Facebook ads are getting more expensive. And the more direct-to-consumer brands there are looking to build their companies through social media, the more competitive buying Facebook ads becomes.
But for DTC brands, there’s no quitting Facebook.
Indeed, even as more direct marketers like Casper, Brooklinen, and Hims are using subway, TV and even out-of-home ads to avoid Facebook’s increase in ad prices and getting squeezed out of the newsfeed, they’re still spending big on Facebook.
To read more about why DTC brands are sticking to Facebook despite ad prices soaring, click here.
In other news:
The UK's privacy watchdog has fined Facebook £500,000 over Cambridge Analytica. It's the maximum amount possible under law, but given Facebook's size it's just a slap on the wrist.
Questions are being raised about Facebook's decision to give a Russian internet company temporary special access to its user data. Facebook acknowledged that it gave Mail.Ru special access to user data after 2015, when it officially ended the system that allowed third-party apps to access user data.
Facebook planned to kick several major third-party data vendors off its ad platform - now those data giants have quietly found a way to stick around. Data giants including Acxiom, Epsilon and Oracle, have found a way back in, that is if big brands will vouch for them.
Time Warner - it wants to use 5G to get more people to watch TV shows while riding in self-driving cars. Warner Media CEO John Stankey told HBO employees that 5G and autonomous vehicles is an opportunity to get more content in front of consumers.
YouTube is making moves to nab thousands of new advertisers - the kinds of brands that funnel billions to Google. The company is launching new ads and buying tools aimed at direct-response advertisers, which are the ones that fuel its sibling Google's massive search-ad business.