Surviving Facebook's Ad Targeting Changes

In March of this year, at the height of their international privacy crisis, Facebook announced they would begin to gradually remove Partner Categories – the ad targeting parameters made possible by third-party data providers. As we reported then, the move means that many audience identifiers will be removed from target audiences by October 1. These include:

• purchase activity
• income level
• automobile ownership
• likeliness to relocate
• bank membership
• business travel activity
• charitable donations
• company size
• corporate executives

Though disappointing for some industries, businesses were (and still are) encouraged to expand their interest targeting options to make up for the cutback in audience size. This week, Facebook is making that even more challenging with an announcement that some 5,000 additional targeting options are also being removed. The biggest among them:

• ethnic affinity
• religious affiliation
• cultural interests

How can you continue to utilize Facebook to reach the appropriate audience while targeting options shrink?

1.     Lead Generation Forms

The removal of key targeting features is a harsh reminder that you don’t own the Facebook audiences you’ve spent years carefully curating. The only way you, as an advertiser, can save and continue to re-market to potential leads meeting the criteria specified through a Facebook audience, is by offering those leads the opportunity to opt-in to your email marketing lists. We recommend using Facebook’s built-in Lead Generation Forms to transition as many potential customers as possible from social viewers to email subscribers.

2.     Pixel Retargeting

With a properly installed Facebook pixel on your website, you can track users who visit particular pages of interest, then serve them appropriate ads on social using a Facebook-generated list created with the pixel data.

3.     Source Third Party Data

Although Facebook will no longer absorb the cost associated with Partner Categories, you can still acquire data from the partner companies themselves. Acxiom, CCC Marketing, Epsilon, Experian, Oracle Data Cloud, and Quantium will generate potential customer lists on your behalf for the right price.

Want to make the most out of Facebook’s targeting options before the October cutoff? Connect with Deph Digital Media to build a conversion-worthy audience today.

Twitter Fights Rampant Abuse

Every day when users open their Twitter accounts they are subjected to spam and harassment. In recent months, while under increasing scrutiny, the platform has ramped up efforts to fight against spam and other unhealthy behaviors that jeopardize the user experience. Although it has cost them a loss to the tune of three million active monthly users, Twitter’s showing no signs of slowing down.

The implications are vast and varied for brands using the network. In July, Twitter removed tens of millions of accounts from the platform that were previously inactive, locked due to suspicious activity or repeat violators of their terms of service. While the initial drop in followers may have been a shock, some are viewing the move as a boost to the credibility of the platform. No longer can an account rely on bots and spam accounts to inflate their follower count.

Bot accounts aren’t the only ones at risk. Attempting to curb attention from the congressional investigation into Russia’s attack on the 2016 U.S. elections, Twitter has suspended 70 million accounts tweeting politically divisive content. Those accounts, often pretending to tweet from a country in which they aren’t located, are given a chance to challenge their suspension by way of phone verification. While your brand account may not be fake, don’t fall victim to being misleading. As a best practice – especially if you’re tipping your toes into partisan issues ­– verify your phone number before the Twitter prompt.

To crackdown on harassing and threatening behavior, the platform has begun to aggressively enforce their User Agreement. Although there’s debate about whether they’re doing a good job of that or not (we don’t think so), it’s undeniable that strides are being made.

In the past, it was commonplace for live video streamers to overlook annoying and vulgar commentary during a broadcast but a new policy for Twitter’s live video platform, Periscope, suspends accounts that make abusive or offensive comments in the chat section.

Researchers from the universities of Oxford, Leiden and Amsterdam have also teamed up with Twitter to help the network determine, algorithmically, which potentially contentious conversations hold meaningful, complex reasoning vs. those showcasing incivility and intolerance.

Concerned about the content you’re tweeting? Deph Digital can ensure that your Twitter account complies with the latest policies, rules and regulations.

Say Farewell to Facebook Reviews

In an exciting move this week, Facebook officially retired their 5-star review system for pages. Taking its place is a revamp of the increasingly popular recommendations feature.

Previous rating reviews have been incorporated into a new score that tallies the average number of people who, based on their opinion, recommend or don’t recommend a page.

Unlike reviews, recommendations can occur in various places on Facebook – like a user’s newsfeed or within a group – and the feedback will be added to the appropriate establishment’s Facebook page.

Recommendations can include text, photos and a new option: related business tags. These tags, Facebook says, will help determine the relevancy of a page within search results. Auto-populated tag phrases such as “free Wi-Fi,” “open late” and “great service” are suggested to users, among others.

To help pages combat fraudulent recommendations a 25-character minimum is being rolled out, as well as a long-awaited, easier ability for pages to report inaccurate or abusive commentary.

Interested in learning how to ask for page recommendations? Contact us for an engagement plan guaranteed to get new customers to notice your business.

Will IGTV be a Ratings Success?

Last week, Instagram rolled out IGTV – a new hub that spotlights long-form videos from Instagram influencers and people you follow. As the platform positions itself as a YouTube competitor, what IGTV features might marketers find useful?

1. Long-form videos: No longer are you bound to 15-second video snippets on your profile. IGTV videos can have up to a 60-minute runtime for verified accounts and 10-minute runtime for all users.
2. Creator channels: IGTV channels are available for users to follower your content on a separate IGTV app and also link your content to your profile when a new video is shared.
3. Calls-to-action: Users are already familiar with Instagram's "swipe up to learn more" feature. IGTV expands on that experience with the ability to include several CTAs throughout the video.
4. Share button: Viewers can share IGTV videos directly with other Instagram accounts. When broadcasting, asking your followers to share the video with someone who might enjoy it could prove to be a successful way to grow your following.
5. Facebook Watch integration: Since Facebook owns Instagram, they've made it extremely simple to share IGTV content directly to your Facebook Watch channel, even automatically if you wish.
6. Autoplay & continue watching: Much like Instagram Stories, IGTV also features autoplay. Once a user finishes watching your video, other videos (from various accounts) will play. They can pause videos and resume them later with the Continue Watching tab and, if they enjoy what they're seeing, choose to follow all content from that publisher.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to create an IGTV channel and start interacting with your followers in a new and exciting way? Let's connect to discuss the possibilities!

The QR Code Comeback?

Scanning QR codes has never really caught on in the US. The process is too convoluted. Users have to download a compatible reader, snap a photo of the code, then open the link in their mobile browser. But that hasn't stopped social networking sites from making use of them.

Snapchat has Snapcodes, Twitter has account codes, Instagram just unveiled Nametag codes, and now Facebook is rolling out Page QR Codes.

So what's the difference? Users may actually take advantage of Facebook's latest feature since the codes can easily be scanned within the native Facebook app or within Messenger. And with the ability to produce codes that lead users to take certain actions such as: 

• Automatically liking your page
• Checking users in to your business location
• Connecting users to a recommendation screen
• Connecting users to your ‘View Offers’ listing
• Prompting users to leave a review

We may actually see businesses use them. Will you?