"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door."
We've all heard the phrase and we certainly all understand the concept: innovation is king. When someone figures out a new way to conquer an existing problem, they win. Facebook has long been an innovator-just look at the scores of products that alter the way we behave and interact with one another. Last year, Facebook rolled out a number of new tools within their self-service advertising platform that allow marketers the opportunity to do new things and be more creative in the method that they approach their consumer base. In doing so, Facebook has tried to improve their mousetrap by adding new bells and whistles. In order to use those tools though, marketers must do two things: first they must understand them and why they can be effective. The other thing they must do? Log into their Power Editor tool on a Chrome browser!
If you have done any paid advertising on Facebook previously you know you have the ability to alter the objective you wish your customer to complete--whether it's clicks, conversions or something else. What Facebook rolled out in the last few months is a few new tools that increase that objective list considerably.
Local awareness
In this particular objective, Facebook has made it easier for marketers to help local businesses raise awareness by increasing foot traffic or in-store sales. What this tool does is allow you to focus on a "flexible target radius around your business based on population density." What is great about this tool is not only does it serve the awareness-generating ad to your client base, it also allows you to select the action the consumer will take if they click on it (Get Directions, Call Now, Send Message or Learn More). One additional element to consider here is that your ability to create unique campaigns for specific efforts doesn't have to stop with this tool. For example, if you want customers to come out to a road show featuring your product, you could still create an event within Facebook and then market the event using this local awareness tool. This would also be a great tool for a band playing a show or even a fundraising event for a community organization.
Brand Awareness
This might be the most exciting thing that Facebook is doing. With the brand awareness tool, Facebook is basically employing classic "ad recall" techniques that have been espoused by advertisers for generations. Basically in this objective your advertisement is being shown to people that Facebook predicts will be "more likely to remember them." So how in the world do they do that? Despite being imprecise, Facebook calculates the ad recall lift based on: the number of people reached with the ads, how much time people spent looking at the ads and the "historical relationship between the attention people give ads and the results from ad recall surveys." Obviously that last one is a lot to digest-but it is clear that they are using a combination of data sources to make an educated guess. Regardless, you could use this type of objective as a great tool in message testing and recall-based advertising.
Lead Generation
Facebook is already a lead generator, but this takes it a step further with allowing you the ability to create a short customizable form with open-ended and multiple choice questions and contact fields for consumers to fill out. This would be a great tool for the advertiser who is looking to add newsletter signups, give price estimates or set up follow-up calls.
So how is our mousetrap doing? Well, Facebook is obviously working on new ways to constantly improve it and get more customers through their doors. What's fascinating is that the mousetrap itself is its own mousetrap metaphor: 4,400 patents have been issued by the US Patent Office for new mousetraps making it, ironically, the "most frequently invented device in U.S. history." Nice work Facebook!