Is your brand trapped in the Social Jail? and other key takeaways from our session with Facebook
Last week we had a visit from Facebook as part of our recent affiliation with Facebook’s Program Agencies. Vero is among a select few agencies in Thailand to be featured in this program where we are able to work closely with Facebook to optimize our strategies and learn how to leverage from all the new algorithm changes to execute and deploy successful campaigns.
Throughout the entire session that was held at our offices in Bangkok, we gained several insights on key campaign optimization processes, creative direction and targeting strategies.
Below we share with you a glimpse of the key learning points and tips from the tech giant.
BREAKING FREE FROM THE ‘SOCIAL JAIL’
Brands and organizations often approach agencies asking if they could grow their fanbase, get more likes and make a video go viral, however these aren’t business objectives. This frame of thinking means you are trapped in the ‘social jail’ obsessed with metrics that don’t really contribute to substantive business orientated results such as growing the number of lead conversions, receiving x amount of new orders or generating positive brand awareness through engaging conversations.
Breaking out of ‘Social Jail’ will be more important than ever in 2018 due to the recent News Feed Algorithm update and the limited organic reach a page or brand will have. This means that content marketing efforts that sparks engagement and conversations will have to be amplified. Buying likes and growing a fan base will not necessarily drive more sales – It’s more about curating a niche following base that really cares about your product and service.
TARGETING THE ‘WATCHERS’
Facebook users often fall into two over-arching behaviors: ‘The Engagers’ and ‘The Watchers’. Engagers are those who love to like, comment and share posts on Facebook and generally more active on the platform while the watchers are those who consume content on Facebook with little interaction and engagement.
Additionally, it is believed that watchers could be more likely to make a purchase or convert than engagers and that watchers, in Thailand specifically, tend to me high-ranking executives and CEOs who don’t usually comment and engage with posts when consuming content.
Usually when launching campaigns, several agencies and brands tend to focus on boosting posts for engagement and traffic. These campaign objectives tend to serve engagers rather than watchers. To target watchers, optimizing campaigns for reach and daily unique reach is encouraged as this campaign objective would not only serve ads to those who are likely to engage with the post. In addition to this, optimizing ads for reach in some cases and even be a more cost-effective advertising option.
GETTING CREATIVE WITH ‘VIDEO’
With video popularity on the rise, Facebook will soon become an on-demand pocket TV as brands and publishers will roll out more and more video based content that will auto-play as you scroll down you feed- whether it be explainer videos, live videos, infographic/text based videos, vlogs, cinemographs, boomerangs and GIFS. Facebook already encourages this through prioritizing video content in the news feed and enabling them to have a larger organic reach.
When advertising products using video, it is important to have the product shown as soon as possible and the video content must be eye-catching, unconventional and bold in order to break the noise and catch the audience’s short attention span. To maximize the amount of space you have on the news feed, ensure that the video aspect ratio is 1:1 – this increases your chance to stop users from scrolling and watch your video. Additionally, a large majority of users watch videos with no sound, so it is wise to start developing video accordingly through adding subtitles.
We are very excited to have this support from Facebook, and appreciate the time they spent with us last week. We are also very excited to use these insights to support our clients and their brands. Let’s make 2018 the year all break free from the social jail.