Whether you already have heard about the Facebook changes or not, this is definitely something to continue reading about.
On March 19th, The Washington Post put out an article stating that Facebook agreed to now overhaul their targeted advertising system for job, housing and loan ads after receiving discrimination complaints. With this, it means that we are not able to target people with things like job titles, age, income and even location. However, there is time to think about this because Facebook says the change will not be conclusive until the end of the year. Now, if you put it this way, it’s almost as if men magazine companies cannot target men, even though they are the primary target. Same thing goes for women’s magazines targeting women: it is simply not justified anymore. Unfortunately, this is the kind of world we live in now where anything you say or do can be seen as discriminatory. This is now the new norm and just like everything else in life, you need to find a work around and move on. Here is where we can now see the true difference between a great marketer and just a great Facebook ads person. The true difference between the two is having the actual skill and being able to continue your work even with such obstacles. Now, we can sit around and ask the same questions over again about how this does and does not make sense, but instead we have compiled tactics on how to overcome these new rules. Just like you, we have the mentality of where if something becomes difficult, we still keep on moving.
Start using your custom Audience on your Facebook Ads. The custom audiences are the uploads of those lists that come directly from your database whether it be from your CRM, Google Contacts, Outlook, etc. All you need to do is export that list out of your database and import it into Facebook. For a complete step-by-step on how to do this, click here.
Contact people who have previously engaged with your earlier ads. Just like mentioned previously, this change will not take effect just yet. Between now and the end of the year we need to be doing everything possible to be creating more engagement on our page and with our ads so that we have a larger audience to ultimately choose from. If you’re not sure how to go about this, then this is where the third tactic comes in.
Try Brand Marketing rather than solely prioritizing direct call-to-action. Brand building is what matters and allows you to get into whatever it is you want to get into. We need to be more intentional on this which will then create more engagement. This way, we can ultimately retarget these people afterwards when a lot of the targeting goes away at the end of the year. Ultimately, brand is giving you value, content and education for all of your followers. For example, try posting videos or even making a podcast! Try doing something similar so then this way you can educate listeners to get more people to follow you and your brand. Think of it this way: direct call-to-action is momentary, brand marketing is long term. Which one would you rather have?
Start using lead ads on Facebook. Lead ads are where they click on what you’re offering and then a pop-up box shows with their information already auto-filled since Facebook has that information in its system already. This makes it that much easier for you since it is one touch. One step production is everything right now in the market with Amazon now offering 1-click shopping. It is now 2019 and with technology being so fast and advanced nowadays, this is exactly what the people ultimately want.
Lastly and most importantly, DO NOT GIVE UP! Great marketers like yourself are able to figure it out. It is also important to remember that you are not alone. This brought up a lot of talk and attention all over that everyone is scrambling for a solution. With this, all we can do is stay calm and figure it out together. If you don’t have the time or patience to work this out on your own, we can help you, complete the form below for a consult of one of our marketing programs.
-Courtney, Marketing Associate
