In my last post, I discussed ways advertisers can immediately get more out of their current Facebook campaigns.  In summary, I encouraged advertisers to leverage all FBX inventory sources, most notably News Feed, and to measure FBX as part of their existing display budget.  To help underscore some of these ideas, I wanted to share campaign results for a leading UK telecom provider.

Since January, this client has been running a multi-faceted ad campaign, aimed at upselling existing customers and acquiring new ones.  To meet these goals, this client strategically decided to leverage FBX and used a combination of both News Feed and standard RHS ad placements to hit an aggressive CPA target in the mid-nineties.  Here is what has happened so far….

Key points to focus on:

•    Advertiser beat CPA goals by more than 3x on blended CPA basis
•    News Feed CTR 13x higher than standard RHS
•    Highly engaged customers on News Feed; more than 7x post click conversion rate than standard RHS units
•    RHS complimented News Feed nicely driving post view conversions

Important to note that while this data highlights the value of News Feed that does not mean that advertisers should turn to News Feed at the expense of RHS.  In fact, as supported by the data above, the best performing campaigns on FBX leverage both inventory types as this mix often leads to an increase in clicks at a lower CPC.  This is just one success story (of many) where advertisers are having incredible success on News Feed & RHS inventory.

With over 1.1 billion monthly users and 28% of U.S. ad impressions, Facebook Exchange is about as close as you get to a performance advertising slam dunk.   For performance campaigns, where every user is extremely valuable, FBX allows advertisers to reach more hyper-valuable users at the right time than any other supply source.   Sounds awesome right?  Well, it is.  Even better, we have some best practices to make sure you are the getting the most out of FBX:

1. Converge Your Plan.  Don’t treat FBX as a separate “social channel.”  Instead, incorporate this rich supply source into your existing display campaigns and watch while you blow the doors off your conversion goals.

2. Find the Right Mix.  With the addition of News Feed inventory into FBX, it is absolutely imperative that every Facebook campaign take advantage of both these media sources.  News Feed inventory, by nature, tends to be more personal and engaging, as your ad is parked right in front of where Facebook users spend most of their time.  Not surprising, we have seen 16x higher CTR’s and CPA reductions ranging from 40%-60% against standard Right Hand Side ads.  RHS ads are still a great cost effective way to remarket and prospect on Facebook. News Feed simply extends the scale and impact that RHS ads have had.  Because the News Feed auction is much more competitive and inventory is scarcer, it’s import to continue running RHS ads to ensure reach. We are seeing clients have tremendous results with this combination strategy.

3. Try different products, features, and tactics.  Don’t just stick to the same old.  The best marketers are always trying to find new ways to reach their audience and FBX wants to give you the tools to do that.  If remarketing is working well for your campaign, leverage MediaMath’s decision engine and layer on algorithmic prospecting.   If you are using first and third party data on other display campaigns, make sure you try those same segments on FBX. Haven’t tried FBX’s Real Time Dynamic Creative product yet?  If not, you are missing out…

There are a lot of factors that go into making an FBX campaign perform, you just need to find the right partner to help you achieve your goals.