Facebook is continuing its momentum in the area of transparency for its users. Over time they have been adding more information on what and why advertisers are doing and why ads are being shown to certain people. Now they are expanding the same functionality to organic posts.
Back in 2014 Facebook released a "why am I seeing this ad?" tool. For any sponsored post in your news feed you can click the three dots in the upper right side of the ad and click why am I seeing this ad? On March 31st Facebook announced updates to this tool and the addition of "why am I seeing this post"? Facebook is rolling out the same transparency for why we see certain ads in our news feed to why each post is in our news feed.
Since Facebook launched this took back in 2014 you've been able to see basic demographic details, which interests and website visits contributed to the ads you are seeing.
Now Facebook will be adding additional details like when the advertiser uploaded the information used for a lookalike or customer audience as well as information about the advertiser or if the advertiser worked with a marketing agency to run the ads.
Since Facebook has been under intense scrutiny for their data handling, they have been leading the charge on internet transparency. In the past year they have been removing and updating advertiser targeting options, removed all third-party data providers, and have been giving more information on why ads and posts are in your news feed. This is likely to continue across the web and Google and Amazon will likely start to follow.
Roughly two years ago Instagram released the ability to add interactive elements to Instagram Stories. According to Instagram, now 500 million Instagram accounts are using Stories every day. If you've been running Facebook or Instagram ads for any business recently, you've likely tested running stories ads. Well 60% of businesses every month are using interactive elements in their organic stories posts. Now these businesses have the opportunity to expand their exposure to these interactive elements using Instagram ads.
What are Interactive elements In Instagram Stories?
The interactive elements according to Instagram are poll stickers, @mentions, or hashtags.
Polls allow you to write a question in the story and have answers the viewer can choose from. When you post your followers can vote and you can see real time results. There are a lot of uses for these that are fun and engaging. We've had multiple clients use them for product votes. For example, two t-shirt brands we work with run these to decide which t-shirt designs they should produce. They will design between 3-5 variations and let their followers vote for which they like best. The winning design will move onto production. Being able to run ads to these polls will be a great way to increase the number of votes and build exposure to the products.
When you create your story you can choose to show multiple hashtags directly on the story that are interactive. When viewers watch the story they'll be able to tap the hashtag you enter and view the page for that hashtag.
@Mentions work just like hashtag stickers. Integrate them into your story and users can tap the mentions to go directly to the page.
For more information on Instagram Stories for business check out Instagram.
Contact RelayPM if you're interested in Instagram Story ads and we'll work with you to make them successful for your business.
None. You aren't registered as an admin of a Facebook Ad Account that owns a pixel. Please check any pixels associated with your Business Manager account.
For years now since the inception of cookies most ad and analytics platforms use third-party cookies, but recently certain browsers have blocked or announced plans to block third-party cookies because of all the data privacy concerns that have been circulating. Facebook's latest update is not only in line with their privacy issues, but also on popular browsers.
Cookies simplify and customize your web experience. This also allows advertisers to better target products and services. This can be as simple as only showing ads regarding pregnancy products to women vs men.
What is the difference between a first-party cookie and a third-party cookie?
From a technical standpoint there is no difference in how they work or the data they can track. First-party cookies are issues directly by the website a user is visiting while third-party cookies are created by someone else. For example, if you visited amazon.com and they cookied your browser to track your shopping behavior that would be a first-party cookie. If they were using a Facebook pixel, historically a Facebook owned cookie would be dropped in your browser. That's a third-party cookie because you visited Amazon.com, not Facebook.com.
From a user standpoint, it's difficult to know who's doing what with your data. Cookies can be blocked as well through private/incognito windows, Safari and Firefox by default blocks third-party cookies, most browsers allow you to customize cookie settings, software to block cookies, and ad blockers. Relying on third-party cookies is becoming more of a challenge as these blockers are increasing in usage based on the media bringing light to privacy concerns and not necessarily doing the best job in explaining.
Now back to Facebook the and recent notification all advertising account admins are getting about the latest pixel update to first-party cookies. The primary driver of this changes is Safari and Firefox changing how they handle third-party cookies where they are automatically blocked, but you can manually opt into them. This potentially resulted in a lot of lost data for Facebook advertisers. Facebook switching to first-party cookies eliminates that issue as well as many privacy concerns users may have. Google and Microsoft already made the change earlier this year.
How does the Facebook first-party cookie solution work?
When a user clicks on a Facebook served ad a unique string gets added to the URL. If there are pixels on the website that are opted in to share first-party cookie data with Facebook, the URL parameter will get written into the browser as a first-party cookie. In the events manager on Facebook ads you'll be able to manage this setting and opt out if you'd like. This officially launches on October 24th. For the vast majority of advertisers receiving this notification, there is no further action needed. You may even see improvements in the retargeting data.
If you'd like more information on this or any help with Facebook advertising and pixel management calls us or send us a message. We're here to help.