We are well into the last quarter of this year, and Facebook is yet to have its last word. Did we say Facebook? Oops! That was a mistake! “Meta” is still planning to end 2022 with a bang as some of its latest growth features and updates focus on scaffolding its gradually slumping user activity.
So, what has the world’s largest social media platform been upto all these months? Let’s get straight to the details.
Metamorphic Changes in Meta: Changes & Upgrades in 2022
Every social media marketing company must keep up with Mark Zuckerberg’s team to stay abreast of and fully leverage the options Facebook (Meta) offers. The team itself has had a busy year cooking up several upgrades, ad types, and payment options.
Here’s a list of what’s transpired on Facebook in 2022.
1. Signal Resiliency Guide
Target marketing is the bread and butter of all companies with marketing plans, and Meta is no different. Quickly responding to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), Meta commissioned its Signal Resiliency Guide for 2022.
While ATT allows its users to avoid data tracking by third-party applications, Meta’s Signal Resiliency Guide advises users to target ads with fewer data collected from third-party apps. In other words, Meta is trying to race ahead of the curve by preparing advertisers for a more private digital space.
According to Meta’s Guide, the following digital marketing tactics are termed vulnerable because of the limited amount of data collected from users:
- Ad platform optimisation
- Frequency control
- Measurement and attribution
- Lookalike and modelling
- Targeting and re-targeting.
- Email and website personalisation
2. Cross-site tracking
The guide recommends shifting advertising focus to organic search and enriching first-party data. With access to user data becoming increasingly limited in the upcoming years, these are the best ways to minimise the impact on your business.
3. Call Ads Updates
In September 2022, Meta announced new updates to Call Ads in a bid to help businesses fortify their customer relationships by securing better quality leads. One of the main updates in Call Ads is a feature on Meta’s Messenger that allows customers to request a call back from a business. This upgrade could play a potential role in helping businesses demonstrate their eagerness to get back to customers and eliminate the frustration of unanswered calls.
4. Collaborative Ads for Local Delivery
The Meta platform is not only for mega businesses but also for grocery stores and restaurants local to the area. In an attempt to garner more local traffic for these businesses through its platform, Meta rolled out the Collaborative Ads for Local Delivery.
Through these ads, local businesses and packaged goods brands can:
- Generate brand and product awareness
- Allow consumers to place orders through local delivery services
- Showcase stocked products with current pricing
The objective is to create a quick and easy buying experience that offers a streamlined path from product discovery to purchase.
5. Ad Manager Objectives
Meta’s latest Ads Manager objectives are yet another classic example of the platform’s relentless drive to help businesses create campaign setups based on their goals. Meta has introduced six new objectives, making it easy to choose the one that best aligns with your business goals. They are:
- Engagement
- Traffic
- Awareness
- Leads
- App Promotion
- Sales
While some objectives are new, some are like old wine in a new bottle- they already exist but have new names. Announcing this new update, Meta’s team says,” “Campaigns you’ve created with the previous objectives will remain active, and there is no need to make any changes to your existing campaigns.”
6. Community Chat
Meta is also busy testing a new feature called Community Chat for groups on Facebook and Messenger. Using these chats, users can:
- Create voice, video, and real-time chat channels within Messenger and Facebook groups
- Add a real-time element to community discussions and updates
Group admins can:
- Initiate topic-based conversations and elicit prompt responses
Organise chats based on categories making it easy for members to find chats appealing to them
For now, Community Chat is only available for mobile users, while Facebook tries to gauge the popularity of its new engagement features with its users.
Meta’s Growth-focused AI, Messaging & Video Feature Updates
September 2022 was a busy month for the Meta team as they rolled out several new ways for advertisers to reach out to customers on Facebook.
Sharpen your ears if you are an advertiser. You may benefit from the many changes made on Facebook, including:
1. Image Carousel Ads for Reels (in testing)
These are horizontally-scrollable ads that can include 2-10 images. You can find them displayed at the bottom of Facebook’s Reels content.
2. Post-loop Reels Ads (in testing)
These 4-10 second skippable video ads will play at the end of a Reel, after which the original reel will resume and loop again.
3. Royalty-free audio for Reels Ads
This is a dedicated collection of free sounds for Carousel Ads on Reels. Advertisers can select a song manually or let the app choose one based on the ad content.
New ad placements and formats on Instagram
People will now see ads on Explore home after visiting another account’s profile and tapping on a post. Meta is already rolling out Ads in Explore while the feed posts are testing.
4. AI-powered Multi-advertiser Ads
Meta aims to use Machine Learning to deliver similar ads that users find engaging. In their initial tests, Instagram contextual ads with multiple advertisers performed better than other campaigns.
5. Content-based Inventory Filter in Testing
Meta hopes to improvise inventory filters for Facebook and Instagram feeds to improve brand safety and suitability tools in 2023. Testing is in full swing.
6. Open Beta Test of Augmented Reality (AR) Ads
Augmented Reality ads will be available in both the feed and Stories. Users will be able to interact with them in new dynamic ways.
7. Advantage Custom Audience
This new targeting automation product driven by AI and ML uses your Custom Audience to reach new and existing customers. You will also be able to prioritise ad delivery to the people in your Custom Audience.
There is quite a bit of similarity between Meta’s Advantage Custom Audience and Lookalike audiences, but Meta’s goes beyond 1%, 5%, and 10% similarity ranges.
8. AI comes to Messenger
Advertisers can now run click-to-messenger ads to reach people likely to purchase in a conversation thread.
9. New Lead Generation ad format
Depending on the user’s interaction preferences, this format funnels them to Messenger or a form.
Meta’s Guide to Content Distribution on Facebook
Meta has no intention of stopping at anything when it comes to user engagement. Its guide to how “content distribution works on Facebook” is a three-part series to help creators solidify their fundamental knowledge on effectively showcasing their content on the platform.
Meta’s algorithm is designed to ask itself specific questions right after you’ve posted content. The questions include:
- Who will like this content? Various signals are considered, such as who posted the content, when it was posted, and the topic, in addition to past user behaviour.
- What content has been posted, and what posts are available from friends, other creators and Pages that we can show?
- What will the audience’s interest be regarding the content?
- Which content should be prioritised based on the collected data on that particular post?
- What are the chances of people engaging with the post? Based on the data we collect, we attempt to predict which individuals are most likely to engage and find your post useful. Each piece of content is subject to a variety of these predictions.
This guide from Facebook ends with a note for creators explaining that original and engaging content is the best way to optimise their presence on the platform. The next series of guides promise more tips and tricks for creators.
The Final Say
Despite the slight slump, Facebook remains the world’s most popular social media platform, with billions of users. The platform is ever-evolving to stay relevant to users’ and advertisers’ demands. The recent changes indicate the platform’s effort to prioritise interest-based content instead of engagement-bait content.
If you run a business that thrives on Facebook, you should stay alert and tune your business to these changes. Or you could hire the social media team of Digital SEO, a social media marketing company in Chennai. For more information and inquiries, please contact us.
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