A new report from research tech company Forrester has criticised the social media giant for relying on traditional advertising models instead of doing what it initially set out to do and revolutionising online advertising.
A new report from research tech company Forrester has criticised the social media giant for relying on traditional advertising models instead of doing what it initially set out to do and revolutionising online advertising.
As reported by The Drum, the research accuses Facebook creator Zuckerberg of “quietly become almost entirely reliant upon the traditional advertising models it once lampooned”, and stated the following:
“Everyone who clicks the like button on a brand’s Facebook page volunteers to receive that brand’s messages – but on average, Facebook only shows each brand’s posts to 16 per cent of its fans.
“And while Facebook upgrades its paid advertising tools and offerings monthly or more, it’s done little in the past 18 months to improve its unloved branded page format or the tools that marketers use to manage and measure those pages.”
“Apparently, Facebook no longer disagrees with the ‘push’ model of mass media advertising that Zuckerberg disparaged.”
As well as this, the report included a survey of 395 marketing executives from the US, UK and Canada, who reportedly put voted Google, LinkedIn and Yahoo! ahead of Facebook in terms of the best social sites to partner with, with LinkedIn and Twitter being claimed as the rivals who would best benefit from marketing spend if Zuckerberg’s site continues to disappoint marketers.
The report concluded: “We predict that the user experience will become so poor – especially in the ‘right hand rail’ of the site’s home page – that Facebook will abandon its marketplace ads entirely.
“It will instead focus on further improving the ads it delivers into its news feed and on building an ad network or exchange where direct marketers can run high volumes of low-budget ads without degrading Facebook’s own user experience.”
According to MediaWeek, Facebook has responded to the allegations, with a spokesman from the social media site said: “While we agree that the promise of social media is still in process, the conclusions in this report are at times illogical and at others irresponsible.
“The reality is that Facebook advertising works. That’s why we have more than a million active advertisers. And countless studies have demonstrated the significant return on investment marketers see from Facebook.”
Facebook’s response of “It works because there are more than a million advertisers” is utterly circumstantial and in no way indicative of the platforms success. There are far too many variables, and success can only be considered on a per company basis. The harsh reality is the same as with any mass digital marketing platform, in that spend denotes return. Those who spend more, get more. Those who “dabble” get very little. Facebook advertising works…for Facebook!