Getting More Value Out of Your Facebook Campaigns with Machine Learning

One of the biggest revelations about Facebook in the last few months is that it has vast amounts of user data. While there are plenty of privacy issues revolving around Facebook, one thing is for sure. When used appropriately and effectively, Facebook’s big data is a gem. Through Facebook ads, you’re able to run highly effective campaigns that are relevant to users. As a result, you can minimize the number of non-performing ads your users are bombarded with when they’re online.

But Facebook’s big data is good for more than just targeting. When running a Facebook ad campaign, there are plenty of automated optimization options which can go a long way in helping you to run more effective and efficient ad campaigns and take your business to the next level.

Here are some of the ways Facebook leverage’s complex machine learning technology to improve the performance of your ad campaigns.

One of the most exciting things about the Facebook Ads manager is that you have to choose a campaign objective. Rather than adopting a general approach, consider selecting a specific objective. For instance, ask yourself whether you want to achieve a high number of clicks, great reach or a positive return on advertising spend (ROAS).

When setting out your advertising campaign, it’s easy to forget that the best way to achieve multiple objectives is to set up multiple campaigns. And that’s where the Facebook Ads manager comes in.

Whenever you’re creating a new campaign, think critically about your achievement objectives, and select the most appropriate option for your campaign. If your goal is to achieve two objectives, create two separate campaigns. Facebook’s algorithm uses the campaign objective to determine the users who will be presented with your ads. If you select Video Views as your objective, for example, the algorithm will place your ads in front of users within your target demographic that, based on user data, are more likely to complete video views. As such, you’re likely to see significant positive results from ensuring your needs are accurately reflected in your campaign objectives.

Facebook is no longer just Facebook. Facebook currently owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. While WhatsApp is yet to be monetized as an ad platform, you have the option to select Instagram and Messenger as placements in your Facebook ad campaigns.

It’s obvious why Facebook extended placements to include other platforms: the higher the number of ads they can serve out there, the more money they make. But there’s also plenty to gain as a business. Selecting all placements by default allows Placement Optimization to occur.

Facebook’s algorithm can decide to serve your ads based on where they can be least costly. While performance may vary, experts recommend that you select all placements when starting a new campaign, and then reevaluate performance regularly and make adjustments as needed.

In addition to using campaign objectives to help Facebook choose the best way to display your ads, you can go a step further at the ad set level by choosing how you want to optimize for ad delivery. The options you’ll have will depend on the objective of your campaign and will give you an opportunity to further zero in on precisely the right users who will help you to achieve your campaign objectives.

Value is an interesting addition to the options when you select a conversations objective. This means that rather than merely optimizing your ads towards users who are more likely to convert, Facebook goes a step further to deliver your ads to users it considers likely to make high-value purchases. In the long run, this helps to increase the ROAS for your campaign.

While optimizing towards value has great potential to improve your ROAS, testing is absolutely critical. Every company is unique, and you need to find something that will best meets your objectives. When it comes to testing, Facebook has a split-testing feature that gives you an opportunity to compare an optimization option against another, so you’re better placed to choose the best option for your ad campaign.

Automation and machine learning are trending topics in today’s advertising world. However, it can sometimes be challenging to see whether they live up to the hype.

Well, Facebook’s rich user data and innovative ad products mean that trusting Facebook to make some decisions is actually worth it. Indeed, Facebook knows way more about your target audience that you would be able to learn even with the most extensive market research.

So, try out as many options as possible, and bear in mind that what works for one campaign may not be ideal for another and that you need to be vigilant about performance evaluation.