Facebook's New Tool for Managing Activity Monitoring - TRIBETALK EP 2

Here we go! Round two of TribeTalk, your look inside EmberTribe conversations on changes in the world of paid traffic and how it impacts your business’ advertising.

In this TribeTalk, we will discuss how Facebook’s new tool will impact targeting, LinkedIn optimizations, and Influencers lack of influencing.

Facebook’s New Tool For Transparency

First announced in 2018, Facebook will soon roll out their new tool for managing activity monitoring. The tool is aimed at more user transparency around what data is shared with Facebook from other sources, including the Facebook Pixel, SDK, API.

With greater user control of data shared with Facebook will come limits on your ability to advertise your business to targeted users. The tool may provide you the power as a user to turn off targeting for that annoying singing toy you bought for your niece,

 but your business may out on sales to customers who needed that extra prompt to make a purchase decision. All this means fewer data sources and (potentially) less effective targeting. Thankfully, this change is not supposed to impact results measurement (non-personal information). But whether it impacts Facebook advertising revenue and if this will be a permanent modification is yet to be seen. 

LinkedIn Plays Catch-Up

Just as Facebook retires their "Info & Ads" tab, LinkedIn is rolling one out. The tab will show Sponsored Content run by a Page in the last 6 months. This could help with competitor research in the B2B space, and potentially narrow the gap that some companies have on opponents with more clever or beautiful ads.

Last TribeTalk we discussed the increased personalization efforts of Microsoft Ads, potentially tapping LinkedIn. This week, LinkedIn announced the acquisition of Drawbridge, an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tech platform. The aim is to improve Matched Audience reach and do better with attribution. Whatever the outcome, there’s certainly a consistent thread of heavier tech emphasis among the Microsoft properties.

Influencers Are Dead...Maybe?

Buzzfeed put out an article about "Arii", a Instagram influencer with 2M+ followers who launched a clothing line, but claimed she couldn't sell 36 shirts.

The users’ post about her woes (and all posts related to her new brand) has since been deleted, and some questions remain. Was this all just a plot to help gain traction? Is the failing to be laid at the fault of bad promotion, bad product, or a saturated space?

The takeaway for marketers is that influencers are still the wild west….

The influencer industry is completely volatile. Just because someone has many followers does not mean they are engaged or willing to buy certain products.

Due to this issue, big brands like Unilever and Kellogg's have created standards for working with influencers. A coalition of brands, agencies, and influencers called IMC (Influencer Marketing Council) released a set of best practices to help vet influencers which you can find here.

We have found several influencer networks we like working with for our clients. These networks offer specific value (UGC, reviews, awareness) beyond just sales. It’s important to think through these additional values when choosing an influencer to promote your business.