Is Facebook an effective place to spend your ad dollars? // More ads coming to Instagram // What is Meta's future?

Mari has the scoop for you Greetings {NAME}, I gave a talk the other day for the AWAI - American Writers & Artists Institute - on breakthrough social media strategies for small businesses. We had a Q&A session at the end and I wanted to share my response with you to this particularly poignant question: Cynthia asked: Mari, do you see Facebook and social media platforms as a so-so or a great place to spend our ad dollars? I found them to be very expensive. Mari answered: Hi Cynthia - ha, it really, really depends!! Spending money on ads on any platform is a giant waste of money without the following in place: - a proper end-to-end strategy, - allocating an initial budget for testing, testing, testing, - having well defined customer avatars/personas that inform your targeting, - 'thumb-stopping' assets - visuals/videos/copy, and - a very compelling, highly relevant offer!! The initial offer for top of funnel is likely something free that is really low barrier to conversion. One of the best ad units that Meta offers for this purpose is the Lead Generation ad where it's a form that is pre-populated with the user's contact info. So, offering a PDF report, e-book, short video course, free trial, etc. (Click-to-Message can also be a very effective ad unit, ideally coupled with an excellent chatbot). A big mistake advertisers often make is to take a small budget, try to reach a massive cold audience, and try to drive them straight to a high-end sale. (I'm not saying that's you, it's just I've seen this a lot out there!) It's definitely complicated. But, over time, if you get these five components right, advertising on socials can pay off in spades as I showcased with the example of the hiring app, Hyer. Hope this helps!! ~ ~ ~ I know I hear from a lot of my community members that they are just plain tired and frustrated with advertising on Facebook so have stopped altogether. And now they allocate their ad dollars to LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Ads, or possibly TikTok. How about you? Do you advertise these days on any social platform? Feel free to hit reply and let me know. [image] What Exactly is the Future of Meta? What exactly is the future of Facebook? What about Meta, the entire corporation?! Do you plan to use Facebook and/or Instagram more in 2023? or less? Are you also active on TikTok? If so, are you getting actual business results on the platform, though? Here we are in Q4 and we're all looking ahead to 2023 - what should we plan for our effective social media marketing? Should we use Facebook and Instagram more, or back off a bit?… Maybe do less organic and more ads? Or, just go all in on another platform? (You know, like YouTube or LinkedIn! I’m not sure about Twitter these days). There really is room for a whole new epic social platform to spring up, would you agree?! There’s a lot of unpredictability and uncertainty going on at Meta right now… not to mention the constant changes, updates, bugs, random things, broken stuff, missing features in NPE… and intense frustration around complete lack of service for so many people and businesses who've been hacked or lost access to accounts. :( Then there are the layoffs for the first time in the company's history and hiring freezes (which is also happening at many other Silicon Valley companies). Zuckerberg says Meta will [end 2023 as a 'somewhat smaller' organization](. I’m certain Meta will be here for the long-haul. Facebook and Instagram are not going anywhere anytime soon… as for Meta’s metaverse actually producing profit, well that is light years away. Lol. Zuckerberg says he’s prepared to lose money for many years. Let me know your own thoughts on all this - [leave a comment on this video]() or you're welcome to reply to this email if you prefer to share your input privately. (You can also [check the 100+ comments](=) on the video post for an interesting array of responses). Related: [How Facebook Lost Ground to TikTok, and What It’s Doing About It]( [Future of Meta?]( Testing Vertical Videos in the Main Feed (Not as Reel) This was me doing another test of a vertical video posted to the wall (not as a Reel). It didn't perform quite as well as the first test I did the other week. BUT, to be fair, there are some key differences between the two. I mentioned this 'nifty trick' in my last newsletter and I'm happy to report that first [vertical video test]( got more than double many of my previous 'regular' videos (landscape uploaded or Facebook Live replays). Some of my community members are seeing incredible reach and engagement right now (like in the millions on some pages!) by publishing regular vertical videos to the feed. There are some key factors to getting it right, though. The content has to be super compelling with a high retention rate through about 75% of the 1-3 minute length, as well as highly shareable, ideally. Instagram To Increase Ad Load as Meta Fights Revenue Decline Things continue to heat up at Meta. Just what we all need: an increase in ads on Instagram. (Like that's going to make users flock to the platform and stick around longer. haha!) Of course, the goal here is to generate more revenue for Meta). However, one of the updates includes new ad placements on both the Explore home page and in the profile feed. What does that latter one mean? When you visit another person's profile on the IG app and tap one of their GRID POSTS, this starts a vertical scroll of all that person's past posts including photos and videos. Now, there will be ads interspersed in that individual 'profile feed.' And, Instagram will pay creators ad rev-share from these ads displayed in their profile feeds. (This particular test is for select creators in the US, for now). SO, my friends, if this test flies and IG rolls out profile feed ads more widely, it could be that Instagram wants us to post more 'traditional' content to our feeds... not just overly focus on Reels. (It seems Reels have been hard to monetize with ads, so far. Hmm.) [Read more]() on TechCrunch and [join the conversation]( in my Social Scoop group. That's all for this issue of my Social Scoop e-zine. Got questions? You're welcome to reply to this email and my team and I will do our best to respond in a timely manner. Also, for sure meet us in my super lively and supportive [Social Scoop Facebook Group]( - celebrating 21k+ amazing members. Cheers 'til the next time, Mari Smith CEO, Mari Smith International, Inc. Premier Facebook Marketing Expert Top Social Media Thought Leader Author, The New Relationship Marketing Coauthor, Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day [image] You're receiving this email message from me as you either joined my Social Scoop Facebook Group and provided your email address with permission to contact you with this e-zine, and/or you opted in on my website to receive one of my free Facebook guides/reports and this e-zine. Newsflash! I'm working on a brand new special program based on four types of social media business users that will be incredibly helpful for you in your marketing. Stay tuned for more info! If you wish to unsubscribe or CHANGE or UPDATE your information, please click this link: [Unsubscribe]( Mari Smith International 11956 Bernardo Plaza Dr., #201 San Diego, California 92128 United States