I think we all underestimate how fast the platforms we work with change.
Here’s an example: when you create a Facebook campaign you can choose your placements – where you want to show your ads on the FB ecosystem (FB chooses all placements by default, I recommend not doing that).
In the screenshots below, the top one shows how this area in the campaign creation process looked like just a few years ago (screenshot from a training I did back then) and at the bottom, how it looks like now.
This picture tells a much bigger story than just “oh there are SO many more places for businesses to show their ads”.
It tells the story of the integration of Facebook and Instagram, how “Stories” emerged and became a feed of its own on top (!) of the main feeds, how groups are a major place where users consume content, the importance of instant messaging (ever thought why FB forced you to download an additional app to talk to your friends?), the emerging new types of content (ie Reels)… to name a few.
Even if it’s hard to keep up – as a marketer/business owner/entrepreneur – I don’t think you have a choice but understanding these changes and knowing the platforms as well as possible, because they show you the way to people’s attention.
