We know first hand how difficult Facebook Ads can be. Just when you think you’ve got the basics down, a new hurdle is thrown your way and it’s like starting all over again. This couldn’t be truer when Facebook updates its ads manager pretty much every week. So how are we to make sense of it all?
Here at Blend Commerce, our marketing team has been researching, collecting and putting together a blog series where each month, we break down the important Facebook Ad updates you need to know. We’ve also got some that you should look out for in the future.
Blend’s Key Takeaways
It doesn’t feel so long ago that Facebook introduced their Welcome and FAQ's Messenger Marketing, well they’ve now taken it a step further and have introduced the same features to Instagram. We can see great benefits for Shopify merchants, particularly for Fashion and Lifestyle Brands. Instagram has always been a good organic channel for them so we’re excited to see how this update can drive additional sales for them. If you want to learn more about Facebook Messenger, check out this guide for businesses from Hootsuite.
Facebook is also creating new ways for their users to interact with Facebook Ads. Now that Traffic Campaigns can let you call a business by tapping the ad, we’re interested to see if this will help bring the real-life and online experience closer together.
September 2020 Facebook Ad Updates
Just as soon as we posted the last blog, Facebook updated their ads manager interface again. However, Facebook has slowed down this month focusing on further updates to streamline the whole Facebook Ad experience.
Here are the main updates we’ve seen in September:
- New Ads Manager Interface
- Custom Metrics Are Now Available in Ads Manager
- New Destination Available Under Traffic Objective
- Start Conversations on Instagram Direct
- Additional Updates
New Ads Manager Interface
Since our last update in August, Facebook has changed up its Ads Manager Interface again. In the video below, our Performance Marketer Lauren Barrett shows you on screen some of the main changes to the interface.
This also includes an updated appearance to ad creation. The new simple, white design has been transitioned to ad creation. Although different, it’s still familiar and we think it does make the creation process look simpler.
Custom Metrics Are Now Available in Ads Manager
Previously, custom metrics were only accessible in Ads Reporting. Now, they’re accessible in both Ads Reporting and Ads Manager. You can now create, edit and view custom metrics within the Customize Columns menu in Ads Manager. Just navigate to the Columns drop-down in Ads Manager and you’ll see ‘Create Custom Metric’ in blue text at the top of the pop-out.
Custom metrics allow you to use your formula to analyze performance. For example, you could measure Engagement from the number of Pages Likes plus the number of post comments. When you build a custom metric, Facebook only performs basic mathematical calculations based on your formula to deliver your result and does not otherwise add to or modify the metric. You can learn more about it here.
We’d love to hear what Custom Metrics you are using that will help other Shopify Merchants, comment them below and we’ll share them in our next blog.
New Destination Available Under Traffic Objective
In what could be a great way to bring the high street experience, online, Facebook has now introduced a Phone Call destination for Traffic Campaigns. This means when a user interacts with your ads, in just a tap, they can now phone your business.
Start Conversations on Instagram Direct
Much like their updates to Facebook Messenger Marketing, when you create ads that open Instagram Direct, you can now have a welcome message and frequently asked questions appear in an Instagram Direct Message.
To use this feature you can find the option in the Message Template section. You can learn more about click to message ads here.
Additional Updates
New Ways to View Ad Set Recommendations
When you view ad set results in your reporting table, you may see some that are underlined. When you hover over an underlined result, you'll see a recommendation for how you can improve that ad set's performance.
New Ad Objectives Available for Marketplace Placements
Marketplace placements are now available when you create ads with Post Engagement and Page Like objectives.
Things to Keep an Eye Out for
As always, along with the updates, there are several speculations and announcements from Facebook this month which are yet to appear, therefore, we’d like to keep an eye out for them.
Here are the potential updates to look out for in September:
- More Call-to-Action Buttons Available With Placement Customization
- Facebook launches free ‘paid online events’ for Small Businesses
More Call-to-Action Buttons Available With Placement Customization
When you’re at the media editing option on the ad level you may notice you can edit your placements for when you use the Call Now, Get Directions and Get Offer buttons on your ad. However this feature is gradually being rolled out which is why we think it’s a great update to look out for in the future.
Initially, there may be some products that don’t work with the asset customisation due to this so you may encounter these issues:
- It’s not currently compatible with some Campaign Objectives:
- Engagement (Page likes, event responses)
- Messages (message destination, WhatsApp Business)
- Catalog sales
- Store traffic
- Engagement (post Engagement) is only compatible with Facebook posts, not Instagram posts or branded content.
- You can't use some promoted objects:
- App (conversions for app events),
- Catalog
- Offer
- You can't use the Collection Ad Format
- You can't vary ads by device type. For example, one asset for mobile and a different asset for desktop.
- You can't use some call-to-action (CTA) buttons even when they are compatible with your objective. These CTAs are unavailable:
- Get Tickets
- Call
- Missed Call
- Call Me
- Send WhatsApp Message
- Message Page
- Save
- You can't use some Facebook tools: dynamic creative ads, Facebook Shops ads.
- These placements aren't supported:
- Facebook Groups
- Facebook Search
- Messenger Sponsored Messages
There are still areas of this update that need to be rolled out so to be sure to keep your eye on these when they become available.
Source: Facebook.com
Facebook launches free ‘paid online events’ for Small Businesses
Facebook is on a mission to help small businesses survive COVID 19 and to start making money using their platform.
A few months ago, the company announced $100M in cash grants and ad credits for Small Businesses. It later introduced Facebook Shops to help businesses sell online. And today it announced a new all in one tool for these businesses to earn money from online events on Facebook.
By combining marketing, payments and live video, Facebook hopes small businesses will use the feature to host events on Facebook Live, reaching broader audiences but also generating revenue. Similar to what they might have done before COVID 19.
Facebook has also announced they will not collect any fee from paid online events for at least the next year to help support small businesses and creators, allowing them to keep 100% of revenue generated.
If you’ve used this tool, we’d love to hear your experience in the comments below.
Source: Facebook News
If you ever want to find updates for yourself, just google “what’s new in ads manager’. Facebook has a whole page of new and past releases that you can look at. You can find those here.
You can also view Release Notes from Facebook within Ads Manager itself. If you click the question mark icon in the bottom left -hand corner, a new menu will open on the right. After scrolling you will see “Ads Manager Updates” with purple star icon just like below:
Most of this Month’s ‘to look out for updates’ were found this way and haven’t yet been officially released on Facebook’s “What’s New in Ads Manager” page.
If you have any comments or questions, just leave a comment on our blog. Equally, if you’d like to learn more about how Blend Commerce could help grow your business with Facebook Ads, send us an email here.
