Are Meta Conversion Events Overcounting?

I often hear from Meta advertisers who think their conversion events are overcounting. It typically starts with a distrust of Meta. But if conversion events actually are getting overcounted, there’s almost always a reasonable explanation.

Let’s go through the steps to help you troubleshoot and correct this so that your events will fire correctly.

Ads Manager vs. Events Manager Reporting

Before even having this conversation, there’s often a core misunderstanding regarding reporting. Where do you think events are overcounting? Within Ads Manager or Events Manager?

Ads Manager only reports on conversions from your ads. If you think Ads Manager overcounts because it doesn’t match up with Google Analytics or another tool, know that it’s never going to match up. They report on conversions differently. You will see variations. That’s a whole different discussion about attribution that we’re not going to tackle here.

A true overcounting would be spotted in Events Manager. Events Manager reports on all conversions, regardless of the source. If you think Events Manager is showing lots of conversions that aren’t actually happening because you don’t see them on the back end, that’s a reason to suspect overcounting.

If that’s the case, go through these questions…

1. Are Browser and Server Events Deduplicated?

Are you sending events both from the browser (pixel) and server (conversions API)?

Meta Events Manager Browser Server

If so, Meta needs to know that an event coming from both places is the same event. Otherwise, that event will be counted twice. Your events need to be deduplicated.

Even if your events are deduplicated, you will see an initial double counting in Events Manager. Here’s an example of the counting of an event.

Events Manager Counting

The total amount displayed in Events Manager will be prior to deduplication. It will appear to be doubled. If there are problems with deduplication, you will get a message from Meta telling you that.

2. What URLs is the Event Firing On?

If you’re convinced that conversion events are reported that shouldn’t be, a good first step to isolate the problem is uncovering which URLs the event is firing on.

You can find this by expanding your event in Events Manager and clicking View Details.

Meta Events Manager

Then select “URLs” in Event Breakdown.

Meta Events Manager

Are there any URLs listed where this event shouldn’t occur? Do any of these URLs appear to be the source of this overcounting?

Meta Event Breakdown by URL

The classic example of overcounting occurs when events fire on a URL where they shouldn’t occur. Often this is because the event was added to the wrong step of the funnel. For example, a Purchase event is added to the landing page rather than the confirmation page. If this is the case, you’ll need to remove that event.

But if you’ve isolated a page where the event should occur but appears to be overcounting, move on to the next step.

3. What About That URL Leads to Overcounting?

Ah hah! You’ve found a URL that is clearly overcounting. You are not receiving nearly as many conversions on this page as Events Manager is reporting.

Let’s think about that. What would explain this overcounting?

Is it a URL people can return to frequently? It should be a confirmation page that users only see once. Make sure this page is hidden from search engines and that your email campaigns never send people back to these confirmation pages. Otherwise, a conversion could be reported every time that page loads.

Has a team member been testing this URL recently? This is a frequent explanation. The team member is making changes to the page or testing it and repeatedly refreshing the page. That loads the pixel and fires any events on the page. Is the overcounting focused on times when this was going on?

4. How Was the Event Set Up?

To pinpoint and fix the problem, make sure you know how you set that event up in the first place.

Did you use the Event Setup Tool? If so, open that page up with the Event Setup Tool to see how the event was created.

Click the Add Events dropdown in Events Manager. Then select “From the Pixel.”

Event Setup Tool

Click to open Event Setup Tool.

Event Setup Tool

Then enter the URL that is the problem.

The page will be loaded with the Event Setup Tool and you’ll be able to edit and remove events from there.

Did you use a third-party tool that manages your pixel? Verify how you set up that event. Did you set it up twice?

Is this a custom conversion? Verify that this was set up properly. If you created a URL rule with “URL contains,” make sure that what you pasted in will only include a single URL.

URL Contains

The example above could fire on any page that includes “thank-you” in the URL.

5. Go Through the Conversion Process

Finally, go through the process of a conversion as a website visitor would.

Don’t just refresh the page. This is a classic mistake. That’s not normal user behavior. The overcounting is due to normal user behavior, and you need to mimic that.

Walk through the steps that a user would go through. Does the event fire properly?

Maybe everything fired properly when you went through the process. Is there anything that might cause the event to fire again? Evaluate the page and decide if there’s something about how it is set up that may lead to this problem.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about this, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

Have you experienced overcounting of events? How have you pinpointed the problem?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Are Meta Conversion Events Overcounting? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=6364

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The New Kingdom of Content for B2B Marketing – TopRank at B2B Ignite London

As we sink into the realm of “do more with less” in B2B Marketing, the shiny sirens of generative AI content are all around us. But the way to rule a B2B brand’s content kingdom is not artificial. It is through a hybrid of humanity and technology that B2B marketers can effectively attract, engage and pull prospects over the line to become customers in this time of challenge and change.

But what does this art and science B2B marketer look like? How can a hybrid approach make our content smarter, more meaningful and powerful?

Kingdom of Content for B2B Marketing in 2023 Presentation
That’s exactly what I will be sharing in my presentation at the 2023 B2B Ignite conference in London. This will be my second time presenting at the event in the UK and I’m excited to share how our team at TopRank Marketing are helping client brands like Adobe EMEA and LinkedIn achieve significant wins with trusted, best answer content that is data informed and optimized for the experiences buyers are looking for.

Joel Harrison and Lee Odden at BtoB Summit Paris 2023

Joel Harrison & Lee Odden at BtoB Summit Paris

Beyond sharing the learnings of our B2B marketing agency and clients, I am looking forward to learning from the excellent roster of speakers my pal Joel Harrison has lined up for the event. I had the pleasure of keynoting the BtoB Summit conference in Paris along with Joel and he’s a tough act to follow.

Here are some of the sessions I am looking forward to at B2B Ignite in London for 2023:

Reimagining the relationship between marketing and our buyers
Antonia Wade
Global chief marketing officer at PwC

The Three Alignments: How AI drives dramatic revenue production outcomes
Kerry Cunningham
Research & Thought Leadership, 6sense

Mastering marketing in a tech-driven world: Fall in love with the problem, not the solution
Edward Greig
Chief Disruptor, Deloitte

How to integrate AI into your content team – and keep everyone’s job
Ben Lee
PR & Content Manager, Bidwells

How storytelling can help you do more with less
Anthony Tasgal
Trainer, Author, Strategist at POV Marketing and Research Ltd

MASTERCLASS: Value marketing framework: How to create a value-based Marketing Strategy through CX
Barbara Stewart
Propolis Expert for Customer Experience, B2B Marketing

WORKSHOP: How to deploy and maintain a best-in-class social selling program
Dan Swift
CEO, Numentum

ROUNDTABLE: Aligning communities and experiences to drive marketing ROI
Michael Barnett
CEO, InGo

If you are attending B2B Ignite in London in 2023, I hope to see you at the conference. There will be two days jam packed with all the information B2B marketers will need to succeed in 2023 and beyond.

And if you are keen on leaning into more data informed and credible content that helps your B2B brand become the best answer for your customers, then don’t miss my presentation on Thursday June 29 at 2:00pm: The New Kingdom of Content in 2023 and How to Wear the Crown. I hope to see you there!

The post The New Kingdom of Content for B2B Marketing – TopRank at B2B Ignite London appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

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Slow Burn: A Strategy for Scaling Facebook Ads

One of the most common questions I get is related to scaling Facebook ads: Once you get good results, how do you increase your budget while continuing to get those good results?

If it were easy, I wouldn’t need to write this blog post. It’s a common problem. Once you increase the budget, it’s possible that you’ll get much worse results. And if you do, you risk the possibility of not getting those same results even if you return to the original budget.

If it feels ridiculous, it’s because it mostly is. While it’s logical that you won’t get the same results as you increase your budget, the touchiness of the algorithm is a very real issue.

In this post, let’s discuss what advertisers normally do, the problems with that approach, and how you can do better with a Slow Burn strategy.

The Typical Scaling Strategy

Most advertisers who want to scale are confronted with a similar dilemma: They have a campaign or ad set that is performing well and they want to leverage that performance by spending more to get more of that result.

The scaling approach is usually one of the following:

1. Increase the budget of the active campaign or ad set.

2. Duplicate the campaign, increase the budget of the duplicate, and once you get good results turn off the prior campaign.

Potential Problems

The first problem with simply increasing the budget of an active ad set is that you may restart the Learning Phase. In other words, the algorithm has to relearn how to deliver your ads. When that happens, your rate of success may crater (or it may not!).

I know a lot of advertisers create duplicate campaigns instead. One potential issue that most don’t consider there is Auction Overlap. By running current ad sets with the same optimization, targeting the same people, and promoting the same ads, you are creating a potentially problematic scenario. You will not get the best results while the two are running at the same time.

Finally, there is a simple question that needs to be addressed: How much should you increase your budget?

There is a sweet spot somewhere. How much can you increase your budget and continue to get great, if not even better, results? How much can you further increase your budget and continue to get good or acceptable results? And at what point have you gone too far and the results are no longer worthwhile?

With each of the approaches described, you’re guessing. You may have increased your budget too much. You may not have increased it enough. You won’t know.

The Slow Burn Approach

Something I’ve been experimenting with seems to solve these problems. And there are fundamental and strategic differences between these approaches.

The examples above are abrupt and reactive. They are also risky.

A Slow Burn approach is built into your strategy from the moment you publish an ad set. Let me explain how this works…

You begin with the same budget as you typically do to test. Something low and not so risky. You allow that ad set to run and exit the Learning Phase. If your results are acceptable, move to the next step.

You will then create an Automated Rule that runs every day (or at another regular interval you determine). If your current results fall within an acceptable range, the rule will automatically increase your budget a small amount.

The amount will be small because this is a slow process. Again, we don’t want abrupt and reactive. We obviously don’t want to increase the budget so much that it restarts the Learning Phase.

But it’s more than that, otherwise we’d increase the budget more. With Slow Burn, we want to find the sweet spot where you’re spending the most you possibly can while getting great results.

Create Your Automated Rule

Enough talking. Let’s set this up.

Create an Automated Rule.

Automated Rule

This will be a Custom rule.

Automated Rule

Your action will be to increase your daily budget by a small amount. This could be a percentage or dollar amount.

Automated Rule

I use 1% in the example above. Understand that there’s a reason we’re not jumping out to 10% or 20%, even if we know those amounts aren’t likely to restart the Learning Phase. This Slow Burn approach is strategic, and we’re trying to find a sweet spot. You could technically use a higher increase but don’t lose sight of the purpose here.

Set a Maximum Daily Budget Cap. This is important because the rule will run forever and increase your budget every chance it can without a cap.

Automated Rule

If this is for a sales campaign, you may want this to be especially high since, in theory, you’ll want to keep increasing that budget if the results fall within a certain range.

Set your Action Frequency. This is how often the rule runs.

Automated Rule

The default is every 12 hours. I prefer once daily.

Next, you’ll need to set your conditions for when the budget will increase.

Automated Rule

Only you can decide what this amount should be. A profitable or valuable Cost Per Action is variable and depends on your product and funnel.

Once that is added, a Lifetime Impressions rule is added automatically.

Automated Rule

This will only apply to the first time your rule executes since it’s based on a lifetime minimum. You can change that, of course, but 8,000 impressions tend to be a pretty low barrier to pass.

Next is Time Range. This is the number of days worth of data you’ll apply your rule to.

Automated Rule

The default is Maximum, which means that your budget will keep increasing if the Cost Per Action over the lifetime of the ad set is within an acceptable range. That could work, but I see this differently. I choose to keep increasing if the CURRENT costs continue to be good.

I base my budget increases on yesterday’s results for a lead form. But when running conversion events where your results may be delayed, it may be best to expand this period of time to “last 3 days” or “last 7 days.”

In my opinion, it makes the most sense to run this rule daily at midnight.

Automated Rule

Add Complex Rules

I won’t spend much time on this, but you could make this more complex if you desire. For example…

1. Increase the budget by different amounts based on performance ranges (1% if under $2 but more than $1.50, 2% if under $1.50 but more than $1.00, 3% for…)

2. Decrease the budget if performance begins to get worse.

3. Pause the ad set if the performance goes sideways.

By building in budget decreases and even pauses, you recognize that the ad set may eventually stop performing. There’s a point where you not only need to stop increasing your budget, but you should consider decreasing your budget or stopping the ad set entirely.

Make these rules as complex as you want. But the main thing is increasing the budget slowly based on acceptable results.

My Current Experiment

As mentioned briefly, I’m trying this with a Facebook lead ad. It’s an evergreen topic that doesn’t have a rigid time frame attached to it. In other words, I’m in no rush and this is perfect for a Slow Burn approach.

I started with a very modest $20 per day budget. The Automated Rule that I created would increase the budget once daily if the Cost Per Result (lead) was under $2 for the prior day.

So far, so good. The budget has increased most days, with the exception of one when costs fell just outside of the performance rule.

It’s still early in this Slow Burn experiment, but I’m looking forward to finding the sweet spot.

This is an Ongoing Strategy, Not a Reaction

While Slow Burn falls within “scaling,” I see this as being much different from the typical reactive increase. You’re not just randomly increasing your budget in reaction to good performance. With typical scaling, it feels almost like we’re trying to fix a mistake that we made by not setting a budget high enough.

With Slow Burn, you turn it on as soon as the ad set stabilizes. It’s a process that is built into your strategy, and it’s constantly running in the background.

This approach not only feels more strategic, but it’s also likely to be more efficient. The goal is to find a sweet spot between being too aggressive and not aggressive enough, based entirely on results. It just feels smarter.

Of course, there may be weaknesses in this approach as I’m just now experimenting with it. And it may not make sense for something with a rigid time frame that doesn’t allow for patience. But I think it has promise.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about this, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

Have you experimented with a Slow Burn approach to scaling, or something similar? What results have you seen?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Slow Burn: A Strategy for Scaling Facebook Ads appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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How Short-Form Video Impacts Presence on 5 Platforms

I’ve consistently published short-form videos to TikTok, Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn for most of the past six months and change. What was the impact on my presence (impressions, engagement, and followers) in each case?

Lots of context is necessary. First, I’ll explain the nature of my strategy. Then, we’ll go platform by platform, where we’ll evaluate performance before and after this commitment to short-form video.

Let’s go…

The Strategy

This commitment to short-form video began with TikTok on September 30, 2022. I created 70 videos during October.

Eventually, this approach would spread to other platforms. After briefly experimenting with downloading the TikTok video and publishing it to Facebook and Instagram Reels, I’d eventually create my videos outside of any app and publish that same file to every platform.

I would not create unique content for each platform. It was the exact same file published to each location.

There was a time when I’d never consider doing such a thing. But I knew that I didn’t have the time or resources to create unique content everywhere. The options were repurposing the same content or focusing only on one or two apps.

I decided to spread my content around. This would allow me to learn some things:

1. Does it matter that this is the same content published on multiple platforms?
2. Would certain platforms always outperform others?
3. Would some platforms emerge as being more valuable than expected?

For this to work, volume was a necessity. I’ve published most days since I started this, but I’ve committed to publishing at least one video every day in 2023 (which I’ve accomplished so far).

Let’s go platform-by-platform.

TikTok

Follow Me: tiktok.com/@jonloomer
Start Date: September 30, 2022

This is where it all started. I added 11 videos to TikTok prior to September 30, but they were rare and sporadic. On September 30, I marked the sand.

On one hand, my impact on TikTok is pretty easy to measure since 99% of my content created, impressions, engagement, and followers came from September 30 and on. Unfortunately, TikTok’s metrics are pretty awful as they only go back 60 days.

I do have nearly 12,000 followers right now, less than seven months after I started. And I also connected Agorapulse to my TikTok account beginning on December 13.

So, here’s a look at my account’s growth in followers from December 13 through April 23.

TikTok Follower Growth

As you can see, I’ve added 6,638 followers during this time. That leaves another 5,132 for the three prior months. That’s a bit misleading since I also stopped running ads in early December, and about 3,000 of my followers came that route.

But you can see spikes in followers that came organically in February and March when a video took off. Also, I get more followers now on a typical day than I did previously.

Here’s a look at engagement for that same period (from Agorapulse).

TikTok Engagement

Engagement was pretty slow until a video took off the week of February 11. While it’s clear I had a couple of spikes representing high-performing videos, the “floor” day for engagement rose significantly from that point.

Overall, I’m really happy with where I’m at on TikTok. I went from no presence at all to getting about 5,000 impressions per day now.

Instagram

Follow Me: instagram.com/jonloomer
Start Date: September 30, 2022

I’ve had an Instagram account for years, but I’ve barely used it. From a business point of view, I mostly only had it for the Instagram ad placement. Otherwise, most of my posts to Instagram prior to September 30 were of my kids or dog (and even those were extremely rare).

At first, I merely published my TikTok videos with the TikTok watermark to Facebook and Instagram Reels. I didn’t stop doing that until November 3.

I’ve added nearly 3,000 Instagram followers since I started posting videos to Reels. That’s pretty impressive since I have 6,525 in all, so nearly half came in just the past seven months.

Instagram Followers

As you can see, that growth is up 1,400% compared to the prior period.

Instagram Followers

My Instagram Profile Visits are up 289%…

Instagram Profile Visits

Here’s a fun look at the increase in post reactions, comments, and shares…

Instagram Engagement

It was a ghost town until October!

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on Instagram…

Facebook

Follow Me: facebook.com/jonloomerdigital
Start Date: September 30, 2022

I’ve had my Facebook page since November of 2011. It’s where my social media presence as a business was born. My page has been through lots of ups and downs since then.

My page’s best year was probably 2017. But, I’d also say I hit the bottom in 2021. That was the first (and hopefully last) time my number of followers actually dropped from one year to the next.

To give you a visual representation of how Reels saved my page, here’s engagement from April 24 of 2022 through April 23 of 2023.

Facebook Page Engagement

Even while including those horrendous months of April through September of 2022, engagement is still up 537%.

Let’s focus just on the time since I started sharing short-form videos to Facebook Reels. Engagement is up 1,187%.

Facebook Page Engagement

While engagement is down a bit since the early spike when I started, I can still make some reasonable projections based on what has happened so far this year.

I’m projecting the following:

  • Organic Impressions: 3,745,000 (+182%)
  • Total Engagement: 768,273 (+219%)
  • Follower Growth: +1,812

Yes, Reels saved my page.

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on Facebook…

YouTube Shorts

Follow Me: youtube.com/jonloomer
Start Date: November 3, 2022

I have a complicated history with YouTube. I started my channel in 2012 and recently surpassed 15,000 subscribers. My best years on YouTube were probably from 2013 to 2014, but I’ve used it very inconsistently since then.

Let’s focus on recent history. Here’s a look at video views on my channel beginning January 1, 2022…

YouTube Video Views

Pretty obvious when this started, right?

During the time since I’ve been posting videos to Shorts, I’ve added 992 subscribers with nearly 56,000 views.

YouTube Video Views

Let’s use the period of January 1, 2021 through November 2, 2022 for comparison. This is the nearly 22 months immediately prior to starting with Shorts. This is about three times longer than the time I’ve been posting Shorts (more, actually), and I had only 43,000 views (fewer) and 1,600 subscribers (600 more) during that time.

YouTube Video Views

While I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by the performance of my videos on YouTube compared to the platforms mentioned so far, I can’t complain. Shorts have given my channel some life. And things do seem to be improving.

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on YouTube…

LinkedIn

Follow Me: linkedin.com/in/jonloomer
Start Date: November 6, 2022

Now, I understand that LinkedIn isn’t technically a short-form video platform. And they actually prefer square videos, so posting my stuff there may have been out of place.

Initially, I placed my videos on a square canvas to compensate. But eventually, I just resorted to publishing the exact same video to LinkedIn, too.

Keep in mind that I have been relatively active on LinkedIn already for the past year or so. Once I started sharing my videos there, I actually pulled back on sharing the stuff I normally would.

Would that be a negative? Let’s see…

Impressions have been consistently higher since I started posting my videos in November. Unfortunately, I can’t isolate the time period to focus on November 6 to April 24 to see how it compared to the prior period.

LinkedIn Impressions

Engagement shows a similar improvement.

LinkedIn Impressions

Even if you eliminate my big spike of new followers in January, the new followers added are pretty clearly higher now than they were before.

LinkedIn Impressions

I decided to export my data to get a closer look. Instead of looking at it by day, let’s go by month.

Here are impressions…

Here’s engagement…

And new followers…

While my presence on LinkedIn was already pretty solid, sharing my videos every day (that were shared to many different platforms) instead of my typical behavior didn’t hurt my growth. It may have actually helped it.

Other Platforms

I’ve actually shared my videos to three other platforms as well. I’m not going to dig into those results because I haven’t been doing it very long.

  • Pinterest
  • Lemon8
  • Clapper

I’m not seeing much with any of these three, to be honest. I may not continue much longer with them unless I start seeing more impact.

Evaluation

First, I don’t think I need to spend much time convincing you that publishing these videos to the five platforms has been an enormous positive for my social media presence. I know that the next question is whether it led to business or revenue but 1. That misses the point, and 2. Yes, I’ve had examples of where it’s led to revenue. I just have to rely on people telling me that, so it’s not easy to measure.

Next, which platform has been most impactful? That’s actually tough to say, and that’s a good thing. I will say that the top three performing platforms tend to be TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. But the fun part is that it’s not always in that order.

Sometimes, a video does best on TikTok. Sometimes it surges on Facebook. Instagram has given me some big numbers. You just never know. And that’s actually the beauty of this. I’m getting results, and it’s not because of one platform.

What’s most exciting to me is that this is still so early. How will this look once I’ve published a video every day to each of these platforms for all of 2023?

I can’t wait to find out!

Start Your Own Short-Form Video Journey

To say I’m bullish on short-form video is an understatement. But I also understand first-hand how difficult it is to get started. If you haven’t, you need to. It’s hard. It’s scary. And it’s frustrating. But it’s oh, so worth it.

I created a training called The Short-Form Video Blueprint to help beginners get going. It includes so much of what I’ve learned during this journey.

I hope you’ll join me there!

Your Turn

I’m curious what you think of the impact of short-form video, either on my own social media presence or yours.

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How Short-Form Video Impacts Presence on 5 Platforms appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Meta Fixes Video Views Custom Audience Bug

I have good news. It appears that Meta has finally fixed a Video Views Custom Audience bug related to Facebook Reels engagement.

Not excited? I am. I’ve been checking every day for over a month and a half, waiting for this to be fixed. And I’m already seeing the positive impact of that fix.

Let’s take a closer look at what happened and how I’m using this to my benefit…

The Bug

When you create a Video Views Custom Audience, one of the steps is to “Choose Videos.”

For example, let’s say that you choose “People who have watched at 95% of your video,” like in the image above. By selecting videos, you will create an audience of people who watched at least 95% of those specific videos.

You can select videos from both your Facebook page and Instagram business profile.

So far, so good.

I have published a Facebook Reel and Instagram Reel every day this year. But starting around March 2, Reels stopped appearing in the list of videos you can select. I could select other videos published to my page or used in ads, but no Reels.

I totally remember this period of time. Everything was buggy with scheduling Reels around then, which is why those “Untitled Videos” were also showing up. And the videos were all showing zero 3-second views, which wasn’t correct.

Anyway, no Facebook Reels showed up for the rest of March and most of April. But Instagram Reels were showing up just fine.

So, if I can select the Instagram Reel, why does it matter that I can’t select the Facebook Reel? Because they aren’t the same video. They look the same. But when I select an Instagram Reel for this audience, it will only include people who engaged with the Reel on Instagram. It will no longer add the people who engage on Facebook.

I recorded a video after a few weeks of this being a problem, too. You can watch it below…

Why Does This Matter?

I know what some people will say about this: Remarketing is dead. Who cares? You should go broad with your targeting anyway.

Look, I’ve bought into broad targeting, too. I don’t do nearly as much general remarketing based on all people who engaged with my Facebook page or visited my website as I once did. But, this has proven to be very different.

I have a funnel running with Facebook ads based on engagement with my Reels. I’m doing this because I’ve found that people who watch my Reels to completion are hyper-engaged. This is a special group.

One is a simple “Are You My People” ad. It’s a video where I explain that I’ve learned that those who watch my Reels to completion are “my people.” And only those who watched one of my Reels to completion during the prior seven days could see that ad.

Are You My People

Keep in mind that this is a Reach ad that is normally targeting around 1,000 people in all. But it gets a very high rate of engagement of people telling me that they are my people.

Of course, things got a lot quieter once I couldn’t include Facebook Reels engagement. That finally changed once I could. Take a look at how the Cost Per Reaction/Comment/Share and Cost Per 95% View have evolved since I could include Facebook Reels on April 24…

Yikes! I was wasting some money for a while there. Big change.

Since I know this group of people is so important, I also target them to promote one-on-ones and membership. In both cases, these are Reach campaigns targeting this small, but important, group.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about how this has been fixed, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

Do you use Video View Audiences and select Facebook Reels?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Fixes Video Views Custom Audience Bug appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Big Change to Meta Ads Location Targeting

Well, this was a bit of a surprise. Meta made an unannounced and rather drastic update to location targeting.

Let’s review how things were before, how things are now, and how this impacts advertising.

How Things Were Before

It’s possible you still have this. If not, this was how location targeting worked in the “good old days.”

Facebook Targeting Locations

The default was “Living in or recently in this location.” In other words, if you didn’t make any changes to that drop-down, you’d reach people who live in the locations you select or were recently there, even though that’s not their home.

But you could select from four total options:

  • People living in or recently in this location
  • People living in this location
  • People recently in this location
  • People traveling in this location

How Things Are Now

This is one of those things that a lot of advertisers don’t touch, so it would be easy to miss. But I often use “Living in” for my ads. If I’m targeting a certain country, I want to make sure to only reach people who live in that country.

When I duplicated an ad set that was using this selection, I received an error message.

Facebook Ads Location Targeting Error

And now, this is what I see in the Locations area…

Facebook Ads Location Targeting Error

There is no more dropdown menu. It’s simply “Living in or recently in this location.” And this message is clear that this is now the only option and “the other options have been removed, so you won’t have to select a type of location targeting” anymore.

I’m not seeing any exceptions for objective or optimization.

I also checked Meta’s documentation. While it doesn’t mention a change, it also seems to be updated to reflect this new approach.

Facebook Ads Location Targeting Error

There is no mention of the old options.

Why Does This Matter?

For many advertisers, this won’t matter. You may not have even known that this was an option. I used “Living in,” but the truth is that I’ll be fine. I doubt I’ll notice any difference due to this change.

But, that’s not necessarily the case for everyone…

Here are a few important cases to keep in mind where this might matter:

1. Cannot ship outside of a particular location.

Let’s say that you can only ship to customers in the US. Or maybe there’s an alcohol law that differs by state (is that a thing?). If location targeting includes people who were “recently in” this location, you will spend money on people who visited there recently but aren’t eligible for shipping.

2. Politics, government, and schools.

Think about the things that only mean something to a resident. If you’re visiting a city, your kids won’t go to school there. You won’t vote for their elected officials. Paying to reach those people is a waste of money.

3. Services for homeowners.

Think about all of the service businesses that would only have local residents as customers. If you are visiting, you won’t have a need for a roofer, plumber, painter, or flooring company. You would want to pay to reach only those who live in a certain area.

4. Tourism.

If you cater to tourists, you likely used the “Traveling in this location” option. You have no use for locals. But now, you’ll be forced to reach everyone who is in the area — or was recently in the area. That’s not helpful.

Why Was This Change Needed?

Without an official statement (I haven’t seen one), I can only make some guesses. Here are a few possibilities…

1. No one used it anyway.

Of course, some people did. But Meta is notorious for removing helpful features that a minority of advertisers used (see Inspect Tool and Conditional Formatting).

2. Privacy concerns.

The perception could be bad that advertisers are able to target people based on their immediate location, not just on what they put in their profile as their home city. This could be due to the scrutiny that Meta continues to be under in this area.

3. The algorithm will sort it out.

Maybe we’re overthinking this. This could be like how going broad can have better results than targeting by interest, a lookalike audience, or even (sometimes) custom audience. It took some adjustment. But the algorithm is super smart. The same goes for using all placements (in most cases) instead of manually selecting them.

In theory, the algorithm will learn from what’s working and what’s not. So, maybe you can’t indicate that you only want local residents, but the algorithm realizes that this is one of the most important characteristics. You just won’t know that the algorithm knows.

Truthfully, it could be a combination of these three things.

How This Impacts Running Campaigns

Again, I’m not aware of an official statement from Meta on this, so I’m making some assumptions based on what I’ve seen and how things have worked before.

Based on everything I see, any ad set that customizes location targeting and is running right now isn’t impacted.

If you duplicate that ad set, though, the new ad set will have the new settings without a drop-down menu. And any new ad set you create will also reflect the new method.

Presumably, the currently running campaigns using the old method will have a deadline. That’s typically how these changes have worked in the past. Everything will run fine for now, but ad sets using the old method will likely stop if not changed to “Living in or recently in” by a specific date.

That doesn’t mean you need to rush to change everything. It just means you should be aware of this possibility.

If this were to be the case, I’m sure we’ll hear something official from Meta eventually.

Your Turn

Do you customize location targeting? How does this impact you?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Big Change to Meta Ads Location Targeting appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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What Happened to the Custom Form Type for Facebook Lead Ads?

Recently, I’ve been hearing from people who are trying to build an Instant Form for Facebook lead ads using the Custom form type. But, it’s nowhere to be found…

Custom Form Type Gone

This is weird since the feature has only been around for five or six months, and it’s actually pretty useful.

Well, I don’t think it’s time to panic. Here’s what I think happened…

Custom Form Type is Now Rich Creative

Once I heard that the Custom form type was missing, I immediately checked to see if I had it. Well, I don’t. Or I do. It’s just been changed…

Rich Creative Custom Form Type

In place of Custom, I’m seeing Rich Creative. And I can tell you with certainty that this provides the exact same functionality as the Custom form type. The name has simply been changed.

So, what’s going on? Why don’t some people have anything?

I’m no technical genius, but I assume this has something to do with how Meta rolls out changes. They could have just changed the name of “Custom” to “Rich Creative.” It seems that instead, the “Custom” form type was first removed. Now, the new “Rich Creative” form type is rolling out.

So, if you don’t see anything there, I’m guessing you’re in that middle ground. It kinda sucks. But you may need to wait.

I can’t imagine that this would impact any ads currently utilizing the Custom form type.

Is It Useful?

As I said at the top, I was surprised that this had disappeared because it was such a new feature and it’s actually incredibly useful.

I won’t completely rewrite the tutorial for the Custom form type here, but Rich Creative allows you to add a color scheme…

Facebook Lead Form Intro

Include benefits…

Facebook Lead Form Intro

And build your story with up to four new sections…

Facebook Lead Form Build Your Story

Here’s a video of how the final product looks…


When Should You Use This?

Whether it’s Custom or Rich Creative, this shouldn’t necessarily be used in all cases, as useful as it may be. Most leads collected in exchange for a freebie should use either More Volume or Higher Intent.

Rich Creative is great for improving the quality of your leads because it adds so much more context and potentially several extra steps. You may not need or want that when offering a free ebook, for example.

In my opinion, this is ideal for big-ticket items — especially if you will have a salesperson contact your leads. Immediately, auto sales and real estate come to mind for me, but I’m sure there are many examples of when this could be useful.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about this, too. Watch it below…

Your Turn

Do you have the Custom form type? Do you have Rich Creative?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post What Happened to the Custom Form Type for Facebook Lead Ads? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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Why Are Meta Ad Prices Dropping?

Meta released their 1Q quarterly earnings for 2023, and it’s mostly positive. But, there’s something that jumps out that needs an explanation: Why are Meta ad prices dropping?

Meta ad price dropping

In the chart above, you’ll notice that Meta’s average ad price has dropped year-over-year for five consecutive quarters, dropping 17% in the first quarter of 2023. Why is this happening?

While a drop in ad prices may seem like a positive for advertisers, it’s important to understand why this is a trend. If it’s because the targeted audience is increasingly more saturated by ads, that may not be a good thing long-term. Increasing ad frequency may eventually make them less effective.

Let’s explore…

Our Meta Quarterly Earnings Data Segmenter is the source of many of the graphics in this post. Thanks to Luke Elliott for keeping this helpful tool updated!

Inventory

While the average ad price dropped 17% year-over-year, the number of ad impressions increased 26%.

Meta Ad Impressions 2023

That’s quite the increase.

I’m not a data expert, but I understand that Meta’s ad prices are determined in an auction. A drop in average ad price and increase in ad impressions is likely tied to an increase in inventory. Ads are shown more often, whether it be because there are more users, users spend more time on the platform, or ads are shown in more places.

Let’s explore the potential explanations for these trends…

User Growth

While the number of users on the Meta family of apps did increase, it’s only about 5% year-over-year. Here’s a look at the growth of monthly active users on all Meta apps…

Meta Family of Apps Active Users

It doesn’t seem possible that this increase alone could explain the drop in ad prices.

User Activity

While one way to increase inventory is to increase the number of users on the platform, another is for users to spend more time there. For example, you may see five ads if you spend five minutes on the app today, but you’ll see 100 if you spend 100 minutes.

Unfortunately, Meta doesn’t provide information related to time spent on the platform these days. But, they do provide something that can be helpful here.

Daily Active Users vs. Monthly Active Users helps us understand the ratio of total monthly users who return on any given day. A 1:30 ratio would indicate that the typical monthly active user only appears for one day, whereas a 1:1 ratio suggests that they return on a daily basis.

Let’s look at the trend of this ratio for just the Facebook app since 2016…

Facebook Daily Active Users vs. Monthly Active Users

This is actually surprising. I had thought that this percentage hit its peak and would never exceed 67%, but it just hit 68% for the first time. Facebook users have never been as active (at least in terms of returning on a regular basis) as they are now (dating back to 2016).

Let’s dig a little deeper and see where this increase is coming from. While return engagement is extremely high in the US and Canada, it has been dropping…

Facebook Daily Active Users vs. Monthly Active Users

For context, that 74.35% is still higher than the overall average.

Europe has remained steady…

Facebook Daily Active Users vs. Monthly Active Users

The biggest increases are in the Asia-Pacific…

Facebook Daily Active Users vs. Monthly Active Users

And the rest of the world…

Facebook Daily Active Users vs. Monthly Active Users

The overall increase in this percentage is attributed entirely to these areas.

This is relevant to ad costs for a couple of reasons. First, more time on the platform is more inventory, as we’ve discussed. But that additional time is isolated to these other countries which typically represent the lowest ad costs.

Why is user activity up? Well, it’s at least partially related to the increased popularity of Reels, which have exploded on both Facebook and Instagram. Because of Reels alone, there are sure to be more video ads than there once were.

It’s tough to say how significant increased activity leads to the 17% drop in ad costs and a 26% increase in impressions, but it is likely a factor.

More Ads Shown

While there are logical reasons for why there may be an increase in ads shown, let’s cut to the explanation that may be the most popular, controversial, and difficult to prove: Meta is simply showing ads more frequently than before.

I don’t mean that there are more places where you might see them (we’ll get to that). I mean that instead of seeing one ad every six posts in your news feed, now you’re seeing one every three (this is an example, it’s not factual).

If you were to ask Facebook and Instagram users whether they think they’re seeing more ads, you are likely to get a response in the affirmative. But anecdotal responses are far from scientific and don’t mean much.

But is this possible? Absolutely. We can’t discount it without more information from Meta.

More Placements

Meta can add more inventory without significantly increasing user growth or time spent by adding placements.

Of course, this is just a half step from the above possibility of showing ads more frequently. Either way, people are seeing ads more frequently than they would have before.

Yes, Meta has added several new placements during the past year, particularly within Instagram.

Meta Ad Placements

It’s certainly plausible, if not likely, that these new placements contributed to a decrease in ad costs and an increase in ad impressions.

Of course, something to keep an eye on is that Meta ended the Instant Articles placement in April. How much will that impact ad impressions and ad costs?

We’ll get our first glimpse when the Q2 report comes out.

Use of Advantage+ Placements

Is it possible that ads are shown more often in less competitive placements than they were previously? This could conceivably lead to more impressions and a lower price per ad.

It’s not only possible, it’s extremely likely that some of the “secondary” placements are used far more often now than they were a year ago. Whether or not this would have an impact on ad prices is for a smarter person to determine.

But, think about what’s happened during the past year. We’ve seen Meta test a series of tailored campaign setups that lock in defaults. In those cases, you aren’t even able to adjust your placements.

I’d also say that advertisers are now more likely to embrace Advantage+ Placements and allowing the algorithm to distribute their ads optimally. This was rare not too long ago when simply selecting News Feed only was common.

At least from an individual advertiser’s perspective who uses Advantage+ Placements more often, this does indeed lead to more impressions and a lower average price per ad.

The Importance of Ad Price

Finally, let’s remember that the average ad price is one of many factors that contribute to profitable ads. Advertisers often get lost in focusing on CPM, for example, prioritizing it in an attempt to improve performance.

The average ad price is interesting, but do not lose sight of the most important metrics. There are many different paths to a profitable Cost Per Action, and they don’t always run through a low CPM.

Your Turn

It’s possible that there isn’t a single factor that drives this. Instead, all or some of these factors may contribute to the drop in average ad price and increase in ad impressions. What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Why Are Meta Ad Prices Dropping? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

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The Number One Skill of a Meta Advertiser

I’ve seen it again and again. Those who are most successful with Meta ads have an underlying curiosity that others don’t. They align their goals with a basic understanding of how things work. Most importantly, they experiment.

You can’t be intimidated by the platform. Those who are will lack the confidence to try something different without validation that it will work.

Here’s how you should approach experimentation…

1. “Should I Do This?”

The advertiser who embraces experimentation doesn’t ask, “Should I use Standard Enhancements?” or “Would you go broad?” They realize that someone else’s experience is unique to them.

Don’t worry about what others are doing. If you’re curious if something will work, there’s only one way to find out: Try it!

2. They Know Their Toolbox

When you experiment often, a crazy thing happens: You aren’t isolated to specific parts of Ads Manager. You’re constantly looking around to find what’s under that random rock.

I encourage you to poke around the Ads Manager. I guarantee there’s something there you’ve never seen before. Explore!

Ads Manager Menu

If you’re a curious advertiser, you want to know how everything works. You want to know how you might use it.

The more you know, the more potential solutions you’ll have for a future problem.

3. They Use Tools in Creative Ways

Not everyone will understand this, but you don’t always need to use tools the way they were intended. Sometimes, they’ll solve a completely different problem.

Let me provide an example…

Meta created Reach optimization for bigger budgets to help improve brand awareness. But there’s something unique about this option that isn’t available with any other type of optimization: Frequency capping.

As a result, this can be a great solution for the complete opposite of brand awareness with large audiences and big budgets. You can use it with a hyper-engaged and small audience. Why? Because you value all of them equally. And you want to be able to control your frequency when reaching this small audience.

The beauty of that approach? You’ll spend very little.

4. They Embrace Some Failure

The typical advertiser is afraid to try something new or unproven because they don’t want to waste money. This is why they often ask others what they’re doing before they try to do it themselves.

The experimenting advertiser knows that this crazy thing they’re going to try might not work. But that’s part of the beauty of it.

They’ll learn from what happens. They’ll get new ideas from a failed campaign, and they’ll try again.

Failure is part of the process. You can’t fear failure. This is how you discover something new.

5. A Unique Understanding

An experimenting advertiser has to be independent. They understand one of the most critical aspects of Meta advertising: Your results are your unique experience.

What I mean is that there are seemingly limitless factors that impact whether your ads are amazing or bomb. Some of these factors are outside of your control. Some are within your control. But your ads and collection of advantages and disadvantages will always be different from mine as they enter the auction.

Your situation is unique. Your ads are unique. And your results will be unique.

Because of that, why worry so much about how others are running their own ads? It will rarely translate. Get inspired by your unique problem and find a unique solution!

6. This is How You Learn

You may think this only describes an experienced advertiser, but it doesn’t. It describes a new advertiser, too.

Sure, your knowledge as a new advertiser will be less complete. You will make more mistakes. But you can also risk less with lower budgets.

There is no better way to learn something new than to experiment with it. Over and over again.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about this, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

I encourage you to be curious. Worry less about what others are doing and experiment often.

What do you think? Are you a natural experimenter?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post The Number One Skill of a Meta Advertiser appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=6287

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Elevate B2B Marketing News Weekly Roundup: B2B Marketers Using More AI & The B2B Creativity Formula

How B2B Marketers Feel About AI
79 percent of U.S. B2B marketers plan to use more AI in their efforts during the next 12 months, with a leading 41 percent considering investment in AI over the next two years for personalizing the customer experience, 40 percent for content generation, and 36 percent for automated customer interactions, according to newly-published B2B AI survey data. MarketingProfs

More B2B Companies Go Big on Branding
Despite just five percent of potential B2B buyers being in the market for a solution or product at any given time, 2023 is coming in as the right time to invest in building brand preferences, as more B2B firms cast wider nets when it comes to finding new buyers, and the Association of National Advertisers takes a look. ANA

Google Announces Google Analytics 4 & AdSense Integration
Search giant Google has rolled out a new integration between its flagship Google Analytics 4 performance measurement tools and its longstanding Google AdSense program, as the company looks to lessen advertiser data discrepancies between AdSense and Universal Analytics, Google recently announced. Search Engine Journal

Where Do PR Pros See Future Use Cases for AI?
68 percent of public relations professionals have said that they would use AI for research and list-building in PR, with 54 percent expecting future AI use in monitoring and measurement, while 52 percent pointed to monitoring — three of numerous findings within newly-published survey data of interest to B2B marketers. MarketingCharts

EU lawmakers vote for tougher AI rules as draft moves to final stage
Disclosure of the specific copyrighted content used in the training of any large language models implemented in AI would need to be disclosed, among other safeguards that the European Commission is seeking, as it drafts the rules that may form forthcoming legislation, European Union lawmakers recently announced. Reuters

Adobe is so confident its Firefly generative AI won’t breach copyright that it’ll cover your legal bills
Adobe enterprise users creating content with the firm’s new Firefly creative generative AI engine will received indemnification coverage, as Adobe looks to stand behind the safety of AI content despite potential future legal challenges, and Fast Company takes a look. Fast Company

2023 June 23 statistics image

LinkedIn Tests AI Prompts For Ad Generation In ‘Campaign Manager’
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has begun testing the optional use of generative AI from OpenAI GPT models in the process of creating advertising on the professional social platform, incorporating automated variations of ad copy, LinkedIn recently announced. MediaPost

Why We Need a New Formula for Creativity in B-to-B Advertising
With the B2B sector representing over 50 percent of the economy, as B2B brands begin utilizing more B2C-like marketing efforts, the role of creativity in B2B has risen, and LinkedIn’s (client) Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo take an in-depth look for Adweek. Adweek

“Though some might think b-to-b is all about technology and targeting, our research suggests that creativity is where you can find the biggest competitive edge.” — Peter Weinberg & @JonLombardo
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Meta Announces Future Plans For Reels Ads, AI At Cannes Lions
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta will roll out enhanced advertising in its Instagram Reels format, with an array of forthcoming AI-powered media editing features and new chatbot technology, Meta recently announced during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. MediaPost

Instagram Adds New Option to Include Music Tracks in Notes
Instagram has launched a new feature that allows users of the social platform to incorporate music tracks within private Instagram Notes, providing new audience connection possibilities as more B2B brands turn to private social engagements, Instagram announced recently. Social Media Today

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

2023 June 23 Marketoonist Comic Image

A lighthearted look at “Impact of ChatGPT” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

50 Years of Text Games parses the rich history of a foundational genre — Ars Technica

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

  • Ty Heath / LinkedIn — B2B advertising doesn’t need to be boring: why creativity is a key driver of profitability — ClickZ
  • TopRank Marketing — 25 Popular Blogs about Content Marketing You Should Check — Adsy
  • Lee Odden — The Proof is Out There: Experts Discuss the Reality and Future of Buyer-level Intent Data — NetLine

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Mari Smith @MariSmith
Tamara McCleary @TamaraMcCleary
Rory Vaden @roryvaden
Debra Jasper @DebraJasper
Goldie Chan @GoldieChan

Learn more about TopRank Marketing‘s mission to help elevate the B2B marketing industry.

Have you found an important B2B marketing news item that we haven’t yet covered? If so, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.

Thanks for joining us for this week’s edition of the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope you’ll come back again next Friday for another selection of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post Elevate B2B Marketing News Weekly Roundup: B2B Marketers Using More AI & The B2B Creativity Formula appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

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