AdParlor January 2024 Newsletter: Level Up with Measurement

By Winson Leung, Sierra Underhill & Alyson Salva

What’s new in the world of measurement? Turns out, a lot!

Is it just us, or do you also find yourself getting a bit geeky about measurement and analytics? If you answered yes, you’re in the right place, because this AdParlor newsletter edition is focused on navigating measurement in a new era. We’re also sharing learnings from tests AdParlor has executed recently on Meta and TikTok to help you start your Q1 testing off with a bang. Let’s jump in!

Key Takeaways from the Meta Measurement Forum:

In early November, AdParlor was invited to join Meta’s Measurement Forum: a one day in-person event focused on how advertisers can improve performance with a measurement strategy that’s grounded in incrementality. If you don’t have time to watch the full webinar recording, we’ve got you covered with key takeaways below. Spoiler alert – Meta’s measurement roadmap has us drooling.

AI is the backbone of Meta’s future measurement solutions:

• _{Infrastructure: AI improves the performance and efficiency of the ads system. AI continues to help the system make smarter and faster decisions about who is most likely to take an action after seeing different types of ads.}
• _{Modeling: AI improves performance and measurement with less data. AI helps fill in the gaps when data is partial, making it less reliant on individual level data.}
• _{Measurement: AI evolves first party measurement solutions including Conversion Lift, Marketing Mix Modeling and A/B and Multi-cell Testing.}

Weighted Attribution Conversion Lift Test (Closed Beta) 📈

Meta is currently testing ways to optimize towards incremental conversions.

💡PRO TIP: an incremental conversion is an action that would not have happened if a consumer didn’t see your ad.

Incrementality is a primary KPI for many advertisers focus on direct-response initiatives as it helps ensure they are constantly creating net new customer touchpoints, potentially yielding additional revenue opportunities. Meta is looking at improving this product after initially testing it with select advertisers.

AdParlor POV:

An AdParlor client participated in Meta’s Weighted Conversion Alpha in Q4 to validate Metaʼs hypothesis that this type of optimization may increase conversion lift and improve measurement alignment with common tools such as Google Analytics, MMM, etc. The 2-cell test consisted of a BAU Conversion optimization cell and a Weighted Conversion optimization cell that ran over a 2.5 week period. While the Weighted Conversion cell drove more site visits than BAU (observed in-platform and client’s Adobe metrics), incremental conversion lift was relatively the same across both cells. BAU drove ~10% higher ROAS and a more efficient cost per acquisition. AdParlor is eager to conduct further testing in Q1 after product enhancements are made, as we see a lot of potential with this new optimization solution.

External Data Optimization (Closed Alpha) 📣

Meta is exploring further enhancements to its External Data Optimization product, aiming to facilitate the integration of data from external measurement tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe. This integration will allow Meta’s delivery system to optimize toward a brand’s “source of truth” data that is most valuable to their business.

AdParlor POV:

Many of AdParlor’s clients choose to leverage Adobe or Google Analytics data over native platform data as their source of truth. Reliable third-party data tools provide unified views of cross-platform performance and often provide more flexibility and customization when it comes to tracking and measurement. Once available, Meta’s External Data Optimization tool will be a game-changer. Meta campaigns should see more efficient ad spend and improved performance. Plus, can we get an 🙌 amen 🙌 for the time & resources marketers will save by not having to stitch multiple data sources together to get the full performance picture?

Conversion Lift Study Self-Serve (Available Now)

Meta released its Self-Serve Conversion Lift Study tool in the last few months. This feature was added to the Experiments tab within Meta Ads Manager alongside other self-serve measurement tools – A/B Testing and Brand Lift. There’s no additional cost for self-serve Conversion Lift tests, but ad campaigns need to have a minimum of 500 conversions with a 1-day click, 7-day click or 1-day view attribution settings. Recently, however, Meta announced the deprecation of self-serve Brand Lift studies unless the ad account is allowlisted, which benefited smaller businesses that may not hit the $120K spend minimums for a fully-managed Brand Lift Study.

AdParlor POV:

Historically, only Meta reps had the ability to set up Conversion Lift Tests, so a self-serve option is a huge value-add for advertisers that may not have access to a dedicated Meta support team. However, there are some limitations to consider. The self-serve tool doesn’t allow you to adjust your holdout audience percentage like a fully-managed test, which can impact ability to achieve statistically significant results.

Fully-managed tests leverage Meta’s internal power calculator tool to help determine the minimum holdout percentage needed for your test based on your investment and audience size. A smaller holdout percentage can yield better efficiency, while a larger holdout can ensure statistically significant data. AdParlor recommends working with your dedicated Meta support team to facilitate Meta-managed conversion lift tests, when available.

Lightweight A/B testing capabilities (Global rollout coming 🔜)

Lightweight A/B testing capabilities are currently available across four Advantage Suite products (Advantage+ creative standard enhancement, catalog ads, shopping campaign and placements) with a global rollout coming soon! A/B set up functionality is directly integrated within the ad campaign creation flow, making it easy to quickly validate results of your split test.

More measurement updates….

And what’s new in AdParlor’s
measurement world? Also, a lot!

💡Testing Highlights 💡

The below examples showcase experiments that were conducted recently at AdParlor. The results are meant to provide guidance on possible experiments, but are not absolute truth given the sample sizes are small.

TikTok Pulse

TikTok Pulse is a newer contextual advertising solution where brands can place their ads next to the top 4% of videos based on video views, community engagement, creator quality and brand safety. Within the For You Feed, brands can choose from a list of 12 content topics that would be relevant to their brand strategy. TikTok’s inventory filter technology ensures that TikTok Pulse ads are running adjacent to verified content with the highest level of brand safety. Pulse is available through a reservation buy on TikTok Ads Manager and bought with a predetermined fixed CPM.

For a CPG brand, a TikTok Brand Lift study proved that running on Pulse helped drive 4.7% higher brand awareness and increased brand association than running on In-Feed auction placements alone.

Results: Max Pulse had a larger impact with the same investment level. Because of the lower fixed CPM, Max Pulse served 15% more impressions and resulted in a 13% increase in unique reach (which we expected). What we didn’t necessarily expect is that the broader targeting of Max Pulse drove higher click through rates (CTR), higher video completions and higher engagement rates. These results help validate that relinquishing targeting control and opening up to broader targeting can be really powerful, particularly for new product launches. It can allow us to achieve cost-effective reach and discover new, untapped audiences that fall outside of our typical customer cohort.

The ‘Influence’ of Influencer Creatives

With the rise of new AI powered ad solutions, platforms are encouraging advertisers to loosen up targeting restrictions and opt for broader audiences. With less reliance on targeting, the focus has now shifted to creative. Through testing, we have found that diversification of creative concepts leads to better overall results. In particular, brands that supplement their highly-produced brand assets with influencer-led creatives tend to see stronger overall results.

Two of our AdParlor clients ran tests on Meta to evaluate the impact of including influencer-led creatives to their BAU creative mix. For Client 1, an A/B test demonstrated that the BAU + Influencer creative cell yielded a 9% more efficient Cost Per Reach than the BAU only cell. Client 2 ran a Multi-cell Brand Lift Study on Meta that determined the BAU + Influencer cell drove 2.4% higher Brand Lift metrics than BAU alone (more results below).

AdParlor Client 1 Test Results

AdParlor Client 2 Test Results

CreatorFuel Top Takeaways:

Creative is the new targeting. AdParlor encourages brands to expand the scope of creative concepts by experimenting with new ideas and appeal to customer emotion through multiple avenues. Incorporating influencer led creatives provides a different perspective to increase brand awareness and has been a key driver in reaching net new audiences. Contact us below to learn how CreatorFuel can level-up your BAU strategy.

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About AdParlor

AdParlor, an agency established in 2008 and now a division of Fluent (NASDAQ: FLNT), is a leading provider of data-driven digital media strategy and execution that unlocks explosive growth for world-class and disruptive brands. Through our GrowthFuel framework we offer proprietary performance marketing solutions that have scaled our clients’ programs profitably, with our clients’ success being our sole agenda.  Our custom technology solves problems related to creative insights, creative production, real time cross-platform reporting and more.  Brands choose AdParlor because our unmatched expertise in ecommerce digital media delivers impactful full-funnel performance campaigns for profitable growth.