Recent headlines have not been kind to Facebook. On the heels of the Cambridge Analytica scandal—in which it was revealed that Facebook has sold the personal data of its users to politically-minded agencies—Mark Zuckerberg himself was called to testify before Congress. All the while, many users proclaimed their intentions to delete the Facebook app from their phone, or even to terminate their membership altogether over these violations of privacy.

Not only are these worrying headlines for Facebook and its investors, but they may be concerning to advertisers—in particular those who’ve taken out big ad spends on Zuckerberg’s platform. The bad press is enough to warrant the question: Is Facebook advertising still a good idea?

A Matter of Perspective

As of today, we believe Facebook Ads are still beneficial, and we encourage our clients to continue with their existing Facebook ad buys.

There are several reasons why we maintain our faith in Facebook Ads. One is that Facebook is still the best way to reach a lot of people at once. Even if a 10^th of all Americans have deleted their Facebook accounts—a number that some surveys have floated, and likely a somewhat overinflated one—the social network still has an unparalleled 2.2 billion total users. It’s the most popular of all social networks and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

What’s more, Facebook has a number of benefits that other social networks can’t compete with. Some of the basic benefits of advertising on Facebook include:

• Facebook offers laser-focused targeting options. There’s no other social network that can compete with Facebook in terms of its microtargeting ability, which allows advertisers to display their messaging only to users who’ve been filtered through various demographic descriptors—location, education, work, financial status, generation, parental status, hobbies, interests, purchasing history, and more. Because advertisers can ensure that their ads are only shown to users who meet certain criteria, they can effectively prevent a good portion of advertising waste.
• Facebook isn’t just a social network; it’s a major purchasing influencer. Studies show that roughly half of all Americans say Facebook is the #1 influencer of their purchasing decisions! And, while Pinterest and Twitter can also have an impact on purchasing decisions, none of them come close to Facebook’s sway. There are various reasons for this, and one is that Facebook offers consumers “social proof”—a way to see that their family and friends also like the product in question. This information can be leveraged within Facebook ads. Targeting plus social proof can be a powerful combination!
• Facebook has tremendous remarketing potential. Finally, note that Facebook’s ad platform offers some powerful remarketing opportunities—effectively allowing you to remind targeted Facebook users of products they’ve browsed before. For example, if a customer puts one of your products into an online shopping cart but doesn’t complete the transaction, you can remind him of that product through a series of Facebook ads. This form of remarketing has been shown to be highly effective at generating conversions.

There’s Nothing Quite Like Facebook

These are just a few of the things that make Facebook a powerful advertising tool, even amidst scandals and bad publicity. Indeed, there’s really no good alternative to Facebook—though it’s humorous to see how many advertisers say they’re taking their ad dollars to Instagram, which is itself owned by Facebook!

For all of this, we’ll note that the enCOMPASS team is certainly taking this situation seriously. While we recommend our clients continue with their Facebook Ads spend, we’re monitoring all of these campaigns closely, and will alert our clients if we see any conversion drops. In the meantime, it’s safe to continue with Facebook Ads. In fact, for many industries it’s still one of the best forms of social media to promote your brand on the Web.

With any questions, reach out to enCOMPASS directly.