Navigating the terrain of Facebook advertising requires a nuanced understanding of remarketing strategies. With the backdrop of iOS 14.5’s impact on tracking capabilities, businesses are compelled to reassess their approaches. This guide delves into the shifting dynamics of remarketing in 2024 and offers actionable insights to maximise ad performance and drive results.
The Post-iOS 14.5 Landscape: What Changed?
When Apple dropped its iOS 14.5 update, things got a bit tricky for Facebook ads. The update put a dent in how well Facebook could track web conversion events, making the usual remarketing techniques less effective. It’s worth taking a closer look at whether traditional remarketing is still the go-to strategy.
The Remarketing Conundrum: Do You Really Need It?
Let’s be real – Facebook is already doing a bit of remarketing within your prospecting campaigns. Check the frequency of your ads – if it’s more than one, users are seeing your ads multiple times, which is kind of like remarketing. The inspect tool’s disappearance from Facebook Ads Manager backs this up, leaving us to rely on different metrics to measure our campaigns’ impact.
Making Smart Choices: Enter the Acquisition Campaign
So, what’s the deal with the “acquisition campaign”? It’s a strategic move that challenges the traditional use of remarketing. This approach involves a cost-capped SKU-specific CBO campaign, using broad targeting and a seven-day click attribution setting. The kicker? It allows Facebook to do a bit of remarketing within the same campaign, aiming for those extra conversions.
Leveraging Facebook’s Changes: Advantage Plus Audience Expansion
Over time, Facebook has added features like Advantage Plus audience expansion. Now, it’s automatically applied to every campaign, giving Facebook the power to go beyond your defined audiences. Understanding this shift is crucial – it shows Facebook’s commitment to delivering results by exploring different avenues.
When Remarketing Still Makes Sense: Practical Exceptions
While we’re all about acquisition-focused strategies, there are times when a bit of remarketing can be useful:
- Dynamic Product Ads (DPA): Use remarketing for DPAs – it dynamically shows products based on users’ previous actions. Use the breakdown tool to find your top-performing products.
- Special Sale Offers: If you’ve got a sale offer that might not click with a cold audience, test remarketing with a time-limited offer. Keep a cost cap in check and pivot if needed.
- Over-Serving Concerns: If you suspect Facebook is showing your ads too much to existing customers, use hard exclusions within prospecting campaigns. This ensures a clean slate between prospecting and remarketing efforts.
Crafting Effective Campaigns: Keep It Diverse
For engaging users throughout their journey, mix up your ad content. Avoid running identical ads – tailor them to different stages of the customer journey. Facebook’s smart algorithms will do the rest to optimise ad serving based on user behaviour.
Setting Up Remarketing and Prospecting Campaigns: Practical Steps
For those still keen on remarketing, here’s a straightforward setup:
- Remarketing Campaigns: Target website visitors from the past 30 days, including view content, add to cart, initiate checkout, IG and Facebook engagers, and all emails not bounced. Keep an eye on frequency and adjust the time window based on audience size.
- Prospecting Campaigns with Remarketing Exclusions: Exclude everything targeted in remarketing campaigns, pixel purchasers of the last 180 days, and a customer export list of the last 180 days. This keeps things clean between prospecting and remarketing efforts.
The TL;DR of 2024: Smart Moves for Effective Campaigning
In a nutshell, 2024’s Facebook ads game leans towards consolidating learnings through acquisition campaigns and rethinking the necessity of traditional remarketing. Let Facebook do its bit of automatic remarketing, and strategically use traditional remarketing when it makes sense. By keeping things practical, advertisers can scale campaigns effectively, optimise spend, and ensure meaningful engagement.