Despite Facebook’s significant scandal making headlines in early 2018, the company itself has not stopped growing even with the threat of data breaches. In fact, according to Facebook’s 2018 Fourth Quarter earnings report, the platform saw a 9% increase of daily (DAU) and monthly (MAU) active users, bringing the new average DAUs to 1.52 billion and MAUs to 2.32 billion this past year. Facebook is far from dead and buried, and they continue to churn out new updates and changes to the site that we in the marketing and advertising world need to stay on top of. Here’s a list of some of the major updates that sports marketing agencies need to know about for 2019:

ADVERTISING

Augmented Reality Ads

One of the cooler updates Facebook had been testing in 2018 is augmented reality ads. These types of ads will allow users to virtually “try on” products from their device. The first to take this technology for a test run was Michael Kors with their virtual sunglasses augmented reality advertising campaign. This type of ad is poised to be the next big thing in advertising. If you sell sports clothing or represent a team that has merchandise and memorabilia, this is an awesome update for you to take advantage of. Fans will have the ability to check out how they look in their favorite sports team’s jerseys, hats, shirts, etc before purchasing. 

Facebook Stories Ads

The new Facebook Stories ads have all of the same features we love about Instagram Stories ads: reach, brand awareness, video views, app install, conversion, traffic, lead generation, etc. While Facebook Stories hasn’t caught on as quickly as Instagram Stories, the ability to share your stories on Instagram cross-platform with Facebook should help give them the push they need. Stories are great for team or athlete updates, news, etc. If you really want to utilize Facebook stories, have the athlete or a popular member of the team you represent to send in videos you can add to your story periodically. This intimate method of communication will make fans feel like your page offers them a close, personal connection to their favorite athletes. 

CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT

Value-Based Lookalike Audiences

Facebook wants you to tell them the value of each customer in terms of your business, then uses that information to create a Lookalike Audience that is most aligned with your designated higher value customers. By identifying and marketing to people most likely to generate higher business value, businesses can increase their return on ad spend and maximize impact over time. This is crucial in sports marketing, because it’s highly likely that fans of one sport will also enjoy watching or participating in other types of sports. By identifying people who may be interested in other clients, teams, or athletes you represent, you can “double dip” into your audiences.

Campaign Budget Optimization

Campaign budget optimization will help to distribute a campaign budget across a campaign’s ad sets. Facebook will automatically and repeatedly find the best opportunities to achieve results across ad sets.

MEASUREMENT & ANALYTICS

Facebook Attribution

The recently introduced Facebook Attribution, was released for all advertisers across the platform. Facebook says it was designed to give marketers a more holistic view of the customer journey, both on and off Facebook. They say “using the new data-driven attribution model, you can see how your ads on Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network and Messenger are contributing to incremental business results compared to if you were not running ads. And to gain a better understanding of your audience’s digital journey, you can use cross-device reporting to learn the device your customers engaged with your ads on as well as where they converted.”

CREATIVE TOOLS

Video Creation Kit

Facebook’s Video Creation Kit allows users to create mobile video ads using your existing photo assets, text overlays, and logos. They even offer templates based on what you’d like to accomplish with your ad, that are totally customizable.

 

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