Facebook marketing 2014: trends and tips

PromesaArtStudio / Shutterstock.comFacebook has over 1.19 billion monthly active users and is growing month by month. Users are spending more time on the social network and logging in more frequently than ever before. In the third quarter of 2013, for example, according to the company's own figures, the number of users who use Facebook at least once a day rose to 728 million - an increase of 25 % compared with the same quarter of the previous year. Facebook is by far the medium with the widest reach for social media advertising campaigns and will certainly remain so in the new year.The provider of online marketing management platforms Marin Software has analyzed the most important developments of Facebook and derived tips for successful campaigns in 2014 - presented in detail in the Whitepaper "The Definitive Facebook Advertising Playbook: Four Key Trends You Need to Know".

Native Advertising

User attention and activity are focused on the Facebook News Feed; accordingly, advertisers are increasingly using the news stream as a vehicle for native advertising. Analyses by Marin Software revealed a 140% increase in newsfeed ads from the second to the third quarter of 2013. There are also financial reasons for this: In Q3 2013, compared to placements on the right, the cost per acquisition (CPA) for newsfeed ads was only 67 %.TipIn 2014, focus more on newsfeed placements and keep an eye on ROI. Ideally, this should be done not only by tracking conversions, but also by looking at customer lifetime value.

Mobile targeting

Access to Facebook from mobile devices increased dramatically in 2013, reaching 74 %. Combined with good click-through rates (CTR), this led to a 45 % increase in the number of campaigns targeting only mobile users from Q2 2013 to Q3 2013, according to analysis from Marin Software.TipSeparate campaigns by device, because mobile users act, search, and shop differently than PC users. And: Analyze the behavior of mobile users in detail. When targeting and bidding, also take into account location and time of day and, for example, target users at home with "WiFi-only".

Custom Audiences

Facebook users are most likely to buy from brands they have had previous contact with. Of all Facebook's recent innovations, probably none has been as significant as Custom Audiences. This allows users who have visited a website and are known to the operator to be retargeted on Facebook - with ads that promote the product they were looking for on the website, for example. Retargeting with Custom Audiences has proven to be the most effective targeting option - with conversion costs 64 % lower than Broad Categories or Precise Interest Groups options.TipTry retargeting users who have interrupted the shopping process or rely on the Customs Audience option "Reach friends of existing customers".

Fresh displays

Facebook users are more likely to click on "fresh" ads. As a result, more and more advertisers are adopting ad rotation strategies to regularly replace ads with new ones, preventing users from seeing ads too frequently and then developing "ad blindness". According to analyses by Marin Software, advertisers who rely on systematic ad rotation achieve on average 35 % higher click-through rates and 34 % lower costs per conversion for direct response campaigns, and even 60 % higher CTR at 75 % lower costs per fan for fan acquisition campaigns.Rule of thumb for the frequencyA user should see an ad one to five times, in no case more than ten times. Our tip: If you want to determine the optimal value, analyze the relationship between impression volume, CTR, and frequency; preferably for the campaigns with the highest volume and the greatest performance fluctuations.