Facebook under pressure by advertisers

As a consequence ot the #StopHateForProfit ad boycott, Facebook has confirmed it will change its rules regarding labeling and banning content that potentially spread false information related to voting and hate speech. The content of these changes have not been communicated yet.

To remind #StopHateForProfit is urging Facebook to take a stronger stand against hate speech, vote suppression and racial inequality by cutting the advertising: more than 500 companies including Coco-Cola, Starbucks, Unilever, Volkswagen officially joined the movement. It is unclear whether or not this has been massively followed in our country.

Facebook expands test for in-stream ads on Live

Facebook is expanding its test of in-stream ads in Facebook Live to more categories. The test is designed to help evaluate whether or not the ad format is effective before rolling it out more broadly.

For now, Facebook is piloting in-stream ads with only a select number of publishers. The experiment will help determine if content creators are able to successfully monetize their live video streams with in-stream ads.

How does it work?  When watching Live content from a creator included in the test, viewers might see a range of ad formats, including:

• A pre-roll ad that runs before the live stream
• An image ad that appears below the live stream
• A mid-roll ad that plays in the main video player during the live stream while the broadcast continues playing in a shrunken window

Why it’s important:

With quarantine, Live videos on social media have boomed. We believe this format will continue to be developed in the coming months.

Up until now, Facebook has been testing the new in-stream product exclusively with gaming developers in Live. Now that it’s rolling out to more verticals (entertainment, news, and sports), this is a perspective for advertisers to have access to more impressions within live creative content vs more classical videos. Watch out regarding brand safety! Users will be able to choose to exclude ads from appearing in Live content

Facebook revamps video chat features across its app suite to rival Zoom

Messenger users can create Rooms and control them in several ways, including choosing who is allowed to join, limiting the number of participants and removing them. Users can create Rooms in Messenger or Facebook, though the social network soon will add the feature to Instagram Direct, WhatsApp and Portal smart displays.

Messenger also is rolling out artificial intelligence (AI) effects including 360-degree backgrounds that show chat participants in virtual landscapes.

Why it’s important:

Facebook's new video chat features come as people grow more reliant on social networks to stay connected while stuck at home. The company said more than 700 million accounts participate in video calls in WhatsApp and Messenger each day. The number of calls on those apps more than doubled in many countries since the pandemic began, while the number of group video calls has jumped more than 10 times in some areas, per its blog post.

Facebook to shut down Audience Network for mobile sites

As of April 11th, Facebook is about to shut down Audience Network: it will no longer be available on the mobile segment of the Audience Network. The Audience Network is a digital platform for advertisers to extend Facebook campaigns on third-party apps or mobile websites.

From then on, Facebook will focus on its own platforms, especially on Instagram, that generated 1/4 of the group's revenue in 2019 (a total of about $20 billion in ad value)

Reasons given for this change are as follows:

• Instagram has turned out to be a better player to the core Facebook product.
• Growing concerns about privacy and brand safety, along with legal restrictions on data-sharing.
•  Consequence of Google announcement last month that third-party cookies will no longer be available to online advertisers within its Chrome browser.

And of course selling advertising space on third-party applications is less profitable for Facebook than advertising on its own platform.

Brand Collabs Manager comes to Instagram

Facebook has opened its influencers platform Brand Collabs Manager to Instagram

As of mid-December, Instagram announced the opening of the platform, that already existed on Facebook, to 40 of its influencers. This huge database allows Facebook to connect Content creators (influencers) and brands looking to do some monetized “brand content”.

As Instagram is deleting the possibility to view the number of likes under a post, brands are left blind. Some tools are already available on the market (such as HypeAuditor) to evaluate the success of the influencers on Instagram, but Brand Collab Manager collects the certified numbers.

So far, the platform is only accessible for some brands and creators, with an objective to develop itself in the coming months. News and advices to start a creator profile, to monetize its content or even increase its views are also available on the platform.