Facebook and Instagram have changed the way many people interact. For every 5 minutes an individual spends on his mobile,  he is sure to dedicate 1 minute to using either Facebook or Instagram.

With people spending more time on online platforms, businesses started going online to interact more with their customers. Social media platforms started monetizing this. Social media marketing tools like Instagram and Facebook ads manager are the most sought out ones by businesses to build their brand awareness.

Social media marketing is not just posting a picture along with an enticing caption. There is much more to it. The constantly changing landscape of social media platforms makes this a very tricky business and many companies hire social media marketing agencies to get their business done.

With every passing year, the platforms roll out new policies and regulations. This post focuses on the Facebook and Instagram ad platform changes and their impact on businesses.

Importance of Social media marketing for businesses

As mentioned earlier, social media platforms are regularly used by individuals. So, businesses can use this as an opportunity to reach out and target their audience in an effective way. It became imperative for businesses to have a strong online, particularly social media presence. Social media platforms help you to attract the right customers, with the right information, at the right time. This will help businesses to increase their brand awareness. Here are some reasons why businesses should incorporate social media marketing.

Social media platforms provide you an opportunity to connect with your customers on a personal level. This makes you understand your customers better. The posts help in creating brand awareness. Social media marketing is one of the least expensive ways of marketing your business digitally.

You can grow your business by being consistent and posting relatable content for your customers. Use the right keywords and increase traffic for your page. With all businesses on social media, you will get access to the profiles of your competitors which help you understand their strategies. You can look at their page and check which post is doing better.

Carry out an analysis of your competitor’s profile and incorporate the things that they are missing out on. With social media tools, businesses can now get data on their customer’s activities like the number of people interested in your content, how many reacted to your post, and how many made a purchase.

This will help you build a customized audience and help you have a potential customer base. The platforms help you understand the buying patterns of your ideal customer. These platforms have a wider reach and help you reach out to thousands of people by targeting ads. Communication is crucial for any business. Customers like being heard.

The platforms help you interact with your customers at a personal level and clear their queries. A strong marketing strategy can transform your potential buyers into loyal customers.

An extremely influential social media presence would help you connect with your audience instantly. Attract their eyes before they connect with you as a business. 

What is the Facebook ad algorithm?

Now that we understand the importance of social media marketing for your business, let us check how the most popular social media platform, Facebook works for businesses. The Facebook algorithm tracks an individual’s preferences on the app and suggests the feed according to it.

Facebook wants us to keep in mind that there isn’t a single algorithm. Rather it is multiple layers of machine learning models and ranking that are built to predict meaningful posts for an individual.

The Facebook algorithm analyses every post ranks it and arranges it in descending order of interest for every individual user. This process takes place every time a user refreshes his feed. While the exact details of how the Facebook algorithm decides people’s feed is unknown, its main goal is to keep people scrolling, so that they can come across many ads. The 

The Facebook algorithm rewards businesses if they post content that engages the individuals. As the Facebook algorithm is never static, any users can look for the best sites to buy Facebook likes & followers to get faster growth. The engineers at Facebook work on it constantly and come up with new updates.

The algorithm uses ranking signals to make its predictions. Through the years, these ranking signals have been added, removed, and adjusted depending on facebook’s perception of users’ liking.

How does the Facebook ad algorithm work?

Before running a Facebook ad, you should choose an objective, select your audience, and set your budget. Though businesses have control over visitors for their ads and the message they would like to display, it is the algorithm’s final decision on how the ads would serve in the auction.

Any advertisement appears in the feed only if it gets the approval of the Facebook algorithm. It is important to understand the factors that contribute to the decision-making process of the algorithm to advertise effectively on Facebook. Although bidding plays an important role in the ad auction, there are several other factors as well. The algorithm looks at the total value an ad holds before making any decision. This ad value is determined by three major factors- bid amount, estimated action rate, and user value.

Every advertiser wants their ad to be on the top of the news feed when their target audience visits Facebook. There is huge competition for the same spot. It is Facebook that makes the final decision in choosing the ad that will go on to the newsfeed.

This decision is made with the help of real-time auctions. Though the ad with the highest total value wins, it is not the only factor that will affect the calculation. Several other factors include-

  • The bid

This is the amount a business is willing to pay every time a user completes a desired action. There are several bidding strategies offered by Facebook. The most common one is the lowest-cost bidding.

  • Estimated action rates

It is the perception that a user will engage with a particular ad posted on his newsfeed. The Facebook algorithm uses a number of signals from the user, the ad, and its content to get a final estimation of how likely the ad will succeed in getting the desired impact.

  • Ad quality or user value

Facebook notes down the user’s response to a particular ad and checks other quality factors.

The Facebook algorithm decides about the ads in a particular context. The three factors discussed above are part of the context. Apart from this, objectives, audiences, and platforms, advertisers choose to target are also part of the context.

What is the Instagram ad algorithm?

Instagram is the leading social networking app after Facebook. While people on Facebook come to connect with friends and discover events nearby, people come to Instagram to explore the world visually through imagery. This gives an opportunity for businesses to connect with audiences who are open to learning about new things. Most of the ads generated on Instagram saw impressive results.

Now, let us see what the Instagram ad algorithm is. The Instagram algorithm is like a living organism- it learns every day and changes regularly. The main purpose of the Instagram algorithm is not to hide certain posts and keep you away from that information. Just like Facebook, Instagram shows you the images created by people whom you care about.

The rankings are always based on new data and consumer trends. Businesses need to be quick to adopt these changes to garner success. With the growth in content production, users started missing out on most of the feed from their favorite pages. The Engineers from Instagram realized this and are constantly working towards providing the best experience for their users.

The Instagram algorithm shows you posts that could be valuable to you based on previous activities. Every individual has a custom-made feed for themselves. The main goal of Instagram is to create a user-friendly platform for businesses all over the world.

How does the Instagram ad algorithm work?

Unlike Facebook, Instagram has many new and exciting features. Instagram is made up of posts, stories, reels, and IGTV videos, all of the content that increases user engagement. The Instagram algorithm dictates the order of the posts that users see on their feeds. The algorithm follows a certain criterion that prioritizes the best posts, giving the most relevant ones a push, and increasing their visibility. The other content will be placed further down. Let us discuss the Instagram algorithm for every feature.

The Feed

There are three main ranking factors involved in the display of the feed content- relationship with the user, interest the user conveyed, and relevance of the post.

Relationship with user – If the user interacted with your past Instagram content, then he is more likely to see your content in the future. For this to happen, you need to be consistent while posting. This helps you in building a loyal audience for your post.

Interest the user has conveyed-  The Instagram algorithm tracks the activity of users on the app. It checks whether the user interacts with similar posts and accounts while on the app. It makes a list of their preferences and ranks posts on their feed. Users who engage with similar content like that yours are more likely to see your posts.

  • Relevance to the post

The Instagram algorithm ranks every post you publish and gives it a score. This score will impact the visibility of your feed. If an individual interacts more with you, then it is most likely that your posts will appear on top of his feed.

Apart from this, there are several considerations that should be kept in mind while working on the app. If a user follows more accounts, then there is more competition for the top spot in their field. If users spend less time on the app, it decreases the visibility of your content if your posts are not on the top slots of their feed. Also, business accounts are at a lesser disadvantage in terms of organic reach compared to other personal accounts. 

  • The Stories

Instagram stories are the first thing that appears to the user when he opens the app. The stories that appear first in a user’s feed are from accounts they engage the most. Your reaction in the form of comments, and DMs all count your place in the user’s feed. The stories are shown by location.

This is the reason behind using location hashtags in stories. Stories are an effective way for businesses to engage with customers. The visibility of your stories depends on the engagement of people with your brand. The more people engage with your brand through stories, the more they will see your updates every time you post. Stay consistent while posting your stories as this helps in reaching a larger audience.   

  • The IGTV videos and reels

Instagram follows the same algorithm similar to that of Instagram feed for video content like IGTV videos and reels. Your content will be visible to people who interact with your account the most. To increase the reach of your videos and reels, share them on your page with hashtags. Instagram algorithm boosts visibility for new features. So, opting for reels improves your chances of discoverability. You can also share previews of the videos you upload. This can be done by posting a preview of your story. This will help increase your exposure. If people miss out on your content due to huge content production, these previews in your stories will guide them to your content.

Facebook Ad Platform changes and its impact on marketing

Facebook has revamped itself recently. Here are the major changes to the Facebook ad platform in 2021.

Events, Ad clicks, and iOS 14.5

Facebook will now limit you to 8 conversion events per domain. This includes conversions and pageviews, and customer conversions. If your ad doesn’t fit in the 8 events mentioned, they will be paused. Along with this, Facebook started embracing 7-day click and one-day view attributes. This means that Facebook will report conversion for your ad for up to 7 days after the click.

With the latest update of iOS 14.5, apple users can now opt out of data collection from these apps. This is a huge blow to digital marketing. If a user opts out, then businesses can no longer target ad campaigns based on their preferences. Businesses will now need to maintain a close eye on their campaigns to adjust them if necessary. Businesses should find ways to launch relevant ads for their target audience and get positive ad results.

Revamping the whole advertisement structure

With the idea that quality should outperform quantity, Facebook announced restrictions on the number of campaigns a page can run. Businesses should now focus on creating custom content that would have an impact on the audience. Video becoming the dominant media type. This means using videos for Facebook stories and newsfeed ads. Businesses can add words, and logos to the video to get across their meaning. Facebook is constantly aiming to refine the ad types available for better outcomes for advertisers. 

Though these updates are confusing for marketers, they should remember that these updates are actually to help them achieve their business goals.

Professional dashboard

Instagram introduced a new feature, a Professional dashboard for all business and creator accounts on Instagram. This feature came up as a savior to the creators and businesses. Instagram always aims at providing tools to encourage creators to turn their passion into a living and support small businesses. The professional dashboard helps you to discover trends based on your Instagram account.

It gives you access to new tools to run your business efficiently. All in all, the new feature provides you with educational resources and helps you get the most out of Instagram. This feature is a strong start this year and will be a boost to professionals and businesses.

Reels

Instagram unveiled new features and tools for brands. Reels are one such feature. Reels are one-minute-long videos that can be shared in a separate feed from the normal one. Brands can now share the information they want by using reels. They can keep up with the upcoming trends to have a better reach among the audience. This feature was launched to compete with TikTok.

Only Facebook and Instagram manage to make flexible shifts and stay on top of the marketing trends. As for your part, you should keep yourself updated with the new changes and latest tools and plan your marketing strategies accordingly. Use this link for the best social media marketing agency and create impactful marketing strategies for your business.

Categories: Business

Nicolas Desjardins

Hello everyone, I am the main writer for SIND Canada. I've been writing articles for more than 12 years and I like sharing my knowledge. I'm currently writing for many websites and newspapers. I always keep myself very informed to give you the best information. All my years as a computer scientist made me become an incredible researcher. You can contact me on our forum or by email at [email protected].