The Most Exciting Facebook Updates for November 2017
Facebook has rolled out many new updates this month to cater to the many advertisers and entrepreneurs present on this social media platform. These Facebook updates allow users to create more eye-catching advertisements and develop a strategy using the tools provided by Facebook to boost the value of your business. The leads provided by advertisements allow you to add more potential clients to list and you can connect with them using the Facebook page.
The team at Facebook has announced some exciting news and updates this month which add to the utility offered to advertisers.
Facebook’s Third Quarter Report 2017
Facebook’s report from Q3 includes many statistics and figures but the major advertiser specific points are
- There are 6 million advertisers on Facebook, twice the number that was reported in March 2016
- Facebook mobile comprises of 88% advertisements now
- The average ad revenue per user has increased for all regions
The focus is now on optimizing ad delivery to achieve better outcomes. It seems that the number of advertisements present on Facebook is likely to follow an increasing trend because attracting more users to the website is the objective. Getting users to stay on the page for a longer time helps increase revenue as well. Higher advertisement prices can be compensated by the sophisticated delivery. Advertisers are now on Facebook and Instagram are struggling to attract more users to their website every day.
Facebook advertising is more complex than ever now and advertisers have to stay on top of the game to compete with the rising ad prices. They need to utilize every trick they can to stay ahead and emerge victorious. Facebook advertising is not what it used to be and the average user is incapable of understanding the ad platform. Since the prices are higher advertisers need to put some serious thought into their content. This requires tracking, reporting and setting a benchmark to get the most out of the money spent on advertising.
Efforts on Advertising Authenticity and Transparency
If you are caught up with all the recent Facebook updates then you probably know that Facebook is working hard to improve their advertising transparency. Users often complain that the Facebook ads are not clear in their purpose especially those that are political or brand oriented. The efforts made by Facebook to improve the authenticity and transparency include the following measures:
Allowing Groups to Build Communities with New Features
Facebook groups are now becoming a community because they are an integral part of the social media website. Facebook is helping empower the groups by giving the administrators more powers and increasing their functionality. An important development is that Facebook groups are now behaving as communities where members interact with each other and share opinion on common interests. This resulted in the addition of welcome posts and group polls.
Group administrators can choose to warmly welcome new members to the Facebook group by the automatic tagging feature. Polls can also be created to understand the member’s better and form a consensus on certain topics of discussion. Facebook has also added badges for the administrators, moderators and new members of groups to help understand each other’s roles.
The new controls made available to group admins help manage the growing communities. They offer customized insights, let you schedule posts and also recommend the best hours to make posts live to enable the maximum engagement from all members.
Read about Facebook Group Here
Verifying Domains Through Business Manager
Online domains for businesses can be verified allowing them to claim ownership of certain content. This feature also integrates Facebooks efforts to improve advertising transparency. The domain verification in the Business Manager tool helps businesses have their websites verified without the need to alter the Open Graph tags.
Domain verification protects the integrity of original content and ensures that it is not stolen or misrepresented. Domains are added as an asset to the Business Manager providing added security for the content. Pages can be assigned according to their verified domains using the tool and the domains can be shared with the trusted coworkers and business partners as well.
Mobile Application and Education Website Launched for Video Creators
Facebook will be launching an application for the video creators which allow channels to directly manage their content. The iOS version of the application has been launched worldwide and added to all Page manager and individual accounts however; Android users will have to wait for a few months to be able to use this utility.
The Facebook Creators application has been designed to make life easier for video content creators. They can manage their video channel and upload videos to the social network. This is likely to increase the number of videos posted on Facebook and the ad revenue generated from video advertisements is also expected grow.
The application can also be used to increase the production quality of the live videos and manage any comments or message received from viewers. It allows pages to post stories on their Facebook pages just like they can be posted on Instagram and the analysis of the video’s performance is also available.
New Tools Added to Help Advertisers Reach International Audiences
Facebook has added four more advertising tools that help brands connect with their target audience from all over the world. These new features help streamline campaigns and help them reach the people who want to see them. The translation tool makes the content relevant according to the region it is being broadcast in.
Language Optimization
The new feature which optimizes the language of the advertisement helps configure one campaign and allows it to feature text in more than one language. In the past advertisers had to edit posts or create separate campaigns for different regions. Facebook shows the version according to the audience’s preferred language listed on their profile.
Multi-Nation Lookalike Audience
Facebook now allows advertisers to create a campaign that can span over many countries or regions. Earlier one lookalike had to be created manually for each country.
Multicity Audience
This feature allows users to target more than one city. Oftentimes brands are not aware of which cities they should target and only know the size of the areas they want to reach. Through multicity targeting brands can specify population ranges and Facebook will automatically send the advertisement to all the citizens from areas that satisfy the specifications.
Find International Audiences
The previous tools are applicable to brands that know they have an international audience and want to reach them through their campaigns. On the other hand, there are also brands that do not have any insights and need more data on their target audiences. This Facebook tool presents insights from across the border. The advertiser can specify the country they are currently advertising in, the industry their business is a part of and the objective of their campaign. Facebook will show a list of countries with similar advertisers experiencing success in conversions and lead generation. The costs of advertising and competition for those markets are also displayed in the results.
Refunds Given to Advertisers for Video Ads Played Out of View on Mobile
There is a new and unusual development in Facebook advertising which most advertisers have noticed recently. Facebook has provided refunds to the advertisers due to some technical difficulties experienced in their Android application. Videos often play when they are not in view and the affected advertisers have been issues reimbursement in the form of credits for their wrongful charges.
On the Facebook mobile app for Androids the videos are supposed to only play when they are in view and stop as soon as the person scrolls past. However some videos do not stop and are playing in the background even when the person has switched tabs or scrolled past it. This also affected the videos embedded into articles and blog posts.
People who viewed the articles from within the Facebook Android app have experienced longer loading times on slow internet connections which causes them to scroll past it before the video even starts playing. The Facebook application is allowed to buffer the video in background but not play it unless the person scrolls back to it. This error is more pronounced for those videos that take longer than a few seconds to load and they often play when the video is no longer in the screen view.
You can Read more on How you could use Videos for Brand Awareness here
In a Nutshell
The updates released by Facebook this month have increased the utility provided to the marketers and advertisers. They are now able to reach a larger audience and convert more leads into sales. The advertisements are now more transparent and authentic since a substantial amount of money is spent on them. Advertisers are now using creative and valuable ideas for campaigns and Facebook is helping them distribute their content to people all over the world. Even though the ad prices are increasing, they are now more likely to be worth every penny.
So, which tool are you most interested in using?
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