July 14, 2015
Facebook is as much an evolving ecosystem of data as ever before. We proactively share what we care about with people we care about at some of the most revealing levels of intimacy. It is no wonder that among such an environment of personal information, marketers can use this data to achieve some of the most accurately targeted messaging on the Internet.
Compared to other channels of a similar nature (Twitter, LinkedIn) that cite vast reach or specific professional accuracy as their stronger USPs, it is very difficult (but not impossible) to gauge relevance and accuracy and done without consideration can result in expensive churn.
Facebook, however, makes it very easy for marketers to comprehend and measure the accuracy, value and performance of their sponsored content in when put in front of their target audience and tested under immersion. Matching these key factors by formulating the right content, identifying key target metrics and testing across audience segments can bring not only cost-effective but cost-counteractive results. Yes, done well it can be tricky to spend total budgets. WTF?!… I know.
From the launch of any piece of promoted content or sponsored advertising Facebook track its relevance. Relevance to the people who are seeing the content and interacting with it. Remember that it is very much in Facebook’s interest to help marketers achieve valuable relevance as much as possible in order to maintain their own value. They already coordinate relevance in how friends interact and follow each other’s content and are slowly handing this control back to the user, bit by bit.
So how does Facebook actually determine relevance? From launching your ad, the first 500 engagements generate a score out of ten, and hence determines how the ad behaves from there on. The earned relevance score is dependant on either positive actions (e.g. people liking, sharing or clicking the ad or negative actions, like people hiding the ad). Facebook’s algorithm then treats the priority of the ad over other competing ads according to their relevance score and the bid level. If you have a medium or low relevance score you can bid higher to increase the chance of your ad being served to your target audience but ultimately will cost more to get your content in front of people who probably don’t want to see it. I imagine the tax office have this problem constantly.
It is key to be specific with your targeting details and consider the format of your advert: the imagery used, the tone of copy and the overall value of the ad placement with specific audiences and their behaviours. Consider audience motivations and how your messaging can be a solution. Here’s more on Facebook Advert relevance score, straight from the horse’s mouth.