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Since their introduction in 2007, Facebook ads have been known for their love-hate relationship with company marketers all over the world, mainly because, although company strategists know their businesses need to be under the Facebook radar, not all of them think Facebook ads give them their money’s worth.
Facebook is a marketing giant primarily because, as of the first half of 2019, 1.59 billion people log in to it on a daily basis. It’s a great platform to offer a product and generate presence & placement for a company. However, with over 80 million active business pages worldwide, its newsfeed is an overcrowded space where segmentation is a need not a commodity.
Nowadays, Facebook ads are needed not only to reach potential target audiences, but to reach previously engaged customers. It is a well-known fact that the current organic reach of a Facebook page is only 7% of the total of people who like it; nevertheless, some companies are still adamant to using Facebook ads, despite some others having cracked their codes to results that have surpassed their biggest expectations.
Facebook ads winners revealed, revered & revised
While it’s true that 93% of social media advertisers use Facebook ads, it is also a proven fact that only a fraction of them (Facebook ads) manage to exceed reckonings. Nonetheless, this doesn’t happen because of Facebook ads policies or because of the network’s ever-changing algorithm, this happens, because in an overcrowded sphere, one must jump the page to be ahead of the game.
Last year, 5 companies became winning examples of how Facebook ads can propel a business to the next level when used properly, creatively & with the help of a team of experts. They were the following:
1.Airbnb & its “Time After Time” campaign
With over a decade in the hosting business, Airbnb is no newbie when it comes to customer service; however, their 2018 Facebook ads campaigns & marketing strategies turned their ideas into textbook guidelines for companies all over the world, even though their plan only relied on keeping it simple & staying true to the company’s values & vision.
Airbnb based their Facebook ads on user-generated content, meaning they used their customer’s pictures & comments as day to day posts & campaigns. Airbnb showcased Facebook ads with professional, customer-taken pictures of mesmerizing scenarios, & complimented them by adding praising quotes sent by customers to their review sections.
Their marketing team compilated pictures & wrote down the finest quotes, then turned them into fresh, appealing, laid back ads that magnified their customer’s role in the company’s brand experience.
From a marketing point of view the idea was a jackpot, from the Facebook ads algorithm stand point it was too, because Facebook’s current algorithm favors visual content over linking content; & because the comments it generated were answered with much more than a generic glad you enjoyed yourself message, placement kept skyrocketing.
Customer service answered the comments in hopes of keeping the conversation going because:
- It helped them get client impressions, suggestions & complaints straight from them.
- Because the more comments their ad had, the better ranking it got, hence the higher organic reach, hence the lower cost per click, hence the bigger profit for less.
As of today, Airbnb’s ads strategy is applauded by Facebook itself; they view their winning example as:
“a targeting of on-site visitors, who looked up potential vacations, to serve them laser-pointed deals.”
2.The Grammarly Effect in Facebook Ads
Before their 2018-present winning streak, Grammarly wasn’t the mammoth digital force it is today. However, their branding without spamming technique made their product plugging tactic look so elegant & warm hearted, that their risky 5 second snippet storytelling went on to be a raging success. The thing is, despite visual content making up for only 3% of all Facebook content, it offers the highest digital ROI. Therefore, Grammarly played it cool by:
- Choosing an interesting story that presented them to a new audience
- Choosing the highest ROI format (video)
- Creating an engaging slogan that inspired action (Write the Future)
- Including a bite of social approval with a header review written by Forbes that described how they were going to make an educational impact.
That’s one big way to jump off the page on a crowded network.
3.Toyota “Feeling the Street” Facebook Ads
Modeled after Airbnb’s premise that users are the best campaign content generators, Toyota took to Twitter & Instagram to ask musicians to submit videos to their #FeelingtheStreet hashtag. They then used said material as the main focus of their Facebook ads campaign. Meaning, they did not pay a penny for production costs, but netted an astounding 1.2 million engagements, complete with a 440% increase on their overall Facebook engagement.
4.GameStop’s “No bother, but Squeeze” tactic
GameStop is known for taking imagination & using it as their most powerful tool. From their games to their Facebook ads, GameStop’s 4% monthly conversation increase was powered by their use of visual content that appealed to Facebook’s own machinery. This was achieved via a video that simulated a Boomerang effect (Boomerang is owned by Facebook) & by talking to each sector of their demographic in their holiday Facebook ads. To do the former, they did a video ad that showcased each of their top selling game covers & then showed a man with a hammer demolishing them to encourage the “desperate acquisition” of the game. You won’t play this game, you’ll demolish it.
5.Air Asia’s low key giveaway announcement
In 2018 Air Asia became a winning example by putting the simplest pieces of a puzzle together in one record breaking ad. They placed an attractive flight attendant dressed in red in a red background, then ordered clients to grab their seat & book a trip using one of their 5 million promo seats. They also added a slogan that read the word “FREE” in all capitals to attract immediate attention; a show-stopping red marquee & free seats is a no brainer.
SOURCES:
https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-statistics
https://adespresso.com/blog/best-facebook-ad-campaigns
https://stackla.com/resources/case-studies/toyota-boosts-facebook-ads-440-percent/
