Ads On Facebook Now Have Relevance Scores

Ads - as a consumer you hate them and as a marketer you love them, but either way they are a part of life. As a marketer they are something you can incorporate into your strategy. The art of producing effective Facebook ads has become more complicated over the past few years. In order to distribute ads that are more relevant to their users, Facebook has created a relevance score as a visible metric in the ads reporting tool. Making sure users receive relevant ads makes them happier and ultimately leads to a better experience for people and businesses alike. Last week Facebook started showing the relevance score for ads and here is what you need to know.

How They Work

Using the negative and positive feedback an ad is expected to get from its desired audience, Facebook calculates a relevance score. The more positive feedback Facebook can expect to receive from an ad, the higher the ad's relevance score will be. If Facebook suspects users are more likely to hide or report an ad, the score will be lower. Positive feedback is determined by a variety of factors including conversions and views, but varies depending on objective of the ad. The relevance score is between 1-10, with 10 being the highest. An ad's score is automatically updated as users engaged and provide feedback for the ad. This score is not applicable for guaranteed delivery ads like those bought through reach and frequency. They also have a smaller impact on cost and delivery in brand awareness, because those ads are optimized for reaching people, instead of being geared towards a specific action.

Why They Matter

Relevance scores can help you achieve desired advertisements in three ways.

• Scores help optimize campaigns already in progress. If your ad campaign is already running, you can monitor your ad relevance score. If your ad's score begins to fall, this may indicate the need to change the ad's target audience, language, or visual aspects.
• Scores can lower the cost of reach. Facebook has straight up told us that the higher an ad's relevance score is, the less it will cost to be delivered. Since the ad delivery system is designed to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time, it rewards ads that have high relevance scores with a swift delivery. Relevance isn't the only factor, bid also matters. There's no guarantee that an ad with a high relevance score and low bid will beat an ad with an ok relevance score and a high bid. However, Facebook assures us that ads with high relevance scores will see overall better efficiency rates with delivery through their system.
• Scores make it easier for marketers like you to test ad creative options before you run a Facebook campaign. You are now able to test different images and marketing copy, with different audiences and see which combinations earn the best relevance scores.

How To Use Them

Facebook has reiterated that they are excited about relevance scores, but it's important for everyone to keep them in perspective. This means that relevance scores should not be used as a primary indicator of an ad's success. The most important factor is still bidding, based on the business or marketing goal you've set out to achieve. Therefore, if you have an ad that is working well, but with a low or average relevance score, you may want to just leave it the way it is. Another option is tweaking the ad to lower the cost of delivery by improving its relevance score. Lastly, you can watch your relevance score, along with the sales you're driving, to find out when is the right time to tweak or update your campaign. You can easily learn how to leverage relevance scores and reach your audience at a lower cost and learn when and how to change your ad copy and targeting.

Relevance scores started to roll out on Facebook last week and can be viewed in any of the ad reporting tools. Additionally, they are available through the ads API to partners and API ad developers. To view your relevance score head to your Ads Manager and add the relevance score to your ads reports. Using these ads and their metrics in the proper way can help you run a successful marketing campaign and bring in more leads and customers to your website. We hope this explanation helps simplify Facebook ads for you and your business.