P&G drilled too deep and now it is scaling back its targeted* Facebook ads.
Facebook — and other social media platforms where people openly discuss their interests and preferences — affords advertisers the ability to target untold demo- and psychographics. But maybe there is a downside to such microtargeting.
P&G CMO Marc Pritchard told the WSJ:
“We targeted too much, and we went too narrow,” he said in an interview, “and now we’re looking at: What is the best way to get the most reach but also the right precision?”
It’s hard to not read this as a failure of Facebook advertising account management – that team should be the one guiding large advertisers like P&G through the right mix. But, separately, maybe a CPG like P&G has done mass marketing for a reason. No amount of social media posts are going to alert any company when someone is in the market for dish detergent.
Here’s Facebook’s statement to DMN:
* This blog post previously implied P&G was cutting back on Facebook advertising. It is scaling back targeted advertising but planning to keep its overall spend the same.
