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6 Tips For Driving Facebook
Advertising Performance
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Introduction To Facebook Advertising
Facebook advertising continues to grow in popularity, making it a crucial element in your social marketing mix. Facebooks
latest quarterly earnings data (Q4, 2013) showed that advertising revenues increased by over 30% in just three months,
highlighting the rapid growth in social advertising spend. In a recent Socialbakers survey, 92% of marketers claimed they
are using Facebook for advertising, another metric that supports the upward trend in Facebook advertisings usage.
But what does this increased advertising growth mean to the marketers that are using the platform to spread the word about
their products, gain more Facebook Likes or drive traffc to their website? With more advertisers using Facebook adver-
tising, the competition for grabbing users attention with paid advertising is becoming more and more diffcult. The result is
that, unlike ever before, marketers need to have a well-defned Facebook advertising strategy to produce quality results.
In this report, we will lay out 6 must-do tips to ensure social advertising success. Each tips falls into one of three categories,
which are critical for creating a fully encompassing Facebook advertising strategic action plan. These are; Ad manage-
ment, Post boosting and Facebook analytics.
Picture 1: In Facebooks Q4 2013 Quarterly Earnings Report you can see the revenue earnings on a quarter-over-quarter basis. This clearly shows that
Facebook Ad Revenues Doubled In The Last Two Years!
Revenue In Millions
$943
$872
$992
$1,086
$1,329
$1,245
$1,599
$1,798
$2,344
$188
$186
$192
$176
$256
$213
$214
$218
$241
$1,131
$1,058
$1,184
$1,262
$1,585
$1,458
$1,813
$2,016
$2,585
Q4'11Q 1'12 Q2'12Q 3'12 Q4'12Q 1'13 Q2'13Q 3'13 Q4'13
Payments and other fees
Advertising
*
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1. Adapt To Facebook Breaking Changes:
The Time Is Now!
On March 4th, 2014 Facebook began rolling out a new campaign structure across all client-facing ad interfaces. With
Socialbakers Ad Analytics, Facebook advertisers are able to measure and manage all advertising campaigns in line with
the new Facebook campaign structure. This enables Facebook advertisers to quickly adapt to the new structure, making it
easier for advertisers to organize, measure and optimize Facebook marketing efforts.
The previous Facebook campaign structure had two levels, which were characterized like this;
But on March 4th, Facebook rolled out their Breaking Changes aimed at optimizing campaign workfow and management.
With these changes, Facebook added a 3rd level by renaming the current Campaign to Ad Set and redefning the
Campaign to focus on more concrete goals, such as Page Likes, Clicks to Website, App Installs, etc..
Sound confusing? Take a look at the visual that Facebook created in their Facebook New Campaign Structure Pre-Rollout
Training.
The current campaign structure has two levels
As a result, marketers create multiple campaigns to:
- Reach multiple audience segments with different objectives
- A/B test multiple creative
- Run several schedules or flights

One campaign can have
multiple ads
Ad
Level 2
Level 1
Contain one or more ads
Control the budget and schedule for each campaign
Activate or pause campaigns and it will apply to all ads

Define creative, audience, and bidding for each ad
Create multiple ads so our system can optimize creative
Activate or pause ads

Campaign
Picture 2: Here you can see the existing structure of how campaigns are managed from a user perspective. Source: Facebooks New Campaign
Structure Pre-Rollout Training Presentation.
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Here are some quick tips that Facebook provided about planning campaigns with the new campaign structure:
Picture 3: Here you can see how the new campaign structure of Facebook campaigns will be managed from a user perspective. Source: Facebooks
New Campaign Structure Pre-Rollout Training Presentation slide 4.
Introducing the new campaign structure
Campaigns will be more powerful consisting of one or more ad sets

Setup a campaign for each of your marketing objectives*
Get reporting on aggregate stats for multiple ad sets and ads
Turn on or off campaigns and it will apply to all ad sets and ads
One campaign can have
multiple ad sets
Campaign
One ad set can have
multiple ads
Ad
Ad Set
Ad sets will have the same features campaigns had previously

Contain one or more ads
Control the budget and schedule for each ad set
Turn on or off ad sets and it will apply to all ads
Ads will continue to define creative, audience, and bidding

Create multiple ads so our system can optimize creative
Turn on or off ads

Level 2
Level 1
Level 3
*Objective refers to objective-based ad buying (ex: Page post engagement, Page Likes, clicks to website, app installs, etc.). Third party API developers will have
the option of not implementing a single objective for every campaign.
Decide on your objectives and then create one campaign per objective (ex: Clicks to website, Page Likes, App Installs, etc.)
so you can optimize delivery, manage your spend, get the right reports, and maximize results for each objective.
An ad set should contain ads targeting the same audience segment so you can easily compare and optimize audiences by
adjusting schedules, budgets, or turning ON/OFF Ad Sets
Multiple ads should be created in each ad set so our system can optimize for variations in placement (News Feed vs. RHS),
images, video, text, or destination.
By quickly adapting to recent changes in Facebooks campaign structure, the objectives of all your campaigns and Ad
Sets will be more clearly defned. Additionally, the extra Ad Set level allows for further customization and optimization.
We recommend getting started with this ASAP.
Campaign = Objective
Ad Sets = Audience
Ads = Creative
Key Takeaway
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2. Different Advertising Goals Require Different
Metric Analysis
When creating a campaign, there are 8 different types of advertising results to choose from:
Under the new campaign structure, these are the only types of campaigns that can exist. However, when determining the
performance of an Ad Set (there can be an unlimited amount of Ad Sets under a campaign) it is important to know which
metrics to analyze to determine Ad Set and general campaign performance.
There are 3 categories of metrics to look at when determining campaign and Ad Set performance. The frst is spend,
which is important to monitor know matter what your goals are. The second is the cost in relation to performance, looking
at metrics like Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Cost-Per-Mille (CPM), Cost-Per-Action (CPA) or Cost-Per-Like (CPL). And the last
category is looking at performance metrics, such as Clicks, Impressions, Click-Through-Rates, Conversions amongst
others.
For every single campaign and Ad Set it is always important to keep an overview on Spend. However, cost in relation to
performance and the performance metrics differ based on the type of campaign you are running. Below you can fnd an
outline of Facebook metrics that we recommend analyzing based on the type of campaign you are running:
Page Post Engagement Website Conversions
Page Likes App Installs
Clicks To Website App Engagement
Event Responses
Offer Claims
Campaign Type Cost-To-Performance Metrics Performance Metrics
Page Post Engagement CPM Reach, Engagement
Page Likes CPM Impressions
Clicks To Website CPC Clicks, CTR
Website Conversions CPA Conversions
App Installs CPL Actions
App Engagement Cost Per Mobile Action Actions, Clicks, CTR
Event Responses CPL Actions
Offer Claims CPC Clicks, CTR
When running any campaign, analysis of performance is key to optimizing results. However, depending on the type of campaign,
it is critical to know the cost-to-performance and performance metrics that are most relevant to tracking campaign success.
Key Takeaway
Picture 4: Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of metrics that you can track for each type of campaign. However, using the cost-to-performance
and performance metrics as a guiding principle will help you analyze campaign effectiveness with more accuracy and relevancy.
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3. Boosting Posts Isnt Just About Maximizing Reach
Reach can be a satisfying metric to report, especially if big numbers that translate well offine are what youre looking for.
After all, customers cant engage with a print ad the same way they engage with social media content, but for both, reach
can be measured. Apples to apples.
But thats not all social media marketing is about. Simply reaching the right audience with the right message is only part of
the game. Understanding the diverse range of actions available to users on social media - and effectively leveraging these
possibilities - is when social marketing gets really fun. You should optimize your boosted content by either Clicks, CTR,
Reach or Engagement based on whatever the goal is that you are trying to achieve with that piece of content (ie: brand
awareness, customer sentiment, etc).
The takeaway is to understand that reach is only part of the advertising puzzle. You must know what you want to achieve
in order to fnd the right metrics to measure and actually achieve it. By knowing the business objective for each boosted
post, you should optimize the boosting by the metric (E.g. Clicks, Impressions, Reach, CTR, Engagement) that will drive
the results that you are looking to achieve.
Key Takeaway
Brand Awareness -
youre rolling out a new campaign across digital and offine. You want your audience to connect
the dots and associate your brand with a particular image and feeling. Maximizing impressions is key here. In this case,
reach is also an important metric, but acknowledging the value-add of multiple impressions for a brand awareness cam-
paign can make the difference between reinforcing your brand name and simply reaching more people.
Customer Sentiment -
you want to better understand how your audience might react to new messaging, brand
positioning or even a product offering. Use post boosting to play with your content and measure engagement. In this case,
reach will be nearly irrelevant. Direct feedback and measuring sentiment analysis is what youre looking for to understand
your audiences opinion about your brand. Without focusing on engagement your goals will not be reached.
Event Registration -
youre hosting an offine event and need people to register. You can reach all the people on
Facebook, but if youre not focusing on measuring clicks (if it is an external landing page) or Facebook actions (if it is a
Facebook event) then your event might be a fop. By focusing on clicks or Facebook actions, your goal of delivering a full
audience to your event will be much more tangible.
Picture 5: The Socialbakers Ad Booster section of the tool empowers our clients to optimize the performance of boosted content. This is especially
important when boosting content for other reasons than increasing brand awareness, which should be optimized for reach. With Ad Booster you can
optimize posts for Clicks, Impressions, and Engagement as well!
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4. Use Precise Ad-Set Scheduling
Determining the exact times of day and days of the week in which your ads perform well is one of the most important
aspects of Ad Set scheduling. Because honestly, why would you waste money running ads at 4:00 AM on a Sunday, when
your target audience is people who hold offce jobs?
Of course, the frst step in determining when to promote posts or run advertisements, is to fgure out when your
audience is most receptive. For determining when to boost posts to either Fans or Friends of Fans, it is recommended to use
an Analytics tool to look at a User Activity graph, which will display when Fans of a page are interacting most with that Page.
Based on this information, you should boost your posts based on the times when your Fans are most active.
When determining how to schedule Ads under an Ad Set, the best way to determine future effectiveness is to look at Time
of Day and Day of Week Effectiveness, of past and current Ads, using an Advertising Analytics solution.
With this valuable information you will be empowered to schedule Ads using Precise Ad Set Scheduling. Precise Ad Set
Scheduling allows you to run your Ads exactly when your target audience is most receptive. For example, if you know your
target audience is most active on Mondays from 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM and then again on Thursday from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM,
then you can schedule your ads to run just then.
This is a huge advantage over just picking a start and stop date as you will never be wasting money when your audience
is not active.
Precise Ad Set scheduling is far more effective than just picking a start and stop date as you will never be wasting money
when your audience is not active. You can create precise Ad set scheduling using Facebook native tools, so we would
recommend an independent social advertising tool to ensure social management success!
Key Takeaway
Picture 6: This graph depicts the hours of a day with the highest CTR. This enables social advertisers to understand when their Ads are most effective
and schedule future Ads accordingly. Source: Socialbakers Ad Analytics.
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5. Deliver The Right Message To The Right
Audience, Every Time
There are a number of targeting options within Facebook advertising, however many advertisers fall into the trap of going
for the mass audience available, rather than making the most of their spend by targeting properly.
At present on Facebook you can target in the following ways:
The more targeting options you use the more refned your potential audience will be. By carefully selecting your target
audience you can ensure that you achieve lower costs and have a more relevant audience interacting with your brand,
which will result in better advertising performance.
With Facebooks improved targeting, marketers can advertise to the exact audience they want, every single time.
For example, you might be interested in targeting Parents for a brand awarness campaign but need to target Parents
who like photography and upload photos for a more focused product campaign. This advanced targeting ensures your
message gets to exactly the right audience - and only the right audience - saving time and money.
Using specifc targeting is one of the easiest methods to ensuring you are delivering the right message to the right audience.
Moreover in a recent Socialbakers study, we found that interest targeted ads have a higher CTR than non-targeted ads.
Key Takeaway
Location Gender
Interests
Broad Categories
Age
Relationship Status
Custom Audiences
Language
Education Level
Major
School
Workplaces
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6. Always Pause Under-Performing Ads
Similar to the way Google assigns a quality score for each keyword in a SEM campaign, Facebook uses algorithms to
fnd the best ads and audiences determining ad placement. And like your driving record, this will follow you around. While
monetization is an obvious priority for any company, Facebook also has a huge vested interest in delivering relative and
engaging content to users - including good ads.
When it comes down to bidding, a page with a history of low quality ads will have to bid more to get the same results as a
page who consistently delivers high quality ads. A continuous cycle of testing and optimizing ads is essential - never stop
testing and you will never stop improving. But a crucial element of this process is to know when to pull the plug!
If an ad is performing below average as defned by clicks, engagement, or other defned metrics - pause it. Immediately.
In order to do this, marketers without Ad Analytics tools must monitor the constant progression of each individual ad. This
manual process can be a drain on time, money, and your eyes! Marketers with advanced Ad Analytics tools are able to
automate this process and set clear boundaries for poor performing ads.
Socialbakers Ad Analytics allows marketers to defne exactly what a poor performing ad looks like and set if-then state-
ments to automatically pause ads that would otherwise waste your budget. Additionally, using our advanced analytics, you
can reallocate your budget to high performing ads, resulting in effective spending of your Ad Spend budget.
Pausing under-performing ads is obviously benefcial for making sure that you are not wasting your budget on Ads that
are not performing to standard. As Facebook native apps can not automatically pause under-performing advertisements,
we recommend using an independent advertising solution.
Key Takeaway
Picture 7: By setting up parameters of what constitutes an underperforming ad, advertisers can enable independent social advertising solutions to
automatically pause underperforming ads. This ensures that underperforming ads will never waste any of a campaigns budget. Source: Socialbakers Ad
Analytics.
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The leading solution for analyzing, managing
and optimizing social advertising performance
Smarter Social
Ad Management
Ad Analytics
Actionable & Insight Driven Analytics
Ad Manager
Social Advertising Management & Optimization
Ad Booster
Post Boosting Optimization
Facebook advertising is continuously evolving and we know it can be challenging for marketers to keep up-to-date with
best practices and techniques. Despite these constant changes and diffcult landscape, Facebook advertising has proven
time-and-again to deliver ROI and can be an effective way to market your product based on a variety of objectives.
With clearly defned goals and an understanding of the desired end result, Facebook advertising can support a variety of
campaigns from brand awareness to gauging customer sentiment.
By analyzing the right metrics for each Ad Set and following some basic guidelines - such as precise ad set scheduling,
advanced targeting, and pausing underperforming campaigns - you will be driving your Facebook advertising to achieve
goals that drives successful marketing.
To get more out of your Facebook advertising efforts, contact a Socialbakers ad expert today at advertising@socialbakers.com.
Conclusion