So unless you’ve done Facebook advertising before, you might be under the impression that you just ‘run an ad’, but there are actually 11 Campaign Objectives to choose from (plus additional options within these). All of these objectives are measured differently and optimised for different goals, and are broken down into 3 stages – Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. So how do you know which one to choose, or should we say one(s)? Many people think that you run 1 Facebook ad to get leads or sales, but it actually involves a process (or sales funnel if that makes more sense to you), and you can read more about this here.

Let’s run through the different objectives to make this a little easier to understand.

Awareness

Brand Awareness Objective

So if for example, you are a new business and just want to get your name or brand ‘out there’ then Brand Awareness is a great first step. Brand Awareness is about showing as many people as possible your ad, and isn’t about getting people to click off to somewhere else or perform an action – its focus is making you memorable. Two days after seeing your ad, Facebook will informally poll a number of people and ask them what they can remember (if anything about your ad). The number of people who can remember is how the result is measured, and it’s called “Ad Recall Lift” (the number of people who can recall your ad or brand after 2 days).

Reach Objective

Reach is about showing your ad to as many people as possible from within your target audience, but also controlling how many times each of these people see your ad in a given period. Have you seen those ads that come up in your feed every day and you think to yourself “oh my gosh – leave me alone”! The reach objective allows you to control this to optimise how frequently your ads are shown to the same people so that rather than tick them off you can get them onside. According to Facebook research, the optimal reach is 3 impressions per 7 days, however, this will depend on what you are hoping to achieve from your ad. For example, if you’re running a Black Friday sale, you might choose to show your most loyal customers your ad 7 times in the 3 days leading up to the sale.

Consideration

Traffic Objective

This objective is about driving your audience to a place of further interaction to influence, generate interest and create purchase intent. This could be a landing page, a website, an e-commerce page, an app, or even to messenger (to contact your business). Additionally, this objective allows you to advertise an offer (for example a discount or coupon offer). This objective is all about building demand and can also be used for re-engagement (i.e. targeting people who have interacted with you previously).

Engagement Objective

If you want to get more people to see and engage with your post or Page, then this is the objective for you. Engagement can include comments, shares, likes, event responses and offer claims, and is usually a step 2 or 3 in your funnel. This can help you to grow your Facebook page followers or raise organic awareness around an event or campaign. This objective can also assist you at a later stage to re-target people with a more solid sales offer as you know they have already expressed interest.

App Installs Objective

This is pretty self-explanatory and is best suited to a new app being launched into the market. To run an App Install ad successfully you will need the Facebook SDK (Software Development Kit) installed on your app, and this will allow you to measure installs, app events, deferred deep links, create re-engagement ads, measure in-app conversions and more.

Video Views Objective

They say that if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video is worth 1million. That being said, video is an excellent way of introducing a product, a brand or an idea. It enables businesses to get the maximum amount of impact in the shortest possible time and is a great option for the first or second step in your sales process. Video is one of the most favourable formats in Facebook and its staggering growth rates reflect this. Using the video views option also allows you to retarget people who have watched your video and in varying increments (e.g. people who have watched 3-sec, 10-sec, 25%, 50%, 75%, 95% or 100%) so you know how engaged your audience is. You can also then create a lookalike audience from this.

Lead Generation Objective

Facebook has its own version of a ‘mini landing page’ and this is lead ads. Viewers are shown an ad, and if they click are able to see a welcome screen, and then fill in a form (which auto-populates with your contact data) and submit, all without leaving the Facebook platform. This objective would be great for businesses offering a lead magnet, signing up for an exclusive offer or for example booking a test drive for a new car. This objective also allows businesses to re-target people who have clicked on the ad, but not completed the form, or completed the form but not submitted it.

Messages Objective

Messenger is fast becoming a very popular way for businesses to interact with customers and potential customers. It allows people to ask questions, get information and make inquiries even when they’re out or not able to make a phone call. Messenger also has options to enable ‘quick responses’, and auto-responses to make it even easier to connect with people. Call-to-action buttons for a messenger objective include See Menu, Shop Now, Book Now, Request Time and Apply Now among others.

Conversion

Conversions Objective

Facebook allows the ability for a Facebook Pixel to be installed on your website. This essentially records what people are doing on your site, including making any purchases, adding to cart, viewing pages and more. The unique and special thing about the Facebook Pixel, as opposed to cookies, is that they track the same user no matter what device they log on from. So someone could view an add on their desktop and you can re-target them to take an action on a mobile device. The Conversions Objective also allows you to advertise an offer (for example a discount or coupon offer).

Store Visits Objective

This objective requires that you have locations set up for your page, and targets people when they are close to your location. People with geo-location enabled will can also receive notifications when they enter the ad radius. If a Carousel format is used, the last card on the carousel will automatically populate with a map the call-to-action of “Get Directions”. The Store Visits Objective is designed to drive people who are online, to shop in-store and is automatically optimised to reach as many people within the radius as possible.

Product Catalog Sales Objective

If your business is an e-commerce store with a large number of products, you can set up a product catalog and Facebook will reach/re-target people across different devices (no matter their original touch-point) and automatically show them products they have shown interest in. This objective is also able to show people products based on what actions they take on your website or within your app )if you have the Facebook SDK installed). The fantastic thing about this ad type is that once it is setup, it can pretty much run itself, populating products using dynamic tokens to they are personalised and relevant to each customer. This objective also has the ability to feed directly from the e-commerce site, ensuring that only products in stock are shown, and if they are on sale or the price is reduced it shows the right information.

So there you have it – an objective for every occasion! So no matter where your customer is in the sales funnel, there are objectives that are optimised to reach them at every stage, and moreover on any device.

If you would like some help or assistance setting up Facebook Ads for your business please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

(Pin me!)