Facebook/Pinterest Growth & New Features - TribeTalk EP 11

Check out this TribeTalk from our Marketing Specialist, Kathryn Betancourt chatting with one of our Account Directors, Jayca Pike, and our Growth Specialist, Courtney Corner.

Facebook Lowest User Satisfaction Since 2015

According to ASCI, Facebook’s user satisfaction is at an all-time low since 2015. Despite the negative public sentiment, Facebook is still a very effective ad platform and revenues continue to grow. Users may not be happy with Facebook, but the Menlo Park gang is still making MONEY! 

Looking at the consistent increase in users and growth in revenue from the outside, you would honestly not know that anyone was unhappy. Even so, revenues rise because more advertisers participate, which is why we are regularly guiding our clients to be diversifying their marketing efforts, looking at other platforms. 

As we all know, most of the dissatisfaction in that last year is ultimately rooted in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook continues to combat these issues with different solutions that don’t actually fix the issue. The most recent attempt is Facebook’s new “Off-Facebook Activity” tool. Basically, you can opt-out of Facebook using the data from the activity you are doing while Off Facebook. 

As advertisers, we advise not to fret! This won’t stop Facebook from collecting data and allowing us to use it. 

Facebook Machine Learning to Improve Your Targeting

Facebook is strongly recommending advertisers use "Interest Expansion" a feature that has long been present but they've been making concerted improvements on. 

This underscores Facebook's theme of algorithm/machine learning-driven input on campaigns. For advertisers who have lost targetable interests in the past 12-18 months, this could be super useful if you've still got a handful of functional interests to pull from. 

When Facebook removed some interest targeting options around 12 months ago, using expanded interests could help replace this info. This doesn't expand the demographic set so age, gender etc. all remain the same. It functions kind of like lookalikes, supporting known interests or behavior with machine-driven info.

Our clients have seen a significantly lower cost per conversion and more conversions in some cases. It’s particularly strong for broad products (i.e. clothes) which could have many suitable interests outside of your current audience.

We recommend you use this also for products tied to life events not detailed in targeting. Interest expansion functions best well after you've launched, and works best when considered as a test or a scaling tool. It doesn't just add audiences but also removes interests that aren’t getting results, which speeds up testing. 

Pinterest's Growth and New Mobile Ad Tools 

Pinterest is growing fast, which is why we're so bullish about our eCommerce clients advertising on this platform. During quarter 2 of 2019, the company saw revenue grow to $261 million and monthly active users reached 300 million. 

Pinterest's growth is strong especially in non-US markets, which should make it attractive for multi-national marketers. Check out the chart below. 

As Pinterest continues to grow the company’s investing in new tools like Pinterest’s new mobile ad tools. The mobile ad tools let you create manage campaigns from your phone. If you're the kind of person who likes to manage campaigns on your phone, this makes your life easier. Unfortunately, it’s typically hard to see and make changes correctly on such an itty bitty screen. But it’s a cool option nonetheless. 

What are your thoughts on the "Off Facebook Activity" feature? Are you using Pinterest to drive sales for your business? Leave us a comment below.