Nobody can deny that social media has become a great option for advertisers over the last few years. In 2016, Facebook is bound to be the No. 1 option for direct response and brand advertisers. However, you will need to understand how it works, remain updated where features are concerned and spend your time optimizing.
Ad formats are continuously evolving and there are new targeting options available. However, this means that it becomes more challenging for users to find the combinations that work the best. You have lead ads, video ads, dynamic cross selling and upselling options, Instagram video ads and finally canvas ads. All these require A/B testing continuously because new features are being developed by Facebook every day.
The Competition Is Stiff
Facebook currently boasts some 1.59 billion users and in the year 2015, advertisers spent a total of 17.08 billion dollars. The number of people putting in adverts is growing by the day and that has made the competition quite stiff because the ad auction has raised bid prices. The largest advertising platform online is still Google, however, Facebook is growing its ad revenue much faster. In 2015, Facebook had a growth of 48.6% in ad revenue while Google had only 13% growth.
This basically means that advertisers are leaning more towards Facebook. We believe that we will continue to see this trend since the global spending on ads is $569.65B and the $17.08B that Facebook earned is only 3% of that amount. A lot of businesses are taking their TV advertising budgets and using them on Instagram and Facebook due to the fact that they have a wider reach. They are also successful with creating brand awareness via video ads and encourage target rating point buying and frequency buying.
How to Be a Cut Above the Rest In 2016
Since Facebook is constantly coming up with new features that advertisers can take advantage of, you can only gain competitive advantage if you stay on top of the releases so that you become one of the first people to use the formats as they are released. They include local awareness ads, placement optimization, Instagram video ads, DPA carousel ads, Mobile web audience network, canvas ads and head ads.
New target options include retargeting, which allows you to upsell and cross sell. Using them before any of your competitors can get around to it will mean that you achieve better results because your advertising will be more relevant. Be sure to take advantage of these ad tools that come with automatic A/B testing features as well as optimization features, which will enable you to find the variations that work best quickly.
Facebook has also come up with a tracking pixel that has been newly updated with customized events. This will allow you to have flexible conversion and make it easy to track users. Setting it up is easy and there are other targeting options that you can take advantage of as well. Even if you are not using Facebook advertising, we encourage you to implement the tracking pixel on your website ASAP.
In our following blog post, we will discuss more on the Facebook trends in 2016 and take a closer look at mobile devices, upselling and cross-selling for travel and e-commerce and automation through facebook.
