How Will the Changes at Facebook Affect Your Lead Generation Program?
I get lots of questions from professionals who have heard me speak on Marketing and Lead Generation. This month, everyone is asking about lead generation & the changes at Facebook and how it may affect their social advertising programs.
As we all know, the most successful lead generation campaigns are multi-channel. This means we market using a variety of media to generate leads. these media channels may include direct mail, phone, local search, advertising on social media and social postings.
Facebook is the most widely-used social media advertising channel and many businesses advertise with them.
In terms of lead generation & the changes at Facebook, these are the changes:
- Ban on Third Party Partner Categories. These are outside company targeting tools most frequently used by agencies and big brand marketers
- Pause on App Review. This is the process third-party developers (like Cambridge Analytics) use to submit their apps for Facebook approval
What Do These Changes Mean to You?
You will still be able to use Facebook advertising to supplement your direct mail, email and other marketing efforts. Facebook will continue to allow marketers to use their own first-party data and you can continue to upload your own customer list into the Facebook system and advertise to them. This means you can still leverage the value of your data.
You can also continue to upload your customer list into Facebook and match to Facebook’s own audience. This way you might pick up some incremental prospects using the Lookalike section.
While people may be less likely to click on an ad right now, don’t let that deter you from advertising on Facebook. Continue to time your campaign before you send your direct mail to increase your visibility. Make sure you are also posting the same message on your other social media channels. Don’t forget to make use of the other channels, including email and Google AdWords, to maximize your impact.
And, as always – test, tweak and test again – until you’ve hit the right combination for your company.