Facebook advertising provides the most robust platform for audience targeting and analysis. With the most sophisticated psychographic targeting available on any digital platform, Facebook remains the ideal venue to find and reach your audience. As our CEO Kristopher Jones regularly states, knowing your audience more in-depth than your competition is your competitive advantage.
Following our 10 effective Facebook strategies, let’s explore 10 Facebook advertising facts that will make you rethink about the importance and strategy of Facebook advertising.
1. Facebook is the largest social network
At the end of Q3 2017, Facebook registered an estimated 2.07 billion active monthly users, retaining its decade long dominance over the social media market. According to the Pew Research Center, 79% of American internet users use Facebook, which is 2x higher than any other competing social network. With the largest user base in the world, your audience is awaits you.
2. Facebook uses 98 user data points to target ads
It’s no secret that Facebook and Google collect troves of personal data. Facebook’s data warehouse is equipped to hold over 300 petabytes of data across 800,000 tables. According to Facebook’s own blog, “Facebook generates 4 new petabyes of data and runs 600,000 queries and 1 million map-reduce jobs per day.” At this point, Facebook probably knows more about us than we do.
3. Facebook retargeting increases impression reach and reduces costs per action by 33%
According to Social Media Examiner, Facebook retargeting can nearly double impression reach and reduce your ad CPC by 26%. Retargeted ads have a 10x higher CTR than display ads and provide a great strategy to recover lost leads.
4. Using custom audiences for ad targeting lowers CPC
One case-study found that targeting ads by custom audiences, instead of interests or categories, resulted in a 14% reduced CPC. The average Facebook ad CPC across all industries lies at $1.72.
5. Facebook’s organic reach continues to decline
Organic post engagement has reportedly dropped by 20% since January, 2017. Last year, Facebook changed its news feed algorithm to favor posts from user’s friends and family over brands. In some cases, posts from small businesses and brands may only reach around 2% of their intended audience. Use sponsored posts to get your message directly in front of your audience and draw some eyeballs to your website.
6. You need to switch your bid
You can’t leave your bidding strategy on autopilot to be successful in paid media management. LSEO has discovered this through various campaigns. The logic comes from the fact that the advertising marketplace is very sensitive, so without adapting to competitor bidding strategies, your advertisements may not be served or gather the clicks you’d like. This remains especially true for seasonal ad copy, which is incredibly sensitive around the holiday season.
7. 47% of Facebook users only access the platform through mobile
In 2015, Facebook recieved 19% of the $70 billion spent on mobile advertising worldwide. In fact, 78% of Facebook’s advertising revenue comes from mobile advertisements. Over 700 million users visit the platform through a mobile device everyday. It’s vital to include mobile into your multi-channel marketing campaign to reach your customers.
8. The average Facebook ad CTR is low
An Adspresso case-study confirmed that ads with a high CTR tended to have a lower CPC. It’s important to remember that CTR doesn’t necessarily translate to increased conversions or revenue. With such a low CTR and general advertisement mistrust, your focus should be on converting visitors who actually make it to your landing page.
9. 70% of instream Facebook videos ads (<15 seconds) are viewed until completion
Facebook prioritizes video over textual content and display ads. Videos for organic and paid campaigns typically receive higher engagement and have a higher chance to go viral organically. With instream video advertising, brands have a great chance to expand their organic presence.
10. Only 32% of Facebook users engage with brands regularly
Unfortunately, organic brand engagement remains relatively low. 40% of Facebook users have never even liked a page. This means that advertising remains the only viable route to reach this large population segment- close to 1 billion users.