Facebook has taken a credibility battering recently, as various digital and search marketing experts question its place in the toolbox of effective strategies. But the clickmate team has just read an article which says that although the world’s largest social platform may not be able to guarantee reach, it still does offer the best return for search marketing dollars.
It all comes down to companies who use Facebook properly and play by the rules.
Brittany Richter, supervisor of paid social at a digital marketing company, told ClickZ: “Most other social platforms out there are still underdeveloped (in terms of ads) and do not allow you to track the user experience.”
This view was backed up by Tara Siegel, supervisor of paid social at eBay Enterprise, who said: “Facebook is a revenue-driving medium.” As evidence, she points to clients who conducted a recent campaign via Facebook, saying: “On Thanksgiving Day, they drove more revenue on Facebook than on Google and Bing.”
Richter believes that the trick is to recognise that the ‘free ride’ on Facebook is now over. She said: “Organic content on a lot of platforms has become crowded and noisy as more brands and users sign up. Paid social allows for the user experience to stay intact on Facebook. That’s good for advertisers, too, because not that many ads can show up at the same time, which eliminates noise and gets their ads more attention.
“Although ad dollars are now necessary, the good news is that the platforms are becoming more sophisticated and you are able to make your audience more qualified. Money is going further…Social deserves a seat at the table when it is time to develop a communications plan…We are seeing a lot of blurred lines between social, display, and search. So start with a business objective and see how each channel best fits into that. You need a holistic, integrated approach.”
Siegel also explained how companies can make the best use of Facebook, saying that a good idea is to feed the platform with data from your customer relationship management system, which allows similar audiences to be discovered by Facebook.
Siegel is a strong believer in company’s testing out various strategies before they decide on the most successful campaign ideas.
One thing is for sure, for many search marketing experts, Facebook is proving a very valuable marketing tool indeed.