Amy Cass

by Amy Cass | Social Advertising

If you tried Facebook ads a few years ago and saw poor results, you’re not alone. In 2012, GM announced with much fanfare that they were quitting Facebook advertising for good. Then, 11 months later, they quietly restarted their Facebook advertising efforts. Why did they come back so quickly? Facebook heard their complaints, and those of others, and aggressively improved its advertising platform.

Facebook has made steady improvements over the past few years, like adding in-depth targeting options and advanced performance tracking. Facebook is now a necessary marketing tool for any business, and can drive real and measurable contributions to the bottom line.

Fbook

Facebook has come a long way.

What’s New?

Facebook keeps the improvements coming every year with the release of new ad types, algorithms, and targeting capabilities. Facebook’s dozens of targeting options allow advertisers to zero in on audience segments that are most likely to purchase, increasing brand awareness and filling the buying funnel with potential customers.

Facebook’s treasure trove of user data continues to produce increasingly granular targeting options, and Facebook rolls out new offerings every year. Current options include:

  • Custom Audiences – advertising to existing customers or subscribers
  • Website Custom Audiences – advertising to previous site visitors
  • Lookalike Audiences – audiences with behavior and interests similar to your Custom Audiences or Website Custom Audiences
  • Behavioral – Facebook’s online behavior data mixed with offline purchase behavior provided by third-party commercial research partners like Axiom, Datalogix and more
  • Interest-Based Targeting – targeting based on a what a user has interacted with, liked, or otherwise indicated they are a fan of
  • Location – targeting users based on where they are currently, have recently been, or around a brick and mortar store
  • App Usage Targeting – targeting based on a user’s interactions with a phone or canvas apps

With these audiences, you can refine your targeting to find your top-performing niche market, or cast a wide net to gain brand awareness. Many new businesses start with social advertising to generate awareness before testing other marketing channels.

Tracking Status: It’s Complicated? Not Anymore

Along with improved audience targeting, Facebook has also introduced next-generation conversion tracking for Facebook ads. One of the biggest challenges for any online marketer is understanding the value of mobile ads. Facebook has solved this problem by implementing a tracking model based on user IDs instead of cookies. So an advertiser can track a conversion when a customer clicks on a mobile ad during the morning commute and then purchases on a desktop that evening.

But Does It Work?

Much like a college senior untagging wild party photos before a job interview, Facebook is eager for everyone to forget about its early advertising efforts. Fortunately, Facebook has improved its UI and platform to the point where advertisers can successfully build and grow their businesses using Facebook advertising.

If you’re looking to step into the social advertising world or take your Facebook advertising to the next level, Metric Theory can help. We will conduct an in-depth audit of any existing campaigns and make recommendations based on our 5+ years of experience and your goals. And if you have never run social ad campaigns, we will customize a strategy and launch plan to make sure every dollar you spend is contributing to your bottom line.

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