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Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

bbc.com

11–20 of 250 posts

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#11
post #6

My interpretation of what's going on: CEOs finally have leverage against their marketing departments to do black-out testing on social media ad spend. It's difficult to actually measure impact of ad spending, and marketing teams spin results to their advantage. They will observe what happens and re-introduce spending where it actually works.

I doubt this very much. Doing black-out testing silently would be just as easy and allow a much greater degree of experimental control.

Well if it fails, and revenue drops, that would be hard to explain to shareholders right? Especially if the test has to extend for months to be realistic. Now they can at least say it's for a social cause.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#12
post #2

It’s so true. At the end of the day, users haven’t abandoned FB and that’s what advertisers care about.

Depends which users. A lot of teenagers are "mostly on Instagram" or "only use it for Messenger". And teenagers are apparently an important population to marketers.

I know FB owns Instagram but the point is, Facebook as a platform may be past its prime in NA.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#13

My interpretation of what's going on: CEOs finally have leverage against their marketing departments to do black-out testing on social media ad spend. It's difficult to actually measure impact of ad spending, and marketing teams spin results to their advantage. They will observe what happens and re-introduce spending where it actually works.

Bad take. These companies are using FB as a scapegoat to reduce ad operations during this pandemic/company budget reductions.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#14
post #10
post #2

It’s so true. At the end of the day, users haven’t abandoned FB and that’s what advertisers care about.

In some ways they have though, at least in terms of time allocation. When Facebook was in its heyday it was the default social network. They dont seem to be adding as many new users and I suspect they are churning old users. They also have to compete with wechat, twitter, tiktok, reddit, twitch, etc so its not obvious to anyone but facebook how loyal the userbase is. Facebook is becoming less relevant so yes these co…

Does that make a difference then? Facebook's going to continue tracking the users all the same, their ad formats will just be different

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#15
post #6

My interpretation of what's going on: CEOs finally have leverage against their marketing departments to do black-out testing on social media ad spend. It's difficult to actually measure impact of ad spending, and marketing teams spin results to their advantage. They will observe what happens and re-introduce spending where it actually works.

I doubt this very much. Doing black-out testing silently would be just as easy and allow a much greater degree of experimental control.

Maybe?

Part of the leverage is going public and saying it's about some principle.

For experimental control, executives tend to think simple is better. The more complex, the more room for fudging.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#16
post #6

My interpretation of what's going on: CEOs finally have leverage against their marketing departments to do black-out testing on social media ad spend. It's difficult to actually measure impact of ad spending, and marketing teams spin results to their advantage. They will observe what happens and re-introduce spending where it actually works.

I doubt this very much. Doing black-out testing silently would be just as easy and allow a much greater degree of experimental control.

Also, it is being done during one of the craziest markets and climate ever to occur so it would be difficult to really get good numbers.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#17
post #7

Of course he's right. If anything I'm surprised advertisers aren't cutting back more given how much revenue they're probably losing during the pandemic. Real change has to come from two sources. Firstly regulation, Facebook will never "self-regulate" and this corporate activism is a joke. And secondly, from employees who in sufficient numbers have at least some leverage.

You do realize that regulating Facebook and other social media companies in order to force them to limit speech on their platforms would expressly violate the First Amendment? And, thank God for 1A, given the enormous amount of interest people have in limiting speech.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt this very much. Doing black-out testing silently would be just as easy and allow a much greater degree of experimental control.

Well if it fails, and revenue drops, that would be hard to explain to shareholders right? Especially if the test has to extend for months to be realistic. Now they can at least say it's for a social cause.

Just blame it on the 'rona or geopolitics.

Re: Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

#20

My interpretation of what's going on: CEOs finally have leverage against their marketing departments to do black-out testing on social media ad spend. It's difficult to actually measure impact of ad spending, and marketing teams spin results to their advantage. They will observe what happens and re-introduce spending where it actually works.

Bad take. These companies are using FB as a scapegoat to reduce ad operations during this pandemic/company budget reductions.

Seems synergistic with what I said, no? Reduce budget and do some testing at the same time.
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