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Facebook Ads About To Get A Big Facelift

June 7, 2013

facebook marketing for physicians

I love following Facebook in my News Alerts. They are always up to something, and for a social media healthcare strategist, it’s exciting and intriguing to keep a close eye on Facebook News. Currently, Facebook has 27 Advertising options for Facebook pages, personal profiles, and more. From Ads in the News Feed or Sponsored Stories or Boosted Posts, to the more traditional Facebook Ad on the right-hand-side of the News Feed, there are a plethora of options, which the healthcare marketing team at Quaintise actually enjoys. However, all sources are pointing to a change in Facebook’s Advertising options, and it’s big.

From 27 to 13

Rumors are circulating after a Facebook announcement on Thursday stating that Facebook advertising options will literally be cut in half. With great pressure to increase ROI for it’s own investors in the public arena, combined with lawsuits from Facebook users who do not want their names and profile pics used in Sponsored Story advertising, Mark Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook have decided to make some changes, which will greatly affect every healthcare marketing agency.

According to the Huffington Post, advertising accounts for 85 percent of Facebook’s revenue, and this less is more strategy is Facebook’s attempt to reinvigorate revenue growth.

So, what exactly is changing for healthcare marketing agencies and  social media advertising?

Goodbye Sponsored Stories

Well, kind of. Sponsored stories are getting the boot in the way we know sponsored stories, but they will pop up in a different manner. Sources are telling us that while we will no longer see Sponsored Stories on their own, possibly due to the $20 million class action lawsuit that was settled earlier this year on the implementation of Sponsored Stories, we will see something similar associated with more ‘social ads.’ Sponsored Stories will be combined with traditional News Feed ads.

Questions for Pages

Remember that option in your status updates where you could ‘ask a question?’ This poll-life feature is being dropped all together, and for good reason. Here at Quaintise our healthcare marketing experts never found much use for it.

Facebook Offers

Offers was a way for small and large business owners to post deals and specials, allowing Facebook users to cash in on that Offer right there on Facebook. Although this was not utilized much in healthcare marketing campaigns, I definitely saw the benefit of using this for small business campaigns. I’m sure many small business owners and small business social media strategists will miss this one.

Hello Social Ads

It seems strange to hear that Ads are getting more social with Facebook’s rollout of their new advertising platform. I mean, ads on Facebook should inherently be social, right? Well, Facebook thinks they can be better, and we love that about them! As mentioned, Sponsored Stories aren’t necessarily going away, they are simply combining that your friend liked a page feature with traditional ads, adding a Like feature, a Comment feature, and a Page Like feature to one, simple and hopefully effective ad.

Personally, I LOVE this idea. It is frustrating to run an ad three different ways to make sure that you are covering all social aspects of that ad – Comments, Post Likes and Page Likes. With one ad combining all of these options, I see great things in the future of Facebook ads.

For a team of social media experts in healthcare marketing, look no further then Quaintise! Contact us today for the best social media strategy!