In case you missed it, the list is now pretty long of companies boycotting Facebook to support the #StopHateforProfit campaign. Unilever, Coca-Cola, Patagonia and Ben & Jerrys are just a few of the companies on the list.

Some of these companies are boycotting for July. And, some, like Unilever, are boycotting for the second half of the year, which is quite a substantial move.

But all this boycotting is masking another big issue bubbling up right below the surface. The fact that most companies are over-relying on Facebook (and Instagram) advertising.

According to some reports, Facebook makes up 83% of all social media advertising. 83%! Now that’s what I call over-indexing.

Yep–according to eMarketer Facebook (and Instagram) generated 67 billion in ad revenue in 2019. The next closest major social network (here in the US, at least) was Twitter at just 3 billion.

Wow.

Companies are so invested in Facebook + Insta, they don’t even think about it anymore. But, it’s high time they take notice–and start proactively diversifying.

Why? Well, for starters, what happens if, for whatever reason, this boycott continues. And grows. And becomes a huge deal closer to the election. What if Facebook (gulp) starts losing revenue, as a result, hand over fist. What if Facebook fails?

Then what?

The smart digital marketers are diversifying not only their overall digital ad spend, but more specifically, their social ad spend.

That means looking at channels like:

• Pinterest (one of the most under-utilized channels, historically–especially from an ad perspective)
• LinkedIn (expensive, for sure, but a great channel for B2B)
• TikTok (considering the rapidly expanding user base, it’s worth experimenting with at the very least, right?)
• Reddit (expanding their ad options in 2020)
• Twitter (seen a renaissance during COVID as a channel–now might be the time to dip your toes back into Twitter’s waters; also doing a better job of removing and flagging hate speech)
• YouTube (pre-roll is over-rated as an ad tool, in my view, but YouTube is still a HUGE platform)

Another option–taking some of that Facebook/Instagram ad money and reinvesting it in paid search. This is a go-to tactic in every digital marketer’s toolbox–why not double-down on paid search at a time when Google search numbers are growing?

So, what are you doing to diversify your social media ad strategy in the wake of the Facebook boycott?