The Art of Playing Smart (on Facebook)

August 17, 2016

By now you’re all pretty aware on where we stand with Facebook Ads… You just gotta pay to play! But are you playing well - and smart? 

With Facebook’s new Ad Relevance Score, the social media playground is starting to consider just how relevant your ad is when determining which ad to show a Facebook user. The more engaging your ad is to an audience, the higher it’s relevance score becomes, making your ad more likely to be served over other ads targeting the same users. 

Now huddle up. It’s time to learn just how this ad scoring works! Once your ad has been served more than 500 times, it will receive a relevance score from one to ten; one meaning your ad is not very relevant and ten meaning Facebook estimates your ad to be highly relevant. These scaling scores are based on positive and negative feedback that Facebook expects from the people who see your ad based on how the ad is performing:

Positive Feedback: The number of times Facebook expects people to take a desired action (share, like, visit website, redeem offer, etc.)

Negative Feedback: The number of times Facebook expects people to hide your ad or indicate a negative experience (ie. Choosing not to see ads from you).

Want to know where your current ads rank? You can check out their scores in the Ads Manager under Campaigns by clicking Ads.

While making new friends may be hard, the ad relevance scoring also lets you know if you need to start targeting a new audience should your relevance score start to decline. The scoring is also helpful in determining what you’re doing right by keeping an eye on which of your images, videos and/or messages best resonate with your audience.

Want to make sure your ads always make the Facebook cut? We’ll tell you how to make sure your ads are never last pick:

1. Scout ‘em out: Narrow your audience by specific location, ages, interests and behaviors. Try using Custom Audiences.

2. Get creative: Does your message and imagery resonate with your audience? Remember, an image is always more noticeable than text – so focus on improving your creative above all else while keeping your message simple and related to what you are promoting.

3. Keep up the energy: An audience can grow tired of the same ad. When your relevance score starts to drop, create another ad with new content.

4. Practice makes perfect: Using different ads to target the same audience (or the same ad to different audiences) can help you determine patterns and insights into what makes your ads successful.

5. Good Sportsmanship: No one likes a bully on the playground. Although attention getting, offensive content leads to a poor experience.

It’s time to start playing smart! Head over to the Ads Manager now and start get your All-Star ads ready!