Should I switch to the newest channel?

Are they the golden opportunities that the experts promise, or is it better not to put too much effort into them?

A new channel has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• There is still little competition on the channel, because few companies have integrated the channel into their marketing mix. 
• When a new channel gets hyped, there are suddenly many users. Users you can reach in a new way.
• Many users with little competition = low advertising costs.

In other words, if you can properly integrate the channel into your existing marketing machine, you can get conversions cheaply 🤑

Cons: 

• New platforms often focus on a specific target group, many of the people you reach will be irrelevant to your target group.
• Are the targeting algorithms of the new channel sufficiently developed? Often the targeting is underdeveloped in the initial phase.
• What if competition on the new platform increases? And advertising costs are rising? 

These disadvantages can be summarized in 1 problem that can be a nuisance: increasing costs.

Increasing costs in the long and short term.

Increasing costs in the long term are obvious:

The more users the new platform attracts, the more companies will focus on it.

If the number of new users stagnates and the amount of purchased advertising space continues to rise, costs will eventually rise; because advertising space is limited and the highest bidder gets the spot.

Is your proposition solid enough to handle that? Or do you really rely on temporarily low costs on this channel?

Are the current conditions of the new channel a beneficial addition, or will you depend on it? 

Because those circumstances are going to change.

Increasing costs in the short term are less obvious:

This cost increase does not happen on the new channel, but in the rest of the marketing machine.

These costs arise due to the underdeveloped targeting algorithm of the new channel. The algorithm is new and has collected relatively little data. In other words, the algorithm does not yet know exactly who to target.

So if you make a campaign live, the algorithm will show the campaign to many irrelevant people. That in itself is not a problem, because advertising costs on the platform are still low. So it doesn't cost the earth if irrelevant people see the ad.

BUT.

It's going to be expensive if these irrelevant people click on your ad. Because then they will become visitors to your website.

And visitors to your website end up in your retargeting target groups. Which means you're going to advertise to these irrelevant people on your other channels.

Channels where it is more expensive to advertise to these people (because there is a lot of competition on these channels).

With this approach you actually pollute your campaigns on the other channels.

Golden opportunity or pitfall?

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Our advice is: aim for stable growth.

So if the platform is an advantageous addition to your current marketing machine, without completely relying on it, then it is an interesting channel. (Just make sure you protect your retargeting audiences from visitors from that channel).

Is the new channel only interesting because of the low costs and are you dependent on these low advertising costs?

Please realize that this cost advantage is temporary. In that case, it is better to put your energy elsewhere, for example in a proposition that generates money on every channel.

What it ultimately comes down to is:

Is your offer strong enough?

Something to think about.

(Of course we would like to think along with you ⬇️)