Online Advertising: Was Facebook Caught with Its Pants Down?

For nearly a decade Bob Hoffman, the Ad Contrarian, has been beating the drum that digital advertising is a shady region awash with fraud. Even so, like a shiny new toy businesses have poured billions of dollars into the coffers of its advocates (ad agencies) and platforms, especially Facebook, YouTube and their ilk. 

So it came as no surprise (for me) to read this story a friend sent by Natasha Lomax on MarketWatch titled Facebook knew for years ad reach estimates were based on ‘wrong data’ but blocked fixes over revenue impact, per court filing.

Evidently, internal emails were unsealed in a recent court case that COO Sheryl Sandberg knew in 2017 that there were problems with a free ad planning tool that Facebook provided for marketers. And the more you look the more you may not want to see. The Lomax article goes on to say, "The filing also reveals that a Facebook product manager for the “potential reach” tool warned the company was making revenue it 'should never have' off of 'wrong data'."

According to Lomax, "The unsealed documents pertain to a U.S. class action lawsuit, filed in 2018, which alleges that Facebook deceived advertisers by knowingly including fake and duplicate accounts in a 'potential reach' metric." 

The point here is not to suggest online marketing is a waste of time and money. It's practically a marketing maxim that you put your storefront where the people are. ("Location, Location, Location.") On the other hand, I built my career from another rule of thumb: You can't manage what your don't measure. And a lot of what is being sold simply doesn't measure up. 

This is why I wrote this article about Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room. 

In that article I cited an article an opinion piece in The Drum, in which Chris Kelly argues that although digital ad spending grew by 20% year-over-year again, analyzing the impact of this spending has not matured enough to justify the growth in spending. I concur.

The three people you need in the room, therefore, are the Cheerleader, the Skeptic and the Judge. All too often the Cheerleader will do everything possible to keep the Skeptic out of the room because the case they're making is a snowjob. 

On my shelf here is a book whose title I really love: How to Lie with Numbers. It happens every day, in Washington, on Wall Street and in board rooms across the country. And yes, it even happens at Facebook. 

In my first Marketing Matters column for Business North (2018) I wrote a story titled Internet Marketing: Five Considerations. One of these five considerations was the matter of auditing. Both radio and television have third party auditors that collect data to assist advertisers in understanding the reach of what viewers are watching and listeners are tuning in to. If you are a business, who is doing this in the digital realm? 

At that time I wrote: This is the dark side that has Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman, an ex-ad agency CEO, up in arms. On his blog he makes a point to skewer the lack of policing that takes place in online machinations. In his book BadMen Hoffman writes, “Online advertising has two very compelling advantages for agencies: it is lucrative and largely incomprehensible.”  

Hoffman believed the ad fraud problem was estimated to be $60 billion, though I would have no real clue as to how to even guess, any more than how much gambling there is in Las Vegas or jelly beans in a Mason Jar at the fair.

At the time, Hoffman wrote, Procter & Gamble became so disillusioned about the effectiveness of their own online spend that last year they cut their digital advertising by 200 million dollars, with no visible negative side effects. In fact, a Wall Street Journal headline declared, “P&G Contends Too Much Digital Advertising Is a Waste.” The March 1, 2018 Adweek headline that same day read, “When Procter & Gamble Cut $200 Million in Digital Ad Spend, It Increased Its Reach 10%.” Something’s happening here, but it ain’t quite exactly clear.

As the saying goes, Buyer Beware.

Related Links

Facebook Really Doesn't Want You To Read These Emails

Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room

Bob Hoffman's Ad Contrarian Blog

Digital Marketer Eagan Heath Shares How His Company Helps Small Businesses Find New Customers

Eagan Heath explains analytics insights with client.

I met Eagan Heath at my daughter's wedding several years ago. He performed Dylan's Love Minus Zero/No Limit as I walked my daughter down the "aisle" at an outdoor wedding in Morris, Minnesota. This week we re-connected to discuss marketing matters, including the manner in which Facebook and Google use A.I. and how much the marketing playing field has shifted. This interview was a consequence of that discussion.

EN: What is your title and what is Get Found Madison?

Eagan Heath: I just say I'm the owner and founder of a digital marketing agency based in Madison, Wisconsin. We started out serving local businesses by helping them rank on Google with SEO and Google Ads, and we've since branched out into serving eCommerce and B2B companies with paid social media ads, email automation and WordPress websites.

EN: When did you found Get Found Madison and what were you doing up till then?

EH: I started the company in June 2016 after working at Epic as a hospital software project manager.

EN: Where did the idea for your company come from?

EH: I was itching to work for myself and I heard on a podcast that offering SEO services was a great way to start doing that. I did some free consulting for some local businesses while I still worked my corporate job, and after I got them from page 2 to the top of page 1 of Google, I knew I had something valuable to offer.

EN: You have some great testimonials. When you started you had no track record. How did you establish your credibility initially?

EH: SEO is different than most service businesses because people can tell immediately whether you're good at what you do. I focused on ranking for phrases like "SEO Madison WI" or "SEO company in Madison, WI" so people could see I knew my stuff. Prospects often comment that they found me through good and that I seem to know what I'm doing.

For the first clients, referrals were huge, so I developed relationships with local website companies who referred me to their clients and transferred a lot of trust thereby.

EN: A lot of people fallaciously think that “if you build it they will come” when it comes to putting up a website. Would you care to comment on this?

EH: Great question. I think too many small businesses think of their website as a brochure when what they really want is a lead generation machine.

What you actually need to do is plan out how you'll get the right people to your site so they'll contact you or buy from you.

Luckily, there is a pretty short list of places most people go on their devices, and we can reach them at every one:
• Search engine
• Social Media
• Email
• Browsing a website like news, sports, a blog, etc.

EN: I think one of the most fascinating features of data analytics is learning at what point potential customers fall out of the sales funnel. How does Get Found Madison help in that?

EH: Agreed. I've gotten concise about pitching the value of online marketing to skeptical small business owners over the years, and it comes down to:
• The targeting is better
• People's attention has shifted online, so that's where they are
• You can more easily measure the results
• You can test faster and with a smaller initial budget
• As a result, you can acquire customers cheaper online than offline

For a local business, the funnel looks something like this:
• Impressions
• Clicks
• Contact form submissions
• Sales

We measure the results and provide our clients with the data on the first three, and help them to track that last one in their CRM.

For an eCommerce business, it might look something like:
• Impression
• Click
• Email list sign up
• Email open rate
• Email click rate
• Purchase

"Checkmate."

EN: You have a small team but a wide array of skills and services. What are the services that your Madison customers have found most useful and compelling?

EH: We are about to launch a new brand called Caravan Digital (freshly named this week) that will market to and focus on eCommerce marketing. The reason we're doing this is because we can cleanly report on dollars out vs. dollars in on ad spend and because eCommerce is the present and the future.

While I'll always have a place in my heart and mind for SEO, the reality has been that we can drive stronger results faster and with better reporting with Facebook Ads for eCommerce companies. We have a client right now who has spent $23,000 on Facebook ads and made $467,000 in sales as a result. It's hard to get 2,000% returns like that anywhere else.


Related Links
GetFoundMadison
Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room
Can Local Retailers Compete Against Amazon?

Zero to Hero Workshop Designed to Help Local Businesses Achieve Greater Success in the Digital Marketing Arena

"Hero" photo by Ben White on Unsplash

They're calling it "From Zero to Marketing Hero." Their promise is to provide tools and strategies that will help attendees grow their businesses in 2020. The event is slated for January 16 at Glensheen Mansion

Organizers include Molly Solberg, founder and host of the popular Social Media Breakfast Twin Ports, Michael Smišek, owner of šek Design and the DLH clothing brand, Jane Pederson, Marketing Manager at Glensheen mansion, Meg Thoreson, Owner of Solon Springs Mercantile who has advised hundreds of entrepreneurs in dozens of industries, and lead organizer Daisy Quaker, former Digital Marketing Manager at AMSOIL

"There is more content online than ever before," says Ms. Quaker. "Your business is not just competing with the shop next door. It's competing with every business in the world that offers similar products or services."

Social media has been around more than a dozen years, and the Internet 25, and digital content is expanding at a pace that makes your head spin.

Strategies and techniques covered will include customer profiling, messaging, Design, and basics to running their Facebook Ads successfully.

"The web and social channels are overrun with ads from bigger companies that have a lot more resources than a small business may have," Ms. Quaker explains. "A business that wants to capture and hold attention has to stand out and connect effectively with their potential customers."

Jane Pederson

One objective of the workshop will be to walk participants through everything from strategy to execution, pulled from their experiences running digital marketing campaigns.

Attendees will learn tactics that can make their business more competitive online. Strategies and techniques covered will include customer profiling, messaging, design, and the basics of running successful Facebook ad campaigns.

"If you have attended other marketing training events in the past," states Molly Solberg, "and walked away frustrated that you didn't get enough actionable guidance, this workshop is for you. You will leave knowing how to plan and build a successful marketing campaign that connects with your audience and achieves your business goals."

Meg Thoreson

It's a half day workshop with limited seating. If interested in attending sign up at hiredaisy.com/hero/

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DID YOU KNOW?
ALL DIGITAL MKTG STATS BELOW COURTESY OMINCORE

Google is responsible for 96% of all smartphone search traffic, and 94% of total organic traffic.

Two seconds is all companies get when it comes to website load time. Anything longer increases bounce rates by 50%.  HOW DOES YOUR WEBSITE STACK UP?

Michael Michael Smišek 

11. 82% of searchers will use their phone to help them make a decision about an in-store purchase. IS YOUR WEBSITE OPTIMIZED FOR SMARTPHONES?

81% of millennials are checking Twitter at least once a day. The average amount of search queries Twitter receives a day is two billion. DO YOU HAVE A TWITTER STRATEGY?

40% of all mobile users are searching for a local business or interest.

73% of people describe ads taking over the entire screen as ‘highly annoying.’

Molly Solberg

Content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising.

38% of marketers are publishing content at least once a week.

Only 30% of marketers say their content strategy is effective.

The top three content marketing tactics are blogging (65%), social media (64%), and case studies (64%).

Using the words ‘thank you’ in a subject line will net higher-than-average open rates.

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Thank you for being a follower of Ennyman's Territory. 

Why I'm Tired of People Talking About "Awesome Content"

It has to be the most overused word in digital marketing. "Awesome." I understand the intent, but please, to hear the way people chatter on about it you'd think creating "awesome content" was as easy as kindergartners making mud pies.

Synonyms for awesome at Thesaurus.com include all of the following: awe-inspiring, breathtaking, alarming, fearsome, magnificent, intimidating, formidable, terrifying, wondrous...  It's a word best applied to the Deity, though the Grand Canyon might give us a sense of something approaching awesomeness. I mean, it is pretty grand, as in the dialogue, "This is a piano, and that is a piano, but this here is a grand piano." Unfortunately the way we use the word awesome these days it feels like any hack can produce mind-blowing "content" as easily as tying shoelaces. And if you can't do it yourself, you can hire people to do it for you... for pocket change. Or so they say.

In an ideal world, everything is awesome and everybody is above average.

Look at all these stories you find when you Google the phrase "awesome content":

6 Awesome Content Sources That Take the Stress out of Social Media Sharing

9 Tips on How to Create Awesome Content that Is Easily Discovered

How to Create Awesome Content People Actually Want

4 Rules For Creating Awesome Content Your Audience Loves

4 Steps to an Awesome Content Calendar (and 6 Things You Need on It)

25 Tools to Find Awesome Content to Share

15 Ways To Consistently Create Awesome Content That’ll Get People Coming Back To Open Your Emails, Visit Your Blog, And Watch Your Videos

7 Awesome Content Marketing Examples You Can Steal

How to Create Awesome Content for Facebook, Twitter and Google+

The 3 Keys to Awesome Content Marketing That Works
(Both this and the previous one are by Jeff Bullas. Awesome!)

Awesome Blog Writing Service

How to Create Awesome Content

7 Types Of Awesome Social Media Content Your Brand Can Be Creating Right Now

We All Want Awesome Content, Here's How to Start Making It

7 Elements of Awesome Content

The Principles of Awesome Content

Infographic: How to find awesome content topics

How To Create Awesome, Eye Catching Instagram Content

How to Plan Awesome Content That Grows Your Email List

How To Create An Awesome Content Strategy

12 Types of Awesome Visual Content You Can Use in Your Blog Posts

5 Ways to Transform Your Content From Adequate to Awesome

How to Find Awesome Content Writers for Less than $3 Per Article

Awesome Content Writer

Five Ways to Focus on Creating Awesome Content With Your Client

Awesome Content Tools - Grow Your Business with WordPress

Announcing our Awesome Content Targeting (ACT) tool

1 Awesome Way To Create Great Content

Five Tips for Awesome Content

How to create awesome content in 5 easy steps [infographic]

How to Write Awesome Content For Your Website

9 Awesome Content Marketing Tools That Will Make You More Efficient

10 Steps to Building an Awesome Social Media Content Calendar

Awesome Content

How to Write Awesome Blog Content for Your Nonprofit

Two Ingredients of Awesome: Content and Metaphor

Your Awesome Content Is Useless, Until…

5 Ways to Come Up With Awesome Content Marketing Ideas

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So, what do ya think? Pretty awesome, huh?

Bottom Line: I'm a big believer in attempting to set the bar high, but common sense says that when everything is awesome, nothing is. What is it you are really trying to do? Entertain? You're competing with Hollywood. There are plenty of other reasons for creating content though: to enlighten, to inform, to persuade, to comfort, to connect with a  community, to leave a legacy, to inspire, to spark a discussion, and maybe just because you have a need to express yourself so you can sort out what you really think and feel on a subject.

If you've read this far you pretty much know what I think. Let's use a different word and scrap the A-word. Try out some of these: useful, meaningful, engaging, etc.

Have a great day.

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