Advertising goals in Facebook Ads campaigns

Facebook, as one of the more popular broadcast online marketing channels, can have a wide range of applications in an online campaign portfolio. Facebook’s various advertising objectives allow you to position your social media efforts at different stages of the purchase funnel.

It is worth noting here that the choice of advertising objective in a Facebook Ads campaign is definitely a very important part of the campaign configuration – it directly affects what optimization options we will have available. That’s why it’s worth considering exactly what business goals we have, and therefore what success metrics we have, when planning our efforts. Facebook Ads is also gradually introducing a new set of 6 simplified campaign goals – there are some differences between the new division and the previous one that are worth knowing about.

The most important change between the previous and new ad target names in Facebook Ads is the split – previously, the focus was on the action to be performed by the ad recipient, whether it be installing a mobile app, converting, or selling directly from a catalog. Currently, the target names are centered around the overall business value – such as building awareness, increasing traffic, acquiring contacts or selling an online store’s product catalog.

This also involves splitting the former Conversions ad campaign goal into 3 different ad goals after the changes – Contacts, Sales, and Activity. The individual conversion names from the default Facebook Ads list are assigned to one of these three goals.

The conversion names from the default Facebook Ads list are assigned to one of these three goals.

Facebook Ads campaigns with target Recognition

This objective is worth choosing when you want to increase the visibility of your brand or product, and you care more about reaching as many people as possible than about specific user actions. A perfect example of such a situation is when we are dealing with something completely new on the market or a name change that we want to inform our customers and beyond.

Purpose Recognition is primarily for remembering the ad, however, it is further broken down into 4 metrics of success: Reach, which is when we want the widest possible reach, Brand Recognition, when our priority is to build awareness, Video Views, when we want to build brand awareness through video, and Store Location Recognition – based on the physical locations of the company’s outlets.

Results.

Facebook Ads Campaigns with Target Traffic

Decide on this ad campaign objective when you’re in the middle – you already want more than just an ad contact from users, you care about presenting a specific offer, site, or app, but for some reason you’re not yet concerned with collecting conversions. This will allow us to generate an audience that has been to the site or taken some action and continue to target this group and similar users in campaigns with a different goal. This choice will also be helpful if we are just starting out and don’t have the right implementations on the site to optimize for specific destination events.

A campaign with this ad target is characterized by directing title traffic to the selected destination, regardless of the effect. Users can be directed to the website in this way, which can be measured both by link clicks (always available) and landing page views (requires FB Pixel implementation for the website), as well as generating conversations on Messenger and Whatsapp or calls to the phone number indicated in the ad.

The campaign with this ad target is characterized by the following.

Facebook Ads Campaigns with Activity Target

This objective will be suitable for your campaign if you want to build not only some buzz around your brand, but also create a community and encourage users to interact under engaging content. Users will see the ad, and Facebook will target audiences from your target audience so that they engage with your company’s content as much as possible.

A campaign optimized under Activity focuses on different forms of engagement. Under this, Facebook includes both conversation starts, video views and activity regarding a post – but also selected conversion goals, rather from the initial stages of interaction with the brand. This is also where you’ll find ads under page likes.

It’s worth watching out for ads with video here – since Facebook takes video views for engagement, for animated spots it’s better to choose an ad target you care about in addition to views. If the ad contains a target address, you can calmly choose even Traffic instead of Activity. Comments or reactions in the case of video do not expect much – views are much cheaper and it is mainly under them that Facebook’s algorithm will optimize actions.

Facebook Ads campaigns with Contacts target

This ad target is invaluable for businesses that offer products outside of e-commerce. Particularly if part of the sales process includes elements such as setting up an appointment, booking a visit, i.e. where we need specific data to people in order to further dispel doubts or match the offer to the expectations of the person leaving such contact.

It is in this type of campaign that we find one of the most important optimization events when it comes to contact acquisition – filling out an instant form. We are talking about a dedicated form on Facebook, partially filled in with the user’s data, without having to go to the company website, which promotes better results. How to access such forms later, I wrote here In addition to this form of contact acquisition, Facebook also offers Messenger conversations, specific types of landing page conversions and phone calls.

Facebook Ads campaigns with an Application Promotion goal

This is where, in my opinion, there has been a big change for the better – the ads related to the mobile app have been merged into one Facebook Ads campaign goal – both when we want to acquire mobile app installations and when we care about engagement with the app. Here we have available all the default events in the application, regardless of their nature.

Other advertising targets as much as the nature of the conversion in question allows also allow us to choose the mobile app as a conversion venue, and may be a better choice if the app and the website work more closely together. If the app is used for ordering from a store that is also accessible through the website, or it is simply hybrid (that is, it combines mobile native and web app solutions) – then it may be a good idea to have a different campaign advertising objective and choose the website and the app as the conversion venue at the same time.

Facebook Ads Campaigns with Sales Target

It is in campaigns with a Sales objective that any online store in particular will find the best results. The biggest difference between the nature of conversions between Sales and Contacts is that for Contacts we are talking more about single conversions per person and reaching a larger audience for the ad, while for Sales the focus is less around the converting person and more on selling multiple products. In addition, as long as the online store’s offering allows it, we are very keen to welcome return visitors who already have confidence in the brand and shop there regularly.

For a campaign with an advertising goal of Sales, the most important thing is a paid order – and that’s why it’s in this configuration that we will find optimization for the Purchase event, regardless of whether we have a product catalog on Facebook or not. As Sales, we can also include making contact for the purpose of a sale, via messenger or a phone call – useful when, instead of offering a specific product base, it is important to know the recipient’s needs and match the product to their requirements.

Where can I find a conversion that interests me?

Although the conversions are categorized fairly logically, here’s a quick download for those used to the old advertising targets:

Campaigns with an Activity goal were hit with the following conversion events: add to wishlist, contact, product customization, submit request, start trial period, subscribe, donate, search, view content, schedule and find location. For the app, it is still completing the tutorial and reaching the level.

Campaigns with the goal of Contacts received the following conversion events: contact, submit application, start trial period, subscribe, complete registration, get contact, search, display content, schedule and find location. For the app, this will also include completing a tutorial.

The following conversion events went into the campaign with a Sales goal: add to cart, add to wish list, search, add payment information, proceed to checkout, start trial period, subscribe, complete registration, make a donation, view content, and, of course, purchase itself.