The Facebook Rush

Apr 28, 2016 by Mark Maier

Gordon Borrell just released an article that outlines how Small to Medium Businesses are discovering Facebook advertising and what effect it will have on Print and Broadcast Media...

"I wouldn’t exactly say they’re fleeing print and broadcast, but I would suspect that your advertisers are flocking to Facebook right now.  A new survey aims to find out, and preliminary results support my theory. I’m very eager to see the results in early summer and to see which markets are migrating faster to social media advertising.

We could have predicted this. As the chart atop this column shows that, a year ago, 3,954 businesses that were actively advertising in local media were asked if they were buying ads on Facebook.  One-third of them said yes, and 80% of those who advertisers said they were satisfied.   

Interpreted:  Two-thirds had not yet found out what the others already knew.

I just peeked at preliminary results from this year’s survey of active advertisers, and the figure has begun to skyrocket – from 33% last year to 60% today. And the rate of satisfaction can almost be described as ecstasy. Ninety-three percentsay they’re satisfied with their Facebook advertising.  More than half of them say they’re “very” or “extremely” effective.

 (Want to test whether this has begun happening in your market? Here’s your chance to find out.)

Facebook is almost certainly poised to steal share from other local media. Only 2% of active advertisers say they don’t have a Facebook presence, up from 88% last year.  All they need to do is post once, and they’re immediately asked if they’d like to boost the post.

Who’s likely to get hurt the most? Last year’s survey showed that the top 5 targets for cuts were:

                Newspapers.  18.1% planned to cut their newspaper budgets.

                Directories.  16.7% planned to cut.

                Magazines.  13.6% planned to cut.

                Radio.  9.5% planned to cut.

                Direct Mail.  6.9% planned to cut.

Facebook has capitalized on something that competing media hasn’t be able to do: The social media network has made it extremely easy – and instantly gratifying – to advertise.  Write a post, boost it for a few hundred dollars, get it approved within a few minutes, and see the “likes” and comments come rolling in.

I’d like to see more media companies join this survey so we can dig deeper on the Facebook phenomenon. It’s a broad-ranging survey that offers insights on what advertisers are thinking as they continue to adjust their marketing dials.

To learn more about the survey, click here."

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