With Declining Popularity in Younger Demographics: Has Facebook Reached its Peak?

Facebook was the first of the main social media players to spark concern in marketers when it was reported that it lost $120 billion mid last year.

At the same time, the social media giant reported its first dip in users, losing 3 million European users that month.  However, the company dismissed the loss, claiming that it was ‘not indicative of a wider growth issue’.

According to The Guardian, this may not be the case however, as the publication has claimed more than 3 million under-25s in the UK and US will quit Facebook or stop using it regularly this year.  The reason behind this? “As soon as parents got in they killed it.”

There’s no denying that the platform now has a problem attracting, and keeping today’s teenagers engaged.  Does that mean that you should immediately pull your marketing campaign from the channel? Not necessarily.

Despite reports of declining users, there are still almost 2 billion people actively using Facebook each month, which means it remains the world’s biggest social media platform. So the chances are, at least one of your target segments is active on the channel. If you do it right, Facebook marketing remains one of the most effective channels for generating leads and ROI.

With its advanced targeting techniques and variety of advertising options, Facebook Ads is one of most sophisticated advertising platforms available to marketers. However, it is important to know how to use it effectively.  The following are some of the things you can do to ensure Facebook continues to work for your business, even if it is losing the attention of the younger audience.

Ensure Your Facebook Pixel is Set Up Properly

The Facebook Pixel is a snippet of code that you add to your website.  It allows you to target visitors on Facebook based on how they have previously interacted with your website. With the tracking pixel installed, you can use Facebook ads to target someone who has been on a specific page of your website, downloaded a resource or filled out a contact form. This gives you the ability to be more targeted with your messaging and creative in order to move them through the buying funnel.

Carefully Consider Your Advertising Goals

Facebook Advertising allows you to set up ads based on the different stages of the marketing funnel – Awareness, Consideration and Conversion.  It has 12 specific objectives that you can choose from that fall under one of these three categories. Before you start your campaign, it’s vital to define your Goal, from these categories.  Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Increase brand awareness? Or get people to fill out a contact form enquiry? By knowing which is your priority, you can build ads and creative that will have the most impact for your brand.  Having clear goals will also let you measure your ROI and the effectiveness of the campaign more accurately.

Be Specific with your Targeting

Facebook’s targeting is unrivalled in other digital advertising platforms. The ‘custom audiences’ feature allows you to define segments based on standard metrics like age, gender, location, interests, occupation and income; to name but a few.  With Facebook ads, you can also target audiences based on their behaviours.  For example, a restaurant can target people in their area who have recently been to other similar restaurants. A denture company can target their ads to people who are not only over a certain age, but who have also shown an interest in competitor brands. Facebook ads are also often used by ecommerce businesses to target customers based on the specific product page that they have visited.  Basically, no matter what product you are advertising, you will be able to make the most of Facebook’s audiences to deliver your ads directly to the most relevant people.

Don’t Be Boring

This can be said for any marketing campaign you run.  Today’s consumers are bombarded with ads constantly. Not only on social media platforms, but every time they perform a Google search, browse the web, watch TV, or read a magazine – even on their commute to work.  Advertisements are everywhere and people have gotten used to blocking their messages out.  It’s particularly important to remember this when you are using social media to advertise, as this is traditionally a place where people want to relax and socialise online. If you want to stand out from the funny cat videos and cute baby pictures, it’s important to create ads that engage and genuinely interest your audience.

Always Test & Optimise

The Facebook advertising platform is ideal for testing your ads and creative, thanks to relatively cheap ads, and the short life span of social content. It is rare that you will strike the ideal combination of audience, message and creative first go, so Facebook isn’t the type of channel where you can set your ads up and come back to check on them after a month.  You should be constantly monitoring and reviewing the performance of your ads, and making changes to optimise your campaigns. By continuously testing different elements of your campaign, you will be able to learn some of the ways to lower your Cost Per Impression and Cost per Conversion.

One last thing. Once you have decided that you’re going to do Facebook Marketing Auckland, make sure you commit to it.  Spend the time working out how to make the platform work for your business and it will quickly become a vital part of your strategic marketing plan. If you need help getting started, or optimising an existing campaign, get in touch with one of the local SEO Auckland experts at Digital Squad, your digital marketing agency NZ, today.