If you have not heard, Facebook has been dealing with a lot of issues lately. One of the issues they have been battling for a while is personal privacy laws, which they had to appear in front of the supreme court for, and the fact that they are losing users, especially young users. However, we can't deny the fact that Facebook is the most powerful social network and is ahead of the curve on social media innovation.
One of the trends I am noticing is the Gen Z does not even want to have a Facebook profile because they consider Facebook old and their parents and grandparents are on Facebook, which is really uncool. Millennials are starting to leave Facebook because of the toxic environment of trolls and social justice warriors. In the future, if Facebook does not change its business model this might be disastrous for its business. But as of today, Facebook is the big dog in the social media world because of many reasons I will explain below. Not only is Facebook a big player in the social media world but they also have many users with disposable incomes which is great from an advertisement point of view. So, without getting too much into the weeds let us look at why you should start or keep advertising on Facebook and why it is valuable for any company in any industry.
1. Facebook has the most users
Facebook is the largest social media network company in the world. They have 2.23 billion monthly unique visitors and there are more than 65 million businesses using Facebook Pages and more than 6 million advertisers actively promoting their business on Facebook every single day. The only other social media platform that is even close to Facebook is YouTube which has 1.9 billion monthly unique visitors.
Also, Facebook owns some of the other largest social media platforms as well, such as Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Based on a case study from App Annie the most downloaded apps on Google Play and iOS 2010-2019 were:
Facebook
Messenger
WhatsApp
Instagram
With all of the social media companies that Facebook owns they have tons of data, they can access which can make their ads much more effective and it makes Facebook as a whole more valuable. So even if Gen Z and millennials leave Facebook to use other social media apps, they are still going to use 1 of their other 82 companies that they own. This makes Facebook a more stable company because they have other alternative platforms that people are using as well.
2. Facebook ad manager is the most robust social media advertisement platform
I have used all the social media ad managers out there and by far Facebook as the best ad manager. This is because Facebook was one of the first companies to start displaying ads on social media, so they have had many years to perfect this system. Here are some of the perks the Facebook ads have that the others don’t:
Smart budget manager – This allows your budget to be spread out more evenly throughout the day, so it doesn’t get eaten up in a couple of hours.
Audience insights tool - Facebook Audience Insights gives you aggregate information about two groups of people—people connected to your Page and people on Facebook—so you can create content that resonates and easily find more people like the ones in your current audience.
More ad format types to choose from – Some of the ad formats you can choose from are image, video, carousel, instant experience, and collection.
You can have different ad format types in 1 campaign instead of breaking it up into multiple campaigns
They have more data on users to make your ads more effective
They update their ads manager more frequently to get rid of bugs and bad user experience.
Their ads get approved faster
3. Facebook Allows you to advertise on Instagram
Now, we have already established that Facebook has a lot of issues which is causing the younger audience to abandon their social network platform. However, there are transitioning to other social media networks like Instagram which many people do not know Facebook owns. The great thing about Facebook ads manager is it allows you to advertise to that younger crowd on Instagram.
Currently, there is 1 billion users on Instagram which is very popular in the US, India, and Brazil. As of Oct 2020, 33% of global Instagram audiences are between the ages of 25 – 34. In total, over two-thirds of total Instagram audiences were 34 years or younger. This allows you to advertise to your younger audience all from one ad manager with the click of a button.
Most people from the age of 25 years or younger have Instagram profiles but do not have Facebook profiles. This is not a science but is based on one-off surveys done by yours truly in universities. In my opinion, Instagram is a social media channel that will only grow with users in the future and become more profitable for Facebook in the long run. In other words, by more Facebook stock when you can.
Source: Statista- Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of October 2020, by age group.
4. Facebook is the most innovative social media company
For people who have not been on social media since it started in 2004, you might not know this but they have been innovating the look and feel of social media platforms for over 15 years. Now that I feel old, here is a list of all the features Facebook created that you know and love and they will keep creating more for years to come to give them a competitive edge in the future.
The wall and messaging
Facebook notes
Newsfeed streams your Facebook friend’s activity
A marketplace for selling things to other Facebook users
Tagging and attachments come to the wall
Beacon - Targeting Ads
The “Like” Button
Zynga – Gaming platform on social media
Facebook places
Facebook Messenger
The timeline
Graph Search – lets you discover very specific information about Facebook users
Never-ending scroll
Conclusion:
Based on these reasons I think Facebook is still a valuable social media platform for businesses to have a presence on and advertise on. Facebook might be getting old, but they are still the most innovative and largest social media company out there. TikTok is gaining a lot of traction with younger people but I would avoid that social media channel until the audience becomes more mature. There are a lot of laws about advertising to underage kids and they do not have any discretionary income which will not help your ROI or bottom line. For now, you will need to stick with the big boys like Facebook and Instagram’s of the world to help your social media sales and brand awareness. If you need help advertising on social media let us know and we will create a customized package for your business.