It’s undeniable that Facebook lets marketers reach practically any imaginable audience segment. This social media powerhouse has also excelled at expanding where your ads appear, fiercely competing with Google for advertising dominance. This post will delve into Facebook’s diverse ad placements, their distinctions, and optimization strategies to outshine competitors.
Navigating Facebook Ad Placements
Starting a Facebook ad account today, you’ll encounter “automatic placements” as the default. This might seem perplexing initially.
Skeptics might assume “(Recommended)” simply means Facebook wants you to spend more, which isn’t entirely inaccurate, but we’ll explore that later. Those who dare to click “edit placements” will discover the fascinating world of placement targeting:
This reveals numerous ad display territories:
- Facebook’s mobile and desktop newsfeeds
- The Audience Network
- Messenger You’ll also notice three device options:
Let’s break these down for clarity…
Understanding Facebook Ad Placements
Facebook placements are the pioneers of social media advertising. Over time, they’ve introduced features for advertisers to fine-tune ad display to their audience. A crucial distinction is that placement options vary based on whether you target desktop, mobile, or both. Targeting desktop/laptop users limits you to Facebook’s newsfeed and right column placements. The newsfeed is self-explanatory, while the right column refers to compact ad versions on the Facebook interface’s side:
For mobile-only targeting, options include newsfeeds and Facebook’s “instant articles.” Lastly, some placement options like in-stream and suggested videos are restricted to specific campaign objectives:
Exploring Instagram Ad Placements
Facebook’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram, now boasting 800 million monthly active users, many overlapping with Facebook, was strategically brilliant. This grants Facebook advertisers expanded reach on a distinct platform. Naturally, Instagram targeting is mobile-only. You can choose between advertising within the Instagram feed or “stories”.
Similar to Snapchat’s “stories,” Instagram “stories” are temporary images, videos, and gifs where users document their lives for their audience’s entertainment.
Unveiling Facebook Audience Network Ad Placements
The Audience Network extends your reach beyond social media, into mobile apps and websites. Your ad can be displayed as native, banner, or interstitial:
Video-focused campaigns can utilize in-stream and rewarded videos. Now, you might be thinking, “My target audience isn’t on dating apps – I can’t have my ads appearing there!” Fortunately, you can exclude specific app and website categories from the Audience Network, minimizing wasted clicks. These category and block lists also apply to instant article and in-stream video placements:
This extends to religious and political categories as well. Problem solved! Pro Tip: If you encounter an ad on a website you find disagreeable, remember that advertisers often utilize ad networks. They likely didn’t specifically choose that site, and many lack the expertise to exclude them. The ads are following your browsing history, not necessarily targeting that specific content.
Demystifying Facebook Messenger Ad Placements
Messenger placements offer two choices: Messenger home and sponsored messages. The “home” option is essentially a banner ad displayed in the home menu:
Sponsored messages appear based on the “Messenger” campaign objective, enabling targeted, contextually relevant ads to re-engage users already conversing with your business.
With available placements outlined, let’s delve into optimizing your Facebook campaigns for maximum return on investment.
Mastering Facebook Ad Placement Optimization
Not all placements suit every campaign objective. It’s often wiser to prioritize. Two primary approaches to placement optimization are trial & error and goal-centric.
The “Trial and Error” Approach to Facebook Ad Placements
This involves setting up a campaign (let’s use a conversions objective as an example). Run your ads for a predetermined duration to a chosen audience using automatic placements. Analyze the performance data in Ads Manager, focusing on the ad set or target audience used for the test. Open the performance tab on the right:
Then, select the placements tab on the top right:
This example shows automatic placements, with Facebook’s algorithm optimizing for the most cost-effective, result-driven placement based on the bidding strategy. This method allows you to systematically pause underperforming placements. Even with Facebook’s optimization, budget allocation across placements occurs. Manually refining ensures optimal budget allocation as consistently as possible.
The “Goal-Centric” Approach to Facebook Ad Placements
A confession: the previous example wasn’t entirely accurate. Before adjusting your ad sets, let me clarify. While the example mentioned “automatic placements” for the conversions campaign (eBook downloads), not all placements ran “automatically.” The Audience Network was intentionally excluded from the outset for valid reasons. Years of Facebook advertising experience have bred caution regarding the Audience Network, particularly for conversion-focused campaigns. Despite underperformance, Facebook often prioritizes it over higher-performing, more desirable placements like the newsfeed. A similar trend emerges in website click campaigns, where it consumes a significant budget for cheap clicks. This particular example did use “automatic placements”:
Superficially, it might seem appealing: cheaper clicks, higher volume, upward-trending graphs. But the reality is more nuanced. These Audience Network clicks are often accidental, yielding uninterested users who bounce immediately. While testing is encouraged, experience suggests caution, especially for conversion-focused goals. “Goal-centric” optimization emphasizes defining your advertising objective clearly when creating a campaign. Consider the user experience with your ad. Will someone stop engaging with their current app to complete your desired action? Likely not, unless your ad is exceptionally relevant to their current context. This leads us to…
Aligning Facebook Ad Placements with Campaign Goals
Let’s explore the optimal placements for each campaign objective.
Awareness Campaigns
Brand awareness campaigns benefit from any placement. Frequency is key here. For substantial budgets, create multiple small audiences with high daily budgets, maximizing ad exposure across platforms. Reach-focused campaigns function similarly to traditional media buys. Monitor frequency capping to avoid overexposure, but leverage various placements as needed.
Consideration Campaigns
Consideration campaigns offer more variety. Let’s examine placement options for each: Traffic – Traffic or link click campaigns thrive on all placements, with the Audience Network being optional. Analyze placement performance over time to optimize based on the content promoted. Engagement – Automatic placements are recommended, with ongoing optimization. App Installs – Restricted to mobile-only placements, app installs are valuable. Unless confident in audience relevancy, exclude the Audience Network. Users are more receptive to app downloads when not already engaged with one.
Video Views – Available for all placements except Messenger, automatic placements are suitable. Consider testing video-specific placements in separate ad sets. Lead Generation – Excluding the Audience Network is recommended, depending on the offer and form. Focus on placements encouraging action, like newsfeeds, which typically yield better cost-per-lead. Messages – Limited to Messenger placements, aligning with the objective.
Conversion Campaigns
Conversions – Utilize all placements except the Audience Network. While some dislike Instagram, it can be highly effective for conversions. Test and analyze based on your specific results. Product Catalog sales – Start with automatic placements but monitor closely. Ecommerce demands strict cost-per-acquisition (CPA) control. Break out placements and adjust bids accordingly. Store visits – Use automatic placements initially, then review and remove expensive options.
Device-Specific Facebook Ad Placement Optimization
For granular targeting, break down placements and test them individually with dedicated budgets. Clone the ad set for each placement, excluding all others. Another practice involves separating audiences by mobile and desktop users, particularly valuable for conversion campaigns. This identifies the most profitable device, allowing for focused budget allocation.
Beyond “Set It and Forget It”
The key takeaway is that Facebook ad placements require attention. If you’re running Facebook campaigns and leveraging lookalike audiences, optimize your placements. Many prematurely abandon campaigns assuming they’re ineffective when, in reality, they simply haven’t been served in the right locations.