Social Advertising
Why Facebook is the Best Place for Social Advertising in 2022
Published January 2022
A woman sits excited behind a notebook
96% of all social media marketers consider Facebook advertising to be the most efficient solution compared to all other social networks. It produces the best ROI and is essential to social media marketing success.
Social Media advertising remains essential in 2022 to drive business growth. And Facebook is still the best. With 2.89 billion monthly active users, it has the largest user base of any social network. It also has the highest data quality, the most accurate measurement, and the most advanced algorithm.
A clear strategy that plays into business goals in the long term—combined with the capabilities of Facebook—will definitely lead to more revenue, retain customers, and further establish your brand.
We will tell you what makes Facebook so special, why it is so powerful, and how advertising on Facebook will change in 2022.
Note: Facebook is not as efficient as it was a few years ago. And the ongoing targeting restrictions due to stricter privacy policies—and especially iOS 14.5—are without a doubt a problem. But compared to other social media platforms, Facebook still has the best performance. Thus, advertisers can still achieve excellent results and the demand remains high. However, it is becoming more difficult and no one should be completely dependent on Facebook Ads.
Learn more about iOS 14.5 and how to deal with it here
- Editor's Info
- You'll find our used sources at the end of each section.
- Any questions or feedback? Contact us
People still love Facebook
Maybe you heard that Facebook is not doing well these days. Maybe you have not. In fact, Facebook is doing great. And to give you something tangible, we'll show you some user statistics first. Please note that other Meta services like Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram are not included in this section—but they are doing great as well.
Monthly active users on Facebook in 2021
Your target group is strongly represented on Facebook
Facebook has 2.89 billion monthly active users in 2021. And during 2021Q2 they reported almost 1.9 billion daily active users, meaning that 65.9% of the monthly active users visiting the social network each day.
This means that no matter who your (potential) customers are, a large majority of them use Facebook multiple times every day. And according to eMarketer, 59% of all social media users are on Facebook. That's a great possibility to reach your desired audience.
33 minutes each day
People spend a lot of time on Facebook. In 2021, users in the US spent an average of 33 minutes per day on Facebook. That's slightly less than in 2020, but in 2022, according to a report by eMarketer, the time spent will remain stable at 33 minutes.
Even Facebook struggles sometimes
Facebook is struggling with growth in the US in 2021. The number of monthly Facebook users increases by 0.8% year-over-year. That’s the lowest annual growth rate ever. One reason for this is because younger people in the US (and EU) are more interested in Instagram or switch to TikTok.
Even so, Facebook will maintain its 60.9% penetration of US internet users through the end of eMarketer’s forecast (2025). It remains the No.1 social network based on total monthly users. And due to the pandemic, social media is used even more intensively by the people than ever before.
Conclusion
Based on user numbers, it's clear that Facebook remains an important platform for social media marketing and advertising. Especially in B2C, Facebook is still the best platform for social advertising. You will learn the reasons in the next sections.
What makes Facebook good for advertising
Facebook contains the most detailed audience targeting, the most precise measurement, and the most advanced ad serving algorithm on the market. And the Facebook Business Manager brings together all Meta products—which makes cross-platform advertising pretty easy to do. And all that can lead to better ads and ultimately reduces your ad costs.
Facebook allows qualified targeting to reduce advertising costs
Meta products have excellent data quality
Over the last years all of Meta’s products—especially Facebook—could collect a sheer amount of data from their own platforms and from different internal and external sources. No competitor has access to so much data. And with this data, Meta creates accurate user profiles and qualified target audiences. Let's dive a bit deeper into this.
Facebook analyzes how users interact with content or ads. If a user often makes purchases through ads, the algorithm recognizes this and categorizes him as "buys most likely". If a user interacts mainly with video ads, the system recognizes this too and classifies the user accordingly. And the affinity to the brand or the product shown is also included.
For example: When you run video ads, users who are most likely to interact with video ads are more likely to see your ad than users who are more likely to interact with image ads. And this way your ads will be displayed in an optimal way while you saving costs.
Unlike other platforms, Facebook collects data from every website and every app where the Facebook Pixel or SDK has been implemented. Based on this, user interests and behavior can be analyzed and categorized, founded on much deeper data than just the platform data.
And as if that weren't enough, Facebook regularly conducts meta-studies with renowned market research institutes such as Nielsen and GfK. Through these studies, they want to understand users even better and improve the effectiveness of their advertising system.
Most advanced targeting is the golden key to your advertising success
Do you know what makes a good ad? Is it a stunning image or video? Is it a brilliant headline—or the exquisite copy? You can create the best ad ever seen—but displayed to the wrong people, it’s worthless. Most important is the right targeting.
As you read above, Facebook has by default accurate target audiences. Combined with the multitude options in the Business Manager, you can precisely define your exact target groups, pre-qualify them, and address them the right way. Other social media platforms can do that too, but not as accurate as Facebook.
Your benefit is that the scattering loss of your advertising campaign is reduced. This ensures that your advertising budget is used optimally. And your ads are displayed to the users that are most likely to interact with them. Finally, this leads to a significant increase in your advertising impact—and increases your ROAS.
The better you define your target audience—and address them according to their customer journey—the more efficient your advertising will be.
Learn more about targeting on Facebook here
Different placements show you what works
Facebook ads can be placed exactly where they make the most sense for your advertising goals. For example, you can place a Video Ad exclusively in the Facebook News Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Video Feed, Facebook Story, and Instagram Story. Of course, you can also have your placements automatically delivered and optimized.
Most precise measurement leads to more revenue
Facebook’s measurement is awesome. Advertisers can build their own dashboards to monitor campaigns, export reports, and break down data in great detail.
Imagine your business runs a campaign with several ads on Facebook and Instagram. And you want to know which ad performs best on which platform, on which placement (e.g. News Feed) on which device. Facebook makes it possible.
That enables precise and data-driven optimizations of your running campaigns. And you get valuable learnings to enhance the strategy of future campaigns. As a result, you increase the quality as well as the efficiency of your advertising—which results in a better ROAS and enhance your business revenue.
The most advanced algorithm
The different platforms, the amount of data and the age of the Meta products ensure that the algorithm is constantly improving. Facebook's algorithm knows exactly when, where and to whom your ads should be displayed, in order to achieve maximum efficiency and use your budget optimally.
How you profit from Facebook’s power
Through the high audience quality of meta-products like Facebook, your ads will only be shown to the people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. And because these people perceive your ads as relevant, they will remember them better or interact with them. This leads to a higher advertising impact and your budget is used more efficiently. This saves money, increases your ROAS and leads to more revenue.
Combined with Facebook's powerful measurement tools, precise data can be used to make continuous campaign optimizations that will increase your ROI even further.
Upcoming challenges—and solutions
Facebook ad spend continues to grow, but the iOS privacy changes won't leave them unscathed. And also, the expectations of users and the behaviour of your competitors are changes to which you must respond—otherwise you’ll give away growth potential. But thanks to experienced advertisers, AI, and automation you can overcome these problems.
Increase ad efficiency with AI and automation
Increasing advertising costs
In 2021, more companies advertised on Facebook again—or increased their ad spend. And additionally, Facebook's CPM (cost per thousand impressions) has become more expensive.
As a result, advertising costs will continue to rise in 2022. According to eMarketer, US advertisers spent $50.30 billion on Facebook in 2021 and will spend $58.11 billion (+15.5%) in 2022.
To continue to achieve good results, you can plan and spend more budget. Or you can use your budget more efficiently by making your social advertising more effective. For example, by using processed first-party data or better campaign optimizations.
iOS 14.5 privacy changes
You know that already, but iOS 14.5 limits the ability to track conversion of many users. Now, there are only 8 conversions trackable. In order to counteract this, the conversion events should be adapted to the business objectives and more emphasis should be placed on pre-qualification.
Conversion campaigns are still very important, but awareness and consider phases should not be underestimated. If you prequalify correctly, you will save a lot of advertising costs and gain valuable learnings to make future campaigns even more efficient. This will affect your ROAS in the long run and increase your revenue.
Learn more about iOS 14.5 and how to deal with it here
AI and Automation will be used more
Meta invests continuously in AI (artificial intelligence) to improve the advertising performance on their platforms. Used correctly, they improve your ad quality and increase your ROI. Here are Facebook's three most important automation features.
Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO)
CBO ensures that your budget is split evenly between each ad group. For example, if you have two active ad groups in a campaign, Facebook may spend most of your budget on the first ad group if it helps their system to achieve the best possible results for you.
Dynamic Ads
When you use dynamic ads, the machine learning option delivers a personalized version of the ad to everyone who sees it, based on the ad types they're most likely to respond to. It is available for catalogue sales, traffic, and conversions goals. Facebook's own testing of this ad type found a 34% average improvement in incremental ROAS, a 10% improvement in lift, and a 6% lower cost per incremental purchase compared to carousel-only ads.
Automatic Placements
Instead of selecting your placements manually, Facebook chooses them for you and places your ads on different platforms and positions. For example, you can place a Video Ad exclusively in the Facebook News Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Video Feed, Facebook Story, and Instagram Story. Or, you let the system decide where it shows your ads.
These tools are very powerful and can have a significant impact on your advertising. For maximum added value, the results need to be analyzed in detail to achieve learnings for future campaigns.
A personal recommendation from us:
Do not look on the numbers only. Look for the goal: deeper customer relationships.
Conclusion
As you see, Facebook offers many advantages and tools that make your paid social advertising very effective. But to get the best results, understanding about it is just as important as implementing it correctly.
The difference between a good and an outstanding ad on Facebook is often minimal. But this small difference determines whether a user finds the ad interesting or scrolls further.
That's why a strategy that fits your business goals, high audience quality, custom ad placements, and data-driven optimization are essential for your advertising success, your ROAS, and ultimately your business goals.
Although this article focuses on Facebook, most social media platforms are good for social advertising. These may be a bit more specific. TikTok, for example, is effective for organic awareness in the long-term by reaching young people internationally today—and selling them in a few years. And LinkedIn is perfect for reaching B2B audiences. On which platforms you want to advertise depends on your business goals.
We help our clients to choose the right social media platform for their business goals. And then we create appropriate advertising strategies to achieve these goals in the most efficient way. to find out if we can help you too.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
