All of this information paints a picture of industries which are slowly beginning to turn away from Facebook, and instead direct their attention to other social media marketing channels.
From 2013 to 2018, AHS Consulting used Facebook to attract more customers and reach out to wider audiences. But over time, founder Amna Shah realised that very few people from Tennessee or Atlanta (where they worked) were finding the brand. Instead, any interaction came from people much further afield.
“Over time, we started to think these were fake profiles,” she says. “We got no new business out of Facebook, ever.”
So halfway through 2018, they pulled the plug on Facebook marketing.
And many other companies have had similar experiences.
In a November survey, Inc.com spoke to CEOs and other executives from fast-growing companies. They were interested in their Facebook experiences from a business perspective.
What were the findings?
- 32% said they are now getting less for their marketing dollars
- 27% said they don’t trust Facebook’s use of their business data
- Several have slowed their use of Facebook marketing and advertising, while some have completely stopped doing it
Here are some case studies:
Cloud-services provider Opus Interactive, according to CEO Shannon Hulbert, entirely removed Facebook from its marketing budget in 2019:
The social network had stopped driving business, Hulbert says, as Opus had itself grown to cater to much larger businesses.
Moira Vetter, founder and CEO of Modo Modo Agency, has similar things to say. Her company now prefers to use Instagram and LinkedIn:
“I feel that Facebook has run its course […] It’s not somewhere people in our industry are spending time. In fact, it’s become less and less of something I even think or talk about.”
Meanwhile, Alabama-based real estate company Liberty Rent cut off their Facebook presence in November, due to concerns about data privacy in the industry.
What do Facebook say about this?
Facebook insist they are still a great platform for SMBs. As of 2018, at least 90 million SMBs were using Facebook. Veronica Twombly, the head of communications for Facebook small business, had this to say:
“We are trying to elevate our free and paid solutions to make sure these small- and medium-size businesses know all of the tools at their disposal to help grow their customers”
She insists that SMBs are still a “top priority” for the platform.
Which types of business are most affected?
“Several of the executives who told Inc. they have stopped advertising on Facebook over the past year were from business-to-business companies, which often can find customers more reliably on LinkedIn or through other marketing channels.”
But it’s not just B2B business. B2C businesses who use Facebook to sell directly to individuals are also choosing to stop using the platform, with many claiming that they were making no profits after considering the cost of advertising.
All of this information paints a picture of industries which are slowly beginning to turn away from Facebook, and instead direct their attention to other social media marketing channels. It seems that Facebook doesn’t hold the monopoly which it once did.