In similar research by ad agency Tinuiti, among clients that advertised on Facebook, about a quarter paused their advertising on the platform for the entire month of July, while a little more than a third did not pause at all. Of those that stayed away for the full month, roughly three-quarters reactivated their Facebook advertising in August.
Research by Socialbakers, a social media marketing platform, found that Northern America ad spending on Facebook and Instagram fell by 31.6% in the first week of July compared with the previous week. (By Socialbakers’ definition, Northern America includes the US, Canada, and a handful of sparsely inhabited islands and territories.) But a subsequent report covering all of Q3 found that Northern America ad spending on Facebook and Instagram was up 61.7% compared with Q2 2020.
“A large percentage and a large majority” of advertisers that boycotted have returned to Facebook, said Patrick Harris, vice president of global agency development at Facebook.
The ad pullback that Twitter experienced as a result of the boycott has also likely subsided. In its Q2 2020 earnings conference call, the company said that ad revenues fell by 15% year over year in the last three weeks of June as a result of ad suspensions protesting how social platforms handle hate speech and misinformation. But in Q3, Twitter’s ad revenues soared.
The consumer impact of the boycott was also probably less substantial than some of the media coverage indicated. In one study, by Morning Consult, 41% of US adults surveyed in July 2020 said a company’s participation in the Facebook ad boycott would have no impact on their view of that company, and 20% had no opinion. Just three out of 10 said they’d have a more favorable view of a company that participated.