metrics: the boring part

In this blog I will share with you a way to gauge the effectiveness of advertising. For those of you who have never utilized Facebook's advertising, it will provide some behind-the-scenes insight as to what tools you are given as an advertiser.

These examples are very small but are indicative of other ad campaigns I am currently running.

CHARTS.
Many people cringe at the thought. They are the driving force behind marketing departments and the sum of all fears for abstract expressionists. In this case, they represent hard facts (forensic evidence, if you will) verifying or disproving the validity of your colorful and cute website with countless hours spent on usability testing and typographic grid structure layouts. They are also, where creativity meets logic, art meets science, and design meets reason [shameless self-promotion].



The image above shows data on a Facebook advertising campaign for the African American Alumni Reunion. This accurate, albeit small-scale, example provides insight on the expected effectiveness of an advertising campaign.



What I find particularly interesting is the fact that the ad that I thought would draw the most interest didn't while the ad [shown above] with an image that is not easily recognizable at such a small size is garnering the most responses. The copy is pretty much identical, the major difference is the image.


If you're like me, you've noticed the keywords listed under Targeting. You'll have to excuse the stereotypes: Facebook won't allow advertising to specific ethnic groups, therefore, I had to use keywords that [I thought] would align with the interests of the target audience's.


While the keywords are much more extensive, the success of the campaign is less than the previous.
[note: the ad above adds one word: "celebrate" — a call-to-action which did not seem to hold much weight]
This ad is the one I thought would garner the most responses [percentage wise] but didn't. My theory [yet to be tested] is that this ad is less effective due to the fact that the more effective ad shows actual people rather than a juxtaposition of stock images.

Although this idea of Metrics is never absolute - that is, there are plenty of factors that must be considered besides (in this case) changing the image - it is always interesting to observe.