Facebook Makes It Easier To Optimize Ad Campaigns Based On Conversions

Facebook is unveiling an improved version of its Conversion Lift measurement tool, which first launched in January. Previously, Facebook allowed you to measure whether your ad campaign was actually improving online and offline sales. Now, you can also test different ads to find the best approach.

“When we’ve gotten feedback on the Conversion Lift stuff, one of the big improvements we were asked for was, ‘I want to be able to test more things as I run campaigns, as opposed to just finding out if it worked,'” said Brad Smallwood, Facebook’s vice president of measurements and insights.

More specifically, Smallwood told me that Conversion Lift previously looked at two groups — a group of users who saw the ad and a group who didn’t. It then compared each group’s conversion data (the data can be pulled from Facebook’s Custom Audiences pixel, an in-store point-of-sale system and elsewhere), which should reflect whether an ad actually succeeded in driving sales.

With the improved Conversion Lift tool, advertisers can compare multiple test and control groups. That means they can see which ad units are delivering the best results, compare brand and direct response ads, see how mobile ads are performing compared to the rest of the campaign or compare ads featuring product versus lifestyle-format photos.

For example, website builder Wix compared a group that saw only direct response ads with another group that saw direct response and video ads. It turned out that the combined of formats did a better job of improving premium subscription signups — that group saw uplift of 7.4 percent, compared to the DR-only group, which saw uplift of 6.8 percent.

Also part of the update: Conversion Lift can now look at how ads improve in-app sales, as well, so that app developers aren’t just optimizing campaigns to deliver the most downloads, but instead focus on improving revenue.

You can read more about Conversion Lift in this Facebook blog post.