The North Face, Adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, Ford, Honda, Patagonia… What do all these major retail brands have in common? They have all boycotted Facebook advertising in an effort to effect change at the large tech giant.

Heck, even Starbucks joined the bandwagon of this growing list of companies saying “no” to Facebook advertising.

If you watch the news headlines, it looks like Facebook advertising is a sinking ship, but in all actuality, the largest brands only make up less than 3% of Facebook’s advertising revenue. It’s small businesses that drive Facebook’s bottom line.

So to answer the looming question- No, Facebook advertising is not dead. In fact, I would argue that now is a great time to be running ads because there’s less competition in the marketplace. You won’t be competing against some of these bigger spenders who can outbid the smaller businesses in the ad auction. Your local coffee shop will get more placements for less investment because they’re no longer competing against Starbucks sending ads to coffee lovers.

And here’s the thing- none of these large brands have committed to not running ads in perpetuity. They’re all taking a month off. Each one plans on continuing their campaigns in August. They are making a statement, and I personally understand their philosophical stance against Facebook’s fact checking policy. But, that said, it’s the most powerful advertising tool on the planet right now and it would be remiss to not take advantage of that.

Regardless of politics, I still believe that Facebook is an important platform for advertisers. And here’s the thing- whether you’re a small business owner or large company, I believe that you have a civic responsibility to put factual and beneficial information into your ad campaigns. If we all took that responsibility seriously, this situation with Facebook would be moot because they wouldn’t have to be put in the uncomfortable position of “policing” information on their platform.

If you’re running an ad campaign right now that is genuinely going to help people in some way- For example, if you’re running ads to connect people to therapists to get support during these challenging times, or you’re running ads to a meditation app, or to an online learning program or credential to help career advancement, or an amazing discount on a new car…

These are all incredibly valuable products and services that people would not otherwise know about unless they saw your ad.

So, if you’re a company doing good in the world, you absolutely should be advertising on Facebook. If you’re running ads right now and know they can be doing better, reach out and let’s see how we can help. If you’re not running ads right now and you know you need to be to have a greater impact, reach out and let’s see how we can help. You can book a complimentary consult with the link below:

https://calendly.com/jen-athena-digital/30min

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