What does this mean for you as a brand or advertiser? For starters, you get a more comprehensive and intelligent set of data. One of the biggest hurdles facing our industry today is not only the amount of data available to us but how we put the information we have to “work” in order to improve the return for every dollar spent. Better analytics lead to smarter business decisions- no one should disagree with that concept. This feature will enable advertisers to measure display, search and Facebook ads from one comprehensive platform.

In the past, marketers have built benchmarks and KPI’s based on click through rates and last click conversion attribution or giving “credit” to the ad unit with the most recent click. We’ve known for years that the last click methodology was less than ideal. Multi-channel media plans are becoming the norm and it is essential to not only grasp the full ROI of each medium but also “close the loop” and attribute each conversion correctly.

For example, I am in the market for a refrigerator. I conduct a few broad (1-2 keyword) searches and begin my journey. Along the way, I am retargeted by display ads desperately seeking my attention. During my daily visit to Facebook to see what activities my friends are involved in, I am “reminded” via the newsfeed or RHS that my quest for the perfect refrigerator is not over. After selecting a brand and model I use a long tail or 4-5 keyword search for the most precise results, click on a paid search ad and conduct my purchase. In the last click attribution model the long tail paid search ad receives all of the credit when in fact each product interaction and “touchpoint” made an impact on my purchase.

Closing the attribution loop has been a major obstacle for Facebook and many of the larger platforms in the industry. The average Facebook user spends almost seven hours each month on the site, and without a solution in place to properly attribute conversions Facebook was missing the opportunity to prove its effectiveness in driving conversions, hence the importance of a solution like Atlas. As an agnostic ad server, Atlas tags are distributed across multiple digital channels providing insight into the “path” a user takes from the initial impressions to the final conversion. With today’s announcement, Atlas view-tags can now also be used in cases where the advertiser is leveraging custom audience targeting, lookalike audience targeting, and partner categories.

Together with Atlas, Facebook is delivering the features, targeting capabilities and analytics marketers can benefit from now and in the future.

Few should be surprised by Facebook’s recent announcement that mobile accounted for nearly 30% of revenue generated in Q1. Following years of increased market adoption, smartphones have become a staple in our everyday lives, as represented in a recent survey from eMarketer, based on IDC data.  Posted on April 17th, the article cites that “62% of all respondents aged 18-44 said they reached for their device immediately after waking up, while 79% did so within 15 minutes of rising.” I’ll admit it – I am part of the 62%! Additionally, those that participated in the study offered that they check their newsfeed several times a day adding up to 16.4 minutes a day, – that’s 114 minutes a week and 492 in a month!

To date Apple has sold over 37.4 million smartphones and 19.5 million iPads attributing to the rising number of apps available today. According to InsideMobileApps, there were more than 700 million apps in the App Store, 90% of those receiving new downloads each month. For developers this presents a classic challenge – How can I gain awareness and increase installs in a market that seemingly expands in real time? One clear answer is Facebook’s mobile app install ad unit.

This ad unit appears in a users’ mobile newsfeed, and lays a direct path to the relevant app store for download. In Q1, the Facebook mobile app install ad unit accounted for 25 million app installs, a clear indicator this ad unit is here to stay.

As a result, we have seen spend on this ad unit steadily increase month over month with existing advertisers as well as new advertisers. By working closely with Facebook and mobile measurement partners – we have continued to focus on driving ROI and increasing engagement for advertisers utilizing mobile app install ads in their marketing plans.  

According to recent data, CTR’s for this ad unit have more than quadrupled since December of 2012. We’ve also seen a steady increase in CPM’s – capping at close to $6 in March alone, as Facebook has continued to layer on better algorithms, more creative flexibility, and more advanced targeting.

As Facebook continues to rollout a more premium mobile environment we expect the mobile platform to continue to play an even larger role in the social network’s overall business strategy.

So what really grabs your target’s attention on Facebook? What makes them get out of their seats and take action? How do you as a marketer ensure your brand is top of mind? According to AllFacebook, the image portion of your ad contributes to roughly 70% of the value of your ad––meaning if your image fails to impress on that first impression you may not get a second chance. We’re often asked about a magic formula for targeting Facebook’s diverse fan base and the simple answer is – there isn’t one. We have, however, learned quite a bit over the years from running successful Facebook ad campaigns for Fortune 500 brands and thought we’d share a few tried and true tips.

1. Size & Space

When it comes to RHC (“Right-hand column”) ads, utilizing the available space is crucial. These ad images are only 110×80 pixels, and the last thing you want to do is waste the image space with text that’s too small to read, or images that are too tiny to see in detail. Using the space to display a visually appealing and relevant image attracts a user’s attention and keeps the experience positive.

In the examples above, the first image uses type that’s too small to be legible and incorporates an image that doesn’t speak to the service. Without carefully reading the ad, the user could think that laptops are being sold, or old ones purchased–– there’s nothing to indicate that the ad is for laptop repair. In the second ad, the image makes effective use of the space, incorporates tools to indicate repair work, and grabs attention with the bright orange exclamation mark. All in all, a much more effective image that will garner more attention, and more clicks.

2. Color Schemes

Facebook offers an array of activities, so getting your ad to “pop” is paramount within the social environment. Thankfully, Facebook’s branding is consistently white and blue. The cool color scheme suggests that images that favor a warm color scheme will pack more of punch. Reds, oranges, yellow and lime greens will draw attention when contrasted against Facebook’s background, but keep in mind that red can sometimes be more harsh, or have negative connotations when used in certain contexts.

3. Logo Use

A common belief among brands is that your logo is instantly recognizable to almost everyone; however using your logo as your solo advertising image could lead to a much smaller impact than expected. Sure, you might attract the attention of users who are already engaged with your brand, but more likely, you’ll get lost in the sea of other more engaging images.

4. Cropping

The way in which you crop a photo defines what the viewer focuses on and how well that image works. Cropping an image closely to create a focal point helps to engage the viewer by displaying detail, emotion or focus, whereas cropping it too far away shows so little detail that it often fails to attract any attention.

Note how the first image doesn’t show the viewer nearly as much emotion and detail as the other. Closer crops provide more detail and clearer, cleaner images which a user is much more likely to connect with.

5. Unconscious Common Sense

I know, I know. We all think that we’re the only ones impervious to subtle unconscious cues in advertising – but we’d be wrong. Those unconscious subtle cues are something worth thinking about when choosing images. The two images below are…. almost identical, give or take a mirror. But there’s a major difference when selecting which one to use for your ad campaign.

So, when choosing images featuring people, pay special attention to the eyeline, or any gestures that might direct the user’s eye. You’ll always want them to go to the RIGHT, in the direction of your ad copy. It’s great if the viewer notices and likes your image, but you need them to read your copy not just see it. Why not help them along a bit?

6. Creativity, Creativity, Creativity.

Can we say it again? Want someone to notice you? Be unique and test creative (there’s that word again) ways to represent your brand within the confines of an 110×80 image. It’s important to keep testing new elements – set and define a trend, don’t copy one.

The above is an example of out-of-the-box thinking. This ad used the white background to create the illusion that the warrior’s helmet is popping out of the frame – definitely a touch of creative flare, and an image that will draw the eye.
Below are a few images that excelled at grabbing the attention of the viewer due to the graphic elements included. These successful ad images all incorporate bright colors, great call-outs, close-crops, starbursts, borders and fun imagery.

7. Take a Different Point of View

Let’s take into account what might pique your users’ interest. What makes your brand (and your images) different from the rest?

As an example, a video game client recently began their campaign using imagery of in-game play very similar to their competitor’s ads. The images looked ok, but didn’t seem to intrigue the viewer enough to encourage a conversion. After assessing the situation and brainstorming solutions, our creative team realized that one of the key selling points to this game was it allowed for live multi-player gameplay. Our client’s competitor’s game on the other hand did not have this feature. We created a new set of images alluding to this by including multiple profile pictures and instructive callout text. By allowing the images to introduce the multi-player feature we were able to grab users attention and drive higher click and conversions rates.

At the end of the day, make every effort to understand your target audience and test creative variations. Our design team is constantly monitoring graphic trends and introducing new concepts to our clients to obtain higher conversion rates and ROI. So take advantage, and make the most of your Facebook advertising budget by choosing the most effective images and make a great first impression – pun intended.

• Click-Through-Rates Are 15x Higher On Mobile
• Clicks are 30% Cheaper on Mobile
• Mobile Ads yield a CVR that is 16% lower than Non-Mobile Ads
• Entertainment vertical shows highest CTR on mobile
• Android has a 62% higher CTR than the iPhone & BlackBerry
• Fans coming from mobile comment 22% more and like posts 63% more than non-mobile users.
• Fans coming from non-mobile drive 6-8x more engagement in terms of creating posts, viewing photos, clicking on links, and watching videos.

The full report can be found here:
http://www.adparlor.com/pdfs/AdParlor_Report_State_of_Facebook_Mobile_Advertising.pdf

Things move quickly in the world of Facebook advertising. It’s no longer enough to buy a few Facebook ads, get users to “Like” your page and hope it strengthens your brand. You need an integrated marketing approach that considers both your paid media (Facebook ads) and earned media (word of mouth, shares, recommendations). As GM showed just days before Facebook’s IPO, one can exist without the other, but where it really works well is when the paid and earned media feed off each other.

What is Paid Media?

Buying ads on Facebook is one of the most effective ways to get your message to the right people. You can target your content toward those most likely to be interested in your brand and thus more likely to engage with it.

Paid media offers some great benefits. Your brand or agency crafts the message and the ads, giving you complete control over what goes out (with the exception of sponsored stories). You also control schedule of delivery and the number of ads that you’ll be serving. Paid media is easily measured, so you can see the impact it has on the growth of your Facebook page.

What is Earned Media?

When you buy a Facebook ad, you’re buying more than just a targeted fan: you’re buying the opportunity to access that fan’s social graph. With the proper incentives, fans will share and recommend your brand to their connections. If you target the right person with your Facebook ad, she’s more likely to recommend your page to her friend or her colleague who shares her interests. And that person in turn might share your content with a friend, and so on.

The more recommendations and shares you get, the more trust your brand will earn and the more engagement you’ll have on your page. This could become a snowball effect, where many users are sharing your brand — a lot more than you paid for with your original Facebook ad. In fact, you can see more long-term benefits from earned media than paid, as sharing can continue to expand long after your initial ad campaign has ended.

The Interaction between Paid and Earned Media

If your Facebook ads reach fans within your desired demographic, you can encourage many to go beyond the initial “Like” with calls-to-action to drive comments, shares and other interactions. In addition, if you’re active on your brand page, encouraging people to comment on and “Like” your posts, you can leverage a high degree of activity to buy effective “Page Post Like Sponsored Stories,” which use your fans’ comments in ads. This will get your brand prominently displayed in front of friends of fans.

Measuring Paid and Earned Media To Maximize Your Impact

As you invest in growing your fan page, you must monitor the effect of an ad buy on the overall health of your Facebook presence. It is not just about buying the cheapest fans; you should be looking for the highest-quality fans who will generate earned media. And you need to plan how to transform that earned media to more targeted and effective paid media.

There are two major things you should look at to monitor the quality of the fans you are bringing in.

First, instead of simply looking at your CPF (cost per fan) rate, you should look at your eCPF (effective cost per fan) rate. While the CPF of your ad campaign can tell you how much each new paid fan is costing your brand, the eCPF will show you how much each new paid + non-paid fan is costing. If you are bringing in high-quality fans, these (paid) fans will bring in more (non-paid) fans, and your eCPF will drop.

Second, you should look at what Facebook calls PTAT (people talking about this). Facebook defines PTAT as the number of unique users who have created a “story” about a page in a seven-day period. A story is any type of interaction,including liking a post, commenting and sharing. This again helps you identify the quality of the fans coming in to your page – as you can see that they are interacting with your page, and creating stories. In the screenshot below, we are looking at the AdParlor dashboard where we can see these crucial metrics for a fan-page campaign run by a major brand. While the client paid $1.49 per fan, the effective cost per fan was only 83 cents, resulting in an 81% non-paid lift. We can also see that only 8,638 people were talking about the brand when the campaign started, and in the first week of the campaign that number jumped to 42,112 – resulting in a 388% lift in PTAT.

I must say that I have been a little bit disappointed recently in the many, many, many analysts who have been knocking the Facebook valuation with very limited insight into what is going on with their advertising business. Their revenue potential is as strong as it has ever been and the social network continues to grow its users and roll-out innovative advertising products.

While there are many things that Facebook can do to drive revenue related to display, search, and mobile – let’s take a look at three immediate steps Facebook could take to ramp up revenues from its 500 Million+ monthly active users on mobile devices.

1. Show more Sponsored Stories in the mobile news feed – A sponsored story is a piece of news that you would see in your news feed anyways – turned into an ad. It is relevant, social and most people who see a sponsored story wouldn’t even recognize it as an ad. Simply put – sponsored stories work. Looking at campaigns AdParlor has run across numerous verticals show that on average, sponsored stories have a 17% higher click-through-rate and a 38% higher conversion-rate than regular marketplace ads.

When sponsored stories were first introduced they were only shown on the right-hand column. They were then rolled out into the news feed on the web version of Facebook. At fmc they announced that they would begin to serve sponsored stories on mobile, and on April 26th it seems to have gone live. However, most users have seen few if any sponsored stories in their mobile news feed as Facebook is slowly rolling this out while monitoring user experience. Facebook can easily flip the switch on this, increasing the volume of sponsored stories it shows in the mobile news feed and increase their mobile revenues.

2- Combining Location & Offers – A while back Facebook attempted to compete with Groupon and other daily deal sites by creating a deals product. They quickly shut that down for multiple reasons – and then re-emerged recently with an offers product. These offers are coupons which any page owner can create for free – and will begin to appear in a user’s news feed on the web. The real benefit will start to roll in when Facebook begins to serve these offers in the news feed on mobile devices to users who are near the store providing the offer. Even though an offer is free to create – if Facebook can leverage location-based mobile offers – page owners will begin to see the ROI and will purchase ads and sponsored stories against these offers to get more distribution beyond what is given for free. Additionally, brands will now have a very clear path to seeing ROI when buying fans. The investment question around the value of growing your fan base – at least for physical location retailers – will be answered. This is sure to increase the ad spend these companies will make on growing their fan base.

3 – Open up mobile device-specific targeting – There is currently a Facebook broad category targeting option for mobile devices. Advertisers can choose between Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone. However – this targeting simply means that a user has accessed Facebook through one of these devices. Creating an ad and selecting this targeting will show ads to these users – however they could be accessing Facebook via the web or even a different device. If Facebook were to tweak this and allow advertisers who select iPhone to have ads show specifically ON the iPhone to a user accessing Facebook from their iPhone – this would mark a significant opportunity. Specifically – one of the largest advertising categories on mobile devices is for apps – and the massive gaming subcategory. If Facebook were to enable actual mobile device-specific targeting – iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry application developers could then leverage Facebook advertising to drive application installs – taking the user right from the click of the ad into the corresponding app store. It seems that right now Facebook wants to limit mobile ads to be sponsored stories in the news feed for many reasons – to maintain user experience, to keep users within Facebook, and an effort to make it not feel like advertising. Given this – it is unlikely that Facebook would allow ads from the mobile news feed to direct users anywhere outside of Facebook. However – the opportunity is there – and the revenue potential is huge.

Naturally, demographics where there is more ‘supply’ and less ‘demand’ will be cheaper and vice versa. For example, if you wanted to target all 13-17 year olds in the US, Facebook would recommend a low CPC bid. This is because there are many of these users available; they tend to spend a lot of time on the site; and they are more likely to click on advertising. On the flip side, if you micro-target a small sector of female alumni in an affluent city, your recommended CPC bid would be higher as you are going after a small population, and there is a lot of competition for these users. This analysis of recommended CPC bids based of a certain demographic is definitely interesting, but the real fun begins when we analyze these values on a macro-level.

Overall, across multiple demographic and targeting segments, what is Facebook recommending to advertisers to bid for a click? Is there a variance between males and females? How do these values fluctuate over time? At AdParlor, we create thousands of ads every day through the Ads API and closely monitor these recommended CPC rates for changes in market conditions. This allows us to take advantage of segments when clicks are cheaper – and even shift budget according to the dynamic market conditions. What we have done is averaged out the recommended CPC rate every day using the median recommended bid of all the ads that were created that day. The ads created represent an accurate cross section of demographics and aggregately provide a strong picture on the market conditions. Let’s begin by looking at the data in the US from June 6^th, 2011 – August 15^th, 2011

The first thing to note, is that recommended CPC bids fluctuate a lot day-by-day. The average median recommended CPC price in the US over this time period is $1.44. While a lot of the values fall around this line, there are noticeable trends away from this average. In the period between July 12^th and July 25^th, the rates stayed consistently around $1.07 before jumping back up. More recently, we have seen a significant jump since August 3^rd, with a significant spike on the 10^th and 11^th of this month. Let’s take a look at the factors that can explain these fluctuations:

1 – A change in supply –the number of users, and their usage on the site can fluctuate over time. For example, there is a lot more usage on weekends than there is on weekdays. Additionally, Facebook is always making changes in the way ads are served to serve more valuable impressions on the site and this also has an impact. For example, adding a 4^th ad to the homepage or having ads rotate after a period of inactivity are both ways Facebook can increase the number of impressions available in the market, and hence can drive down market prices.

2 – A change in demand – While a large portion of Facebook advertising is done within the long-tail, there are certain advertisers, that can have a significant effect on the market. If one of these big spenders decides to take a break from advertising, or put the foot on the pedal, we can expect to see fluctuations in the market. Similarly, groups of advertisers can have the same effect. We notice a very marked increase in prices during Christmas – as retailers compete for Facebook impressions. This could explain the spike we are now seeing as ‘back-to-school’ campaigns begin to flood the marketplace.

3 – An algorithm change – The Facebook ad serving algorithm is constantly changing. In fact, even the recommended bid presented is a calculation that is always changing. Often, the smallest change in Facebook’s code can have a real or perceived change in the way ads are served, and the recommended pricing for those impressions.

Because all three of these factors are constantly competing with one another, it is difficult to conclude the real reason for the change in the recommended CPC price. Looking at data for other countries starts to make things even more interesting. Mapping the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia on the same graph as the United States, we can see that these countries follow a similar trend. If this fluctuation is due to a major advertiser, or group of advertisers, it seems that this effect spans across multiple countries.

While there is no real way of knowing exactly what causes these fluctuations in market conditions, it is important to understand that it does happen! The value of your bid one day can vary greatly from the next with the always-changing ad marketplace on Facebook. Be aware of this effect and realize that there is no direct answer to ‘How many impressions will I get if I bid $X on Facebook?’

One final graph with the data we have collected illustrates the difference between males and females across all countries. It seems that while prices for both genders spiked up last week, it can be primarily attributed to males.

As brands continue to increase their ad spending on Facebook, there is an ongoing conversation on how to most effectively deploy those dollars. Below is a six-step ‘Blueprint’ for effective brand advertising on Facebook. It combines the most efficient advertising medium (marketplace right-hand-column ads) with a splash of user engagement and re-targeting. These steps are not exclusive — you should not skip No. 1 and move on to No. 2. Rather, these should be added to the campaign one at a time, and by the end, all 6-steps should be running concurrently.

1) Standard Marketplace Ads
Objective: Grow your fan base

After you have built out the framework for your fan page — an attractive image, a thorough set of information, images, videos, as well as some custom tabs as you see fit — your initial marketing spend should focus on growing your fan base through standard marketplace ads. These ads pointing to your fan page will allow users to either “like” your fan page directly within the ad unit or click on the ad and “like” from the actual fan page. The goal will be to drive as many fans as possible at the lowest Cost Per Fan (CPF) rate possible while staying within your core target market. Ad copy should be kept short and effective (i.e., “If you like Cars, Like X”) and should be very direct in asking the user to like your page. Ideally, give the user a reason to like your page, effectively reducing your CPF rate (i.e., by liking X, your fans get access to exclusive content).

2) ‘Page Like’ Sponsored Story
Objective: Grow your fan base

A “Page Like” sponsored story is very similar to the standard marketplace ads. The difference is that it will be shown exclusively to friends of your fans and you have less control over the copy. For the user seeing this ad unit, he or she will specifically see some friends who have liked your page. The idea is that if one of my good friends has “liked” the page, I should also be interested. This ad unit becomes more effective as you grow your fan base. This is why it is important to first build up your fan base through standard marketplace ads before introducing “Page Like” sponsored stories.

3) Post Frequently
Objective: Engage your fan base

This is not an ad unit but it is crucial to mention posting strategy as part of brand advertising. Ensuring that you are engaging your fan base with regular posts will give you the ROI from steps 1 and 2 — and is essential for steps 4, 5, and 6. Since there is a load of literature on fan page posting frequency and strategy, I will just provide a few quick tips. Post at a minimum once a day. Keep your posts short (under 80 characters is ideal). Post when your audience is there (it may not always be during 9 to 5 working hours, depending on your brand). Provide clear instructions if you want them to engage. (i.e. ‘I think X is amazing. ‘Like’ this post if you agree!). Pose questions when you post to your fan page — these typically drive responses and a higher level of user engagement. If you do not engage your fan base with frequent and effective posts, you will be wasting your marketing dollars.

4) ‘Page Post’ Sponsored Story
Objective: Engage your fan base

This ad unit specifically leverages your hard work posting frequently in step 3 by taking the posts you make on your fan page and turning them into ad units which are shown to your existing fans. Here is the idea behind it: If you post to your page, it is quite likely that your fans may not even see it. They may log in several hours or days after the post has been made, and miss that post altogether. The page post sponsored story will convert that post into an actual ad unit and display it on the right-hand column — resulting in a much higher chance that your fans will see and engage with the posts that you make.

5) ‘Page Post Like’ Sponsored Story
Objective: Grow your fan base

This ad unit again leverages frequent posting to your fan page and is a hybrid of the page like sponsored story and the page post sponsored story. This ad is “created” when one of your existing fans likes one of your posts. It is then shown to the friends of your fans who liked your post. The concept is similar to the page like in leveraging the fact that a users’ social circle will influence their actions. This can be an extremely effective way to grow your fan base as the social context is there and the content is something much more engaging than simply your page alone. The content is leveraging a post on that page that can have a strong statement opinion, or question. Friends of your fans will be very likely to want to jump into the conversation if the post is powerful enough.

6) Standard Marketplace Ads
Objective: Leverage your large and engaged fan base

One of the biggest mistakes that brands make is feeling that growing their fan base and engaging them within the Facebook fan page is as far as this platform can go. This is not true. By growing your fan base and keeping them engaged you now have a phenomenal opportunity to direct these users elsewhere. By creating standard marketplace ads specifically targeted to your existing fan base, you can drive your fans to an external page. To give you an idea of how effective this can be, we ran a contest for a large telecommunications company that was looking for contest entries. When we targeted the brand’s existing fan base, we were able to get contest entries at 10% of the cost compared to advertising to the general public. These savings can become very significant as your fan base continues to grow and you can come up with effective ways to re-target your fan base. You can leverage your fan base for contests, market research and even promoting a sale and driving them directly to your e-commerce website to make a purchase. Be sure to use unique tracking links when targeting your existing fan base versus advertising to the general public and you will then be able to directly measure the difference in performance. This final piece is crucial for brands because it allows them to see a real and direct ROI on their entire Facebook ad spend.

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