Back in 2015 when Facebook launched its ad relevance score, it served as a tool thatoffered a peep into performance of the ad. With the score ranging between 1 and 10 (depending on the positive interactions vs “hide” and “report an ad”), the marketers, at least, were able to get a sense as to whether the ad was resonating with the target audience or not.
But there was no way you could optimize your underperforming ads. Why? Because the metric did not tell whether your ad copy is uninteresting, your audience selection is wrong or the conversion bidding needs a tweak.
On 30th April, Facebook brought in more granular and meaningful metrics that can help you create engaging ad campaigns with a better ROI.
What’s New
Termed as ad relevance diagnostic, this feature assesses the ad performance using 3 different metrics (Important to note that ad relevance diagnostics are not available for ads with less than 500 impressions). The different metrics include:
- Quality Ranking
It is the ad’s perceived quality compared to ads competing for the same audience. The parameters included to determine the quality of an ad includes images, catchy text, compelling CTAs, etc. If an ad resonates more with people and gathers eyeballs grabbing images/videos, relevant and powerful CTAs and have persuasive headers does better in terms of quality.
It is how our ad’s expected engagement rate compared to ads competing for the same audience. This is measured via likes, shares, reactions, comments and overall clicks on the ad. Comments are critical indicators of a good engagement ranking. Since commenting requires a person to stop and reflect, whereas a like can be a mechanical process, comments are a better metric to judge engagement.
How your ad’s expected conversion rate compared to ads with the same optimization goal competing for the same audience. It takes into account the probability of a person to complete the your optimisation goal once the user has clicked on the ad.
Unlike a precise score in terms of a number between 1 to 10, the new metrics present a broader ranking category as “Above Average,” “Average” & “Below Average.”
How to Leverage Ad Relevance Score to Improve Your Ads
First things first, it is always better and advised to improve the rankings that are low, rather than scaling up your “average” ranking to “above average.” Facebook makes this thing very clear in plain and simple words:
“It’s more impactful to move a ranking from low to average than it is to move a ranking from average to above average, so focus on improving low rankings rather than on improving average rankings.”
This means, you just need to make sure that you are not falling behind in any of the metrics.
Facebook further recommends certain actions based on your ads ranking in the different metrics.
You can clearly see that the two columns on the extreme right are causes and recommendations. Once you identify the causes, you can follow the recommendations to uplift the engagement of your underperforming ad.
Though like every other metric, ad relevance diagnostic is not a fool-proof indicator of the performance of an ad. Rather, it is just a probable pointer, which is nowhere near perfection. In case your ad is not working, you may follow the recommendations in order to, at least, give a direction to your efforts.
There may be cases when your ad will be performing well, whereas the metrics may be giving you a below average rank. No need to worry. Just let your ad campaign continue, you need not have to make any changes.
Based on what Facebook says there are some clear takeaways to improve ad relevance score:
1. If your ad has low Quality Ranking
Though there are various parameters impacting the Quality Score, image is critical. You can use other high quality engaging image to see the impact. Human brain processes image 60,000 times faster than text.
2. If your ad has low Engagement Ranking
It may be due to your ad is not eliciting interest from your audiences; you may A/B test different headlines, images or Call to Actions. It may give you some idea where is the problem.
3. If Your ad has low Conversion Rate Ranking
Test demography, age and a audience and find out what works best for your ads. However, it is important to understand that some products and services have naturally low conversion rate.
Some More Actionable Tips to Improve Ad Relevance Score
Apart from specific tips to improve score in the three above mentioned area
Add Video to Your Ads
Videos are an in-thing today. According to estimates, by 2020, videos will account for 85% of the overall internet traffic. Besides being the best medium to convey things in a comprehensive manner, videos compel users to go for the stuff. It is interesting to note than more than 48% of Australians purchased product after watching a video.
Reduce Its Frequency
You must accept this, multiple impressions of the same ad will result in more negative engagement, than positive. Do not bombard the user with your ad every time they log in, just give them a space.
1. Right Time is the KEY
What’s the point of pushing your ad, if there is no one available. Research about the surfing pattern of your target audience and push your ads in the right slots.
Being detailed in its approach, the new ad relevance score update not just leaves you with a number in your hand, rather it also guides you and helps you find the issues in your ad. By dividing the ad in to 3 category metrics, it helps you identify the problem with ease and hence, the solution as well.
However, the metric should not be considered as something 100% accurate. There may be discrepancy in them, but they can at least give a stronger and better indication not just in terms of whether your ad is relevant or not, but what you need to do as well.
Guest article written by: Vishal Vivek co-founded SEO Corporation 7 years back and has been heading the organization as a workaholic CEO ever since. SEO Corporation is an award winning SEO Services Company and a recognized Web Design Company. When Vishal is not covered knee deep in work, he’s found petting random stray animals, enjoying risky vacations and reading really thick books.
Nice post, great takeaways for facebook marketers. I will definitely use these techniques when I will run Facebook ads in the future.
Thanks for the post.