Honor Among (Marketing) Thieves
We live in the most generous time in human history...
…even though the 24 hour news machine would have us believe that we live in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. But it’s true. By any statistical measure, we give more today to those in need than any time in history, adjusted for inflation.
Prior to the COVID pandemic, “Total charitable giving rose 4.2% measured in current dollars ... giving in 2019 reached the highest dollar total to date. Adjusted for inflation, total giving reached the second highest level on record, just slightly below the all-time high dollar amount achieved in 2017.” (Giving USA)
We’re so generous that even for-profit brands have actioned this philanthropic spirit toward their competitors via their marketing strategies!
WHAT????
Digital marketing has many benefits. Quick to market, immediate metrics to adjust strategy, low risk to test creative, low barrier to entry, etc. It also has an inordinate amount of thievery. And before reaching for that espresso to stay awake for yet another diatribe regarding the atrocities of click fraud (yawn), this isn’t that.
No, what I’m explaining is the blatant ‘handing over’ of your hard-earned prospects directly to your most fierce competitors. And doing so over and over, every day, thanks to beloved and benign social media marketing … and the leader in that clubhouse - Facebook!
I’m listening.
Good, you should. To be clear, this started as a theory, but vigorous testing - as any true marketer should do - has proved it true. First, the setting:
An e-commerce brand who sells a service to young families. I do not fit into their target market, have never even searched for such a service, etc. That needs to be firmly understood before the rest of this makes any sense. It wasn’t until onboarding this brand as a new client with countless visits to their website had I ever spent even a passing thought about this service for young children (which I do not have).
I’m with you so far.
To capitalize on new prospect visits to their website (via publisher advertising), the brand turned ‘on’ Facebook retargeting, allowing them to match their website visitors to their Facebook accounts to then serve remarketing ads in their FB feed.
‘Digital Marketing 101’: Remarket to your website visitors as often and inexpensively as possible (i.e. digitally) as they’re “ready to buy” as evidenced by visiting your website.
So far, still good.
BUT then…
… the altruism of social media kicked in. Facebook ever so kindly handed ME over to a competitor as their ads soon appeared in MY FB feed - every day! An example:
Juni Learning
FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL.
So a brand - my client - invests in serving Facebook ads to those who visited their website. Visits that originated by THEIR advertising investment in multiple channels to raise awareness, educating a marketplace of the need for their service, etc. Very big investments to simply get prospective buyers to just consider making a purchase by drawing such eyeballs to their website to learn about the service.
Then, dutifully following marketing best practices, they funnel their website visitors to their own social media retargeting bucket. And here’s where the duplicitousness occurs:
The ONLY way that this competing brand could possibly consider me as a potential target for their service is if they knew that a competitor (i.e. my client) was targeting me. The only common thread - for I had never even heard of Juni Learning prior - is if Facebook is identifying me as a prospect for young children e-learning services vis-a-vis being served FB advertising by a similar brand – my client’s brand - which occurred only because I visited my client’s website frequently during the onboarding process. And my client in turn added me to their Facebook retargeting universe.
Now the likely chain of events is that Juni loaded their customers into Facebook desiring to find an audience of look-alikes (of which I would be considered one given that their competitor – my client - has targeted me via their retargeting efforts). Facebook then hands over my clients’ prospects, who spent hard-earned money to develop, directly to their competitors as look-alikes!
Now What?
Incredibly, this happens time and time again, across every brand and industry every minute of every day. Brands work exceedingly hard to make a sale. In fact, attracting a first time/new buyer is often the largest sales expense that a brand will incur. And once a prospect indicates interest, after expending an incredible amount of resources just to get them to take notice, you better believe brands will do whatever the experts say to push a new sale over the finish line!
Even at the expense of freely handing MY prospects over to my competitors?
Seemingly, yes. And therein starts the erosion of any semblance of loyalty and lifetime value, effectively trading your own customers for your competitors and vice versa. It’s an incestuous game where real growth is severely hindered while the middleman (Facebook, in this example) gets the spoils that YOU should retain.
This is not to call out Facebook alone in this game of deceit; it’s simply a recent example with hard facts. I’m sure other social/online/digital platforms engage in a similar game of hide and seek, using data as currency within their black-boxed acquisition marketing offerings.
But I must remarket, right?
You do, and there are ways to do it where you’re not blatantly handing your valuable prospects to your fiercest competitor. One such solution is Shadow PiXL technology where we identify up to half of your site visitors to allow you to then send a mailer (high impact/high cost) or an email (lower impact/lower cost). Kept within your walled marketing garden where no competitor can capitalize on your investment.
Fun CAN-SPAM email fact: There’s no requirement to gain opt-in; you merely need honor the opt-out. Brands can email prospects so long as the messaging is relevant, clear, and not deceitful. And considering they just visited your site, I would argue that a follow-up email is certainly relevant.
Of course, the other option is to continue feeding competitors’ profit margins. We do live in the most philanthropic time ever, after all!
