2Meta Deep in the mire ： Advertisers cut spending , Evacuation platform

source ： Sina science and technology author ： Shu Yu

As report goes , Digital advertising sellers have had a hard year , but Facebook parent company Meta Platforms The problem is more serious —— It may still not come out of the haze .

Analysts' estimates , The social media company will have zero growth for the first time in its history in the second quarter . mark · zuckerberg （Mark Zuckerberg） I also call this situation “ One of the worst declines in recent history ”. Google 、 twitter 、Snap And other counterparts in the digital advertising industry are also facing a slowdown in growth .

The difference is ,Meta What we fall into is a “ Perfect storm ”. therefore , More and more advertisers began to diversify their original investment Meta Capital of , This is the first time in history . This is quite different from any dilemma in history ： In the past, as long as Facebook The advertising effect of is still good , No matter what rumors fall into ,Meta Can continue to attract money wantonly .

An executive of a large advertising agency said , The economic downturn will have a serious impact on everyone in the second half .Meta Will also lose a lot of customer spending ,“ This is the first time .”

Many large advertisers have lowered their overall advertising spending expectations for the whole year , Executives from other advertising agencies also said ,Meta Although it used to be “ Must buy ” platform , But now it has become the first channel for customers to compress .

Analysts also believe that ,Meta After years of explosive growth , Begin to return to mediocrity . Investment bank Needham Analyst Laura · Martin （Laura Martin） Monday will Meta Our stock rating ranges from “ hold ” Down to “ Lose the market ”, Mainly considering that the company has given a slower revenue growth expectation , And invest heavily in metauniverse . Market research company Omdia Chief analyst Ma Xiu · Bere （Matthew Bailey） expect , The company 2022 It will grow throughout the year 16%, lower than 2021 Year of 37%.

“ We expect ,Meta The share of global online advertising revenue will be 2022 It fell for the first time in .” Bailey said .

Meta The spokesman responded that ：“ We believe that our platform can connect enterprises and users in a first-class way , So we focus on implementing our long-term plan .”

Business model and reputation issues

Meta Part of the challenge is related to the business model . The privacy policy updated by Apple last year has affected the ability of advertisers to locate and measure advertising effectiveness , and Meta Flag Facebook So the impact is more than other applications . Google's core search business itself has strong immunity to Apple's privacy policy , The company even said , They are also planning to implement similar privacy policies for Android apps in the next few years . This will undoubtedly make Meta worse .

2020 year ,Meta Because in Facebook Wrong way to deal with misinformation and hate speech on , And was resisted by advertisers , Cause reputation damage . The aftermath of this matter still exists . Investors and large Facebook The board of directors of the advertiser is still paying close attention to whether the advertising capital investment method on the platform follows ESG（ Environmental Science 、 Social and corporate governance ） principle .

Lu, former head of media at Bank of America · Pascalis （Lou Paskalis） At present, he serves as the marketing and Technology Industry Association MMA chairman （Meta And one of its members ）, She said , twitter 、Pinterest and Snap And other social media companies are better at explaining brand sustainability , And to the outside world , Zuckerberg seems to have little interest in this .

“ They will make investment decisions more carefully , Because reputational risk is now part of the ecosystem .” He told marketers and chief investment officer ,“ Today's consumers value values more than ever , You can't advertise on platforms that turn a blind eye to some of your problems .”

meanwhile ,Meta The management of advertising business is also experiencing turbulence . Not only COO Shirley · Sandberg （Sheryl Sandberg） Leaving soon , Including David · fisher （David Fisher） And Caroline · Iverson （Carolyn Everson） Many advertising executives, including, have also chosen to leave , Advertisers have to adapt to the team led by new executives —— Mani · Levin （Marne Levine） Long term employment outside the advertising industry , Nicola · Mendelssohn （Nicola Mendelsohn） stay Facebook The career of the advertising department is mainly spent outside the United States .

Just at this time , The company announced a new long-term plan with metauniverse as the core , But the role of advertising in it is not yet clear .

All this will prompt advertisers to seek Meta alternatives .

An advertising executive said ：“Meta Still experiencing other disadvantages —— Aging is increasing 、TikTok Very influential 、iOS Privacy change .”

Barclays said in its research report published last week , Google 、Meta、 Amazon has been fiercely competing for advertising spending for years , but TikTok And apple are dividing up this year Meta Market share ,Snap And Google's YouTube Also join the war .

“Meta It is still the most important performance driver for customers , Whether it's brand awareness 、 The return of advertising expenditure is the same . It is an important part of our social budget .” Advertising agency PMG Carly, head of social business · Carlson （Carly Carson） say . But the customer plans “ Big ” increase TikTok The investment of , And for twitter and Reddit I'm also interested in .

Small businesses still need Facebook

Just to be clear , many Meta Advertisers are still doing business as usual . Although after Apple's new privacy policy ,Meta The advertising effect of has become more difficult to measure , But it is still the second largest advertising platform in the world after Google , Most of its advertisers are small and medium-sized enterprises that rely on the platform for promotion .

Advertising agencies Nest Commerce Chief commercial officer Luke · JONAS （Luke Jonas） Express , in fact , Some e-commerce companies have also caught Meta Opportunities for falling advertising prices , Seize the opportunity to speed up the launch .

“ For more flexible brands , This is an opportunity , They will react based on the data , And will not be coerced by economic sentiment .” Jonas added .

Marketing attribution platform Rockerbox CEO Ron · Jacobson （Ron Jackobson） And about 150 individual D2C Brand cooperation . He said ,Meta Its share of total customer spending increased from... In the first quarter 29.9% Up to... In the second quarter 31.7%. However , This is still lower than 2021 In the first quarter of 38.6%.

Different from other digital advertising sellers ,Meta Hold a huge amount of money —— By 3 month 31 Japan , The company's cash 、 Cash equivalents and marketable securities exceed 430 Billion dollars —— It can help them cope with the impact of shrinking online advertising spending .

but Meta There is still a long way to go . The company said , They will rebuild their advertising infrastructure , In order to continue to put accurate advertisements while adapting to Apple's new privacy policy . But they also warned , This may last for years . The company is still using Reels Enter the field of short video , And has achieved rapid growth , But the commercialization process is still in the process of advancing .

“ We suggest investors to take a wait-and-see attitude , Use this time to evaluate Meta Several potential long-term valuation risks .”Needham Analyst Martin wrote in the research report published last Monday .