The Value of Social Campaigns–Facebook Ads as Part of Your Consumer Journey

by Nov 19, 2019Blog

If you’re looking for more leads, applications, sales, phone calls, contact form submissions, or scheduled tours, Facebook Ads is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to achieve them.

People don’t make large purchases, like an apartment, based on split-second decisions. Prospects rarely sign a lease right after clicking on a Facebook ad, but we do recgonize that having a Facebook presence during the consumer journey influences their decision. Our research shows that prospects look at an average of 19.2 sources of information about a community during their decision-making process. Including a Facebook ad as one of those touchpoints is a compelling approach to influencing shopper decisions. But with only the final visit to the site getting credit for the lead, you might begin to undervalue your Facebook Ad Campaigns when looking at your ad reports.

It’s been proven that Google Ads perform exceptionally well at generating leads, but it’s important not to ignore the impact social ad campaigns can have on your goals. Combining both of these elements in your marketing strategy can create a dynamic approach, resulting in more leads for your team.

 

Shopper Behavior Insights

Understanding shopper behavior can provide key insights into not just how your prospects shop, but how they think. Allowing you to be where they are going to look next. On social media, particularly Facebook, we see how consumers interact with friends, family, and groups. This provides insight on commonalities they share, preferences they have, and influence that they are engaging with when they aren’t in shopping mode.

You can better understand and make decisions based on your reports when you can properly attribute your leads to the correct sources. You can also learn about how to get the most from your marketing reports in our recent blog about buddy metrics.

In Google Analytics, you can see a shopper’s typical online journey using the multi-channel funnel (MCF):

 

Here you can see the lead may enter the funnel via Facebook, but in most attribution models Facebook won’t receive its hard-earned credit as a valuable piece of the buyer’s journey unless it is the last touchpoint.

After you’ve established proper attribution and can see the value in your Facebook Ads then we can begin to strategize on how to make the most of your ad spend on the biggest social platform in the world.

Leveraging Targeting Options

If you are not targeting your ads, their effectiveness can be limited. Targeting is a simple, but often overlooked step. Facebook’s most noteworthy targeting methods include classes protected under the Fair Housing Act, so it’s important to be thoughtful in how you approach your targeting audience.

We suggest approaching your target audiences with the following options in Facebook:

Retargeting: Retargeting allows you to track users who have interacted with your business before, such as visiting your website or submitting their information in-person. This helps you keep your brand on the top of your customer’s minds by showing them ads for your communities as they browse their Facebook feed. 

Lookalike audiences: Lookalike audiences allow you to find new customers with similar attributes as people who have already shown interest in your community. Facebook analyzes your current website visitors and finds key attributes and interests about them, then compiles a list of people who match the attributes and shows your ads to them. While great for new lead acquisition, these ads take key demographics into consideration when finding these ‘lookalikes’. Age, gender, and other protected classes are used to find users similar to your audience. 

 

Special Ad Categories and How they protect your company

 

This is where Special Ad Categories come in. Facebook introduced this category recently for advertisers in the housing, credit, and employment industries. By identifying your ad as one of these categories you gain access to special Lookalike Audiences that will not factor in protected demographics.  

Facebook tries to protect its advertisers from unknowingly discriminating against protected classes. When you identify your campaign as one of the special categories you’ll lose the ability to target based on age, gender and other protected areas. 

What can you do to uncover the value of your Facebook Ads?

You can pull your Source/Attribution report in Google Analytics and analyze it against the MCF to see if your Facebook Ads are being attributed to leads. Then adjust your ad campaign strategy based on your findings while considering shopper behavior and the buying journey.

Or we can do it for you. 

Connect with us to schedule a free consultation and we will audit your Google Analytics account to create an actionable ad strategy for you and your community.