If someone asks you how well your ads work, answer a different question. Facebook is facing skepticism on how well Facebook Ads actually work so, rather than showing how many ad clicks their ads generate, they have instead commissioned research showing that – surprise! – clicks aren’t important. Reach and frequency are what matters.
Facebook teamed up with Datalogix, a data mining firm, to crunch stats on ad effectiveness. The study concluded that less than 1 percent of in-store sales are tied to brand advertising campaigns where a user clicked on an ad. Brad Smallwood, Facebook’s head of measurement and insights, stated that ads can see a 40 percent ROI lift by optimizing the reach and frequency of an ad – without focusing on clicks. Facebook will be able to leverage the relationship with Datalogix to offer brand marketers data on actual in-store sales that a specific ad campaign have generated.
More data and stats are due to be released at the IAB MIXX event in NYC.