Five articles that have us buzzing this week
Facebook Changes Counting Process for Ads Planning and Measurement
This week Facebook announced a significant update that will affect advertisers. The Social Network announced that it would begin counting people who do not have their Facebook and Instagram accounts linked in Accounts Center as separate entities for ad planning and measurement purposes. Advertisers may see an impact on campaign planning estimates and performance reporting for unique metrics and an increase in pre-campaign estimates for audience sizes, making ad reach numbers look much better. Facebook has been under much scrutiny lately but says that this change is about respecting user choices. Some question the justification after another recent update to Potential Reach due to various legal claims about inflating reach estimates. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how this change will impact ad reach estimates as we gear up for the holiday season and 2022 planning. We recommend that clients explore other platforms and ensure digital media mixes never rely too heavily on any single channel.
A 2022 planning guide for every B2B marketer
Although budgets may stabilize to pre-pandemic levels, early indicators hint that 2022 may prove to be the most challenging year for marketers. The best way to prepare for this uncertainty would be to plan for agility. To do this, B2B brands can use paid media to drive awareness and education in non-traditional ways ahead of pitching solutions, continue to invest in content production, and add a discretionary budget for testing new channels and tactics. It’s impossible to predict the future and guarantee results with the way the market is evolving. Still, we can use these innovative approaches to digital and learnings from the past 18 months to prepare for what 2022 may bring.
How Facebook could alter its algorithm to make the timeline a healthier place
With Facebook again in the spotlight, many begin to share their viewpoints on how Facebook could become a healthier place with a few changes. According to the president and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, Facebook has a mighty ‘invisible digital hand’ and can change the virality of low-grade polarizing content that’s allegedly making the world more divisive with a one-click change. However, the Social Network chooses to disregard the research and incentivizes engagement above everything else. If it’s true that a one-click change is an answer, it opens up the uncertainty of what additional platform changes may happen once the allegations are over.
Why companies inside and out of gaming are designing and showcasing clothes in Unreal Engine
After already expanding onto film sets and into automobile design, one of the most popular software frameworks in the gaming industry, Unreal Engine, is now taking on fashion design. Luxury fashion brands like Balenciaga have partnered with Fortnite on recreating skins and branded clothing for the physical world. Fashion designer Gary James McQueen also used game development software to create a runway show featuring virtual-only garments. As consumers grow accustomed to this type of activation, many other brands might consider using software to streamline production. It’s also another way to inject a brand’s story into more channels that reach younger consumers. We recommend brands be thinking about creating digital items and spaces and how their brands can authentically live in the metaverse.
Continuous scrolling comes to Search on mobile
Google’s mobile search results now offer infinite scroll. Before, you would see the “more results” button at the bottom of the first page results, but now the next page of results automatically appears. Users will be able to scroll for up to four pages without clicking more. We don’t know how this will impact click-through rate or traffic from Google, but there’s an opportunity for publishers who may struggle to rank on the first page of results to gain more exposure with customers who are natural browsers. This change will boost a need for bigger investments in content strategies paired with search optimization to increase site traffic.
