How do you know if your Facebook and Instagram ads are effective?

My favourite case study is one I’m continuing to work on because its an example of how an audit across digital and social channels can reveal inefficiencies and help a client get a deeper understanding of their marketing.

I did an audit for the client in October 201 . In it, I found how their existing agency based in Melbourne was neglecting Smartstone’s Facebook advertising, leaving it for months at a time without reporting and optimising.

My key findings were:

Facebook Pixel was only partially set up – plus only one of 3 Google Analytics goal conversions were currently tracking
Traffic Ads (sending people to the Smartstone website) were the single objective being used, retargeting was not being used
Cost per 1,000 Impressions was averaging at $7.33 with a unique reach of 501,268

Since December 2018, I’ve run campaigns for the client with using Reach and Frequency Traffic ads and retargeting ads and dramatically reduced ad costs, whilst improving click through rates and increasing impressions and reach

Decrease in cost per 1,000 impressions to $3.70 – a decrease in costs of 50%!
With an increase in ad spend of 64%, I managed to increase the Impressions by 224% versus the previous period (when I had done my audit)
Reach went up 1,489,954 – an increase of 197.24%
We’ve included retargeting in the advertising mix – to great success, with current retargeting ads click through rates hitting 1.95%
I have implemented increased tracking via Facebook Pixel and using Google Analytics Goals and forms across the website. The ads have increased the interest and visits to the website and through their showroom visits, we are tracking who comes in, empowering the customer service team to conduct mini surveys and follow up showroom visitors with email summaries of their visits

Photo by stockcatalog