7 Obscure Facts You Should Know About Facebook Advertising Contrary to myth, Facebook's user base is still growing, mostly everywhere but North America.
By Rocco Baldassarre Edited by Jessica Thomas
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
With over one billion daily active users as of September 2015, Facebook is more popular among advertisers than ever. While Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg regularly grace the tabloids, there are quite a few facts that go unnoticed regarding Facebook Ads and stats about the social giant.
1. There are more targeting options for boosted posts.
We have all seen the little box saying "promote this post" when managing a Facebook page. Instead of boosting a post from there, you can boost posts using the Facebook Power Editor instead. This will get you access to more targeting options when you promote posts.
For instance, you can break it down by device or placement you want to show up for (e.g. news feed or right column), you can define more demographics such as income, liquid assets, ethnicity, the type of car people drive, the household composition and much more.
Related: 5 Tips for Effectively Setting Up Facebook Ads
2. Facebook ads can show up elsewhere.
Facebook has something called "Audience Network." Advertisers can apply to get access to it and then run ads that show up on mobile apps. The idea behind the Audience Network is to meet specific objectives such as driving app installs and engagement. Targeting options include custom audiences, core audiences and look alike audiences.
3. Facebook's active user base is still growing.
It is widely believed that Facebook has reached a plateau and that the number of active users is more or less stable. This is not true at all. This year, the number of Facebook's monthly active users has grown from 1.49 billion in June to 1.55 billion in September 2015. This is an increase of approximately 4 percent, or 60 million active users.
4. Accelerated delivery is available for Facebook ads.
Many businesses use standard delivery for Facebook ads. If you have a landing page or ad that converts well, you should consider accelerated delivery instead that serves ads as quickly as possible. While this may cause your budget to run out much sooner, you can serve as much demand as possible quickly. Accelerated delivery is often overlooked or believed to not exist at all but it exists and is in advanced options in the settings of ad sets.
Related: 4 Things Businesses Need to Know But Often Don't About Facebook Advertising
5. Less than one in five Facebook users is in North America.
Facebook started out in the United States but most users are now outside of North America. As of September 30, 2015, about 83.5 percent of daily active users are outside the US and Canada, which leaves North America with less than 17 percent of daily active Facebook users.
6. Facebook is constantly improving their algorithms.
Besides improving Facebook Ads overall, the company is working on improving their algorithms for CPA (cost-per-acquisition) bidding. There are different bidding strategies on Facebook and CPA bidding works very well
CPS bidding works very well when you have enough conversion data. It can generate targeted and profitable volume and keeps learning what works and what doesn't for you.
7. Facebook ads have more than 600 targeting options.
Most people know that Facebook Ads can target geographic locations, such as cities and zip codes, as well as demographics including gender, age and relationship status. The social giant collects much more information than that, which results in at least 600 targeting options including household income, level of education, home type, home value, home ownership status, household composition, parents of children with specific ages, newly engaged couples, new vehicle buyers, expats, a variety of buyer profiles, people who frequently buy online, frequent travelers, and much more.
Related: Facebook Is Now Offering Advertisers a 'Full-Scroll' Option
