March 19th, 2017
Working in an industry that is far from stagnant is one of the many perks we have as marketers and advertisers. Continuously, we see innovative new platforms, services, technologies, and brands developing and plenty of creative options in helping businesses grow through methods of online marketing. However, ever so often, we run into some road blocks that hold us or our clients back from additional success. In this month’s edition of our Facebook and Instagram Ads Wish List, we discuss changes in engagement ads, call extensions, and call to action buttons, that we would like to see come to fruition.
Instagram Engagement
Quite possibly the most apparent, the one ad option that we surprisingly find missing among the wide variety of advertising campaign goals, is Instagram “Page Likes” or perhaps better named, “Follows”. Currently, there is no option for a Facebook Likes campaign equivalent for Instagram and it’s a shame. When Instagram was purchased by Facebook for $1 Billion back in 2012, we speculated what would happen to the network, now being under the Facebook umbrella. And while many of us were correct in our hypothesis that it would continue to grow Instagram and eventually bring ads into the platform, for some reason, they omitted this campaign goal and have not shed any light on it in the last five years. Facebook Likes campaigns are what helped expand the reach and visibility of hundreds of businesses over the years and it’s surprising to not see this translate over to Instagram. Brand accounts want to continue building their presence on the network, however, these days, one must pay to play, and that poses a challenge as some of these options are not yet available to brands.
Recently, we teamed up with Pamela Lund of ThatPamChick, Inc. and attempted a workaround for a client, to see if we can increase their Instagram follower quantity through Instagram Ads. While we saw some success, it was nowhere near as seamless of a process as it could and should be, especially on the reporting end. We set up an Instagram Post Engagement test campaign, using our recent best performing organic Instagram posts and converting them into ads. While Ads Manager does not yet report on “Follows”, we used engagement related metrics we were able to obtain from Ads Manager and used other metrics directly from the app, via Instagram Insights. By way of these ads driving engagement, many of these new users were interested enough in our ads that they clicked through to the profile and followed us directly from there. While not seamless, we did, indirectly increase our follower base. Hopefully, we will get the highly anticipated Follows campaign option soon.
Facebook + Instagram Call Extensions
Given that Facebook and Instagram are mostly used via mobile devices, having call extensions is a no-brainer. As advertisers, we want our clients to be easily reached by consumers, especially if they have a call center and the goal of their campaign is to drive sales. Many businesses still convert better offline than they do online and this could significantly improve ROI by driving more users through their sales funnel by directly connecting them to a sales representative. While a variety of companies, big and small, would utilize this feature, brands that provide enterprise level services or wholesale items may benefit most.
While there are some terrific call tracking service providers available, such as Call Rail, Call Tracking Metrics, Invoca, and others, it would be a much more seamless operation if Facebook and Instagram had built in call extensions, tracking, and reporting within Ads Manager, similar to AdWords.
New Call-to-Action Button Features
On several occasions, we’ve realized that something other than the current eleven options would have made a stronger and more relevant call-to-action (CTA) in order for us to achieve certain client campaign goals. We would like to see some new additions on the list in the upcoming months and even more so, a custom button option would be tops. While understandably so, it would take additional back end work on the Facebook Ads developer team and ad review team, it would be a valuable update if a custom option for CTA buttons was available. If they perform well, as advertisers, we will spend more, leading to a mutually positive return, especially for Facebook. While this may or may not be in their queue as an upcoming feature item, we can only hope, wait, and find out in due time. A few that would be excellent additions to the current list are: Save Now, Get Started, Subscribe, Attend, Join Now, Upgrade Now, Order Now, and See More.
Certainly, we can get by with what we have at this time for some of them, however, we’d love to see “Save Now”, especially when enticing potential customers to convert during a sale in a remarketing campaign. While “Sign Up” is available, “Subscribe” would be a refreshing second option, especially when A/B testing. We have the ability to test all other components of the ad, except the CTA, which often tends to make it or break it for us in driving users to an app or website. Lastly, while “Watch More” is currently available, it may not apply to certain brands, products, or services, who may not necessarily have a video component, which watching typically implies. “See More” may be more useful and relevant in certain situations, especially on websites whose goal is to showcase their product collection in a variety of photos.
What are some other CTA options that you would like to use on Facebook and Instagram Ads?
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