In the quickly advancing world of performance marketing, Facebook has now become an essential part of the overall marketing plan. In a recent panel, direct response experts met at Facebook headquarters to discuss best practices on how performance marketing on Facebook drives conversions and lowers cost per acquisition (CPA). The panel shared easily implementable strategies to convert high value prospects on Facebook. Learn how to improve your performance of marketing campaigns on Facebook by utilizing these four levers:
1. Placement
Traditionally, Facebook advertisers have used domain ads on the Right-Hand Side (RHS) of the page for placement. However, with the variety of new advertising placements available now, multiple ad placements drive better conversions to meet performance goals. Ads placed in the News Feed alone are eight times more engaging than ads on the RHS and the only way to reach mobile users. Be sure to publish engaging content with good images and use many variations of creatives to get the best results.
2. Ad Format
So which ads work best in the News Feed? Susan Buckner, Product Marketing at Facebook, encourages the following News Feed placements to drive conversions:
- Photo Page Post Ad – This placement is the largest and designed specifically for the News Feed. When images are attention grabbing and important to your message, this placement works best. By using shortened URLs in the text of the ad, marketers see more traffic offsite.
- Link Page Post Ad – With more real estate dedicated to going offsite, this placement is best to use when imagery is less important.
- Sponsored Stories – Built around user engagement, Sponsored Stories are messages coming from friends about their activity with a Page, app or event that an advertiser highlights for better visibility. The goal of paid promotion of organic user activity is to leverage the effectiveness of social context to get more users to take the same action that a friend has.
- Offers – When users claim offers, the promotion is shared on their wall, so virality can be ignited with this placement. It’s a great way to increase distribution and customer base.
- Mobile App Install Ad – To drive users to app installs and downloads, this ad type works best. It can be effective across verticals and allows for creative optimization.
3. Targeting
Facebook connects you to the right people more efficiently. In fact, the platform is 90% more accurate in finding the right people, compared to 50% on other channels. This difference of better targeting equals 44% in cost savings, whether you are prospecting or remarketing. Depending on your objective, these targeting tools can help you to drive business.
- Native Targeting – Use common attributes, such as interests or relationship status, to find Facebook users. This tool works best for prospecting.
- Custom Audience – Whether you are prospecting or remarketing, use information you know about customers offline, such as their email address or phone number, and reach them on Facebook.
- Facebook Exchange – Highly effective for remarketing, you can find users who have indicated interest in your brand on other websites and find them on Facebook.
4. Optimization
Standard cost per click (CPC) and cost per impression (CPM) bidding works well for basic campaigns or micro-targeting; however, Facebook recommends using its proprietary Optimized CPM (oCPM) bidding option to reach the users most likely to take a specified action. Research shows that testing more than 50 creative combinations per campaign and investing in the ones with the best performance maximizes results. Creative combinations include mixing lifestyle with product images, customizing images to target audiences, or promoting prices, special offers, and discounts in ad text. Focus on quality creative in News Feed.
"Social discovery is driving product recommendations and clicks offsite. And [Facebook] is emerging as a key way for people to discover what to buy, so advertisers need to have a voice in it."- Lindsay, Facebook Business Marketing
Utilize these four drivers of performance marketing success on Facebook to create rich experiences that generate engagement. Prepare your performance marketing plan by identifying key performance indicators, setting up click tags and view tags, and ensuring a process for delivering enough creative combinations. Once you are ready to execute the campaign, conduct low-cost tests and repeat. Facebook’s community of Preferred Marketing Developers has exclusive access to Facebook’s API and can help you test and optimize your campaigns.
RELATED CLASS: 7 Elements of Highly Effective Facebook Marketing
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