Advertising goals in Facebook Ads campaigns

As one of the more popular broadcast online marketing channels, Facebook 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 – some differences between the new division and the previous one 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 centred around the overall business value – such as building awareness, increasing traffic, acquiring contacts or selling an online store’s product catalogue.

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 four 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 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 suit your campaign if you want to build some buzz around your brand, create a community, and encourage users to interact with 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 choose even Traffic instead of Activity calmly. Comments or reactions in the video case 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 or booking a visit, i.e. where we need specific data to people to further dispel doubts or match the offer to the expectations of the person leaving such contact.

In this type of campaign, 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 going to the company website, promoting 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 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 maybe 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

In campaigns with a Sales objective, 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 on 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 catalogue on Facebook. 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 conversion events: add to wishlist, contact, product customization, submit a request, start trial period, subscribe, donate, search, view content, schedule, and find location. The app is still completing the tutorial and reaching the level.

Campaigns with the goal of Contacts received the following conversion events: contact, submit an application, start a 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 campaign with a sales goal included the following conversion events: 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.