Facebook Social Ad Impressions Are More Effective

Studies have shown that consumers trust friend referrals more than ads, but brands on social media are doing almost as well too. This begs the question – Are ads on social media any good for ad recall, brand awareness, and purchase intent?

A joint report, Advertising Effectiveness: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression, by Nielsen and Facebook, which analyzed survey data from more than 800,000 Facebook users in response to more than 125 Facebook ad campaigns from 70 brand advertisers, showed promising results.

Focusing on 14 Facebook ad campaigns that incorporated the “Become A Fan” engagement unit, ad effectiveness is measured in three ways –  (1) Lift from a standard “Homepage Ad”; (2) Lift from an ad that featured social context or “Homepage ads with Social Context”; and (3) Lift from “Organic Ads,” newsfeed stories that are sent to friends of users who engage with advertising on a brand.

Results

Comparing to the control group,

• Exposure to (1) engagement ads increased recall, awareness and purchase intent by 10%, 4% and 2% respectively
• Exposure to (2) ads with social context increased recall, awareness and purchase intent by 16%, 8%, 8% respectively
• Exposure to (3) organic ads increased recall, awareness and purchase intent by 30%, 13%, 8% respectively
• Organic ads and ads with social context are more effective in general, supporting the argument that peer recommendations are more effective than other forms of ads