I’m getting in there early with my predictions for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest in 2020 ….
Facebook Ad Costs Will Rise and Rise for Low Ticket Ecommerce Brands
Facebook advertising is going to get much more expensive in 2020.
So businesses with a low average order value i.e. under £50 or that don’t change how they evaluate their Facebook advertising returns will be priced out of the platform.
So how should businesses address this in 2020?
Lower your cost per purchase or cost per lead.
Continually refresh and test your ad campaign creative - change up ad copy, creative, audiences, offers, and objectives—to reduce the impact of ad fatigue.
Increase your average order value or client value. By increasing the amount that someone spends when they first buy from you - and thus increase your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Lastly switch your mindset to lifetime value as opposed to strict ROAS - instead of measuring only your first-purchase ROAS, also measure your true ROAS, which factors in your customer lifetime value. By using the lifetime value of your customers, you can attribute more revenue to your Facebook ads and therefore a higher overall ROAS and effectiveness for Facebook advertising as a marketing channel.
Increased Use of IGTV
We’ll see increased use of IGTV - video represents the ultimate scroll-stopping experience that can and will increase “know, like, and trust.”
Stories Becoming Key to Visibility on Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram Stories will continue to grow in popularity throughout 2020.
So much so that regular feed content will noticeably slow down.
And it’s quite feasible that both Facebook and Instagram may start rolling out more robust tests of its blended feed and Stories format.
Why?
It is so super easy for people to consume content through stories - tap, swipe, tap again. We as a user are in control.
Plus as Marketers we can publish an abundance of stories and not worry about spamming followers’ feeds.
AND there’s plenty of inventory for Ads within Stories - ‘of the more than 7 million advertisers across the Facebook family of apps, there are already 3 million advertising across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger Stories’ (COO of Facebook)
So publishing more stories and creating native stories ads is a great place to focus in 2020.
Make sure you include as many interactive elements to your Stories as possible to encourage engagament - did you know you can now do this for yoru Stories Ads too?
Pinterest gets hotter and hotter
Pinterest holds a unique position as it’s a visual search engine as opposed to a social network.
Investments of time and effort in traditional social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn only deliver results for a short period of time. The life of content on those platforms is very short—days at best.
However, on Pinterest, pins can continue to drive traffic for years. It’s that long-term return on investment in the platform that I think will entice marketers who are looking for the best way to invest their limited time and resources in 2020.
Authentic Content Rules
This one I am so thankful to see - anyone who knows me knows I am not about a filter and always advise clients to be focusing more on the mechanics behind e.g. stories than what they look like on camera.
So some tips to get real with your content in 2020:
Go live. Anywhere. At any Time. Show behind the scenes - show you’re a real person with real issues! Show the emotion!
Drop the face filters. I always tell clients it is more important to ensure you have hashtags/geotags/interactive features than a face filter!
Tell the truth.