The world’s largest ad spender, Procter & Gamble, has announced that they are reducing their ad spend on targeted Facebook ads. They said that they were not effective, and they could get better results with other types of marketing. This does not mean they are moving away from Facebook, but just their very targeted advertising options.
Marc Pritchard, P&G’s Chief Marketing Officer, said, “We targeted too much and we went too narrow. And now we’re looking at: What is the best way to get the most reach but also the right precision?”
While P&G will undoubtedly still be pouring millions of dollars into Facebook ads, this announcement does present some problems for Facebook itself. Facebook’s biggest advantage over other ad options is the fact that they offer so much targeting data. If you want to display ads only to families with two dogs, a cat, and makes $30,000-$40,000 per year, you can certainly do that.
If it is true that this level of precise targeting is not effective as P&G believes, other companies may also move away from this option. While Facebook still has a huge audience to target, companies wouldn’t be tied to them as much if they can get the same or similar services from other providers.
