Anyone with access to the online world is well aware of the most recent news concerning Facebook and Cambridge Analytica’s shenanigans. As a direct result of this “data scandal”, Facebook announced that they will be shutting down access to 3rd party data providers on its advertising platforms. This creates problems for advertisers and the obvious question is: Will advertisers be severely limited in their ability to reach a broad database of consumers on Facebook?
The short answer is “yes”.
Facebook’s updated privacy policy will be clamping down on advertisers. Subsequently, there will no longer be access to real-world data typically provided by Axiam, Visa and Transunion; resulting in a steep rise in the average cost per conversion. For those using Facebook’s advertising tools, this is already evident in the suspension of Facebook’s Analytics Insights.
All Is Not Lost For Advertisers
With Facebook assuring us that there will be greater clarity come the 2nd quarter of 2018, they will, as far as we can tell, continue to allow businesses to upload their own custom audiences and customer databases to the platform, but only if advertisers comply with new policies currently being developed.
This provides advertisers with a ray of hope as we will continue to be able to up-sell, cross-sell and re-market to existing customers. We will also have access to new customers that look similar in profile to existing customers. However, the social media enterprise will now be providing less information to help with targeting optimisation, as Audience Insights, Reach Estimations and Facebook Analytics are the first features to be removed and we are expecting many more dramatic changes.
Where To Go From Here As An Advertiser
With many aspects still in the dark when it comes to advertising on Facebook, we do know that custom audiences seem to be the answer when it comes to providing solid returns on marketing spend. However, most businesses simply do not have enough detail on their existing users to effectively match back to Facebook’s database with any sort of real accuracy.
In order to provide businesses with data insights and intelligence, Bastion & Flowe, a Cape Town based company, has developed a digital solution that allows companies to build highly responsive target audiences. Not only does the platform help identify your customers on Facebook it can also be used to enrich and update your existing customer base. This powerful data engine helps marketers enrich their existing customer base for a higher percentage match rate. It also helps with the creation of vitally important “exclusion audiences”, which ultimately excludes irrelevant consumers whilst securing improved results.
With Bastion & Flowe’s real-world data and bespoke propensity to purchase models, marketers can continue to achieve great results, notwithstanding Facebook’s new privacy laws.
