5 Things To Know About the Facebook Audience Network
by •
Hello Digital World, my name is Jacob Ory, and I’m an aspiring digital marketer gaining invaluable experience at an awesome company called Power Digital Marketing. I’m entering my senior year at San Diego State, so this internship couldn’t come at a better time.
Over my first month I have already gotten a decent grasp of Facebook advertising, how it works, and the endless possibilities it provides.
I’ve been tasked with a variety of things such as creating audiences, editing creative, and have even already been hands on with managing accounts, making optimizations, and helping to brainstorm ideas.
My team has not had the best experience with the Facebook audience network and, as a result, I have been told since the start of my internship to uncheck that placement option. I never quite understood what exactly the audience network was, so when tasked to write my first blog post, I decided to take a deeper dive and figure out what exactly the Facebook Audience Network was, and why my team did not like using it.
So without further adieu… Here are the top five things to know about the Facebook Audience Network.
What Is The FAN?
The “FAN” (Facebook Audience Network), is a tool/placement option where ads are shown to people while they are on apps other than Facebook. Instead the ads are shown on a multitude of other apps and mobile websites who use Facebook’s ad tool within their own app or website for revenue.
Why Do People Use The FAN?
First off, the FAN is very easy to use and implement. Within the ad editor the “Audience Network” is just another option among the other placements (Desktop Newsfeed, Desktop right column, etc.). In fact, if you don’t deselect, you will likely automatically be advertising using the FAN. You don’t have to change your ad copy, creative, or targeting. Your ad will appear to a previously unreachable sect of your audience that are using specific apps or visiting certain mobile websites. The theoretical gain is that one can reach more people in more places, often at a lower cost per click.
Bots… Fake Clicks??
Mobile apps and websites are increasingly incentivized to use bots and other means of producing non-human clicks as this is where their revenue is derived. According to a report released by Distil Networks, digital fraud like this costs the industry 18.5 billion, yes with a “B”, annually. Some possible signs of bot traffic are abnormally high bounce rates (as seen below). This could be a reason you might see cheaper clicks as a result of using the FAN, but if they have no chance to check out, or provide a lead gen, then the cheaper clicks are worth nothing.
Accidental Clicks Too??
I’m sure you’ve seen one of those pesky ads pop up on your phone while playing around on your favorite app or watching a video, and without even realizing it you’re being redirected from that ad that popped up. Immediately you spam the “x” in the corner to get back to whatever it was you were doing. The thing is, as an advertiser you are paying the app or website for this click. Again, this click may be much cheaper than your other advertising placements, but it is entirely worthless as it provides no chance of purchase or anything else of value.
Be Sure To Monitor The Metrics That Matter
Given points 3 & 4, this one is extremely important if you’re going to be, or already are, advertising using the FAN. The only way you can really know if the FAN is successful is by measuring the results of an ad directly from revenue or leads generated as opposed to relying heavily on clicks. These are some of the few statistics that are key, as they cannot be affected by bots.
Well, that’s a wrap. After looking a bit further into the FAN, I can definitely see why my team is hesitant in using it. While it provides an excellent opportunity to reach a new audience, there are still many obstacles that need to be carefully monitored. If you are interested in learning more about our experience with the Facebook Audience Network, click here!
