The Consequences of the Facebook Ad Blockade

This advertiser blockade is nothing like those from the dim and distant past when advertisers or more likely their media agencies would pull spend from publications or broadcasters with whom they had a particular beefThose were almost always a part of the negotiation dance performed in public Any kind of lengthy boycott most definitely had an impactFacebook really wasn39t ever going to be seriously impacted financially In fact when a few hundred advertisers stamped their feet and stopped or suspended spending the Facebook share price hardly movedFacebook has such a massively long tail of advertisers 8 million generating around US70 billion in revenue in 2019 according to a report on CNN that a few months of no cash even from the likes of a Unilever hardly registersIt would though be wrong to say that just because there is no financial impact Facebook couldn39t care less They are at heart an advertising businessWhat worries Facebook is regulation and taxes amp8211 they would really rather have the bare minimum of either Unfortunately for them various Governments would prefer rather more of both and these Governments or their agencies select committees and equivalents are starting to make some uncomfortable for Facebook noises about enquiries investigations and the likeAnd who might these agencies call to give witness Who might be amongst those that they might be inclined to listen to Whose lobbying is likely to cause them to investigate further and widerYes those large corporations political party donors and captains of industry otherwise known as major advertisersPoliticians have never felt any great empathy for the media business Television is something they tend to see as a medium to appear on as opposed to watchNewspapers were either leftwing pinko rags holding them to account and thus to be silenced or ridiculed as much as possible or useful idiots to be used to disseminate whatever the message of the day was decreed to beThe difference back then of course was that newspapers had editors TV stations had heads of programmes both of whom were responsible for the overall tone and the individual pieces of content absorbed by the great unwashed that39s you and meGovernments had no particular reason to listen to advertisers bleating on about the rising cost of TV advertising or how unfair it was that the Daily Blah was conducting a campaign against a particular ingredient key to the advertiser39s wellbeing All of that was a matter between respective commercial enterprises to be played out within the boundaries of freedom of expressionAnd should there come a time when politicians felt the need to act the phone hacking scandal here in the UK was one such then there was someone to hold to account someone responsible someone to send to prisonThe social media channels are of course different with their content very largely created by the platform39s users Hence the wide range of opinions on offer and the occasional tiptoeing over the line into hate misleading conspiracy theories bigotry and so onAnd it39s these characteristics and Facebook39s in particular inability or unwillingness to address what they see as a freedom of speech issue that39s upset so many and led to the advertiser boycottThe boycott may not impact Facebook financially in the shortterm but it will have one possibly unforeseen consequence And that is that FB doesn39t work quite as well quite as often as FB and its acolytes thoughtThere are increasing signs that those of us whose world consists not of small local businesses but of major brands have finally realised that what works for some businesses in some circumstances simply doesn39t work for everyone alwaysFurthermore gross impressions as a proxy for effectiveness belongs in the dark agesThis hourlong video it39s well worth the time to watch it through from the IPA featuring Peter Field Orlando Wood and James Hurman and curated by Mediacom39s Sue Unerman makes the point powerfully in the last 10 minutes or soMaybe us old gits have been right all along However big the audience numbers the platforms have their limitations amp8211 just like every other mediumYou wouldn39t use roadside OOH for long copy why would you use Facebook as a creator and builder of brand imageryIt might have taken a boycott to hammer that truth homeClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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The Consequences of the Facebook Ad Blockade

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Brian Jacobs

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The Consequences of the Facebook Ad Blockade

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