Is Facebook in the way out? All it takes is for users – especially advertisers – to find something that better suits their needs, and the giant can topple quickly. Some say those signs are well underway and Here’s why Facebook may be in trouble.
Ad publishers are frustrated with “lagging monetization areas” in media, causing a litany of companies to scale back on Facebook articles and posts.
- CNN is taking its focus away from Facebook and pooling more of its resources into Apple News and Snapchat
- HuffPost, though being the biggest publisher on Facebook, is also diversifying to Twitter and Instagram, with a strategy of branching out to reach newer audiences
- Vox, the general news internet site, is also switching it up; choosing to focus two of its five people on their social engagement team to focus on Instagram, while assigning only one to Facebook
Facebook’s main source of income is advertising, and Facebook — despite all the praise and raves — has many faults. It’s not only the corporate giants that are complaining either. Here are remarks from a few of the smaller companies we spoke with:
- The Flagmakers says there are problems getting noticed in a cluttered newsfeed
- Symphony Placements cites low click-through and conversion rates
- Affordable Lamps cites easy duplication by competition
Where will companies go to target their best audience, though, if they pull their Facebook ads?
There are other sites willing to take the helm from Facebook. Here are five platforms that are taking advertisers from the giant.
Google Adwords
Adwords is the grandaddy of them all. The average cost per click (CPC) is between one and two dollars for search and under one dollar for display ads. The cost-per-clicked is based on industry/keyword categories and can come in at over $50 for the more competitive search terms.
YouTube
YouTube’s advertising page shows itself off with this headline, “Be seen where everyone is watching.” This is exemplified by statistics posted further below the site, saying “In an average month, 18+ year olds in the United States spend more time watching YouTube than any television network.” With about 1.3 billion users, YouTube certainly has a strong reach.
YouTube video ads are charged to the advertisers only when someone chooses to watch for at least 30 seconds or clicks on the actual video for it. Four standard types of ad formats are allowed: In-search, In-slate, In-display, and In-stream. The pricing ranges from $.10 to $.30 per view.
Instagram offers a variety of ads: Photo Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads (Multiple Photos), and their unique Stories Ads. The large variety of ads is refreshing. Instagram also tends to get more engagement (up to 10x more) than Facebook posts on average. An Instagram ad will cost about $5 CPM (cost per thousand impressions.)
Just like Google now owns YouTube, Facebook owns Instagram. In this case, though, the child may end up overtaking the parent.
Twitter allows you to engage your audience with tweets, videos, and pictures online. The platform offers three types of advertising options – promoted tweets, promoted accounts, and promoted trends. They also have promotions for apps: you pay for the number of clicks or installs of your app from the site. Promoted tweets and accounts cost between $.50 to $4.00 per click and promoted trends can cost much more.
Snapchat
Snapchat boosts a large amount of female and Millennial users: roughly 70% of Snapchat users are female and 30% of US Millennial users are on it regularly. Statistics show that more than a quarter of UK smartphone users are on the app.
Advertisers may choose from a variety of highly interactive ads: Snap Ads (mobile video ads which may have a video game), Sponsored lenses, Sponsored Geofilters, Snapchat Discover, and more. Snap Ads campaigns cost $3,000 per month or higher, not including the agency fee or the cost to create the ad. Sponsored lenses costs $450,000 per day for most of the days in the week except for Fridays and Saturdays, which cost at about $500,000 to $700,000 per day.
Move over Facebook — competition is stiff, and you’re beginning to flounder
With these five garnering more interaction from consumers, it’s easy to see why advertisers are shying away from Facebook. Advertisers have seen better sites and apps to capture and tickle their consumer’s interests and creativities.
In the end, no site is forever secure: A Goliath may always be toppled by a smaller David. Even Google may topple one day. All consumers are waiting for is a better search engine.
Featured images provided by smartphotostock.com. The times, they are a changing. Facebook could be heading straight down the (advertising) tube. Would you care? Author Abel Cane isn’t sure he would care. Social media platforms are like politicians: too much power, and it goes to their head.
