Social Media

Social Media Giants Earns $11b in US Advertising Revenue Targeting Minors In The Past Year

(CTN News) – A recent study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published on Wednesday, reveals that social media companies collectively generated over US$11 billion in advertising revenue from minors in the previous year.

The research underscores the necessity for governmental oversight of social media, asserting that companies, which profit from the engagement of children on their platforms, have inadequately self-regulated.

The researchers advocate for regulatory measures and increased transparency within the tech industry.

They contend that such interventions could mitigate the adverse impact on youth mental health and curb potentially harmful advertising tactics aimed at children and adolescents.

The revenue estimate was derived by calculating the number of users under 18 on major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube in 2022.

This estimation was based on demographic information from the US Census, as well as survey data from Common Sense Media and Pew Research.

Assessing Social Media’s Impact on Children:

The researchers employed data from research firm eMarketer (now known as Insider Intelligence) and Qustodio, a parental control app, to estimate the US advertising revenue for each platform in 2022.

They also utilized information on the amount of time children spent daily on each platform. Using this data, the researchers constructed a simulation model to estimate the ad revenue generated by these platforms from minors in the United States.

Growing Concerns and Legislative Responses

Concerns about the detrimental effects of social media platforms on children, exacerbated by personalized algorithms that encourage excessive use, have been a focus of both researchers and lawmakers.

In response, states like New York and Utah have introduced or passed legislation aiming to restrict social media use among children, citing concerns about youth mental health and related issues.

Legal Challenges and Meta’s Role

Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, is currently facing lawsuits from numerous states, alleging its contribution to the mental health crisis.

Bryn Austin, a professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard and a senior author of the study, emphasized that despite claims from social media platforms about self-regulation, the study suggests they have not taken sufficient steps to protect children, highlighting strong financial incentives to delay meaningful action.

Lack of Transparency in Advertising Revenue

It’s worth noting that these platforms do not publicly disclose the specific amounts of money they earn from minors.

Social Media Platforms and Ad Revenue from Children

Social media platforms aren’t the pioneers in advertising to children, and concerns about marketing to kids have existed in various forms, from online and television ads to promotional efforts within schools.

However, online advertising poses unique challenges, as it can be specifically targeted towards children, and the boundary between ads and the content sought by kids is often unclear.

In a 2020 policy paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics highlighted that children are particularly susceptible to the persuasive impact of advertising due to their underdeveloped critical thinking skills and impulse control.

The paper noted that while school-aged children and teenagers may recognize advertising, they often struggle to resist it, especially when it is integrated into trusted social networks, promoted by celebrity influencers, or presented alongside personalized content.

As concerns about the impact of social media on children’s mental health continue to rise, the Federal Trade Commission recently proposed significant changes to a long-standing law governing how online companies can track and advertise to children.

The suggested changes include defaulting to turning off targeted ads for children under 13 and restricting push notifications.

According to the Harvard study, YouTube generated the highest ad revenue from users aged 12 and under, amounting to US$959.1 million, followed by Instagram (US$801.1 million) and Facebook (US$137.2 million).

For users aged 13-17, Instagram led in ad revenue at US$4 billion, followed by TikTok (US$2 billion) and YouTube (US$1.2 billion).

The researchers also estimated that Snapchat derived the largest portion of its overall 2022 ad revenue from users under 18 (41%), followed by TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%), and Instagram (16%).

Business

Unleashing Potential: How a Facebook Ads Marketing Agency Can Revolutionize Your Business

Facebook advertising has definitely made its own place for businesses in the digital marketing space to reach out to their target and engage them. To say Facebook has monthly active users far more than 2.8 billion is to say this gives a reach second to none toward a broadly ranged audience. It definitely becomes an incredible and indispensable platform for businesses to drive growth and reach marketing objectives.

While using Facebook for advertisement, most businesses may not be at the level of knowledge and experience to understand the complexities of that marketing. And that is exactly where a Facebook Ads marketing agency would kick in.

And so today, in this blog, we are going to look in exact detail at what kind of transformational power Facebook Ads have, and how working with an agency well-versed with Facebook Ads Marketing could be life-changingly simple for you.

Understanding the Power of Facebook Ads

To understand the role of Facebook ads marketing agencies, we need to first understand why Facebook ads are so potent in marketing.

1. Unmatched Reach and Targeting: Certainly, the billion-plus users of this world who are on Facebook give it an unmatched reach and targeting potential. Businesses can create targeting precision down to demographics, interests, behaviors, and criteria like life events and purchase intent.

2. Cost-effective advertisement: The reason behind Facebook ads is a flexible approach to pricing, allowing businesses to set their budget and bidding strategy based on their objective or expectation. When used with careful targeting and optimization, a business is likely to achieve impressive results from the least spend on investment.

3. Different Ad Formats: There are different ad formats on Facebook, ranging from image ads to video ads, carousel ads, and many others. This gives a chance to a business to experiment with various advertisement formats and make a decision on the most impactful way of relaying their message to the target audience.

4. Advanced Analytics and Insights: Facebook has advanced analytic facilities and insights, empowering businesses to track how their ads are doing in real time. This gives them the information to tune their campaigns toward the most impact and ROI.

The Role of Facebook Ads Marketing Agencies

Here is a look at how a Facebook ads marketing agency can leverage the power of Facebook ads and take your business to the next level.

1. Expertise and Experience:

Facebook advertising marketing agencies have an expertise to create and run performance-driven Facebook ad campaigns.

These agencies keep your campaigns right up-to-date with all the latest trends, best practices, and algorithm changes to ensure only the best are optimized for success.

2. Customized Strategies:

Digital marketing companies run ads with strategies developed with your specific business goal, target audience, and industry in mind.

Such practices may involve audience segmentation, ad creative development, campaign optimization, and tracking performance that ensures a maximum return on investment.

3. Targeted Audience Reach:

– Facebook ads marketing agencies leverage advanced targeting options to reach your ideal audience with precision.

This kind of agency targets the right audience for your business: they target the specific demographics, interests, and behaviors to make sure that your ads reach the most relevant audience.

4. Creative Ad Campaigns:

– Facebook ads marketing agencies create compelling ad creative and messaging that resonates with your target audience. Whether that’s great design, persuasive copy, or engaging video content, such agencies have mastered the art of captivating your audience’s attention and driving action.

5. Continuous Optimization:

– Agencies, Facebook ads marketing constantly look after your ad campaigns for optimization toward performance and ROI. This leads to measuring important metrics, such as click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost of customer acquisition, to always find room for improvement and make sound decisions.

6. Comprehensive Reporting:

Agencies marketing through Facebook ads provide full reporting and insights to help them track performance over your campaigns. This will even include the impressions, clicks, conversions, and return on investment ratio in all the efforts of advertising that you make, making you wholly aware of the results and effectiveness.

Case Studies: Real-World Success Stories

Here are such practical examples of companies that have been turned around by working with Facebook Ads marketing agencies:

1. E-commerce Success Story: A boutique e-commerce store specializing in handcrafted jewelry saw sales increase by 300% after partnering with a Facebook Ads marketing agency. By executing search targeting well-off women aged 25-45 with an interest in fashion and jewelry, the agency had this targeted traffic pay off for the store.

2. Local Service Provider: • A local landscaping business saw leads and bookings double when they teamed up with a Facebook ads marketing agency. The agency enabled the company to generate more qualified leads and further expand its customer base by targeted messaging that included a list of homeowners located within a 10-mile radius and featured their portfolio of work.

3. B2B Software Company – A software company that offers project management solutions, Bjsondashtoa, doubled its sales pipeline within half a year of doing business with a Facebook ads marketing agency. Compelling ad creative and messaging were used by the agency to target the decision-makers of companies in IT and Marketing industries, subsequently driving the inbound Sales team’s Sales Qualified Leads and Opportunities.

Conclusion

In short, Facebook advertisements have the potential to transform your business by allowing you to reach out and communicate with your target audience effectively. An agency’s role in helping you with Facebook advertising is to bring to the table skills, experience, and resources that can be marshaled toward Facebook advertising to deliver best results in line with your marketing objectives. Due to the help of a Facebook ads marketing agency, e-commerce stores, local service providers, B2B software companies, and anyone for that matter will be able to reach the point where they have achieved the maximum success and growth for their business.

Social Media

Welcoming A Digital Detox from Mindless Social Media Scrolling

What comes to your mind when you think of today’s digital age? You won’t even need to think before you say ‘social media platforms.’ Consequently, we often find ourselves mindlessly scrolling through our feeds, being consumers of an endless stream of usually substance-lacking content. But are they adding any value to our lives?

At most, they are only negatively impacting our mental health and levels of concentration. In the middle of these endless tweets, posts, and likes lies a hidden gem called podcasts, offering content to help us grow and evolve. So why should you prefer listening to a podcast over indiscriminate social media scrolling? Let’s begin!

Mindful Consumption

Scrolling through social media, we easily succumb to passive consumption’s trap. Our interaction remains mindless as we swiftly flick over images and information snippets without often retaining any value. Contrastingly, podcasts command our attention. They require active engagement from us – a refreshing change indeed!

Inviting us to actively engage with our preferred subjects, be it science, history, comedy, or personal development, they offer a constructive pathway. Through this medium of choice, we immerse ourselves in meaningful dialogues and thought-provoking debates, thus fostering not only intellectual stimulation but also catalyzing personal growth.

Escape the Echo Chamber

Social media algorithms tend to curate echo chambers. Our feeds overflow with content aligning only with our existing beliefs and interests. While this might offer a fleeting sense of comfort, it constrains exposure, limiting us from encountering diverse perspectives or alternative viewpoints.

Conversely, audio books present an extensive range of voices and opinions. Podcasts, offering a rich diversity of perspectives that challenge and expand our worldview, expose us to the expertise of professionals in diverse fields.

Community and Connection

“Social” media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter often create shallow and superficial connections despite their descriptive term. In contrast to these platforms, audio stories wield the ability to nurture authentic relationships and cultivate a sense of community. Listener feedback, online forums, or live events actively facilitate meaningful engagement for its audience. Also, participating in podcast communities allows us to form connections with individuals who, like us, share our passions and interests.

Curated Content

Social media inundates us with an overwhelming volume of content, making the discernment between quality and noise a challenging task. Audio books present themselves quite differently. They offer curated experiences planned by dedicated hosts and producers who invest substantial time and effort to deliver meaningful content. Prioritizing quality over quantity is their trademark, be it investigative journalism, in-depth interviews, or immersive storytelling.

In Conclusion

Social media blinds us with its promise of instant satisfaction. However, podcasts offer an alternative that is deeper and more meaningful. Engaging in podcast consumption allows us to flex our intellectual muscles and expand our viewpoints while nurturing authentic connections with others. The next time you feel the urge to mindlessly scroll through social media, pause. Reach for your phone, but with a purpose, and consider playing a podcast.