What I Learned Paying For Facebook Ads

Also, Spotify dips a toe into the concert ticketing business and CNN cans its media criticism program

Aug 23, 2022

Hello Remote Noters! (Remoters? Oneders?) I’ve been asked by a handful of people why a lead story is always spelled “lede.” Writes Wikipedia:

LEDE: A deliberate misspelling of lead, originally used in instructions given to printers to indicate which paragraphs constitute the lede, intended to avoid confusion with the word lead which may actually appear in the text of an article.

That has either enlightened or confused the matter. Either way, here’s The Lede.

THE LEDE:

Some people appreciate relevant ads in their Facebook timeline. I’m wearing glasses from a company I discovered in my timeline while sporting a shirt I saw there as well. I’d rather see a well-targeted ad than something irrelevant. I know I’m being advertised to, but as long as it’s not noise, I don’t mind. That’s the price of a free service.

Still, some people will get really, graphically angry if they see an ad in their Facebook timeline.

And most will ignore you altogether.

None of these observations will come as a big shock to you, but I thought I’d lead with the results of my three-month experiment “boosting” my posts on Facebook. I’ve been sporadically boosting some of the newsletter/posts the past few months, and my conclusion is that Facebook has a way to go in its targeted advertising.

IMAGE: Sean MacEntee (CC by 2.0)

I set a budget of $35 for a week of boosted posts. I chose a select audience - people, Facebook told me, who were interested in media, podcasting, journalism, online advertising and other related topics.

I can’t say I got my money’s worth.

One post performed very well; our interview with former anchor Mike Nikitas in June was one of our most-read newsletters, and saw a significant boost from Facebook. We saw a 2x bump in our traffic and the comments were positive.

But people became downright belligerent when we boosted a post two weeks ago that featured a book about politics. The book is a guide for politicians of all political stripes, but drew the partisans. The newsletter performed very well and was well-liked among subscribers. However, the post made for some nasty comments by people who obviously hadn’t read the article. So the Facebook “boost” was a loss, but the article was a big win.

In conclusion, I’ve decided to stop boosting articles on Facebook unless there is a compelling reason to do so. We have a remarkable open rate from our newsletters, and I want to thank you all for that. We get 15-20% of our traffic from people who come to the site directly. That’s pretty strong. Showing up in the timelines of people who don’t know or care about Remote Notes doesn’t seem strategically wise. Instead, I’m going to focus on more and better ways of informing you, the opt-in audience that has been so supportive.

NEWS AND NOTES

SPOTIFY GETS INTO THE TICKETING BIZ: This seems like a natural fit, albeit a small first step. Under its app’s “Live Events” section, Spotify has begun linking to ticketing partners for concerts. So if you see an artist you like, you will now find a button to buy tickets to a local show:

Spotify isn’t selling the tickets directly. Clicking on “Find tickets” in this example just brings you to Ticketmaster, where you still have to deal with, well, Ticketmaster.

The ticket assortment is coming from the artists, according to Live For Live Music:

Spotify aims to sell tickets directly to fans by using a share of the artist’s pre-sale allotment. These tickets would come directly from the artist’s portion, which is oftentimes first offered to email fan clubs or through password-protected pre-sales.

It’s not hard to see Spotify’s strategy here. It’s a logical next step from selling tickets through partners to selling them yourself. But Ticketmaster and Live Nation have a near stranglehold on the ticket marketplace. This will be an interesting experiment.

CNN CANCELS “RELIABLE SOURCES,” HOST TO DEPART: CNN is canceling its media watchdog program, “Reliable Sources,” hosted by Brian Stelter, who told the news himself to NPR. The weekly show had been on since 1993, making it CNN’s longest running show. Stelter took over as host nine years ago.

IMAGE: Brian Stelter on “Reliable Sources” (Via CNN)

Ratings may have played a role. According to The Wrap, in June, “Reliable Sources” saw its lowest ratings in the key news demo in more than two decades. The show has also had its lowest-rated year since 2015.

This is CNN’s latest shakeup since Jeff Zucker left and Chris Licht became CEO. In a statement to CNN staffers, Licht said “There will be more changes and you might not understand it or like it.”

Ouch. Also, Mr. Licht, a couple of corrections: “There will be more changes and you might not understand them or like them.” Journalists understand plenty.

SPOTIFY DOESN’T RECOMMEND JOE ROGAN: At least, that’s the result of a study done by Dan Misener at Bumper. His is a deep dive, but here’s the essence: Apple’s Podcasts app recommends podcasts by title. But Spotify recommends podcasts by episode. That makes sense - it recommends songs the same way. But Spotify seems to be gaming the outcome. According to Misener, 14% of recommended episodes on Spotify are company originals and exclusives. And Spotify doesn’t recommend episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” whose popular (if controversial) podcast is at the top of Spotify’s own charts.

LINKS AND LIKES

PRODUCT THUMBS UP: I’ve been using the Apple AirTags and have found them very useful. The drawback, I found, was that I couldn’t fit one in my pocket. Enter the Tags Mate wallet. It’s thin, it’s cool and it has a special place for an AirTag:

IMAGE: Tags Mate wallet

The credit cards you see in the image “slide up” with a flick of the black button on the right side. Otherwise, they stow inside the wallet. There’s not a lot of space for cash - maybe five bills or so — but it does fold open. The Tags Mate wallet has also forced me to put my wallet in my front pocket which, as any chiropractor will tell you, is much better for when you’re sitting.

ANOTHER ENDORSEMENT: I must be feeling generous this week. My Gmail inbox had reached more than 25,000 emails going back almost 10 years. Manual cleanup would take forever. So I tried Clean Email. It's great.

You can sort by size, name, date, etc. In less than a week, I'm already down below 9,000 emails and counting. This is an excellent product.

NEWSLETTER RECOMMENDATIONS: If you like Remote Notes, subscribe to Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter. Owens does an excellent job with media analysis. Check out his “Can you make real money on a paid newsletter while only writing part time?” Subscribe to his newsletter which, like Remote Notes, has free or paid options.

IMAGE: Simon Owens. (Via his Substack site.)

RN Pal John Cockrell recommends the newsletter “Accept Cookies” (clever name!) by Hrishikesh Hirway. Hrishikesh describes it as “A twice-monthly newsletter where I write about creative, delightful treats from the world of music, television, film, and design (and occasionally, about actual cookies).”

If his name isn’t immediately familiar, chances are you’ve heard his work. He and Josh Malina co-hosted “The West Wing Weekly” podcast from 2015-2020. He currently has five active podcasts, all of which are worth a listen and he’s also a musician.

NEWSLETTERS YOU LIKE: I’d like to put together a roundup of newsletters that you folks enjoy. What do you opt into that you enjoy getting? Email me and let me know.

Email Me

BEYOND THE REMOTE

OUR NEW “COMPANY NAME”: In middle school in the early 1980s, my A/V teacher’s name was Alan Jacobs. We called him “Mister Media,” and he was young and fun. We did all sorts of multimedia projects, and Alan called our group “Slap-Together Productions.” My mother introduced him to her youngest sister, Elyse, and the two soon married. Uncle Alan passed away at the beginning of August, and I’ve picked up the mantle of Slap-Together Productions. For now, SlapTogetherProductions.com brings you to the main page of Remote Notes.

IMAGE: A screen grab from one of our productions. We typed the credits on a TRS-80 and shot the screen with a black and white, reel-to-reel video camera.

WRITERS WELCOME: If you’d like to contribute an entry to Remote Notes, we’d love to have you onboard. It would be great to have more writers join the effort. If you think you have something to contribute, even occasionally, let me know.

ADVERTISING: Sponsor Remote Notes for $25 a week. You’ll be seen by lots of folks in the journalism/podcasting business and other media-savvy people. For more information, hit the “Email Me” button below.