5 Tips for Rocking Facebook Ads on Mobile Devices!

Posted by Kristina 21 May 2013 in Facebook Ads and tagged facebook ad best practices, facebook ads guide, facebook ads on mobile, mobile facebook ads. Bookmark the permalink.

You may have noticed Facebook is now allowing brands to purchase ad space in its News Feed on both desktop and mobile devices. Facebook calls these ads Suggested Posts.

Previously Facebook ads were limited to the right hand rail which meant they were only visible from a desktop computer (or a tablet viewing in Desktop mode).

When it comes to putting together Facebook ad campaigns for News Feed – especially the mobile News Feed – there are a few things social advertisers must consider:

Make the Benefit Clear Without a Click

When creating your Facebook Suggested Posts be sure to make the benefit for the user very clear in the copy.

Think of the words on your Suggested Post as ad copy. Write them in such a way that makes the viewer want to click right now.

Warby Parker does a great job with the above post. They draw me in with a question and then hit me with two awesome benefits: a free Home Try-On Program and a starting price of only $95.

This Suggested Post would definitely catch my interest if I was in the market for new prescription glasses.

Make Your Copy Short (Enough)

When a Suggested Post has copy that is very verbose, Facebook shortens it down by adding a “Continue Reading” link:

This might be okay if you’re writing for an audience that already knows you well (think: loyal customers). However, because Suggested Posts are shown to people who do not yet know you, they are not likely to take the time to click “Continue Reading” to hear what you have to say.

To ensure you get the most bang for your Facebook advertising buck, be sure to keep your message short enough so that it doesn’t get hit with a “Continue Reading” penalty.

Use a Mobile Optimized Landing Page

When you elect to make your Suggested Posts available on mobile devices, you are making a promise to viewers that if they click from their phone or tablet, the landing page will render properly.

If it doesn’t you are: letting visitors down, losing revenue, and wasting ad money.

For example, when I land on the above Rent the Runway mobile landing page, I can easily begin browsing dresses and shopping. However, if when I land on the above InfusionSoft landing page, I need to pinch and zoom a bunch of times before I can successfully read the full landing page.

Whenever you launch a new Suggested Post be sure to test out the experience on your own mobile devices and ensure you have a seamless experience.

As a general rule, user experience should always be the #1 priority with any campaign.

Don’t Annoy First Time Visitors

Speaking of user experience, there’s nothing more annoying than a popup, except maybe two popups. Actually, let’s take that a step further and say there’s nothing more annoying than two popups when you can’t get past the second popup unless you register for an account.

For example, I clicked a Suggested Post that told me I could now purchase a cool new clock.

When I clicked the link in the post, the landing page showed me a popup asking if I wanted to download a free iPhone app:

Nope, not interested, let’s continue to the site…

Oh look, another popup telling me I can’t see the clock that prompted me to click the Suggested Post in the first place until I register for a membership!

Yikes! That’s asking a lot from someone who just clicked a link in a Facebook post.

Remove the barrier to conversion by not showing popups right away or asking for a membership signup before the visitor even gets to view the product.

Track Your Results

The most important component to any mobile Facebook ad campaign is ensuring you have the ability to track results.

You can do this by including a Promo Code in the Suggested Post copy that is unique to the Facebook campaign like in the below Rent the Runway example:

Or you could use campaign tracking parameters in your URL that feed data back to Google Analytics.

Whichever option you choose, just be sure that you are able to track the ROI of your campaign so you know whether it is successful or not.

And there you have it: 5 tips for rocking Facebook Ads on mobile devices!

How and When to Use Facebook Promoted Posts

Posted by Kristina 16 May 2013 in Facebook Ads and tagged Facebook Promoted Posts, how to promote a post on Facebook, Promoted Posts. Bookmark the permalink.

Did you know when you post a message to your Facebook Page not everyone who “likes” the page will see it? It’s true.

Because so many personal and business messages are posted to Facebook every minute, Facebook came up with an algorithm to determine which messages will appear in a particular person’s Newsfeed at any given moment.

That means even if we both follow the same company’s Facebook page I may see their latest message in my Newsfeed while you don’t.

Facebook’s Algorithm for (Organic) Post Visibility

The algorithm that determines who sees a particular page’s updates is called Edgerank and it’s based on three basic tenants:

Affinity: How often you engage with a person or brand on Facebook. For example, if you “like” the status updates of the AdEspresso page often, you are likely to see new AdEspresso updates in your Newsfeed. Conversely if you do not engage with our updates, you will likely not see our new messages in your Newfeed.
Weight: All content is not weighted equally on Facebook. Videos, photos and links tend to be weighted more than text updates and thus show up more often and higher in Newsfeed.
Recency: Old posts are replaced by new posts in Newsfeed no matter what type of content the old post contains.

Knowing the basic tenants of Edgerank will help you create posts that compete well against other posts for space in your audience’s Newsfeed. However, just because you post a video or image, which are both weighted heavily, you aren’t guaranteed prime Newsfeed real estate.

So, what can you do to ensure that your message is seen by as many people as possible on Facebook? Promote the post.

Promoting a Post to Ensure Visibility

Promoting a post is a way to turn one specific Facebook update into an ad. The post will appear in your audience’s Newsfeed as it would if it were naturally occurring, except you are paying for it to be there.

To promote a post, look for the little blue link under each post that says, “Promote” or “Boost”:

When you click Promote a little popup will appear with payment options. The more money you spend, the more people you can reach (just like any ad where you pay based on impressions).

The lifetime of a promoted post is three days, so the ad will continue showing up prominently in Newsfeeds for three days. At any given time during that period you can pause the promotion – you will only be billed for what was spent up to the time that you paused the campaign.

At the end of a campaign you can see your campaign stats in your Ads Manager or by clicking at the bottom of the promoted post where it says, “$0.00 Left” (meaning you have $0 budget left).

You can calculate how many more people you reached by promoting the post by taking your paid reach and subtracting it from your total number of people who saw the post.

In this example 4,779 people were reached through the promotion and a total of 6,024 people saw it. If the page had not sponsored the post only 1,245 would have seen it. That’s pretty powerful if you’re sharing a really important message.

Facebook suggests promoting a post when it’s already doing well organically thus amplifying a message that is already clearly resonating with your audience.

I agree with that and would suggest also promoting a post:

When making a major announcement like the addition of new features to your software
Linking to a webinar sign up page that you want to drive potential attendees to
Sharing a new eBook or white paper that you want a lot of people to download
Linking to a helpful blog post that you want to drive a lot of traffic to

Promoted posts are a great way to ensure maximum visibility for your most important Facebook page updates.

Have you experimented with promoted posts? What do you think? Leave a comment below!

How to Run Suggested Posts Like the Pros

Posted by Kristina 14 May 2013 in Facebook Ads, Facebook Marketing and tagged Facebook suggested ads, Facebook suggested posts. Bookmark the permalink.

One popular type of Facebook Ad is the Suggested Post. It’s a great way to get in the newsfeed of your target audience before they even “like” your page.

Image credit: Mashable

When putting together a Suggested Post you want to carefully consider the following elements!

Say a Lot in a Few Words:

Because the viewer of a Suggested Post is someone who doesn’t yet “like” your page, they may not be familiar with your brand or products at all. This means you need to write your post in such a way that you:

Tell the viewer what you do
Provide a compelling offer
Insert a link

All while keeping the message short. After all no one is going to read your Suggested Post if it contains paragraphs of copy.

Here’s an example of a really great Suggested Post from Warby Parker:

The post talks about summer frames for eyeglasses. While the viewer might not know what Warby Parker’s “Try-On Program” is they do know what eyeglasses are and the $95 starting price is really compelling.

If the viewer is in the market for new eyeglasses, this Suggested Post should provide enough information to get the visitor to click because it answers, Who, What and Where.

Who: Warby Parker
What: Low-cost perscription eyeglass retailer
Where: Follow the link

When writing your own Suggested Posts, keep this Warby Parker example in mind!

Capture Attention with Images

While your Suggested Post most definitely must tell the viewer who you are and what you do, you must first capture their attention.

The best way to capture someone’s attention on Facebook is by using a high quality photo that fits in with the copy.

The picture in the Warby Parker example is great because it includes a colorful frame that goes along with their summer eyeglasses theme.

And here’s an example from Flint, a mobile credit card reader:

The background color of the image really helps the picture stand out against the white background of the Facebook newsfeed!

Track the ROI of the Post

The third thing you must do when putting together a Facebook Suggested Post is decide how you will track the ROI.

One very simple way is by offering a trackable promo code like in this BarkBox example:

The only problem with this is that it is easy for someone to forget to use the promo code. And of course with just a promo code you don’t get any other insightful data like how long the person spent on your site, bounce rate and any other Google Analytics data you might be interested in.

To track all of these metrics (including goal / ecommerce conversions) you simply need to append a little bit of code to the URL you use in the Suggested Post.

Both Warby Parker and BarkBox are doing this. When I clicked their links here is what I saw:

Warby Parker:

BarkBox:

At the end of each url are the parameters: UTM Source, UTM Medium and UTM Campaign (Warby Parker also includes UTM Content).

Each of these UTM variables correlates to a place that you can track the performance of people who click the URL in Google Analytics.

You can create these trackable URLs easily using Google’s URL Builder:

You simply add your URL and then a keyword for each of the parameters (source, medium and campaign name), then hit submit and Google creates the trackable URL for you. You can then copy and paste that URL into bit.ly to shorten it and place it directly in the post you are going to use on Facebook.

For Suggested Posts on Facebook, I recommend using “Facebook” as your source and “SuggestedPost” as your medium. The campaign keyword you use should be relevant to the ad you’re running. It can be a number (like in the BarkBox example) or it can be something readable like “MayBarkBoxPromo.”

Putting It All Into Action

When you’re ready to create your own Suggested Posts on Facebook, remember these three important factors:

Say a lot in a few words (answer who, what, where)
Capture attention with images
Be able to track ROI

If you can check off these to-do items before launching your Suggested Post you will have created a campaign like the pros!

A Quick Guide to Each of Facebook’s Partner Categories

Posted by Kristina 09 May 2013 in Facebook Ads and tagged facebook partner categories, facebook power editor partner categories, list of facebook partner categories. Bookmark the permalink.

(Image courtesy of Mashable)

Facebook recently introduced Partner Categories which offer marketers many new options for targeting ads based on a user’s purchasing and browsing histories.

The three new Facebook partners are: Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon. You may know them as three of the biggest enterprise data providers. They each have their own database full of insights on consumer transactions and purchasing trends.

Using Partner Categories for Facebook ad targeting you can reach a very specific group of consumers. For example, if you’re General Mills you might want to reach people who buy children’s cereal – and now you can do just that.

Below you will find a list of all of Facebook’s Partner Categories and exactly who you can target using those categories.

Acxiom Facebook Ad Categories

Acxiom data allows Facebook advertisers to target ads by:

Demographics: If you choose to target by demographic data from Acxiom you will be able to reach people by “Home” which includes if the person is an owner, renter, their length of residents and so on. You can also target by household size (1 to 6 people).
Financials: Targeting your Facebook Ads using Financial data from Acxiom allows you to reach bank card users, credit card users and investors. Within the credit card category you can segment your reach by gas/depertment store/retail store card, premium card, travel/entertainment card and upscale department store. You can also reach people based on their typical spending method (cash or credit).
Job Role: Acxiom’s categories allow you to target your Facebook ads by job role. There are a variety of different options you can choose from including: admin, white collar, blue collar, education, legal professional, financial professional, military, sales, student and more.This ability to target people based on their job may impact LinkedIn Ads, which have traditionally been where marketers go when they need to run a campaign towards specific job types.
Purchase History: Using Acxiom’s Purchasing category will allow marketers to target users based on what they are spending money on such as: gas, computer electronics, office supplies, travel services, vehicles and more.

Datalogix Facebook Ad Categories

Datalogix categories let marketers really drill down into niche market segments including:

Auto Companies in the auto industry will be very pleased with the targeting parameters that Datalogix provides. You can now choose to target people based on when they last made a vehicle purchase, what brand, body style and make was purchased and whether a person has a high affinity for leasing. You can even choose to target motorcycle owners.
Buying History Datalogix provides many advertising categories based around buying history. Marketers can choose to target: bakery buyers, soda buyers, hot tea drinks, people who likes sports drinks, cereal buyers, organic food lovers, dieters, dog owners, cat lovers and more!
Demographics While Acxiom offers demographic targeting based on home ownership and household size, Datalogix offers categories based on travel type (business, cruise, family vacations, international, casino, etc.), hobbies (cat owner, dog owner, RV owner, etc.) and lifestyle interests (auto enthusiast, fashionista, DIYer, gamer, gadget geek, healthy and fit, leisure travelers, spa mavens, etc.).
Retail Purchase History Similar to Acxiom, Datalogix offers Facebook advertisers the ability to target users based on their purchase history. They offer many categories including: children’s product buyers, corporate attire buyers, fitness buyers, men’s fashion buyers, pet supply buyers and more. Almost any category you can think of you can target using Acxiom data.
Subscription Services Marketers can also choose to target subscription services users with Datalogix categories including: auto insurance, mortgage holders, online students and satellite tv owners.

Epsilon Facebook Ad Categories

Epsilon is the third company involved in Facebook’s Partner Categories and they help you target people by:

Type of Business Using Epsilon categories you can target Facebook users who work for a corporation, home office or small office.
Occupation Similar to Acxiom, marketers who need to target users by job type can do so using Epsilon’s Occupation category.
Financials Using the Financials category, Facebook advertisers can target people who currently have an auto loan.
Lifestyle and Interests Under the Lifestyle and Interests Category advertisers can reach people who: donate to charity, are conservative, are liberal, give to veteran causes, are a magazine subscriber and more.
Purchase History Epsilon doesn’t provide comprehensive purchase history targeting like the other two Facebook parnters; however they do offer targeting based on whether someone is an online buyer or a retail buyer and how much they spend on average.

Our team is currently working hard to integrate Partner Categories into AdEspresso so you can begin split testing ads using the new categories to find out which one is performing better. We should have that ready for you in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, you can use Facebook’s Power Editor to create ads using Partner Categories.

Have you created any Partner Category ads yet? Are you planning to? What do you think of them?

Facebook testing new timeline page recommendation

Posted by Massimo Chieruzzi 03 Apr 2013 in Facebook Marketing and tagged facebook pages, reccomendation. Bookmark the permalink.

Don’t know if you’ve already seen this, for us it’s a first timer! Looks like Facebook is testing a new timeline element to suggest to you new Facebook Pages talking about things of your interest. Here’s a screenshot of the new element:

As you can see this post is not coming from a page I liked but it’s talking about a topic I liked, Pearl Jam. The title clearly states “X is posting about Y“.

With Facebook pages already struggling to reach their actual fans, is there enough space for more content in the news feed from pages the users don’t even like? Facebook will have to dose this really well to avoid annoying users!

However this could be a great way for new pages to grow their fan base and find new, interested followers. Let’s just hope everyone won’t start posting about really popolar pages just to reach a broader audience with irrelevant content.

What about you? Do you like this new recommendation system ?

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