing in new users and providing valuable ad results.
MBuy POV:
Facebook is still a solid staple piece to include in all digital campaigns; it has a large user base and many different levers to pull when reaching an audience such as audience layering and advanced targeting. But its hold on the digital landscape is starting to weaken as younger audiences turn away from the timeline, and ads get more expensive to run across the board. In the not-so-distant future, we can see Facebook as an ad serving platform failing to reach qualified audiences at a competitive price. The Metaverse may be supersizing on the daily, but their formative social site is suffering the consequences. We at MBuy recommend that for your upcoming campaigns you should work in testing new social platforms and other forms of widespread digital media to start the work of removing Facebook as the main centerpiece of a digital campaign. The Facebook Chapter may soon be wrapping up and don’t let yourselves get caught on a cliffhanger.