7 Changes that Impacted Facebook Advertisers in 2017
For advertisers, Facebook has evolved a lot this year.
In just 2017, the site has released countless new features, ad types and reporting capabilities, and it has even changed the very tools we manage our ads with.
Are you up to date on the ever-evolving Facebook advertising platform? We’ve rounded up the top Facebook changes 2017 has seen. Take a minute to catch up.
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Facebook Consumer Insights Hit the Scene
Back in April, we released the results of our very own Facebook Consumer Survey, which we conducted in partnership with Survata.
The survey included 1,500 Facebook users and shed some serious light on what today’s Facebookers see, do and experience on the platform.
For one, nearly half of all respondents said they were exposed to new products or brands in the past 30 days—AND they remembered that brand. Another 26 percent said if they clicked on an ad, they actually went through with a purchase.
We also found that 54 percent of respondents felt positive about Facebook ads—likely a result of the high quality of advertisements on the site.
Full story: New Study: How Facebook Users Engage with Ads
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Advertisers Get Refunds After Reporting Error
Thanks to errors in reporting on video carousel ads—specifically those with a link click target that were viewed on mobile browsers—Facebook was forced to give refunds to about 0.04 percent of its advertisers back in May.
Though it wasn’t an earth-shattering bug, it did drive home the fact that advertisers should always double-check their click-through rates using Google Analytics.
As CPC Strategy report Leanna Kelly put it, “In the future, if your goal is to get clicks to your site, it’s a good rule of thumb to double check those CTRs from Facebook within Google Analytics.”
Full story: Facebook Refunds Advertisers Hit by Reporting Bug
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Live Video Advertising Rolls Out
In July, Facebook rolled out a beta version of its live video advertising, which allows brands that go live to monetize their views.
One of the testers, Addition Elle, saw a 5 percent jump in sales and a 28-point lift in purchase intent as a result of trying the new format. Another saw advertising ROIs multiple by 51 times.
Full story: Facebook Live Ads: How Facebook Video Monetization Works
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Business Messaging Feature Expands
Facebook Discover—a new messenger feature that lets users connect with brand chatbots, was also released in July. With a featured bots section and dozens of other categories and sectors to choose from, it offered yet another way for brands to gain visibility on the platform and better connect with potential customers.
Discover came right on the heels of another Messenger release—group chatbots. Launched earlier this year, this feature lets group chatters bring in bots to make reservations, track scores and perform other functions.
Full story: Facebook Discover: The Latest Chatbot Program for Brands
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Facebook and Google Attributions Don’t Match Up
Late this summer, we started noticing some discrepancies between our Google Analytics reports and our Facebook ones. As it turns out, the two were showing drastically different results for Facebook ad campaigns.
We dove into the problem in a blog post, but the gist of it was this: Neither site was under- or over-reporting. They simply attribute conversion sources differently—and recognizing this is the key to gleaning accurate and helpful insights from your analytics.
Full story: Is Google Analytics Misreporting Your Facebook Conversions?
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Dynamic Overlays Offer Engagement Boost
When it comes to Facebook changes, 2017 saw few as big or as impactful as the dynamic ad overlays that came out in September.
The tool allows advertisers to add dynamic price, discount and copy overlays to static ads—even customizing shapes, colors and other details.
According to Stephen Kerner, Sr. Manager of Retail Search here at CPC Strategy, the overlays should help drive up engagement.
“They could also increase the quality of the clicks as well because advertisers now have the ability to add more specific product information which can also act as a call to action,” Kerner said.
Full story: Highlight Price & Discounts with Facebook Dynamic Ad Overlays
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Power Editor and Ads Manager Merge
In September, we said goodbye to the old Facebook Ads Manager.
The tool merged with the bigger, more robust Power Editor, making ad management and creation just a little bit easier on advertisers.
According to our Manager of Performance, Sarah Rogers, the merger will cut out the hassle of bouncing back and forth between tools.
“Having both functionalities in one place will definitely make it a bit more seamless,” Rogers said.
“With the previous Power Editor, you had to toggle back and forth a lot to manage and monitor campaigns, but now you can make those optimizations in one tool. Overall, I think this will encourage better user flow and improve efficiency as well.”
Full story: Facebook Power Editor Merges with Ads Manager
What’s Up Next?
If history is any indication, 2018 will be a year of changes for Facebook, too, so be sure to stay tuned to the CPC Strategy blog for updates.
Want more info on Facebook’s latest changes? Email [email protected].
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