PPCChat | Diversification In PPC | 5th October 2021

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Welcome Happy Readers! This week, Facebook and Instagram have faced global outage, and experts saw a slight impact on their campaigns and reporting. So this week’s PPCChat session sought professionals’ views regarding this outage, how were they impacted, what is their biggest challenge when it comes to diversification in PPC planning and strategy, and more. Hosted by Julie F Bacchini, here is the screencap of the discussion.

Q1: What percentage of your advertising is currently done on Facebook and/or Instagram?

Hard to say, but they’re a staple on most campaigns. There is almost no program I run that doesn’t include FBIG in some way. @JuliaVyse

Roughly 85% of all my client budgets go towards PPC right now. It’ll vary by client and industry but search intent is still king. @ValenciaSEM

I actually don’t have anything running on either right now, which is weird, but I’m not unhappy about it either? @NeptuneMoon

Of my digital, it is probably about 20-25% of total budget, and 90% of my social. @JonKagan

Roughly 20%. @360vardi

I can’t give an exact percentage, but we definitely spend more on PPC than FB/IG ads. @dan_patterson

Paid Search > Paid Social as far as spends go. But we still run tons on FB campaigns in tandem as far as number of campaigns go. @Galliguez

Currently, none of the clients I manage are running FB but that’s because our focus is mainly B2B. That being said I’ve seen success in the B2B space with retargeting campaigns and utilizing programs like Crunchbase for cold targeting. @spacetime_0914

Most of my clients only dabble in Facebook, so maybe 5-10% of budgets. @lchasse

Well rounded budgets for both but favor search intent. @mcgregor212

It varies based on the product or service of the clients. For fashion and beauty segments, we spend higher on FB/Insta, about 40 to 50%. For the rest, it’s usually about 20 to 30%. @ratanjha

100% of our clients are on Facebook in some form. Some put more focus on it vs other channels. @duanebrown

Most of my clients who use both platforms don’t spend more than 20% of total budget on FB. 1 client who spends way more on FB than Google but I only do their FB Ads. @dylanppc

Q2: Were you impacted by the Facebook and Instagram blackout yesterday? If so, how were you impacted?

Yes – was trying to get weekly reports out but obviously couldn’t. Now they’re a day late – clients understand, of course, but still. @beyondthepaid

Looking over the stats right now. Looks like FB made up for the down time and we still hit spend caps and had transactions. @dan_patterson

Absolutely – any time you can’t get into a set of platforms where ~35% of client budget is directed, it’s an issue. @DigitalSamIAm

Not so much. Misery loves company, so if everyone is blacked out, clients don’t care as much. and it was temporary thing anyway. no one was really crying over this or felt bad for FB. @360vardi

Stalled our new campaign launches and campaign optimizations for sure… @Galliguez

We were definitely impacted. Many campaigns were down, we couldn’t access support, and we had to answer client questions in a time of very limited information. Do you just move budget over to twitter? or wait? or what? lots of decisions on the fly. @JuliaVyse

Thankfully we’re in the slow part of the year at the moment so no huge impact, but yesterday did prompt a ton of questions about how parts of facebook works that were hard to answer without accessing their website. @hamboy_PPC

Clients were not overly concerned since everyone was equally impacted. The biggest impact for me was my end-of-month/quarter reporting that was stalled. /sigh. @lchasse

The FBIG blackout yesterday wasn’t a big concern for my clients since everyone was effected the same. @ValenciaSEM

Someone suggested the outage was to distract people from the whistleblower reports. lol. But at this point I don’t think FB cares about whistleblowers. They know people won’t really leave them because of that. @360vardi

It gave me a new excuse for why I was underpacing in spend. @JonKagan

Clients and our team couldn’t access anything. One client joked at least we are saving money if no one can access most of our ads. 6 hours is a long time to be down. @duanebrown

Facebook is already facing issues complying with the Reserve Bank of India’s eMandate here. More than half of the Postpay Fb Ads accounts didn’t serve any ad because of payment issues. The impact is bad for eCom, precisely Beauty & Fashion segments, @ratanjha

It slowed down our good momentum as Facebook was down from 5 pm until later in the evening. Got a few purchases at midnight so not sure if FB was trying to make up for lost time? @dylanppc

Q3: Did any clients/stakeholders have a reaction to this that was shared with you? Was your reaction to the platforms going down the same or different from your clients/stakeholders?

Favorite response from one CMO: “We have an Instagram?” @JonKagan

Most clients had some kind of reaction, though all were quite understanding (since they saw this issue first-hand). In general, it’s more frustration at FB/IG/WhatsApp than it is anything else. @DigitalSamIAm

It was different per client. My feeling through the day was to observe and review. I don’t like scrambling to move budgets just for everything to turn back on. Some clients were fine with that, some were looking for more immediate actions. @JuliaVyse

It was a matter of waiting until the issue was resolved. We were sitting ducks and that’s out of our control. @mcgregor212

I had a client that just started on Facebook and they joked our ad broke the platform… Other than that, my clients thankfully are pretty understanding. @lchasse

I found it so illuminating regarding our expectations of immediacy. In the grand scheme of things, being down for 6 hours is a blip. But, we are so trained for everything to be always on and always “performing”. @NeptuneMoon

Beyond the joking client in answer 2. Most just accepted it was down as there is nothing anyone can do about it. Since we are not a paid social agency, we had tons of work on Google and other channels to work on. Plus lost of Klaviyo work to keep us productive. @duanebrown

Clients understand. Not the fault of the agency. @ratanjha

No one apart from colleagues made mention of it, but looking back I feel it was a missed opportunity not to send out some cheeky mailers. @dylanppc

Q4: Are you thinking more about diversification in your PPC advertising platforms? If so, how long have you been thinking about/wanting to diversify more? What is the primary motivation?

Years honestly. I don’t like having all eggs in one basket. it’s risky, it limits your audience, and hoards budget away from testing. Give me a rich mosaic rather than a single source of traffic and awareness any day! @JuliaVyse

If this doesn’t get brands to move some money away from Facebook. Will anything get them to do it? Brands need to take action and stop thinking about doing it. Even putting all your money just into Google or SEO or PR is never a good idea. @duanebrown

We’ve been discussing and actively working to reduce dependency on Google because efficiencies are down and they are taking more and more control away. Our goal in 2022 is to have 50% in Google vs. 75% 2021 and 90% in 2020. @360vardi

I think this always has to be a consideration. Diversifying where you leads/business comes from is vital. If we depend on any single entity for all our business, we are playing with fire. Social, PPC, podcasts, catalog, etc… all need to be considered. @lchasse

It’s always good to branch out a test different platforms and strategies. It’s an ongoing task on my list to find areas of expansion. So far the main channels usually take the cake (as expected) but we still test.  @mcgregor212

I have always encouraged clients to diversify across channels. It is just a smart move and a hedge against any one platform that is a juggernaut today falling off a cliff (quickly or slowly). Staying ahead of competitors means being willing to try different things! @NeptuneMoon

The lone thing I miss from yahoo Gemini was being able to not have a duopoly. So we have looked into other platforms and plan to proceed with the likes of @Ad_Media@AdDotNetInc and @Yelp @JonKagan

Honestly – everyone who hasn’t played with programmatic – please check out @StackAdapt (or the like)… and get some of those levers and switches back to play with that Google taketh away. @Galliguez

Our goal for paid is to shift more into social, obviously, but also connected TV, podcasts, influencer marketing campaigns. Also hoping Apple releases their own search engine and takes away Google’s monopoly. @360vardi

Always thinking about diversification. Social, Display, Organic, PR… don’t put all your eggs in one basket, but it’s hard to not focus too much on the best performing channel. @dan_patterson

One chapter in @PPCKirk‘s Ponderings of a PPC professional is dedicated to investing in other channels. Since I’ve read this, it changed my mind on clients who rely too heavily on one channel. “95% of advertising budget into one channel” is a red flag. @dylanppc

Yes, it’s been top of mind for a while now. It’s important to take an omnichannel approach when it comes to marketing. Focusing all your efforts on one platform is doomed to fail since each platform is a tactic in an overall strategy. @spacetime_0914

Becoming single-channel focused is the never-ending temptation for ecom companies, ESPECIALLY early adopters since Google (way old days), FB (old days), TikTok (now), etc tend to be less competitive when new & can be early adopter goldmines when done well.. @PPCKirk

Q5: Are clients/stakeholders asking for alternative strategies that move away from Facebook and/or Instagram or other platforms? If so, has their concern increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last few months?

Not so far. Clients tend to want high performance and want to be kept abreast of news both good and bad. I wouldn’t say concern has increased or decreased recently, and I wouldn’t advise making snap decisions on a whole channel. plan, learn test. @JuliaVyse

Not yet. I think they understand that stuff happens. @lchasse

I think we are pushing more than clients. We’re also pushing for different ways to measure success. There are too many channels for clients to know all and they are counting on us to test different things. @360vardi

Since we already do this for clients and are proactive, they haven’t asked. Trying to get a couple more clients on Microsoft Ads before the end of the month. @duanebrown

Clients have been a little more risk-averse in the COVID era, which is understandable. It is important to always be reminding clients that platforms control everything on their platform and what works/exists today very well might not tomorrow, so always be ready. @NeptuneMoon

Our stakeholders just want results really. It’s more a resource capacity issue. How many channels can we effectively compete? Can our MOPs teams get the APIs up and running to fully report out in our dashboards? Need to show value upfront. @Galliguez

Q6: What platforms have you been using or testing for use instead of Facebook and/or Instagram? How have those campaigns performed for you?

I do a lot of Amazon and it works extremely well for retailers. We have also tested Pinterest and Spotify with some success depending on the brand and message. @lchasse

I wouldn’t say instead, but alongside. For conversation, I really like Twitter, for mass reach TikTok is where it’s at (right now). Pinterest is really good for retail and I’m a big fan of LinkedIn. Throw in some podcasts and spotify, and you’ve got a good mix. @JuliaVyse

I am intrigued by TikTok, but it is not a good fit for my current clients. I do like LinkedIn and Quora for B2B and some B2C too (particularly Quora for the B2C). @NeptuneMoon

Fanboy of @StackAdapt lately – but also have every intent in exploring Amazon DSP more… @Galliguez

I like connected TV and podcasts, but it has to be with the right budget and targeting. the spray and pray is not going to work and definitely not going to show results that will convince clients. @360vardi

I had previously tested running some ads in Reddit and using LinkedIn’s insight tag to better gauge the firmographics of the users in each targeted room. It proved successful for one of my client’s vertical but I wasn’t able to replicate it for other clients. @spacetime_0914

Take your picks: Google, Microsoft, Snap, Amazon, Digital OOH. @duanebrown

I’ve been looking into TikTok ads recently, but one company in South Africa has exclusivity on advertising for TikTok here so it’s a bit tougher. I’ve encouraged clients to place a higher focus on CRMs and their email campaigns though. @dylanppc

Q7: What is your biggest concern and/or challenge when it comes to diversification in your PPC planning and strategy?

Attribution. When one channel like PPC becomes the gold standard, higher funnel channels get a bad rap. And with tracking/attribution issues these days, it’s getting harder and harder to show if those channels are working or not. @dan_patterson

Budgets. To test and create a presence on additional platforms and networks, you need additional dollars. Clients want a guarantee of success in new spaces, which are just not realistic sometimes. It’s frustrating. @NeptuneMoon

1 Coin, 2 sides: resourcing and consolidation. Do we have the resources to effectively manage all these channels to high-performance standards? and are they all owned by the same two companies anyway? @JuliaVyse

Finding the right platforms for brands is like a tough game of chess. We need to understand their demo and make the right choice of platform, message, product or it can be a waste. If we make bad choices, brands are sometimes hesitant to try again. @lchasse

MOPs capacity. I feel like I have the go-ahead to explore new channels – and there is a ton of training and great onboarding teams out there. But again – optimizing and reporting at scale is a challenge. @Galliguez

Thinking back to my in-house days for this answer: Getting buy-in for channel diversification when those channels aren’t as evidently profitable as the “channel that got us where we are.” @PPCKirk

From a lead gen perspective, my concern is getting client buy-in on spreading the budget across multiple platforms that won’t show immediate results. Especially, when the sales cycle could take months before the lead turns into a sale – depending on the industry. @spacetime_0914

The biggest challenge is getting a budget from clients; the biggest concern is stretching the total budget over two platforms and affecting existing performance on Google while not doing enough on FB. Clients expect 5% of the total budget to make a difference when used on FB. @dylanppc

PPCChat Participants

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