All of us, both business owners and agency owners, are faced with several questions during these uncertain times and planning for what lies ahead can be a challenge. On a daily basis, you agency and marketing partners should remain vigilant concerning changes and updates in the digital advertising and marketing space in order to give clients the best information on which to based decisions. Both immediate and future looking decisions.
So during a time when advertising and market budgets need to be managed closely and also evaluated on how they’re being used, it’s important to consider which of the popular platforms are going above and beyond to help businesses and advertisers.
Without a doubt, my in-box is filled on a daily basis about news and updates taking place in digital advertising and analytics and reading through everything and relating it to client needs has become a job in and of itself.
The temptation at the moment is to stop any spend on advertising. But that requires the answer to a very basic question. Do you not intend to continue with your business after the immediate situation subsides or as we move into the next phase? In some cases, the immediate situation is requiring businesses and their marketing partners to be quick on our feet and to make pragmatic decisions. This may require a pivot on how business is being conducted or services are delivered and keeping eyes wide open to see a pivot when it presents itself can be the difference between survival or the alternative. In some cases, you’re business could look very different, perhaps even better, once we emerge from the other side.
Also, my statement is not meant to be insensitive to businesses that were already operating on limited budgets or to business owners that would not be able to sleep at night if they were to continue spending on advertising. I’m certainly empathetic to their situation. But, if a business does have the ability, even on a limited level, to continue advertising, the current environment may be presenting a small windows of opportunity.
So Facebook or Google?
The evaluation I’m providing here is completely anecdotal and only based on what I’ve been observing on a daily basis. With that in mind, Google has been far more pro-active and has been releasing changes and updates at a far greater pace than what I’ve seen coming from Facebook. Google has been making several changes and rolling out a series of new features to aid advertisers while Facebook has remained largely quiet.
Yes, I’ve seen several invites from the advertising side of Facebook to attend online presentations on how Facebook can be used during this time. But they’ve not made any real changes within their advertising platform that I’ve seen. I have seen advertising costs come down, but I think this is more of a function of competition than by any efforts from the folks at Facebook to lower costs. But that is one of the windows of opportunity that I mentioned previously.
For Google, in just the past few weeks, they’ve announced that advertising credits for existing advertisers will be rolling out in the near future. Yes, free advertising on Google Ads. There are conditions associated with this, but that should not be a surprise. Google’s not stopping there. A major initiative that came out of 2019 was the release of Google Shopping. This week, Google announced that it would be making advertising within Google Shopping free as well. These are just two of the more major recent announcements coming out of Google over the past couple weeks. The changes have been coming fast and furious and we remain on watch for any and all developments.
In the days and probably weeks ahead, I will continue to post updates and changes taking place in the digital advertising, marketing and analytics space. To have a one on one conversation about what changes may mean to your business and advertising strategies or what opportunities might exist that you may not be aware of, contact us. Just pick up the phone and give us a call. The number is at the top of the page.
We put a lot of emphasis on being a dependable and pragmatic partner for our clients. In fact, I’m guessing that’s what business owners need now more than ever. A marketing partner that will put aside a sales pitch and just do the work.