Facebook has come into its own as a major player in the digital advertising space. While Google and Bing dominate search advertising—no surprise there—Facebook has crept up the ranks to take the throne in the display category.
eMarketer reports that, “The social network’s U.S. display business will jump 32.1% to $16.33 billion, capturing 39.1% of the US display market, taking share away from Google, Yahoo, and Twitter.”
But how are businesses specifically using Facebook advertising to promote their business and target niche audiences?
MatchCraft set out to find answers, leveraging data from its AdVantage Social automation platform. AdVantage Social helps you automate Facebook campaigns at scale, by giving you the dashboards and tools to quickly generate ads and reports for your advertisers.
For this infographic, we looked at years worth of data. This data was derived from our globally distributed client base, with advertisers ranging from small and medium-size businesses to enterprise.
Here are some key highlights from our study:
1. Advertisers want link clicks and page likes.
There’s a lot you can do with your Facebook ads – raise your brand awareness, generate interest in an event, create a lead funnel. In 2016 advertisers wanted two things more than any other objective: link clicks and page likes.
Link clicks are focused on cost per click and more on driving traffic to a business website—it’s no wonder it’s the most sought after objective.
2. Images and videos rules.
Yup, we’re in the age of visuals. People want great engaging videos and eye-catching pictures, so it’s no wonder that 90% of ad spend went to….drum roll, please…image and video ads!
Both ads types have been shown to make an immediate impact and create a sense of intrigue. Assuming marketers are testing, they’re funneling their budget to the best-performing medium.
Facebook Carousel ads show viewers three to five images, and Facebook also gives the option of using video in the carousel format. It’s interesting to see a lower interest in the carousel ad format, especially given all the hype around it, and its massive potential for driving increased engagement and website traffic.
Carousel ads require slightly more work to build, and they are a newer format (they launched in 2016), so it will be interesting to see if more marketers adopt them this year, or at least test their potential.
3. Location, location, location.
While Facebook provides a heck of a lot of user data, advertisers focused their efforts on viewer home location and current location.
Facebook’s breadth of data gives advertisers a lot of control, especially when they’re attempting to sort through nearly 2 billion users to find the most relevant audience. The “traveling in” targeting option is not necessarily just for folks traveling to a location; it’s for anyone traveling within 100 miles of a location. To gather this data, a person’s mobile device must have location services enabled.
4. The hottest audience: Youth.
There’s been a lot of talk about the power of Millennials and even the Baby Boomer generation on Facebook. Yet, we’re seeing businesses spend most of their bucks on those 30-years old and younger. That bucket actually cuts out nearly half of the Millennial generation, currently ages 22 to 36.
This youth market is coming into its own, starting to have—and spend—money of their own, and savvy businesses are battling for their wallet share.
5. Where are you funneling Facebook ad dollars?
What do you think of MatchCraft’s report? Does it fall in line with how you’re spending your advertising dollars, or where your clients are focusing their efforts?