When writing one of my recent posts ‘Best Practice Guide: Facebook Advertising For Councils and Local Authorities‘, it highlighted just how important it is in Facebook advertising to split test your adverts. I have therefore decided to write a post on the importance of split testing, and how to best go about it.
One of the biggest reasons that brands fail in their Facebook advertising efforts is that they do not split test (Loomer, 2012). They create one or two ads, find that they do not succeed and label it a failure. That is why you must try out multiple variations in order to understand what resonates with your target audience. When you realise something that does not work, stop spending money on it, when you discover something that does, keep going with it.
What is split testing?
Split testing, known as A/B testing, allows you to test different elements of your advertising in order to determine which will help you to achieve your objectives (Loomer, 2012). It allows you to show different experiences to different users to measure the impact of those differences, and is thought of as a fundamental factor in obtaining value from advertising and growing your online business (Jenkins, 2014).
Split testing gives you access to data, which gives you a competitive advantage because the more data that you have on what your audience likes, the better your product/service can be (Jenkins, 2014). Many observers believe that receiving data through split testing helps organisations to ‘leapfrog’ and become the best in the class due to having the ability to make better decisions based on experience rather than intuition (McGuire, Mayika & Chui, 2012).
The question is what aspects of Facebook advertising can be split test?
The way in which you split test your adverts is dependent on the industry in which you operate and the type of products/services that you are selling. However, the following points, based on a guide written by Jon Loomer (2012) which can be found here, can be used universally and should work as a checklist to help you successfully split test your advertisements:
1) Copy
In Facebook standard adverts, you have 90 characters to persuade a user to complete a desired action (Facebook, 2015). This is a small character limit, meaning that you will need to test different variations in order to understand which type of messaging is going to be effective at persuading users to convert.
Standard advert example:
Source: Facebook (2015)
It is slightly different if choosing to advertise through sponsored posts, as the character limit for the body is 500 words; therefore you have an increased amount of words to convey your key message to your audience. Facebook does, however, advise not to fulfil the 500 word limit in order to keep the message short and catchy (Facebook, 2015).
Facebook sponsored post example:
Source: Facebook (2015)
Create adverts and switch up the copy through using different words, call to actions, tones and punctuation. Let’s say that you are a local authority or council seeking to recruit foster carers, but you are unsure on the type of messaging needed to encourage users to convert. Create three different advert variations, each with different content and a different call-to-action. For example your first advert may focus on the support and training which would be provided when becoming a foster carer with your organisation with the call to action ‘Find out more’, whereas the second may focus on making a difference to a local child’s life with the call to action ‘Register your interest’.
2) Imagery
We already know that imagery is the key to advertising success on social media, as your advert is competing for attention against user friends and family (Facebook, 2015). Imagery in advertising is so important in fact, that Rossiter (1980) believes that it has the potential to change user attitude towards completing a particular action.
What we do not know, however, is which images are likely to persuade a user to complete a desired action. It is important to remember that all users are different (Close, 2012) so the preferred imagery will be different from person to person and demographic to demographic.
Recommendations for imagery are to use different faces in different scenarios, as well as text imagery, in order to distinguish the type of image which resonates with your target audience.
3) Landing Page
Advertisers spend obscene amounts of money to buy traffic, but the effort that is devoted to the landing pages to which the user is sent is often negligible (Ash, 2008). It is important to remember that all of your hard work in creating adverts comes down to a few precious moments when the user arrives on your landing page.
You have created strong adverts through effective content and imagery which are encouraging users to click on the advert; however, users are not completing the desired action on your page. This means that your bounce rate is high, which impacts negatively on your conversion rate (Zigmond et al, 2009), therefore ultimately affecting your overall goal.
It is difficult to answer why users are or are not responding to your landing page (Ash, 2008), but there are ways to determine the type of content that encourages your audience to convert. With the same advert; create multiple landing pages in order to determine which is the most successful at increasing conversions after the initial click is made.
4) Demographics
You may have the right content, with the right imagery, but your adverts could be targeted at the wrong audience. You have the option to select different imagery and copy that will appeal to a specific demographic, or try out a generic ad and split test it to different age and gender groups (Loomer, 2012).
By running your adverts to different audiences you will be able to understand the age and gender which correlates with your product/service offering, therefore decreasing the chances of aiming your adverts to the wrong audience which can cause advertising wastage (Greenyer, 2004).
5) Detailed Targeting vs No Targeting
Facebook offers a range of audience targeting options to choose from in order to help organisation’s meet their goals. These options are custom audiences, lookalike audiences, location, demographic, interests, behaviours, education and connections (Facebook, 2015). For local authorities and councils seeking to recruit foster carers, for example, this means that you are able to target people who display interests in pages relating to fostering and caring for young people, for example ‘Fostering Network’ or ‘UK Children’s Charities’. Or for organisations in the retail sector, you are able to target people who display interests in pages relating to fashion and beauty.
These multiple targeting options provided by Facebook increase the likeliness of reaching out to the right people (Marcella, 2009), however they mean that it is sometimes possible to overthink your audience (Loomer, 2012). Targeting an advert too specifically means that you may potentially cut out a segment which is likely to respond, so it is important that you test your adverts at both a specific and broad audience in order to ensure that you are not missing out on a particular segment.
The Importance of Continuous Split Testing
Many organisations believe that split testing advertising only needs to be done once in order to create value; however it needs to be carried out on a continuous basis. This is because things change a lot.
Technology is continuously developing and adapting, which is driving the need for organisations to change the way that they market their products and services. As the population spend more time on their mobiles, tablets and laptops, organisations are realising that they need to connect with their audience through these devices (Benady, 2014). Investment in digital marketing is continuing to grow, with 77% of organisations saying that they intend to increase budgets in 2015 (Charlton, 2015).
This increase in digital marketing intensifies the competition for organisations seeking to attract the attention of users, as there are a large variety of options available for them to choose from. As technological advances increase, users are now far more empowered and in control, and their tastes and preferences are changing on a continuous basis (Forbes, 2014). Therefore, split testing your digital marketing efforts needs to be carried out on a continuous basis in order to stay ahead of competitors and meet the needs of your audience.
Concluding Points
Split testing adverts is an extremely beneficial way to understand how you can best reach your goals (Loomer, 2012), as it allows you test varying factors in order to understand both your audience type, and the type of content that resonates best with that audience. The data captured from split testing creates competitive advantage as you are able to continuously make your product/service better based on experience rather than intuition (McGuire, Mayika & Chui, 2012).
It is, however, important to remember that split testing needs to be carried out on a continuous basis in order to keep up with advances in technological systems and changes in user behaviour, tastes and preferences (Forbes, 2014).
To find out more about how you can best split test your Facebook adverts, watch the video below:
Source: YouTube (2013)
For further reading on the topic, please see the references below:
Ash, T. 2008, Start Thinking About LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION, Penton Media, Inc., Penton Business Media, Inc. and their subsidiaries, Rockville [accessed 09 April 2015]
Close, A. (2012) Online consumer behavior: theory and research in social media, advertising, and e-tail, Routledge Academic, London [accessed 09 April 2015]
Greenyer, A. (2004) ‘The impact of different media channels on consumers and the wastage of potential advertising opportunities through existing customer communications’, Journal of Financial Services Marketing, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 279-290 [accessed 09 April 2015]
Marcella, V (2009) Critical Evaluation of Internet Advertising. Germany: Druck und Bindung.
McGuire, T., Manyika, J. & Chui, M. 2012, “WHY BIG DATA IS THE NEW COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE”, Ivey Business Journal Online, , pp. N_A. [accessed 09 April 2015]
Rossiter, J.R. 1980, “Attitude Change through Visual Imagery in Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 10-16 [accessed 09 April 2015]
Zigmond, D, Sundar, D, Interian, Y, Navemiouk, I (2009) ‘Measuring advertising quality based on audience retention’ Journal of Advertising Research [Online], Vol 49 (Issue 4) [accessed 09 April 2015]
The benefits of Facebook advertising have been argued upon, with some stating that it is a highly effective method for reaching targeted online communities (Tuten, 2008) and others sceptical about the level of privacy it provides the online user with due to the platforms ability to access a high level of user information (Truong & Simmons, 2010).
The aim of this blog is to provide an insight into two Facebook advertising features which have been criticised for harnessing privacy concerns, but that could, however, help local authorities and councils to reach out to the right people. My previous blog focuses on Facebook advertising best practice guidelines, if you are interested, please find it here.
Custom Audiences
Custom audience targeting is a feature which has recently been introduced by Facebook that allows you to target your advertisements to a specific set of people who you have already established a relationship with on or off Facebook (Facebook, 2015).
Let’s say that you have a selection of email addresses or phone numbers of people who have displayed an interest in becoming a foster carer. These details could have been captured from a fostering event, for example. You can then upload this list of email addresses or phone numbers to Facebook, and if the contact details match the details on the user’s profile, Facebook will deliver your ads to those people. It is important to remember, however, that the list needs to include at least 100 people and that the larger the audience size, the more successful the campaign is likely to be (Facebook, 2015).
Source: Facebook, 2015
The custom audience feature means that you when you target your adverts, the call to action button will become enhanced, therefore increasing both the likeliness of catching the attention of the user, and the likeliness of that user converting (B&T, 2014).
Source: Facebook, 2015
By using custom audiences, you are able to reinforce your messaging to an audience of users who have already displayed an interest in becoming a foster carer. This, therefore, impacts on the level of engagement and the rate of conversion (Jon Loomer, 2014).
For advertisers that would like to find out more about Facebook custom audiences, please click here.
Lookalike Audiences
Creating a lookalike audience can be an effective accompaniment to custom audiences. The feature allows you to reach new people who may be interested in becoming a foster carer by utilising attributes such as interests or demographics, which are possessed by people in your custom audience list, fans of your Facebook page or visitors to your website (B&T, 2013).
Simply put, lookalike audiences let you use information you already have to reach a more interesting audience through the following sources:
Custom audience list: This allows you to show your adverts to people who resemble the people whose email addresses or phone numbers you have;
Page fans: This allows you to target people who look like fans of your page but who do not yet know about your organisation;
Website visitors: This allows you target people who are similar to visitors who have visited your website, visitors who have visited a specific section of your website and visitors who have visited a specific page on your website.
Source: Facebook, 2015
The success of lookalike audiences, however, is highly dependent on the sector in which the organisation operates in. Let’s take the retail sector for example, the likeliness of a consumer converting who shares similar characteristics on Facebook to an organisation’s current customer base is relatively high, therefore lookalike audiences for the retail sector have harnessed many benefits (Loomer, 2014). For the recruitment of foster carers, it is difficult to assume that a user who possesses similar characteristics to those from the above three sources has an interest in becoming a foster carer; therefore it is far more complex.
Based on this, a recommendation for implementing lookalike audiences in order to reach out to potential foster carers would be to split test the three sources discussed above. Create one advert and target it at three different lookalike audience types: 1) Those who are similar to your custom audience list 2) Those that are similar to users who have liked your page 3) Those that are similar to visitors who have visited the fostering section of your website. From this, measure which of your three lookalike audiences are generating the most enquiries and which are not in order to understand which of your lookalike audiences are the most effective at helping to reach your goals.
For advertisers that would like to find out more about Facebook lookalike audiences, please click here.
Privacy Concerns
The ability to collect a large amount of personal data from users and use this data to target marketing appeals, however, has increased the privacy concerns of users. Users may perceive the personalised advert content as appealing and aligned with their interests, or they may view it as off-putting if they believe that their privacy has been violated (Tucker, 2014).
If users feel that their privacy is being invaded, it is likely to lead to “reactance”, which is a motivational state in which a user resists something that they find forced by behaving in the opposite way to intended (Tucker, 2014).
There are mixed opinions on the use of custom audiences and lookalike audiences, with some stating that the targeting options are an invasion of user privacy and others stating that an email address is no less sensitive than the data which is accumulated with partner categories, such as buying histories, lifestyle and home ownership status (Loomer, 2012).
Recommendations
Heightened user privacy concerns and user reactance should be viewed upon as highly important aspects to address. The type of advert content implemented is a key method for distilling away from appearing intrusive. For example, messaging such as ‘Are you considering fostering?’ or ‘Interested in fostering but worried about taking the next step?’ would be effective at softly communicating the key message and decreasing the chances of user reactance.
The changes to alter user privacy concerns also need to be made my Facebook. Its current privacy policy contains an overwhelming amount of information, which would benefit from being condensed into a presentable, user-friendly document. Although many Facebook users may still refrain from reading the policy, clear communication of its privacy practices is vital (O’Brien & Torres, 2012).
Concluding Points
Both custom and lookalike audiences are beneficial methods for local authorities and councils seeking to recruit foster carers, due to their ability to increase the chances of reaching out to the right people. If choosing to implement custom audiences it is important to remember that you need at least 100 contact details (Facebook, 2015). If choosing to implement lookalike audiences a suggestion is that you split test all three available sources in order to determine which audience gains foster carer enquiries and which audience does not.
It is, also, vitally important to remember that the increase of social media usage is accompanied by a rise in user privacy concerns (Goldfarb & Tucker, 2010). Therefore the type of messaging that you choose to implement is critical in order to avoid appearing intrusive.
For further reading on the topic, please see the references below:
“Facebook launches Custom Audiences”, 2014, B & T Weekly, [Online] [accessed 06 April 2015]
“Facebook rolls out lookalike audiences globally”, 2013, B & T Weekly, [Online] [accessed 06 April 2015]
Goldfarb, A., Tucker, C. (2011) ‘Privacy Regulation and Online Advertising’. Privacy Regulation and Online Advertising,[Online] Vol 57 (Issue 1), pp. 57-71 <pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.1100.1246> [accessed 6 April 2015]
O’Brien, D. & Torres, A.M. (2012), “Social networking and online privacy: Facebook users’ perceptions”, The Irish journal of management, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 63-97 [accessed 07 April 2015]
Truong, Y., Simmons, G. (2010) Perceived intrusiveness in digital advertising: strategic marketing implications. Journal of Strategic Marketing, [Online] Vol 18 (Issue 3) [accessed 06 April 2015]
Tucker, C.E. 2014, “Social networks, personalized advertising, and privacy controls”, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 546.
Tuten, T (2008) Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. United States: Praeger Publishers.
Many councils and local authorities fear having a presence on social media, with questions such as “How should we use it?”, “Isn’t it very risky?”, “Do we have an audience to target?” What many do not realise is that, if done well, social media advertising has the real potential to change the way that things are done and deliver meaningful impact (BDO, 2012).
In order to experience the benefits from Facebook advertising, it is important that there is a level of understanding on how to best implement it, as a bad page is often worse than no page at all. So, here is my best practice guide for local authorities and councils looking to develop Facebook advertising into their marketing activities in order to recruit foster carers:
1) Understand the needs and preferences of potential foster carers
The starting point for using social media is to understand what potential fosters want to see, and use this information to drive how you advertise. It is harmful, however, to assume that all potential foster carers are interested in finding out about the same factors, but advertising can be formed on a basis of addressing a wide array of potential foster carer needs.
A way of doing this could be to utilise your current network of foster carers. Ask them collectively what their thought process was and worries were in the primary stages of considering fostering and use this understanding to create advertising content. This way, you are producing content based on factual evidence of what it is foster carers want to see. Here are a few of my suggestions on the types of content to include:
– Training & support;
– Different types of fostering;
– Foster carer allowances;
– Real-life success stories of current foster carers.
The following link provides an overview of common fostering FAQs which may prove useful when shaping Facebook advertising content around the needs and preferences of foster carers: http://bit.ly/1Dnn3LE
2) Show the benefit that people would get from becoming a foster carer
In light of best practice point number one, it is important that, as well as remembering about your audience of users who may already be considering fostering, you also remember about users who may not have it in their mind-set to become a foster carer.
This is through showing the benefits that people would get from becoming a foster carer, rather than focusing on the informational aspects such as training, support and allowances. The key message to portray is the difference that the individual would be making to a child’s life and their own by becoming a foster carer.
3) Use strong imagery
Once you have created content, you need to focus on the type of imagery that you choose. Remember, your ad is competing for people’s attention with stories from their friends and family, so it is important that the ad is perceived as belonging in the individual’s newsfeed (Facebook, 2015). The use of imagery is critical as it is likely to be the first part of the advertisement that the user is drawn to (Chang, 2013).
Below is an image which has been used by Manchester City Council. The use of text and the words which have been used are both extremely powerful factors in grabbing the attention of the user. The text signifies the difference that would be made by becoming a foster carer.
Source: Manchester City Council, 2015
4) Split test your adverts
One of the biggest reasons that organisations fail in their Facebook advertising is that they do not split test. Instead, they create one or two adverts, and if they do not find success, they label it a failure (Loomer, 2012).
Split testing your adverts allows you to test different content and imagery against different demographics, however, Facebook recommends that you keep all targeting consistent within a campaign whilst testing different adverts, or alternatively, keep all advert components the same whilst testing different target audiences (Facebook, 2015). This method of testing, known as A/B testing, allows you to determine which content and audience will help you to achieve your objectives by providing understanding into what works and what does not (Loomer, 2012). Try it, if it fails, stop spending money on it, if it works, keep going with it.
4) Educate, train and communicate with staff
You may have powerful content and imagery, however, it is also important that staff are educated and trained on how to monitor engagement. A survey found that 82% of staff at local authorities and councils experience some level of confusion in relation to using social media advertising (BDO, 2012). Risk is a common concern due to messages on social media spreading fast, so reinforce confidence into your staff members by providing consistent education and training (Norman, 2012).
Besides educating and training staff, it is also important to be open and clear about what your organisation hopes to achieve from Facebook advertising. Keeping staff ‘in the loop’ is a fundamental way of keeping them engaged and motivated (Fallon, 2014).
5) Measure your activity
By measuring the engagement levels and response rate received as a result of your Facebook advertising, future marketing decisions can be made based on experience rather than intuition, which are often, better made decisions. Measuring what your audience responds to also allows you to tailor marketing activities and produce effective, personalised marketing which matches the wants and needs of your audience (Mcafee & Brynjolfsson, 2012).
An interesting Harvard Business Review article can be found here which discusses the importance of measuring your activity and how it can benefit organisations.
Limitations & further recommendations
Although Facebook advertising harnesses many benefits, it is important to remember that unlike Google Search advertising, which is in the form of pull advertising (Google AdWords, 2015), Facebook is in the form of push advertising. This means that, in essence, you are fighting for people’s attention against stories from their friends and family (Facebook, 2015), whereas with Google Search your advert is appearing against a search term made by a user who displays a clear interest in becoming a foster carer.
This is why it is fundamental that the content is tailored closely to what you think users want to see, and that the imagery used is sharp and effective at catching the attention of the user. Of course, it is difficult to assume that the content you create is what your audience wants to see, therefore a recommendation is to split test your adverts in order to find out what works (Loomer, 2012).
Concluding points
The best practice guidelines given above can be beneficial for local authorities and councils seeking to implement Facebook advertising into their marketing activities, however, it should be understood that these points alone are not enough to secure success. For further recommendations on how to best implement social media advertising into your marketing activities, an interesting article can be found here by The Guardian which suggests seven tips for using Facebook if you work in the public sector.
My next blog will look into the features offered by Facebook advertising which I think may be of use to local authorities and councils, so please keep reading if you are interested 🙂
For further reading on the topic, please see the references below:
It’s been LGBT Fostering & Adoption week this month, so I’ve decided to create a post on using Facebook for creating awareness and reaching out to people to bust those common ‘fostering myths’.
First of all, let’s take a look at the most common misconceptions about who can foster:
– ‘I’d love to foster, but I am gay’ 1 in 3 people are under the assumption that if you are gay you can’t foster. Whether you are straight, gay or lesbian, you can foster.
– ‘I’d love to foster, but I think I am too old’ 44% of the nation think that if you are over 55 you cannot foster, however, the only age requirement is that foster carers are over 21.
– ‘I’d love to foster, but I am male’ A fifth of people believe that if you are a man you cannot foster, however both men and women can foster.
– ‘I’d love to foster, but I am single’ There are no marital status requirements to foster, you can be single.
(Action for children, 2014)
These common fostering myths are threatening to cause a fostering crisis in the UK, a crisis which can easily be prevented (Burns, 2013). It is, therefore, fundamental that local authorities and councils work hard to diminish these common misconceptions and show people that they can foster.
How? This is where creating awareness through Facebook advertising comes in.
Facebook advertising is becoming increasingly popular for raising awareness and encouraging users to become part of a form of beneficial behaviour (Thackeray, 2012). This is because it enables organisations to reach out to a wide amount of people (Danker,2014), whilst increasing the chance of reaching out to the right people through specific targeting options (Hollis, 2005).
In order to understand how organisations can effectively create awareness through Facebook advertising, let’s take a look at a recent high performing, awareness raising social media campaign:
Action for Children Fostering Myth Busting Campaign
Action for children, a UK children’s charity, ran a campaign in September 2014 as part of a drive to tackle incorrect fostering beliefs. The fostering campaign focused on the lives of 15 foster carers who were once among the large amount of people who are drawn away from enquiring due to the common misconceptions.
(Source: Action for Children, 2014)
Facebook advertising for the campaign got 786 users talking, created 1,027 stories through these users liking, commenting on and sharing the content, reached 55,175 usersand gained 155 new page likes (Action for Children, 2014). Besides a huge amount of engagement, the campaign resulted in 734 fostering enquiries, a 204% increase on their last recruitment campaign (Action for Children, 2014).
What were the key reasons for such success?
Of course, it is important to remember that Action for Children is one of the largest UK children’s charities so has the advantage of a strong brand name and Facebook fan base, but to gain 734 new fostering enquiries shows that the way in which the charity advertised through Facebook was extremely effective.
The key reasons that I think the campaign was such a success was the implementation of content around real-life stories and the use of clear call-to-actions. Social media users like to be able to relate to the content that they are being shown, therefore by the charity telling stories of foster parents, it allowed users to form emotional attachments and increased the likeliness of engagement (Rauniar et al, 2013). The charity also focused specifically on telling users what to do through clear call-to-actions. Research suggests that people are far more likely to engage with an organisation if they are being told what to do and if what they are being told to do is perceived as simple (Marketing Week, 2015).
It should be understood that these are not the sole reasons for the campaigns success, but the use of real life stories and clear call-to-actions are likely to be incremental factors which increased the number of users who chose to engage with the campaign.
Why should local authorities and councils use Facebook to raise awareness?
The campaign results for Action for Children imply that consumer behaviour towards brand messages has changed from being “passive” receivers of content, such as TV and radio advertising, to becoming co-creators and multipliers of brand messages, enabling viral effects and opportunities for online word-of-mouth marketing (Jahn & Kunz, 2012). In a way, social media converts users into marketers based on the fact that they are able to share, like and comment on content; if they find the content interesting, they are likely to engage and share the messaging with their online peers (Roberts & Kraynak, 2008).
Potential limitations
In light of the Action for Children campaign, it is important to remember, however, that not all content received through a Facebook awareness campaign is going to be positive. The opinion of the public varies, so local authorities and councils need to ensure that they have a skilled workforce available to respond to any negative comments in order to diminish the chances of tarnishing the brand .This has the potential to provide both timely and costly as increased training and labour may be required (Rogers, 2014), however, the benefits of doing so are likely to outweigh the costs.
If you would like to read more about the Action for Children Myth Busting campaign, please click the following link: http://bit.ly/1CmyP6S
Danker, S. (2014). BRAND: Identity, Image and Relationships. Art Education. 67 (1), 41-51.
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