From a range of advertising options to special brand page widgets and apps, there are a variety of ways businesses can engage potential customers and foster loyalty in their existing customers—if they’re willing to invest the resources to make it happen, of course.
Certainly, there are low- and no-cost ways to reach out, but for the advanced tools (and a necessary look under the hood), an investment is required—and that investment probably won’t be a one-time thing. The massive traffic numbers the site boasts provide all the impetus many brands need to get involved… but are they really getting their money’s worth?
That’s an intriguing question, and what I’m noticing more and more is that Facebook marketing is leaving many of my colleagues with some big questions:
- What does “success” in Facebook marketing look like? Is it different from campaign to campaign, and from industry to industry?
- What is a “like” worth?
- Does a “share” have a real impact on our reach?
- We’ve got a lot of data to sort through… but what should we be looking for? What do all of these numbers actually tell us about our customers?
- Which strategy is right for our particular industry?
- Is the response we’re getting worth what we’re spending?
These questions, no doubt, are at the heart of why many marketers are putting the brakes on their Facebook ad spending, and why some brands are now reluctant to pay for Facebook “brand pages” in the light of a downturn in tab engagement since the introduction of Timeline.
Plus, check out these new study results. 33Across distributed a multiple-choice online survey to 2,200 brand marketers and advertising agency representatives and found that:
- More than 70 percent of those polled said they focus 80 percent of their attention on “Rest of Web” (ROW) vs. Facebook –that’s a 23 percent increase from March.
- When asked “Do you see your Facebook spend changing vis-à-vis the rest of the web?” five and half times as many respondents – relative to the number from the pre-IPO survey – asserted they were planning on “decreasing [their] Facebook spend.”
- The number of respondents who said they are very concerned about “understanding and driving ROI from big data” rose from 91 percent to 96 percent, and the number who said they are concerned about integrating that data jumped from 73 percent to 82 percent.
- More than 80 percent of those polled said ROW now gets more of their team’s attention than Facebook, an 11 percent increase from March.
Is this a momentary blip for the social giant –perhaps the result of a lack of confidence following the Facebook IPO –or are marketers simply growing frustrated with the complex set of factors that make up Facebook marketing success?
B2B marketers can find success on Facebook, provided they’re willing to take the time to build relationships, test campaigns and find what works. But, we’ll be paying close attention to whether this newly emerging disenchantment becomes a more widespread trend … and to how Facebook responds.
Tell us: what’s your biggest challenge in using Facebook as a marketer? How do you measure success with your efforts? What kinds of tactics are you putting to work?
