Facebook has had a busy year with many changes and updates that affect Page Managers and our future marketing. Let’s take a look at some of the key Facebook Marketing updates and how to make the most of them.
Facebook Marketing Updates You Need to Know
Facebook’s Grey Verification Badges are Gone– 
Beginning in 2015, Facebook was encouraging pages to “Verify” their page to be more easily found by people. After the page was verified, a gray checkmark would appear next to the page’s name. The grey verification badges are now gone, and Facebook has stated that they are implementing other ways to have pages verify their identity, although that is not clear yet.
Changes to Post Scheduling – This is a frustrating one for those of us who use Facebook Scheduler. The “schedule” button has disappeared but a work-around is to save the post as a draft and then schedule the draft from the Publishing Tools section. Posts can also be scheduled through the Facebook Business Manager or the Creator Studio natively. You can still use third-party tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to schedule posts.
Special Category Required for U.S. Credit, Employment and Housing Ads – If you’re based in or targeting the U.S. and running a campaign that includes ads for credit, employment or housing offers, you must identify these campaigns as belonging to a “Special Ad Category”. There are also some targeting limitations for these ads to ensure that advertisers are compliant. Any new or edited ads that aren’t correctly categorized won’t run until they’re edited to comply. When creating a new Facebook campaign, check the box that says “Special Ad Category” box to avoid your ad being disapproved later.
New Business Manager/Ads Manager Experiences– The navigation experience in Business Manager and Ads Manager has changed. The Campaign, Ad Set and Ad tabs that were nested horizontally in the previous version of Ads Manager are now moved to the left of the table to a navigation sidebar.
Facebook Ad’s Campaign Bid Optimization (CBO) – Rather than setting Facebook Advertising budgets at the ad set level, it can be set at the campaign level. With CBO, Facebook optimizes between the ads sets, based on what they feel will perform the best.
Extra Verification with Advertising Political Issues – Extra verification is required with Political Ads on Facebook, and they are calling them “disclaimers”. We have found that Facebook has been strict about content for certain ads, even if they are not necessarily about politics, but rather social issues. Advertisers will have five options for providing more information, three of which demonstrate they are registered with the US government. It can be a bit cumbersome but can be achieved. We have successfully completed this, so call us for help.
Facebook’s Video Creation Kit – Slideshow templates for ads have become more robust. With easy to use templates and options for 5-15 second videos, you can highlight multiple photos for specific business goals (promote a product, sell multiple products, show product benefits, or drive product discovery).
Facebook Messenger and Facebook Book Now Tool – Using Facebook Messenger, we can better qualify leads through Q&A. There is also the new option of appointment booking that is rolling out. It is not a true chatbot, but the addition of templates and responses helps to give the illusion of talking to a real person. It is always important to have a real person ready to take over the conversation.
Let’s Talk Facebook & Marketing!
What new changes will Facebook roll out in 2020? If you have questions or are having challenges navigating through some of Facebook’s new and changed features of the past year, we can help! Contact us online or call us at 320-587-8974.
