Digital Marketing Innovations: Facebook News and Instagram Ads

It’s time for another edition of Innovation Roundup. Each week at Lightspan we review the latest news and updates in digital marketing and what impact they can have on the Lightbugs and our clients. Here is the news that caught our attention and had us digging in to learn more.

Facebook Reactions Button

There has been talk about the long-awaited “dislike” button for years. But let’s be honest, a dislike button doesn’t really fill the need. We’ve all been there, you’re scrolling through your newsfeed and someone talks about the passing of a loved one, their sick dog or the worst date of their life. You feel for them, but “liking” their situation isn’t really appropriate. Do you write a comment or just ignore the post completely?

Mark Zuckerburg and the brainiacs at Facebook have officially announced they are testing a “Reactions” feature which will allow you to express a number of emoticons/emotions for friends and page posts. We applaud Facebook for ditching the “dislike” button, which was likely to breed negativity and bullying, and allow users to express a wider range of emotions.  

The six new emoticons Facebook is testing are love, laughter, excitement, awe, sadness and anger. Choose the “reaction” that fits the post by hovering over the “like” button. We can only imagine how this is going to change the interactions on Facebook and now instead of ignoring those delicate posts, you’ll be able to express the appropriate emotion.

For the analytics nerds out there, the emoticons will be tracked as a “like” in Ad Manager for now. But we look forward to the insights that could come from drilled down analytics in the future.

The downside, you’ll have to wait a little longer, as the test markets are in Spain and Ireland.

We hope you’re as excited as we are for your Facebook posts to get the reactions they deserve.  Let us know your thoughts, what additional emoticon would you like to see from Facebook?

Instagram Ads Open for Business

Instagram initially opened up advertising on an invite-only basis. Big brands, like McDonald’s, Whole Foods, L’Oreal and Taco Bell benefitted. But recently, with little details, Instagram ads opened up to all brands through their Facebook ads account!

We started testing the ads for our clients, and so far, we’re pretty excited with what we see. For advertisers, the ads are inexpensive, somewhat easy to create and give your brand better access to a more exclusive segment.

Instagram ads have to be created in Power Editor in Facebook’s Ad Manager. There are two ad options available at this time, website clicks and lead generation. The Lightbugs have tested the website clicks and have found the following insights:  

• CPC (cost per click) is the same or better than Facebook
• CTR (click-through rate) is at least 1%
• Targeting options are the same as in Facebook

Of course, it is important that the ad is executed well and is native to Instagram with a clear call to action. In the last week we’ve seen the CPC range from $0.04 – $0.50 for some of our best performing Instagram ads.

We’ve also seen our Instagram feeds flooded with advertising, so we’re interested to see how consumers and Instagram handle this new wave of advertising. Share your thoughts on Instagram ads in the comments.

Facebook Search

Now you can stay in touch with breaking news without leaving Facebook. They just announced they’re rolling out a universal search tool that will allow people to search any topic to find news along with reactions from friends and the public.

With over 2 trillion posts indexed, people will be able to search both trending topics and past news. Watch out Google+ and Twitter, now people will be able to research events and quickly have access to the public’s sentiment both past and present to get the full picture.

The new Search FYI will provide better search suggestions that are personalized for you. And to help you filter through the results, they’re organized by news sources, followed by friends and group posts and public posts.

For those concerned with privacy, every time you make a post you can choose who can see it. Your search results will only show posts that are public or have been shared with you. And of course, you can change the audience of your past posts at anytime.

We’re interested to hear from you, share how Facebook’s Search FYI changes your search habits.