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Feb 25 · 3 min read

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How Facebook’s New Reactions Will ForceAdvertisers to React to Their Audience’sReactionby Peter Clark on Feb 25, 2016

The recently expanded Facebook Reaction emotions are the result of adecades-old debate. “Why can’t I dislike something?” users have been askingfor years.

Now, it exists, and it’s pretty cool. It allows a deeper, more emotional level offeedback compared to the dry, narrow “like” without the need of writing an.entire. tedious. comment.

Which Emotions Can the Expanded Reactions Convey?

Facebook Reactions build upon the ability of “liking” posts. Now, when youhover over the “like” button, you are presented with these alternate reactionemojis, giving users more emotions to express:

If the late avant-garde Sweedish author, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, was alive today, he might have updated his famous sayingthusly.

AdTech Reactions to Facebook Reactions

These reactions will have a profound impact on Facebook native advertising.Now, your audience can literally “love” your ad. This begs a big question:will people “love” ads?

Yes.

This act incentivizes advertisers to make better ads. When users can reactwith laughter, you get immediate feedback on exactly how funny youraudience finds your content. Is it worth 20 “like” and 10 “Haha,” or 30“Haha?” This allows advertisers the feedback they need to push creativeboundaries and solicit reactions.

And, yeah, I know, now it’s possible for viewers to give negative feedback toads. This raises the stakes for marketers; more than ever, marketers need tobe conversing with their customers, ingesting this new data and respondingcorrectly. There’s no better sign that you need a new approach than whenreaders give you a flush-faced emoticon that’s shaking its head indisapproval.

What Ad-Tech Advantages Will More Reactive Reactions Bring?

Additionally, expanded emoticons can have a meaningful impact on how adsare created and targeted. After a bit of testing, perhaps we’ll find that adsthat invoke humour get more conversions than ads that get likes.

The permutations don’t end there. Soon, we may also be able to targetpeople that frequently react with “Haha” with specific ads to tickle theirfunny bone. That’s powerful.

Will CPCs Go Up, Down, Left or Right?

Ads that have likes — and comments — have higher priority within Facebookbidding. Good ads get better placement. These reactions will, presumably,eventually weigh into the bidding system. Will you be penalised if peoplerespond with anger to your ads? Probably.

Facebook Reactions is a very interesting feature, a natural (and disruptive)development to how Facebook works. It’s also fascinating that this feature

was actually launched bySlack first. As Silicon Valley migrates away fromB2C towards B2B, will we see more innovation originate in the B2B realm?

Now, when can I pipe Facebook reactions from my ads into Slack?

If you’re interested in learning more, read this tremendous article fromBloomberg about how Chris Cox — Chief Product Officer at Facebook — re-built the Like Button.

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