Can’t get sales from BOF audiences that worked really well in the past?

‍You’re not alone. ‍

<low-highlight>A lot of stores are struggling with their Facebook retargeting ads post iOS 14<low-highlight>—with some advertisers even speculating whether remarketing is dead. 

The one big problem with Facebook ads right now is reach, or rather, the lack of it.

While working to onboard our users to Branded Catalogs, we’ve reviewed BOF performance across the spectrum. 

From brands with limited budgets to large and enterprise brands spending tens of thousands a day, here are some <low-highlight>common trends in accounts with poor BOF numbers<low-highlight>:

• Reduced reach: In many cases, the BOF campaign’s unique reach is barely 10%~30% of the unique traffic volume over the same period of time. Facebook isn’t able to accurately identify and deliver ads to enough of your site visitors post iOS14. This is also true of middle-of-the-funnel (MOF) campaigns for most brands except those with very high traffic.
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• ‍Lax exclusions: A lot of marketers are reporting better results with TOF (top of the funnel) campaigns set up with fewer or no exclusions. This, coupled with other observable trends, has meant that for a lot of brands, site visitors (MOF/BOF) are being targeted as a part of their TOF campaigns and converting there.
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• Poor attribution due to broad targeting: With BOF/MOF reach compromised, brands are now running broad campaigns, giving Meta the chance to find the best audiences. 
  
  However, we noticed a peculiar trend. <blue-low-highlight>Meta seems to be favoring broad campaigns not just in spend but also in attribution, effectively cannibalizing BOF/MOF campaigns<blue-low-highlight>.
  
  ‍Here’s a concrete example: In one campaign-budget optimized (CBO) campaign, we saw over 50% of the budget spent on broad targeting, at the expense of the other 3 ad sets (2 lookalikes and one interest-based). 
  
  Further, Facebook attributed 22 or the 24 sales to the broad ad set, with 1 each to the lookalikes. However, on independently tracking 19 of these sales, we found that 9 had come from the broad ad set, 6 and 4 from lookalikes, and none from the interests.
  
  To test our theory, we also turned off all ad sets except the broad. As we expected, the performance of the campaign dropped within 12 hours.

‍What, then, can advertisers hit by poor conversions at the bottom or middle of their sales funnel do?

There’s no controlling Meta’s behavior. So, to help Socioh’s users, we focused on solving the issue with reach. Read on to find out how we did this.

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Diversify Creative and Placement to Improve Reach

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We’ve recently started testing this strategy, with improved BOF/MOF ads in 4 out of the 4 accounts where we’ve tried it.

‍WHAT? We tested <blue-low-highlight>a mix of creatives, simultaneously targeting multiple placements<blue-low-highlight> at the top and middle of the funnel.

‍HOW? Here’s how we've structured campaigns targeting the same audience:

‍Campaign 1 - Catalog Sales (DPA)

• Ad Set: All Page Viewers 30 days MINUS Purchasers (15 or 30 days)
• Creative: Dynamic Product Ad or DPA

Notes: <blue-low-highlight>Maximize reach by pushing frequency higher<blue-low-highlight> (as high as you are comfortable with). This is especially effective if you are Branded Catalogs with “Smart Loop” (write to us if you’d like an early invite to test this feature in alpha), as you are rotating 2-3 separate catalog creatives without losing any optimization. 

‍Campaign 2 - Conversion Campaigns (purchase intent)

• Ad Set: All Page Viewers 30 days MINUS Purchasers (15 or 30 days).
• Creative: Videos (Feed format + Story format). These can be set up in the same ad with 2 video assets or separate ad sets targeting specific placements.

Notes: <blue-low-highlight>Look for existing videos that are working at the TOF and re-use<blue-low-highlight> them (you already have proof they work + they’ll optimize faster). You can also test 3-5 videos and cut to the top 2 after 72 hours.

‍RESULTS: In all cases, we measured improved reach in each of the campaigns individually and better CTR and conversions across the campaigns. While attribution isn't perfect, both in-platform and external tracking have shown marked improvement in ROAS.

Would you like to test this strategy in your store?

Reach out to our Founder and CEO, Karan Jassar on Twitter if you have any questions or need help.