Facebook is rolling out new metrics and removing a litany of redundant and useless metrics from the Ads Manager.
The Facebook Ads Manager is messy. 
Too many metrics makes reading ad data a pain.
Thankfully, Facebook’s been listening. Facebook is removing redundant metrics, and adding metrics to help businesses and brands succeed.
You will notice that some of these metrics are labeled as “estimated’ or in “development” in the ads manager.
Facebook is adding the label “estimated” to be more transparent about their reporting methodology. Facebook measures ad performance by scaling samples in order to provide real-time results. When this method is used, Facebook will label the metric as estimated. Labels that are still in BETA will be labeled very obviously as “development,” indicating that they may change throughout this
A great example is the new “Ad Recall Lift” metric Facebook is rolling out. Since this metric works by polling a sample of the advertising audience, it is labeled as estimated. Given that it’s a new metric in BETA, it will also be labeled  development.

Over 20 Ad Metrics on the Chopping Block!
Bam, big changes are coming. 

The Redundant and Repetitive Ad Metrics 

Actions
Actions, people taking actions, cost per action. Actions as a metric is a sum of various actions users have taken on your ad. Since there are many different possible actions a user can take, this metric is not granular enough to derive business results.
Amount Spent Today
This is a redundant metric. If you want to see the amount your ads spent today, simply adjust the date range to today and use the Amount Spent metric.
Button Clicks
This is another redundant metric. Link Clicks, Event responses, and saved for later are all metrics tracked for your ads.
Carousel Card
This metric provided clicks and conversions for Carousel ads. Its redundant – you can already get clicks and conversions data from the ads manager.
Mobile App Actions Conversion Value
This is another redundant metric. You can use Mobile App Purchases Conversion Value instead.
Positive & Negative Feedback
Positive and Negative feedback as metric outputs are not insightful on their own. These signals are used as inputs for the Relevance Score metric which paints a clearer picture for understanding how well an audience is responding to ads.

The Useless Ad Metrics

Canvas Component Time Percentage
Who even uses this? …Exactly why this metric is a goner. Use the other Canvas metrics for view times.
Page Mentions, Cost per Page Mention
This is an outdated metric for your brand. Page mentions can’t tell if you’re receiving positive or negative feedback. If you care about following, use the page likes or page engagement metrics instead.
Social Reach, Impressions, Clicks, Unique Clicks
A social ad is supplemented with copy that’s familiar to all of us “3 friends liked this page.” However, advertisers don’t have control over when this sort of social ad is delivered. Since these metrics are not actionable for advertisers, Facebook is doing away with them. Instead, leverage traditional reach, impressions, and clicks for ad performance.
Page Tab Views, Cost per Page Tab View
This metric tells you how many views your Facebook page tabs received as a result of an ad. This metric is relatively useless. Page likes and page engagement are better indicators for Facebook page success.
Link Click Destination
This metric was built to help advertisers understand which clicks lead people off Facebook through an app’s deep link or to an app store or other backup link destinations. Due to new mobile operating system updates, this metric is being revisited. In the meantime, advertisers can use outbound links as a metric.

The New Kids

There’s probably many more new metrics that are in development and on their way to our ad manager accounts. Two metrics that already existed on the Ads Manager but are still in development are:
Store Visits
This is an interesting metric for physical retail and office locations. You can run Facebook ads that are built to drive store visits using a store locator.
Ad Recall Lift
This will be one of Facebook’s most powerful metrics if its rolled out right. This gives brands the ability to measure the recall-performance of their ads.
We’ll keep you posted as more metrics come out.
Get the rest of your marketing friends up to speed by sharing this article with them  
 

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Here’s the how and why:

Whenever a Page will make use of such spammy content, systematically and repeatedly, Facebook will start decreasing the reach of such posts. This will result in lower engagement and reach of the Page. Ultimately, using engagement bait content will be counterproductive. The reason for this fight against engagement bait is that Facebook wants to encourage authenticity and promote meaningful conversations on the platform through the use of relevant content.
We’ve all been guilty of using this ‘cheat’ at some point or another, but Facebook is finally drawing a line and no longer allowing over-use of this sort of content to increase engagement and reach.
We need to keep in mind that Facebook’s ultimate goal is for the consumer to remain on the platform, and unfortunately, due to the continuous spam content, people had begun to lose interest in Facebook’s newsfeed.
This isn’t the first time that Facebook has waged war on bait. Remember when all the articles shared on Facebook would have these kinds of titles “You won’t believe what happens next”? We do too. Well, Facebook has managed to find a way to reduce that sort of content, and they will be doing the same with spammy posts.
One month into 2018, we’ve already seen a difference in the content displayed on our newsfeed, and this is just the beginning.
So what does that mean for businesses on Facebook? It’s a great opportunity to start producing good quality content which is both interesting and engaging.
Remember to please tag your grandparents in the comments and share this article with your pet. Thanks. ????

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My year at Switch

As I celebrate my first year at Switch, I’ve decided to look back at what I’ve learnt throughout this incredible year. This may be a bit of a cheesy post, but it will help you get a clearer idea of what Switch is. Most importantly you will find out who is part of this ever-growing family.

Switch is like a family

This was a relatively new concept for me, and it might have taken me a little longer than normal to get used to the idea that at Switch, people are more than just office colleagues. My background before Switch was a very monotonous office life, where you only ever meet your colleagues at work and during the occasional Christmas office party. Very little to no socialisation took place within the office, and you were given little knowledge about who you were working with. At Switch things are different – you are more than just a number within a company. There is a strong sense of community, of helping one another. The numerous team building events, beers in the boardroom, outdoor adventures, and the long chats over lunch have created a fantastic work environment. Thanks to this, there is a strong support system – we are all here for each other, and we don’t ever allow panic to take over. If one is in need of an extra hand for a project, I can assure you that five will be presented to them, and that’s just, plain, straight awesome.

Switch is an enabler

One year into Switch, and I feel like I have learnt more here than I ever have throughout my three years as an undergraduate student at University. Switch has pushed me into researching, learning and practising what interests and passionates me. Every day I am encouraged to do something I love and to always improve in what I do. Thanks to Switch I breathe and live social media, and I am constantly learning more about it. I write interesting content in-house and for our clients. My obsessive-compulsive planning disorder is actually appreciated, as I try to always plan my work, have content ready months ahead and create colour-coded to-do lists and content calendars.

Switch thinks outside the box

Really and truly, Switch is made up of creative humans that share a place together for approximately forty hours a week. Each and every person in the company has a beautiful brain that is capable of imagining and creating breathtaking works. The best brainstorming sessions are the ones where we gather all the team in one room, and throw anything we can think of on the table, to then go through each and every idea and pick the winning one. Everyone has a say, every idea is a good idea, and we work together to think outside the box. It’s fascinating, inspiring and motivating working with such a creative bunch of people.

Switch is transparent

Switch is constantly working to become the agency of transparency – how? Check out Martina’s Office Bloggers to find out. Yes, there have been bumps along the way. Yes, there will certainly be more. After all, we are humans, we make mistakes, and nothing can ever run as smoothly as we wish. Having said this, Switch is transparent with its employees and clients. It is a very straightforward way of working, where everything is communicated. That’s right, everything. If we think your idea is terrible we won’t sweet talk you out of it, but we will plainly and simply tell you to not go ahead. We are an honest and straight-talking bunch.   

Switch builds relationships

That is certain. If you either work for or with Switch, you are bound to build a long lasting relationship with the company. Clients are treated as close friends – and let’s be honest, everyone goes an extra mile to keep their friends happy. Employees are family, which makes the job that more enjoyable.

Switch loves food

I am not much of a foodie. For this reason, I get judging looks and shocked faces when I refuse a piece of cake or a saucy burger. Here at Switch, food is pretty much a sacred thing that needs to be enjoyed to the fullest. In the past year I have learnt that food is more important than meetings. Therefore no meetings should be booked at lunch time (take note, Matt!). It’s fascinating how pastizzi can bring the whole team together. Just to put you in the picture, we celebrated Bacon Day the other day, and everyone from the office brought something homemade that included bacon. It seemed only fair, that for my year anniversary, I would bake these food lovers a cake. After all, they say the best way to a wo/man’s heart is through food. 😉

There you have it folks, this is what Switch is! If you are curious to know more about us crazy humans, check out some of the work we’ve worked on. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page to keep up to date!

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Personality goes a long way

We all have our characters, and these tend to shine through when we communicate with others. The same thing, largely, applies to our social media presence, no matter whether they’re personal or business accounts.
The best social media profiles are just like Mr or Ms popular. They manage to convey an aura of positive energy to the people around them. They create a sense of awe and envy, without being condescending or overbearing. Everybody wants a part of them, or at least to be associated with them.

Be entertaining or interesting

Good social media profiles also have another thing going for them. They are interesting, entertaining or, in certain cases, both. Hit the right balance between being interesting and entertaining and you can be assured that you’ll be a massive hit. John Oliver, for example, manages this perfectly.

If you can’t be interesting or entertaining, then offer value

“But, but…” I can already hear you protesting. How can I be entertaining or interesting if I’m selling something that is essentially boring?
Well, there’s a third factor that can help you out. Offer value. Entertainment and interest are both of immense value, but look at pages like Deal or Deal Today, which are essentially uninteresting and definitely not entertaining. They manage to generate a hell of a lot of good will by offering value to their followers.
And let’s face it. If you’re running a business that needs a Facebook page that can’t be either interesting, entertaining or offers value, then you seriously need to rethink your line of business (or your channel of communication).
Speaking of which, we need to make sure to:

Choose the right medium

Not all channels are created equal. There is no absolute right or wrong social media to choose. For our local readers, Facebook might be the default network to work with since Malta is somewhat obsessed with it, and nothing else. However you should always consider all other options, especially since local usage is growing in other networks and very few businesses are tapping into them.

So where do I start?

So where does this leave us? What should I do if I’m just starting off with my social media efforts?
I’d personally tell any clients I have to start by testing the waters and trying to get a feel for the kind of response you’re getting.

Be human

Post to your business’ page as if you were posting for yourself. See it as a natural extension of your brand, no matter how well defined it is. Always ask yourself whether you would have said what you’re about to type out to a client who just walked into your physical store.
I don’t think you greet people by shouting “SALAMI SANDWICHES – 2.50” in their face when they walk into your restaurant in the morning. But you might tell them something along the lines of: “Good morning, how’s your day? Our special of the day is the salami sandwich.” Do the same with your Facebook page.

A couple of the eateries around our office (Dobbin’s and Karrot & Ko), in fact, have got this to a tee – they both do a good job of informing their clients what they’re preparing on the day, and I realise that they’ve managed to keep us all coming back to their pages on a daily basis.
They do it by writing friendly posts that are also informative (knowing what food’s available to me is very valuable information). They have also understood how important it is to:

Be punctual

I remember the first few weeks Dobbin’s opened, they’d post their lunch menu and photos at about midday. By then we’d have already been too hungry. We’d have checked out Karrot (or some other places in the vicinity) and ordered food elsewhere.
Timing is not always crucial, but when it is, it just is. Don’t post all your Christmas offers on the 24th of December. Everybody would have bought their presents by then.

It ain’t easy

Also understand that if you might have to have to wait quite a bit before you start seeing concrete results. Building a relationship with your customers will take a fair amount of time – and you can only achieve this by doing a good job of it, consistently.
If you want to help yourself shortcut the process, then you need to be prepared to spend a bit of money. Because there’s a big misconception about social media marketing, but trust me:

It ain’t free

Be prepared to spend some money on growing your online presence. The absolute least you can spend on Facebook is a € (or a $) a day. If your business can’t afford €30/month, then, once again, you probably should not be in business.
Put some marketing budget into your Facebook page and you will immediately start seeing much better results. Good results bring better reach, and better reach brings better results. See what we did there? We created a vicious cycle. Spend more, get more of the free stuff in return too!

And in the end…

This is the end of this very short primer to social media marketing. What do you think? Are you ready to up your game? What do you find hardest (or easiest) about your social presence?
Get serious about your social media marketing, or at least get someone to take it seriously for you. We always tell our clients that we’d prefer it if they’d handle their own social media accounts, but if you don’t know where to start from or if you just don’t have the time and/or expertise to do it yourself – then just drop us a line and we’ll be glad to help you out!

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The post My experience in digital marketing appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Your page lacks information

If you want to be of service then you’ve got to provide as much information as possible. Some pages don’t even give their opening hours so be sure to fill out all the necessary details.

2. Your branding is all over the place

Your profile image is a sleek version of your logo, but your cover photo looks like it came out of the 1980s. You’ve got a kaleidoscope of colours and your page screams chaos. Restore some harmony to your page and apply brand guidelines that will show unity across everything you do.

3. You’ve abandoned your page

This is probably one of the worst things you can do. Don’t start a page only to neglect it after a while. Posts shouldn’t be sporadic, and should follow some sort of regular structure. If people visit your page and see your last post was 3 weeks ago they won’t be very impressed.

4. You use Facebook like a billboard

Okay, so we know we told you not to neglect your page, but that doesn’t mean you should use it as a billboard. Don’t blast your followers with “SPECIAL OFFER ONE TIME ONLY”- this isn’t a market stall. Keep it savvy and engaging, entice your audience and interact with them instead of trying to force sales onto them.

5. Your images are never the right dimensions

Dimensions exist for a reason. A simple Google search will show you that there are dimensions for a profile picture, a cover photo, a Facebook post, a Facebook advert, and an event cover. Stick to the dimensions when creating media to be shared on your page so that everything has a professional look. Don’t use images with low quality and be creative!

(Image source: makeawebsitehub)

6. You’re not communicating

People post to your page but you don’t even acknowledge them, they might as well be talking to a wall (no pun intended!). Interact with your followers and show them you value their input and feedback.

7. You forget you’re a business

We love pages that interact with their customers and followers, but always keep in mind that at the end of the day you’re a business and a certain sense of decorum is required, especially since you represent a brand.

8. You’ve automated too many things

Automation can be handy – especially when you link different social media platforms. But more often than not it can cause some problems. If all of your posts are automated then you risk sounding like a robot. Different social media platforms have different audiences, so automating your Facebook posts to post to Twitter might be a good temporary fix to a neglected Twitter account, but isn’t a long term solution.

9. You’re not paying attention to your insights

Facebook insights provide a great deal of information for your business. If you haven’t checked them out yet then it’s high time you do. You’ll learn about your audience, which posts are the most successful, and can analyse any spikes in page likes in order to link these with any particular efforts you carried out.

10. You think Facebook advertising is as simple as pressing “boost”

We recently published the first in a series of blog posts which will provide valuable information on online advertising. There’s more to marketing than just pressing boost. Familiarise yourself with the different ways you can use Facebook, would it be better to pay for impressions or for clicks? What’s the reason behind boosting your post, and what’s your ROI?

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Why is everybody moving more of their spend online?

The answer is simple, really. The value for money to be had with effective online marketing is stunning when compared to traditional media. No matter what your ultimate promotional goal is, you always get much more mileage from online marketing.

What are the ways I can advertise online?

There are loads of ways to grow your brand and sales efforts online, but in reality, when starting off you have five main ways of buying advertising online.

Banner (or Display) advertising

This is one of the very first forms of online advertising. It started off as the equivalent of print advertising, and it was therefore mainly priced that way. People used to just buy slots around the content of a site. Nowadays it is more common to buy banner advertising based on impressions though.
We usually recommend display advertising for one main goal – when you want to build brand recollection pretty far up in the sales funnel. Banner advertising is a great way of getting people to know and remember your brand.
Don’t try to use banner advertising to drive traffic to your site, though, because you’re usually going to be looking at a very costly exercise.

Video Advertising

A heck of a lot of video is consumed online on a daily basis. You can hijack some of these videos by inserting your video before whatever the audience you’re trying to target was going to watch.
It’s a more expensive medium than simple banner advertising, but gives you the opportunity to get a similar effect as TV advertising. Remember that on Youtube, for example, viewers can skip the ad after about 5 seconds, so you have to make sure that you start telling a compelling story immediately, otherwise viewers will just press “skip”.

Search Advertising

Most people’s buying journeys start with a search nowadays. If you can get your product or service in front of your potential customers at this phase in the buying cycle then you have a much better chance of converting them into customers.
Google understood this first (and best). Look where they are now. This tells you something – search advertising is effective, and companies are willing to pay a lot for spots at the top of search results.
You can’t buy your way to the top of search results organically, but you can buy your way to the top via search engine advertising. And how do you do this? By bidding the highest for the spot in particular. Google (and other search engines) have a “mini auction” every time somebody runs a search. This sees the highest bidder getting the first spot for that particular search result.

Social media advertising

Social media advertising works in pretty much the same way as display advertising does, but there’s an added dimension – the social aspect.
Even though the concept is pretty much the same – you’re placing an ad in front of an audience based on their media consumption (as opposed to a specific search), you have two main advantages.
The first advantage is that most social media advertising is native. It is presented in the same format as all other content, so a news feed advert on my news feed in Facebook will look exactly like the photo of my school-friend-I-haven’t-actually-seen-in-10-years’ new chubby baby. This means I’m primed to consume the content because I’m already in “reading mode” when the ad is served to me (unlike banner advertising, which usually lives outside the content on sites).
The second is that it is, yes, you guessed it: social. So if my best friend likes a restaurant and that restaurant runs an advertising campaign on Facebook, it can specify that the advert should only be served to friends of its customers. That way I see an ad in context – so I know that someone I trust has already vetted this restaurant, making it an implicit recommendation.

Retargeting

Retargeting is more complicated to set up and to achieve, but it is gathering quite a bit of momentum in recent years. But what is it?
Simple retargeting works by building up an audience of people who have visited your site and serving them ads that are relevant to your brand. This can be done by advertising platforms which have a large network of advertising partners.
Have you ever searched for a product on a site like Amazon or Booking.com? You are usually followed around with this (or similar ads) for a few weeks. The ads are not simply re-targeted (where I get served an ad simply because I visited a particular website), but programmed to my behaviour.
So booking.com will not just advertise its service in general to me, it will push a hotel in the city I had just searched for. This is an even more complicated system of retargeting, one that re-targets to individuals, not just generic audiences.

Direct deals

Direct deals can be far more flexible. These depend largely on the publisher and can be a combination of all the advertising methods above and more. Some sites sell packages that go beyond regular advertising – including deals for content, sponsoring newsletters, “reviews”, and leads.
Direct deals also allow for a wider take-over of sites. Some sites allow you to take over the site completely, with a re-skin of the site based on the advertiser’s needs. This is a far more immersive experience, and if done well can actually be pretty effective.
Buying directly from sites also allows you to implement advertising technology that would be harder to achieve through a network – such as ads that push a whole site’s content down and start playing a video when a visitor clicks on them.
As we’ll see next week, direct deals are usually more expensive than using a third party medium such as a banner network, however you usually have as close to a guarantee as possible of highly targeted traffic.

What’s next?

This week we’ve seen the different ways in which you can spend your money online. We haven’t really gone into how you buy advertising though. How will you know what to spend, and where to spend it? And more importantly, how will you measure the success (or failure) of your campaigns?

Shameless plug

Most companies don’t really know where to start with online advertising, which is why we’re here to help. We plan out your spending in a way that brings you much more value for money. If you feel you’re missing out on your business’ online potential but don’t really know where to start, then just drop us a line and we’ll help you get much more bang for your buck.

The post Introduction to online advertising – Part 1 appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Don’t focus on sales

First things first, you can’t simply join a group and blast everyone with your products and sales offers. You’ll probably end up being deleted. Neither can you create a group and use it as a billboard to post all of your products and services – people won’t pay much attention to you if you do.

2. Be helpful

Perhaps the easiest way to get people to like you is by being helpful. Share useful links and tidbits of information, answer people’s questions (if you know the answer) and provide insider information. This will allow people to feel that they can depend on you, it will also show you’re a nice person who genuinely cares.

3. Be engaging

Similar to the above point you’ve got to be engaging in order for people to like you. Interact with others, be a valuable member in the group. Be the person who gets things going, even if it’s simply by asking an interesting question.

4. Stop, collaborate, and listen

More than just a Vanilla Ice lyric, this is actually a great piece of wisdom! Facebook groups can present great opportunities to network and form connections. You can learn from other people’s experiences, plan things together, and even simply observe what people like and dislike.

5. Share things from your page

If you’re involved in a Facebook group you can easily share posts from your page with the people in the group. Of course make sure what you’re sharing is relevant and don’t force anything onto anyone! Keep it casual and play it cool.

6. Share things from other pages

If you want to show you’re a team player then share things from other people’s pages. Combining this with the above point shows that you think about more than yourself and you’re willing to acknowledge other people’s efforts!

7. Allow customers to communicate

If you’ve got a group for your business’ page then this is the perfect space to allow your customers to communicate between themselves. Never doubt the power of word of mouth! So while it’s important to always offer proper customer service, it’s also great to have loyal customers helping out other loyal customers.

8. Build a sense of community

Based on the above point, Facebook groups are perfect for building a sense of community. So if you sell hiking shoes a Facebook group dedicated to the joys (and pains) of hiking could be the perfect way to interact with your audience whilst subtly marketing your product.

9. Branding

If you’re creating a Facebook group be sure to incorporate a level of branding – you can do this through the cover photo and the occasional posts linked to your product.

10. Get feedback

Facebook groups break down boundaries and become more personal. Don’t be afraid to ask people for feedback, make them feel exclusive by sharing some upcoming ideas (without giving it all away) and asking what they think. Who knows, you might get the best piece of advice you’ve ever hear

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Simple concept: check!

Tilda Rice takes 2 minutes to cook in the microwave, and the client wanted to promote just how quick and simple it is to prepare a full, nutritious meal. So we gave players exactly 2 minutes to try and collect as many falling ingredients as possible to increase their high score. The game would run for 1 month on the Facebook pages of Frankie and The Shopping Basket, and there would be no less than 100 winners announced on the final day, with the player in first place taking home a tablet and the runner up winning a smartphone.
Fast forward to launch day and the game was ready to rumble. Design, development and rigorous testing had got us this far, but there was no telling how the game would be received by the audience.




 
One month later, we’re happy to confirm that the game was a success.
Just under 40,000 games were played over just 4 weeks. Players spent an average period of 9.5 minutes on the game page, which is plenty of time for the point of the campaign to come across – chances are that most of those players will remember Tilda the next time they’re at the supermarket. Mission accomplished!

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