Meta
More ads in the same places
Meta is turning its monetization focus to WhatsApp, including lead gen ads that launch a WhatsApp chat.
Maybe the Reels revenue machine can be refined, but Instagram and Big Blue have few growth avenues. Their ad revenue will grow as long as budgets do. Zuck+co’s messaging apps and Threads are where growth acceleration will happen.
Elsewhere, Fire TVs are about to become ad machines. And you know it will mint the Bezos Boys a fortune. If they don’t ruin the user experience. I’m less confident in that last part these days when it comes to The Everything Company.
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What if I told you that
— Jess @ FireTeam 🔥 An agency on fire... (@HireFireTeam) November 2, 2023
Meta's new "feature" which tells you how much you can raise the budget before entering the learning phase (usually by up to 70%) is just a mind game to get you to spend more because the "learning phase" doesn't exist and never has.
Would you believe me?
Tell me more…
The argument, at least from my point of view is that there is no on/off state where an ad is in the learning phase. Meta has conditioned media buyers to accept a certain level of instability for new ads and for budget changes by calling this period "learning phase". But that…
— Jess @ FireTeam 🔥 An agency on fire... (@HireFireTeam) November 2, 2023
I mostly agree with this but it’s a bit over the top (it is on X so guess that’s not a surprise).
Machine learning algorithms have a training stage. A set of training data is used to “re-wire” a model to adapt the outputs. And can be done without overwriting prior states.
This is (partially) why you should wait a week or two before deciding if your campaign is working.
At Meta scale, more data is better. So that learning label is just saying you haven’t hit Meta scale. Your performance may not be optimally optimized but let your data tell you if it’s optimal enough.
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I’ve said about Meta:
There really isn’t a company better at monetizing via ads.
Some might be yelling “but what about Google?!”
Big G is good at protecting their position to lock in default behavior and monetizing that way.
testimony in the trial revealed that Google spent a total of $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine in multiple browsers, phones, and platforms.
The end of Meta is regularly proclaimed, but Google is in a more precarious position.
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Massive Meta Minithread
I’ve collected too many tabs of Meta related stuff, so here it all is.
Chat with AI in Messenger
This isn’t surprising, especially given Snap’s success with AI chatbots. The real question is: does Meta know their market? One persona appears based on Blender from Futurama, which feels like a miss for the youth.
Plus, AI Studio to let developers build custom chatbots. AI might make Meta’s messenger dreams for brands a reality…finally. It used to be like setting up a choose-your-own adventure chat.
Meta Posts 23% Growth as Ads Rebound, With Profit More Than Doubling.
There really isn’t a company better at monetizing via ads. I expected the headlines about decreasing spends and worries over ROI would amount to little.
Instagram Makes Reminder Ads Available for Stories Placement.
You know Zuck loves this one: How TikTokers are making tons of money on Facebook, an often overlooked ‘cash cow’ for short video (hint: Facebook boomers have money).
Meta’s adding some new ad optimization tools for the holiday push, including variable campaign budget options, new tools to entice purchase actions, and more direct linkage to buy products from ad displays.
Threads! It’s still a thing! A thing with almost 100 million monthly users (that’s 1/6 of the way to X). And now polls and GIFs (at least on mobile).
And a few tools & things curious marketers might enjoy:
When you optimize for value, we use machine learning to predict how much return on ad spend (ROAS) a person may generate. We then use this prediction to bid for your highest value customers. By bidding more for people who are likely to spend more, you can help ensure you are maximizing the value of conversions for your campaigns.
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In R.I.P. Social Media Managers I wrote:
Organic social media for brands is dead. And it has been for a while.
I’m not the only one saying this. A Digiday survey found:
This shift in investment in Facebook and Instagram, along with the decrease in usage and posting frequency on the platforms, is a strong indicator that, overall, agencies are seeing a lack of return on investment when it comes to Meta.
But some might be taking it too far, leaving opportunity for the rest:
Digiday’s surveys also found that far fewer agencies are buying ads on Meta’s platforms this year than last year.
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