White Paper The Essentiality of Facebook Advertising The Facebook Network What began in a dorm room as a membership website for Harvard College in 2004 developed into the biggest social media network of today! Facebook has created the largest, most highly-engaged audience on the globe. About 1.04 billion people log on to Facebook daily and its coverage is receiving a 17% year- on-year growth. It also claims more than 1.59 billion monthly active users, with numbers increasing each month. Facebook marketing has transformed conducting business and its use by local businesses to increase their markets. Facebook Advertising allows businesses to reach their target audience and connect real customers to businesses. There are more than 16 million business pages on Facebook. 42% of marketers say Rest of the world Asia-Pacific that Facebook is critical or Europe US & Canada 1,591 important to 1,545 1,490 their business. 1,441 1,317 1,393 1,276 1,317 509 1,228 492 453 471 436 411 423 376 385 540 471 496 522 426 449 368 390 410 323 282 288 292 296 301 307 311 315 201 202 204 206 208 210 213 217 219 Q4’13 Q1’14 Q2’14 Q3’14 Q4’14 Q4’15 Q2’15 Q3’15 Q4’15 Source: Facebook Q4 2015 earnings report data (publicly available) “It might be INTRODUCTION TO FACEBOOK As expected, it didn’t take much time for nice in the ADVERTISING them to think over it. Facebook ads were future to get introduced in the very next month. some ads going Facebook was launched with a purpose to offset the of social networking and communication, Facebook advertising has become a crucial cost of the and Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, was very element in the social marketing mix. servers” clear with the ideas and goals. However, The phenomenal rise of Facebook and it soon became a major channel for its colossal audience offer an excellent - Mark Zuckerberg to audience and marketers. But little did platform to build brand awareness and The Harvard Crimson they know that it would soon become a acquire revenue. One of the most essential (Harvard College Paper) March 1, 2004 huge channel for audience and marketers. parameters for a successful advertising 02 campaign is the ability to reach the right strategies on Facebook, advertisers can audience. reach more of the relevant consumers with the right messages, and build lasting Facebook presents highly-targeted segments engagement with loyal customers. to advertisers through its tools. By applying the right positioning and other advanced Then Vs Now Facebook ads have undergone tremendous changes with respect to appearance and influence since 2004 THE IMPACT conversion lift studies from various domains; it found the following impact points: For most marketers, Facebook advertising is more important than other platforms. • Roughly one-quarter of the campaigns Several brands recognize its inarguable showed statistically significant gains in returns —the most effective way to reach search referral traffic and micro-target the audience. The ease with which brands are able to effectively set up a • Campaigns showed higher volume, page and advertise makes Facebook a more more efficient traffic, and lower funnel exciting and favorable option. conversions Facebook, now, has more than 2.5 million • Campaigns from small businesses had advertisers on its platform, and a majority the greatest variance in lift of them are small to mid-sized businesses • The average lift in search traffic was (SMB). These businesses can run ads for 6.3% for mobile and 0.9% for desktop as less as $2.00 per day, which gives them multiple flexibility options. According to Advertising revenue makes up almost Socialbaker’s recent survey of marketers, 90% of Facebook’s earnings. According to 92% of respondents use Facebook Facebook’s advertising. Preferences for ads on other popular channels such as YouTube, Twitter, latest quarterly earnings data (Q4, 2015), and LinkedIn come in at 35%, 24%, and 23% a total revenue of $5.63 billion was earned respectively. In a study by the Facebook from advertising, which is an increase by Marketing Science team, it analyzed 23 over 20% since last quarter. 03 Payment and Other Fees Advertising Revenue (In Millions) $5,841 $204 $4,501 $4,042 $202 $3,851 471 $257 $3,543 $3,203 $226 $2,910 $2,585 $246 $2,502 $234 $241 $237 $2,344 $2,265 $2,676 $2,957 $3,594 $3,317 $3,827 $4,299 $5,637 Q4’13 Q4’14 Q2’14 Q3’14 Q4’14 Q4’15 Q2’15 Q3’15 Q4’15 Source: Facebook Q4 2015 earnings report data (publicly available) With more advertisers preferring Facebook advertising, the competition for grabbing users’ attention with paid ads is becoming challenging than ever. Marketers need a well-defined Facebook advertising strategy to produce quality results. ADVERTISING STRUCTURE One of the prime reasons for the success structure and flow over the course of time to of Facebook ads is the ease with which add more value to both the advertiser’s and the advertisers can operate ad campaigns. user’s experience. Facebook has kept refining its advertising • Setting up campaign based on marketing objective CAMPAIGN • Setting targeted parameters AD SET • Allotting budget • Set on/off time and date • Adding creative AD • Previewing ads on different devices • Payment and initiating 04 CAMPAIGN Campaign in the Facebook ad structure • Reach people near your business refers to the objective of the advertiser for running ads. The objectives are: • Raise attendance at your event • Boost your posts • Get people to claim your offer • Promote your page • Get video views • Send people to your website • Collect leads for your business • Increase conversions on your website These objectives vary and each of them has separate metrics for performance analysis. • Get installs of your app It is very essential for a brand to identify its advertising objectives before embarking on • Increase engagement in your app a campaign. Campaign Objective Cost-to-Performance Metrics Performance Metrics Boost your posts CPM/Post engagement Reach, engagement Promote your Page CPM/CPC Impressions Website visits CPM/CPC Clicks, CTR Website conversions CPA Conversions Get installs of your app CPA Actions Increase App engagement CPA Actions, clicks Reach near business CPM Impressions Get video views CPM/10-second video view Impressions, views Raise event attendance CPM/CPC Action Collect business leads CPM Actions Get people to claim offer CPM/CPC Impressions, actions 600 AD SET equilibrium. Facebook’s advanced targeting Facebook ads options give a brand multiple parameters to have more than Ad set is the second step and the most funnel their required audience. 600 targeting relevant part of the structure. Here, the options user/brand has to • Location identify the target audience, allocate • Age & Gender budget, and set up schedules for running the ad. • Languages Audience • Demographics The ads should reach the people they are • Interests meant to, or to someone who may be • Behaviors relevant to the brand • Connections for its business. Precise targeting is very essential to ensure a cost-to-return • Custom audience (add or upload specific contacts list) 05 Budgeting & Scheduling Content: The content part includes the ad headline and the description. The headline Facebook allows the user to start with ads or the title of the ad should be what the ad is costing as less as $0.59 per day (INR 40). about. The character limit for the headline is A low minimum bar to initiate ads is very 25, therefore should be decided accordingly. essential for SMBs to push their presence out The character limit for description is 90. It and reach masses. As the budget is pushed should be precise and relevant to the ad or up, the reach and engagement rate goes up, the brand. too. Conversion Tracking: FFacebook ads also Scheduling involves the time duration for the enable the user to track the conversions that ads. A continuous running time has the ads happen through running throughout the day. On the other hand, setting a start time and a stop time ads. A standard code can be generated for enables a user to run ads for a specific time each conversion parameter to be added to frame in a day; say 1PM – 3PM. Determining the website’s code. the exact time of the day and days of the week in which your ads perform well is one Ad preview: The preview section gives the of the most important aspects of Ad Set user a snapshot of how the ad will look in scheduling. the Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, and Desktop right column. For determining when to run ads, it is recommended to use the Facebook analytics VITAL ADVERTISING TRENDS to determine user activity graph, which displays the time and day of the week when Facebook ads are an integral part of the fans of a page are interacting most with marketing plan for businesses, be it big them. conglomerates or SMBs. These brands need to adapt and utilize every aspect of it. With Ad new trends in Facebook ads, these brands can maximize their return on investment The final step in the ad structure is creating (ROI). the final Ad with creatives and content. Creative: The user can add an image, a MOBILE ADVERTISING slideshow, or a video as a creative in the ad. The images used should be easily identifiable The spread of smartphones has been quicker and attractive. Any content on the image than any consumer technology in human should be readable. Ad images with text history, that takes up more than 20% of the image don’t get approved by Facebook; hence, it reaching market maturity faster than radio, is essential to add less but relevant text (if TV, commercial Internet, and many other required).