The second quarter of 2013 was a good one for Facebook advertisers. That’s according to data from Kenshoo Social which compares Facebook advertising performance trends between the first and second quarters of this year based on a global analysis of a representative sample of 75 billion Facebook ads. The analysis showed an improvement in every key metric tracked in the study.
The analysis by the Kenshoo Social team identified the following performance improvements in Facebook advertising:
- Click Through Rate (CTR): Up 18.5%
- Cost Per Click (CPC): Down 15.9%
- Click Volume: Up 16.4%
- Conversions: Up 56.9%
- Advertiser Revenue: Up 28.3%
Todd Herrold of Kenshoo Social explains the two factors that were found to be driving the improvement in Facebook ad performance as follows:
- Better ad targeting products from Facebook designed specifically to increase conversions such as Partner Categories, Custom and Lookalike Audiences, and Facebook Exchange (FBX)
- Better use of tools by advertisers to target their ads and manage their advertising programs
For Facebook, this report is extremely important. In fact, any report that shows Facebook advertising can drive tangible results through conversions is an important one for Facebook, which must prove the worth of its ad platform to advertisers. The Kenshoo Social report defined conversions as offsite sales, likes, shares, comments, app installs, game plays, and other Facebook actions. Based on the findings in this report, these types of conversions were up nearly 60% during the second quarter of 2013 (over first quarter 2013 conversion rates).
If this growth is sustainable, Facebook might have a really good chance to prove that Facebook advertising is a viable direct response marketing investment rather than just a brand awareness investment. For brand marketers, this performance improvement for Facebook ad conversion rates provides another way to justify budget dollars for Facebook advertising. Of course, creating the right campaigns and effectively targeting them are critical to leveraging Facebook advertising for direct response marketing. With that said, the opportunities certainly appear to be growing.
Are you testing Facebook advertising as a direct response marketing tool for your brand yet? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Image: Ariel da Silva Parreira
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
