AdWeek reports: Marketers are ditching Facebook in favor of microsites

Here’s an interesting development we read about in AdWeek: more and more digital marketers have started using Facebook as an entry point for engaging their target audiences rather than a host for branded content.

Why? Facebook’s own algorithms dictate what pops up in a user’s News Feed, so marketers can’t predict whether, when or how their carefully crafted messages are being received and consumed. Rather than try to develop branding in a “rented space” they can’t control, they’re using the social media channel to lure people to a separate online destination, or microsite, that they do control.

AdWeek’s article cites one agency’s reveal that brand publishers have been pulling away from Facebook in “dramatic numbers”—and reallocating resources—after seeing a significant decrease in reach in the last 16 months. According to a Jun Group report, clicks that led consumers to brand-owned-and-operated sites doubled between 2012 and 2013, from 28% to 57%, while the portion of clicks that ended on Facebook shrank from 31% to 10%. YouTube use by brands for promotional purposes has also dipped, from 38% to 24%.

In releasing the findings in July, the CEO of Jun Group, Mitchell Reichgut, said that they represented two big trends: “First, as advertisers spend more developing branded content and digital experiences, they want to drive audiences directly to those destinations. At the same time, social platforms have made it more complicated for brands to communicate with fans.”

It makes a lot of sense. Those who take the time to click through to your company’s own site—and stay there—probably have a genuinely keen interest. In what way and for how long these users engage with your page is obtainable information, as opposed to Facebook user data, which is not made available. And that information can help you gauge which pieces of your campaign are working—and which ones are not.