Facebook Marketing in 2015:

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1 Facebook Marketing in 2015: Building Success for Content Without Free Distribution What the recent changes to the Newsfeed algorithm mean for your marketing.

2 in Facebook to create unique strategies and tactics for direct response campaigns while using different techniques for brand engagement. This guide will give you actionable insights for accomplishing both these objectives in Facebook continues to be a revolutionary Early Days Congratulations! By reading this you are placing yourself in the vanguard of Facebook marketing. According to, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg speaking at last year s Preferred Marketing Developer s Summit, we are still in Early Days of marketing and advertising on social media and the best is yet to come. Early Days are always tumultuous and Facebook marketing was experienced it s share of upheaval. The last 12 months witnessed a dramatic shift from reaching fans for free to the elimination of organic distribution for promotional messages. platform for marketers and the recent changes promise to only make it more effective for those advertisers taking advantage of all it has to offer. CitizenNet is committed to giving you the tools you need to create meaningful connections between consumers and brands, leveraging the insights available through social media. This guide is dedicated to you. Together, we will build the future of success with Facebook marketing and social advertising. Change creates opportunity and smart marketers are adapting to the changes Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 2

3 Evolution of Facebook s Newsfeed Since the beginning, Facebook s guiding principle has been to continually improve the user experience. Since the Newsfeed became the central Facebook element in 2006, a better user experience is largely defined as more relevant and engaging content in the Newsfeed. When asked what percentage of their Newsfeed was ads the users overwhelmingly agreed At Least Half. Although Facebook does allow promotional and commercial content in the Newsfeed, it is designed to be more relevant to consumers than the advertisements on other sites. This is why Facebook provides advertisers with access to so much data for targeting the right message to the right audience. It is also why Facebook makes it easy for users to understand and have control over adjusting their own targetable interests. As the platform has evolved, Facebook marketing strategies have moved with it. Originally, companies asked customers to Like them on Facebook so they could continue to reach them for free whenever they posted. As more companies joined Facebook, Newsfeed inventory became scarece and Brands tried to trick Facebook s Newsfeed algorithm into delivering more reach by asking their fans to Like, Share, and Click on posts, hoping to show Facebook that their content was engaging and worth spreading. Ultimately, brands tried to trick their fans by creating posts that were really ads, disguised as content. In a recent focus group, Facebook brought in a number of users to learn more about their experience using Facebook. When asked what percentage of their Newsfeed was ads they overwhelmingly agreed At Least Half. Interestingly, Facebook knew definitively that less than 10% of the Newsfeed items for these users were paid advertisements. The glut of commercial messages masquerading Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 3

4 Facebook and Brand Reaction Timeline Facebook Launches Newsfeed Facebook Launches Brand Pages Facebook Launches Storefronts and Ads on Right Hand Rail Facebook launches Timeline and changes the look of Newsfeed Facebook launches Newsfeed Ads Facebook launches Newsfeed Redesign with larger Photos for Ads March Facebook promotes high quality content and news posts. Resurfaces older posts with current engagement. Restricts Meme photo posts Facebook Launches AutoPlay Video in Newsfeed Sept Dec Feb Facebook bans Like Gating special content available only to page fans Facebook restricts posts with Spammy Links, to pages with ads and Like Bait April Aug Facebook restricts commerical posts from brands Nov Facebook further restricts promotional posts that resemble ads Jan Brands seek Fans driving page likes. Posts reach most of their fans. Contests/ Promotions drive more fans and reward engagement Brands buy ads to build fans. Promote products to Fans and Friends of Fans with ads on Right Hand Rail Brands see better response rates to Newsfeed ads. Create posts to promote products/services via newsfeed. Posts with engagement get more reach. Encourage Liking, Clicking & sharing contant for reach Brands begin video posts in Newsfeed 2014 Brands receive additional 2015 reach by tagging other brands as content from brand pages and publishers, was hurting the user experience. It s no surprise that Facebook This is a great thing! Limiting inventory means that fewer ads get more attention. Control over advertising messages The King is Dead - Long Live the King for marketers to ignore the platform altogether. As described in the section above, these changes will improve the effectiveness of Facebook began restricting commercial content. Forcing companies to buy advertising for commercial messages has two positive outcomes. The first is that obviously, Facebook generates revenue, which keeps the site operating as a valuable marketing channel. The second means that Facebook can penalize advertisers that fail to leverage user data for targeting relevant prospects. The evolution of Facebook s Newsfeed to a paid advertising platform is a good thing for advertisers and users. As of September 2014, 71% of online adults in the US use Facebook regularly and for year olds its 80%. Clearly the cultural impact of Social Networking in general and Facebook in specific cannot be denied. advertising moving forward. As Facebook evolves, it s worth noting some of the unique capabilities that make it valuable for marketers to keep pace with the changes. Customer Data is that it allows Facebook to control the number and quality of ads that users see. The recent eliminations of free distribution is no reason There is no other platform where customers so willingly Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 4

5 and frequently share such a high volume of information about themselves. This is information that savvy marketers can use for customer research and insights as well as prospect targeting and segmentation. There are quite literally thousands of different attributes and dimensions which marketers can use to slice the marketplace, leveraging demographics, behaviors, interests, and even third party data to see psychographic profiles and offline behavior. Audience Targeting In addition to niche targeting with Facebook s data, companies have many other targeting options available on Facebook that exist no where else. Offline businesses can target customer lists by uploading Custom Audiences built from CRM databases and matched against Facebook s user profiles in a completely privacy-safe way. Online businesses can retarget site visitors or cart abandoners with images of the items they shopped for or even show different color variations. Both of these audience groups can be expanded using Lookalike audience modeling based on Facebook user data. No other platform offers so many powerful and flexible targeting options for advertisers. High-Impact Creative The Newsfeed is the focus of all user activity on Facebook and this is where ads appear. Eye tracking studies prove advertising resistant customers often ignore the edges of websites where ads live, but Facebook solves this by inserting ads directly within content. Facebook offers long headlines, lengthy descriptions and clickable links all surrounding large beautiful images or even video. Few advertising environments can rival Facebook for the quality of the ad unit and the integration within the content users care most about. On most mobile devices the ads completely fill the screen making them even more powerful. Mobile Penetration US consumers spend more smartphone time on Facebook than the next 10 activities COMBINED. That includes YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps, Yelp - everything! In fact, 17% of all time on the mobile web in the US is spent on Facebook. On average, Facebook users spend 37 minutes per Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 5

6 day on the platform and 60% of that time is mobile. Because this is spread across approximately 17 visits per day, it creates a huge opportunity for business to reach consumers on the go while shopping, etc. Facebook leverages user identity so it s easy to understand how interactions in mobile impact purchases on desktop. Over 13 Million websites and apps use the Facebook Integrated Login, including more than 35% of the websites for the Fortune 500. Identity Across Channels Facebook offers a unique opportunity for Cross Channel attribution. Over 13 Million websites and Apps use the Facebook Integrated Login, including more than 35% of the websites for the Fortune 500. This means Facebook can gather user behavioral data from apps and sites visited outside of Facebook. Most of the activity on Mobile devices exists within an app. Facebook is the only platform that can do what cookies cannot, link consumer behavior across mobile applications, mobile browsing and then connect that back to activity on a different device like a laptop -- all using Facebook identity as the link. Identity allows for message sequencing and other unique advertising opportunities that only Facebook can provide. Despite the frustrating loss of free distribution to page fans, Facebook remains a powerful marketing channel for 2015 because of it s unique capabilities with user data, audience targeting, high quality creative, mobile impact, and cross channel attribution. Regardless of the volatility in the channel, marketers must adapt and learn how to use this powerful platform. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 6

7 How-To: a Roadmap for Facebook Success in 2015 To succeed with Facebook in 2015, social media marketers must adapt to changes within the platform. Companies must have two separate and distinct sets of strategies, one for promotional campaigns and another for brand campaigns. Instead, this same marketer should now share the video with the fans of their page to cement their brand position as the best place to see live music and use a separate post targeted to a specific audience segment, supported with advertising, to promote the sale of tickets. In the next two sections we will review key Strategies and Tactics for success on Facebook in 2015, taking into account all the recent changes and different promotional and brand oriented objectives. In the past a concert venue could see great success sharing a video post of a well known artist backstage, using the copy to invite users to click through and buy tickets to an upcoming show. Moving forward this type of post will receive virtually zero exposure, selling few tickets In 2015, companies must have two separate and distinct sets of strategies Promotional Campaigns on Facebook 2015 is the year many marketers will begin to make serious investments in advertising on Facebook. In the past, these same marketers saw large volumes of traffic and some conversions from Facebook s free distribution of content. Moving forward, marketers must support their commercial Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 7

8 messaging with advertising budgets forcing these campaigns to be more accountable. In building a framework for success, it is important to understand the appropriate use-case for paid advertising on Facebook, as well as building an appreciation for the best combinations of messaging and targeting. When to use Promotional Campaigns on Facebook In light of the latest restrictions Facebook is placing on promotional content, any campaign that is encouraging consumers to engage with a company for business purposes should be considered Promotional. Most companies engage in social media for the purpose of generating revenue. As such, most campaigns should be considered Promotional moving forward. Truly altruistic campaigns (sharing tips and tricks that don t push products for sale, sharing humorous or instructional videos, sharing inspirational quotes, etc.) fall into Brand Building. We will discuss these types of campaigns in the next section. A Framework for Success with Promotional Campaigns Before spending any advertising dollars, it s important that social media marketers clearly define their objectives and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will serve as the measures of success. Additionally they must solidify the targeting and messaging strategies they will use to accomplish these objectives. For most advertisers, objectives will include some type of conversion, whether it s a checkout or an offline action on an ecommerce site. This is different from the previous generation of Facebook campaigns which measured success in engagement; tracking likes, shares, video views, comments or referral traffic. Although these may be good leading indicators, the next generation of campaigns must ultimately be accountable for a conversion that can lead to revenue in order to justify the cost of the media. The ultimate measure of success for most promotional campaigns is revenue, but some companies may have a long sales Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 8

9 cycle, or rely on customer lifetime value (CLTV) as a better measure of profitability. In these instances, it is important to structure KPIs that are strongly correlated to revenue and high CLTV. CitizenNet generally recommends a balanced scorecard approach that builds in KPIs from across the customer journey. Typical scorecards might include efficient CPMs, strong Click Through Rates (CTR) and some measure of the quality of the traffic, like onpage conversion for landing pages (whether lead forms or ecommerce). The ultimate measure of success for most promotional campaigns is revenue It is important to note that Facebook s auction is different from Google s. As such, Optimized CPM (ocpm) bidding is almost always preferable to a Cost Per Click (CPC) model for ultimately driving conversions. For a detailed discussion on this, please review CitizenNet s blog post Facebook Bid Optimization for Direct Response Advertisers. Strategies and Tactics for Promotional Campaigns. Facebook offers a full toolbox of options for driving success with promotional campaigns. Picking the right tactics is vital for success. Core Audience Targeting: Perhaps the simplest strategy is to target an existing core audience of fans, custom audiences or fans of competitor pages. This is a perfect strategy for building CLTV, selling new products to existing customers or conquesting a competitor s customers. These groups often demonstrate strong response rates, although the reach is somewhat limited. See below for tips on expanding these audiences without sacrificing response rates. Custom Audience Targeting and Retargeting: Facebook stands alone in it s ability to leverage existing customer lists for ongoing targeting. Using custom audiences, marketers can upload an existing CRM database or list and target these customers with new offers. These lists can be segmented to only inactive customers or Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 9

10 perhaps leads that never converted. In the same way, marketers can import other lead list acquired through different marketing activities. With only an address or a phone number, Facebook can match target lists to users in a completely anonymous, privacy-safe way. and target Lookalikes, so its not always easy to repeat or expand. Facebook stands alone in it s ability to leverage customer lists for targeting. Retargeting works in a similar fashion, except the custom audience is generated dynamically based on site visitors. Using a re-targeting vendor, ecommerce advertisers can target users with dynamic creative reflecting items in a cart, different sizes and colors or recommended accessories / items frequently purchased together. Lookalike Targeting: Facebook Lookalike Targeting was developed specifically to expand upon a known high value audience. Based on any of the audiences above, marketers can use a simple slider interface to reach more users that resemble this known audience. Obviously finding users who resemble high value customers is a strong targeting strategy. Unfortunately, Facebook s Lookalike targeting is somewhat opaque and it s unclear which attributes and dimensions Facebook is using to identify Audience Expansion: Using Facebook s Audience Insights Tool (or some targeting technology like CitizenNet s Predicted Affinity Audience targeting), brands are able to expand upon their core audiences in a more transparent and repeatable way than what is available with Lookalike targeting. For a robust discussion of how to use Facebook s Audience Insights Tool, see CitizenNet s Whitepaper The Facebook Audience Planning and Purchasing Playbook this download includes Excel worksheets for identifying new audience segments for expansion, as well as budgeting tools for planning media to reach these audiences. Reach and Frequency: Facebook s ability to limit frequency is unique among online platforms. Reach and Frequency buys ensure high penetration and awareness with Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 10

11 a specific audience and can be applied to any of the targeting strategies discussed above (as long as the audience is at least 1 Million Monthly Active Users). For a detailed discussion of Reach and Frequency buying on Facebook and Best Practices see CitizenNet s Blog Post Facebook Reach and Frequency Buying. Messaging Strategy and Creative: Facebook is the world s largest real-time focus group, and can provide insights for messaging strategy across media channels. Facebook s built in tools or those available through a media buying platform allow marketers to see engagement with promotional posts (ads). The volume of likes, shares and comments can be a strong indication of the quality of the message and how well it is received by the target audience segment. Many 3rd party tools (like CitizenNet) can even provide sentiment analysis, with insights on how positively or negatively the target audience is reacting to a specific message. It is important to remember Promotional campaigns are different from Brand Oriented or engagement campaigns your company may have executed in the past. Promotional Posts supported with advertising budgets should be nonpublished / dark posts and considered ad units. As such, traditional advertising principles are important. Strong headlines with a Unique Value Proposition highlighting a product s specific benefit to this target audience are crucial. Powerful images (or videos) help promotional posts leap out of the Newsfeed and grab the users attention. Or course, a strong call to action is essential to stimulate a response. Promotional Posts supported with advertising should be considered ad units. Testing and Optimization: Ongoing optimization is the key to driving efficiency with any media. Facebook offers so many unique variables for testing and optimization that many marketers rely on some type of technology platform, like CitizenNet, to analyze and optimize ongoing campaigns. Testing Mobile vs. Desktop, different images, headlines, targeting criteria, etc. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 11

12 all lead to performance improvements. It is essential that marketers continue to test and modify their targeting as well as their messaging to drive the best results with Facebook promotional campaigns. Brand Building on Facebook in 2015 Given the recent changes to Facebook s Newsfeed, what should brands do with their pages? As discussed in the previous section, they should no longer look to their pages to drive near-term sales outside of paid promotional campaigns using dark posts and managed like advertising. However, companies have the opportunity to deepen engagement and build long term brand preference and loyalty through engaging with their customers on the platform. Remember, beginning January 15, 2015, Facebook considers any post that asks for engagement of any kind (likes, clicks, shares) to be commercial. Even posts that are only sharing a non- commercial post on a company s blog off of Facebook may be considered commercial in nature because they ask users to leave Facebook to visit another page where there may be an advertising message or call to action. Additionally, if the post contains any of the same content as a paid ad, it is considered commercial. Even certain keywords associated with promotional offers, like Tomorrow have been shown to impact organic reach. Despite these changes, many brands should still use Facebook as a channel for deepening engagement with their existing fans. Creating and sharing high value, altruistic (non-commercial) content will cement the emotional connection between a brand and their core audience and will result in sharing to new potential customers. Companies that do not participate in market-shaping and brand building may be better served to focus on direct response objectives using promotional campaigns as described in the previous section. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 12

13 Measuring Brand Engagement Objectives Although posts should not overtly ask for user action -- likes, shares, views, and clicks are still good measures of engagement for content and make for meaningful objectives. Moving forward brands should not however use referral traffic as a KPI. Over the last year, Facebook has made a significant investment in improving their native hosting capabilities for video and other content. In August 2014, Facebook passed YouTube for Video Views, and in early In 2015 and beyond, Brands should see Facebook as a publishing channel for hosting content. 2015, Facebook is creating a video hub for brands within their Facebook brand pages. These developments signal an emphasis on hosting original content directly on Facebook. In the past, Facebook was a promotional channel for driving traffic to the content. In 2015 and beyond, Brands should see Facebook as a publishing channel for hosting content, in the same way they host content on YouTube or their owned blog. By simply sharing content with a specific point of view, many brands use Facebook as a platform for strengthening brand association. For example, home insurance companies are sharing Move Day Checklists, as a completely altruistic tool that homeowners can use to prepare for a move. Through this content, the insurance company strengthens their position as a helpful brand in the mind of the consumer - even with consumers who do not use the checklist. Likewise, hotels hoping to build a perception of sophistication share high quality artistic images of tourist attractions in markets where they have properties. Neither of these campaigns are measured by specific revenues. This is the type of content that will continue to do well by reaching existing fans and being shared on Facebook. What s more, this content impacts any audience that sees the post, whether they engage with it or not. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 13

14 A clear statement of objectives like deepening engagement, increasing strength of association with specific brand tenets, etc, can help guide what content is created and published on Facebook. Understanding different audiences and their interests, brands gain a clear view of the content that will make an impact. What is Engaging for your Audience? The restriction in free distribution will require brands to be more sophisticated in their approach to content marketing on Facebook in Fortunately, Facebook offers many tools for gaining more insights into a particular audience. Facebook s Page Insights Tools offer an understanding of the type of content page fans engage with, when they engage, and even what types of posts they prefer. Many companies gain an even deeper understanding of their market using Facebook s free Audience Insights Tool. This tool is an invaluable resource for understanding different interest segments within your core audience. Through analyzing the overlaps and gaps between different audiences and their interests, brands can gain a clear view of the type of content that will make an impact. Interpreting these interests through the filter of a company s overarching brand strategy, marketers will be able to know what content will be the most engaging and best support the brand objectives. This blog post provides a detailed overview of how to use this tool. How To Guide for the Facebook Audience Insights Tool. When creating content for your audience, remember, goals should center on connecting with specific brand principles and beliefs, not informing them about new products or sales promotions - those types of objectives should be handled with advertising campaigns. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 14

15 Amplifying Content Companies with a large number of fans may choose to share certain content only with specific segments of their fan base. Facebook now makes it easy for page owners to target which aspects of their audience see which posts. This same segmentation strategy should be applied with advertising budget to amplify particularly powerful content to reach a greater proportion of the fan base and seed the social conversation to facilitate continued sharing. The End of the Beginning Facebook has been evolving towards a paid media channel for some time. The restrictions on organic reach and free distribution over the last year, culminating with the change of January 15, 2015, signal a significant shift in this direction and the beginning of the next phase in Social Media Marketing. This isn t surprising. There are many analogs between Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing. Search engines are myopically focused on delivering the best possible content on the results page in the same way Facebook is committed to delivering the best possible content in the Newsfeed. Early on, marketers gamed search engine algorithms with SEO tactics designed to get free exposure -- the same way marketers gained free traffic from Facebook sharing content to fans. As Search Marketing evolved, companies made a commitment to Paid Search and now Pay Per Click advertising is the basis There are many analogs between Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing. of competition for many in this channel. Most successful search marketers use technology to support keyword selection, bid optimization, targeting etc. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 15

16 As Facebook transitions to a paid channel, most marketers will adopt technology to support their advertising efforts. CitizenNet is the only Facebook Marketing Partner with technology proven to improve social media performance through better audience targeting and media optimization. With solutions specifically designed for either brands or the agencies that serve them, CitizenNet s clients see success using both self serve and fully managed solutions. For a more detailed overview of CitizenNet s technology or to schedule a demo, please contact us through the form on our website. Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 16

17 References Imagery Andres Arenas from the Noun Project Images taken from Flickr.com under Creative Commons commercial use license LadyDragonflyCC - >;<, rachaelvoorhees, JWPhotowerks, Sonny Abesamis, Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, DWHonan, kalmyket, Rudi Riet, ARBRE ÉVOLUTION, Tiffany Creatiff Photos, Uqbar is back, Graham Coreil-Allen, tanakawho and Successful Content Strategies Without Free Distribution 17