TV trumps Facebook when it comes to targeted advertising

Advertising budgets that were previously allocated for Facebook is now being channeled back into television.

The reason for this isn’t because social network has lost its appeal but because there is now an addressable alternative on television.

Spending on Facebook has wobbled recently. The amount brands spent on the platform rose 27.9 percent to £2.88 billion ($3.8 billion) in the U.K. in 2018, per eMarketer.

The research firm predicts that the growth rate will slow to 23.5 percent in 2019, with ad spend on Facebook expected to reach £3.47 billion ($4.5 billion). On the flip side, TV ad revenues remain solid. Despite the economic uncertainty of Brexit and terminal decline of linear advertising, the amount spent is expected to grow 1 percent this year to £4.4 billion ($5.7 billion), per GroupM.

“TV advertisers are moving away from Facebook in relatively big numbers,” said a senior agency executive at a holding group. “They’re putting that money back into TV because it’s more regulated and is starting to establish a proposition around targeted ads.

“TV viewing as a whole isn’t down, but the way we watch it live is and that’s something broadcasters are still figuring out how to monetize.”

Duracell spent some of 2018 investigating where to spend Facebook budgets across Europe after it discovered that a large portion of the video ads it bought on the social network in the U.K. weren’t being viewed.

Advertisers are realising how tricky it is to measure online media and how money invested in advertising doesn’t necessarily have good returns on investment or publicity.

Broadcasters have capitalized on these issues and are offering several incentives to advertisers. Sky and ITV are sharing analytics and measurement solutions with their own advertisers.

Sky, for example, recently introduced Moat verification across all its video on demand platforms. It’s the first time advertisers will be able to get independent verification of a set-top box impression.

Therefore TV is starting to look more attractive to advertisers than social media.

There were some hard negotiations between content providers and pay-TV platforms over catch-up catalogs last year, which led to a blackout of UKTV channels on Virgin TV services mid-2018.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 secured a deal with Sky for the rights to broadcast the first series of drama series “Tin Man” during primetime and on All 4 in exchange for limited Formula One rights.

“We have seen significant growth in AV spend, which represents how people consume content across linear TV, broadcaster VOD and online video from direct to consumer advertisers over the course of the last few years,” said Grant Crymble, head of broadcast at The Specialist Works.

“The thirst to reduce wastage to an absolute minimum, control frequency around stores and overlay CRM data is a massively powerful thing in the TV-sphere. It’s driving this focus, and performance will only improve as a result.”

source: Digiday