Prominent brands and civil rights groups are leading the charge for a July 2020 boycott of Facebook Ads. They want to see changes implemented to the platform and are organizing under the hashtag #StopHateForProfit. Whatever your views on these issues, it’s important to make an informed decision about how your business will approach this boycott. We offer you inspiration for an alternative media plan if you do decide to divert funds from Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads-free July media planHere are some media planning ideas to help shift advertising dollars while continuing to drive momentum with marketing efforts in July. In general, keep in mind testing of new tactics and platforms can take time to build traction — allow for leeway on performance targets. Also, remember Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook and aren’t viable alternatives if you want to fully participate in the boycott. Example media plan: DTC beauty brandThe following hypothetical direct-to-consumer (DTC) beauty brand caters to a younger female demographic. Prospecting/awarenessThe objective for this section of your media plan is to reach net-new customers. Connect prospecting/awareness tactics to conversion tactics Before you get started, make sure your prospecting tactics have a clear path toward supporting bottom-of-funnel conversions. Here are a few ways to do this:
PR and organic social Share that you’re supporting the #StopHateForProfit movement and diverting some or all of your ad budget to supporting the cause. You may just wind up with the same (or better) reach than you otherwise would from Facebook Ads. Snapchat and TikTok Because this example beauty brand is targeting Millennials and Gen Z, Snapchat and TikTok are good options. Both have self-serve platforms that are easy to use for those already familiar with Facebook Ads Manager. Snapchat users are primarily Millennials, and the experience is similar to Instagram Stories. Some advertisers have seen efficient CPMs on Snapchat Ads by utilizing trending hashtags. A newer option is Snapchat’s Dynamic Ads, which create personalized ads for either prospects or site visitors who have shown interest in specific products on your site. This is billed as a “direct response” tactic, but overall, we would consider Snapchat an upper-funnel tactic. TikTok skews toward Gen Z and the platform’s videos tend to be edited and lip-synced, aiming to provide lighthearted entertainment. Core features of both apps focus on user-generated content. Brands are seeing success garnering reach and awareness through hashtag challenges on TikTok. In-app programmatic In the world of programmatic advertising, mobile in-app advertising has been gaining traction due to higher engagement rates and more precise targeting, particularly with a growing mobile gaming audience among women. For this beauty brand example, we evaluated MoPub with its reach of 1.4 billion devices. It is good for promoting influencer-generated videos, as well as leveraging native ads to drive more awareness or even prospects to the site. YouTube In-Stream Ads With 2 billion users, YouTube is an excellent channel to drive awareness. Advertising on YouTube can be done through the Google Ads platform. For this beauty brand, we recommend affinity targeting, custom intent, in-market targeting, video remarketing, and similar audiences (lookalike) targeting. When testing out YouTube, it is important to note that the definitions for video metrics such as video views and impressions are drastically different between YouTube and Facebook, so it may not be as easy to draw a direct comparison. NurtureThe objective for this section of your media plan is to build intent among those who are familiar with your brand. Email & organic social Share messaging to convey you’re supporting the #StopHateForProfit movement, pausing Facebook Ads and if applicable, donating to important causes or taking other concrete actions like improving diversity on your board or leadership team. Influencer marketing If your brand has not worked with influencers, now may be the time. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 4 out of 5 brands surveyed intend to dedicate budget to influencer marketing in 2020. For this DTC beauty brand example, we recommend working with beauty influencers ranging from micro-influencers to mid-tier influencers to diversify target audience segments and experiment with different content formats to increase intent. Be sure to review reporting to avoid influencer fraud. Pinterest (organic) With Pinterest’s inspirational and trend-driven content, 73% of Pinners say they have purchased something after seeing it on Pinterest. Big beauty brands like L’Oréal Paris have been leveraging Pinterest since 2015 and have a steady 10M+ monthly followers. We recommend this example beauty brand establish an organic presence on Pinterest for increasing brand recall and driving intent. Direct media buys Direct buying with highly relevant websites is a good way to establish a strong brand image. Direct buys can guarantee premium ad placements and allow creativity in terms of content formats. For this beauty example, we’ll test a takeover and submit sponsored content on HarpersBazaar.com and Elle.com. Remember to negotiate a bundle deal with cheaper rates and added value by choosing multiple publishers owned by the same holding company. Conversion/retargetingThe objective for this section of your media plan is to drive sales and re-engage customers. Having first laid a strong foundation and rapport sharing messaging about your brand’s commitment to action with causes like #BlackLivesMatter and #StopHateForProfit, it may next be appropriate to layer in a cadence of promotional messaging, especially if you have a sale or product launch to highlight. Pinterest Shoppable Ads If you do advertise on Pinterest, try Shoppable Pins (only available on some product categories) and site Retargeting. From the upper-funnel recommendations, you should have built up a solid audience list to draw from. SEO SEO is a long-game tactic and likely won’t offer immediate returns in July. But, the combination of tactics may create a lift in brand search volume, which will pay off over time. Make sure your site is fully SEO-optimized. Don’t miss out on valuable demand you’ve created with previous efforts. If you haven’t conducted an SEO audit in the past 6-12 months, now is a good time to do it, especially if you have unspent Facebook Ads budget to invest. Google Ads + RLSA/Remarketing Having grown your audience list sizes from the upper-funnel tactics mentioned previously, give your search campaign a power boost. Pair Dynamic Search Ads with RLSA on top of your regular search campaigns. Run a Google Display Network campaign with remarketing lists. Make sure you’ve got strong coverage on brand terms with the additional brand search volume you’ve hopefully generated. Google Shopping Google recently started listing products for free in the Google Shopping tab, which opens up about 5% of available traffic without the cost-per-click. If you have not set up a Google Merchant Center account and a product feed for your online store, this is a great time to do so. If you’re looking for an alternative revenue stream to replace Facebook, you may want to start looking into paid Google Shopping ads. If you need to get up-and-running quickly, a Google Smart Shopping campaign is easy to set up. Media planning for B2B advertisersIt may be easier for B2B brands to participate in the boycott, as they’re generally less dependent on Facebook Ads to begin with. For B2B, LinkedIn would be the obvious choice to shift dollars, especially with the recently released targeting functionality. Some of the above DTC tactics could be adapted to a B2B media plan. Other B2B platforms to evaluate would be podcast advertising, Twitter Ads, Quora Ads, sponsored content and, depending on who your audience is, you may want to test direct buys with more technical platforms like Stack Overflow. Supporting the cause without boycotting Facebook AdsIf you want to contribute to the cause, but aren’t in a position to pause Facebook Ads, here are some other things you can do:
With tactical adjustments during the month of July, your brand can help make a difference in supporting the #StopHateForProfit movement. Thank you to Apiary consultant, Lillian Barclay, for her contributions to this article. The post July boycott: Marketing without Facebook Ads appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2YIPB1t
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