Facebook: Active Ads Outperform Passive Ads
There are two types of ads on Facebook: Ones where there’s a passive action, or no action at all, and ones that communicate an activity – someone is doing something. Here we’ll discuss why the latter is often preferable.
Let’s start with the passive ads. Facebook still offers traditional external-website ads that come without social interaction whatsoever. You see an ad to the right of your feed – which only means you’re part of the advertiser’s target group – and if you click through you’re sent to the advertiser’s website.
Nothing you do is communicated to your friends and there are zero viral qualities.
On the opposite side of the spectrum we have sponsored stories which main purpose is to highlight an activity. If you use or share an application, check in somewhere, RSVP to an event, listen to a song, read an article etc., this information is spread to your friends (or more specifically, your friends that the Facebook algorithm thinks are relevant to this information.)
These ads show that you’ve made an effort to actually do something beyond clicking out to a webpage or just clicking “like”. You are using your valuable time to go to that concert, play that game, listen to that song, read that article or visit that restaurant.
Just go to yourself. Which one of these ads would you rather click?
1. Come Dine at Dani’s Bistro
2. [Name of your friend] Has Dined at Dani’s Bistro
Remember, you’re on Facebook to see what your friends are up to, and if the ads can communicate that, if they can tell a story, they often become much more effective.
Open Graph Opens for Active Ads
When Facebook started it was built around a social graph, a model that analyzes what everyone is doing on the site and shows that information to relevant friends.
Lately, Facebook has put a lot of effort into developing their open graph, which is the same thing but for external websites and apps. In other words, if you have an app you can connect this with Facebook’s API, and when someone uses the app you’re able to transfer this information to Facebook. The user’s friends will now see what he’s up to.
These ads focus solely on activity.
Data has shown that websites and app producers that connect with Facebook through the open graph raise their click-through rates with over 200%; action targeting also increase purchase rates with 150%.
Facebook users are simply driven by activity, and the action verbs connected to the open graph, such as watch, listen and play, are just much more effective than passive their passive counterparts. And if this action verb is connected to what your friends are up to, chances are that ad performance will improve.
If you use Facebook for business, think about how you can make your ads communicate activity rather than passiveness.
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