Is Your Facebook Ad Relevant? With the Social Network’s New Scoring System, It’s Easy to Tell
More than one billion people use Facebook. Chances are, a large portion of your audience uses the ubiquitous social network too. Just about every brand has a Facebook page (or should), but with the rise of Facebook advertising, more brands are paying to get their product or service in front of the Facebook community. With built-in demographic and geographic options, as well as retargeting information gleaned from cookies, Facebook ads are a great way to reach a predetermined audience. However, in order to reach a large audience, brands must create relevant ads. Facebook is understandably concerned about flooding users’ feeds with promotional material. Users do not want to have to sift through multiple ads to find posts from friends and family. As a result, Facebook ad space can be relatively scarce. To handle the tidal wave of requests from marketers, Facebook ads operate on a bidding process. Advertisers can set bid prices on Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Mille (CPM) – the cost you pay per 1000 impressions. It’s not quite as random as it sounds; Facebook provides a suggested bid you’ll need in order to “win” the auction.
Of course, the amount of clicks and impressions you receive depends largely on how relevant your ad is. Targeting the correct audience for your products or services and creating an eye-catching design is key. And starting this week, you’ll no longer have to guess about your ad’s relevance – because Facebook will now quantify it for you. Based on shares, clicks, likes and “hide” options, Facebook will provide advertisers with a score of 1-10 for an ad’s relevance. This score will not only help advertisers gauge their efforts, but will factor into whether or not a bid is accepted – and could even compensate for lower bids, making Facebook advertising less costly for more effective ads. The following article from Ad Age is a good primer on the new feature. http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-starts-telling-brands-relevant-ads/297085/
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