Barry Blassoples
Being a digital marketing professional in 2015, you may be forgiven for thinking of Facebook as an Ad Network with some social networking functionality. Let's not forget, however, that in order for Facebook to keep selling its inventory, it needs to keep up its balancing act between ad revenue and user experience.
As a social network, Zuckerberg and Co have a vested interest in ensuring that their users continue to see the world through blue colored glasses. Think about your experience when using the Facebook app. You scroll through your feed, tap on a piece of content and are directed to the web page, not in your browser app, but still within Facebook. And once you're done with the content, it's only a simple tap back to your News feed.
Considering the changes that have been made over the last few years, it is very clear that what Facebook wants most for its users, is that they see content which Facebook believes is most relevant to them. More relevant content means more time on Facebook which, in turn, allows them to present more ads and promoted content. And this is where it gets interesting.
Content and creative execution are critical to campaign success. It's no longer good enough to simply get your call-to-action noticed, it needs to come wrapped in creative content that people, not data sets, care enough about to want to spend two of their most limited resources. Their time and attention.
Your goal then, is to understand not only the message you are communicating, but how, where and why it is being presented to your target audience. Fundamentally, Facebook ranks and distributes content based on engagement rates. If your message is not fit for purpose, delivered efficiently, offering value to the person consuming it and optimised for the device on which it is being consumed, the probability of your campaigns delivering optimal results over a sustained period shifts less and less in your favour.
So how do you ensure that your creative content ticks all of these boxes? The answer, as with all things digital, is in the data. Investing in technology which allows intelligent tracking and testing will empower your decisions when it comes time to plan your content. However, this piece of advice does come with one caveat. Do not be afraid to mix things up when it comes to your creative! Testing will help you find what works, but applying only the test results to your creative brief may lead you down a path to producing creative content which immediately feels like it has already been done.
Our technology enables us to reach people at a scale and level of efficiency never seen before. If we are lucky enough to grab a moment of their attention, failing to give them something worthwhile to look at would certainly be a waste.
Sources
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/news-feed-fyi-taking-into-account-more-actions-on-videos/
