Retargeting on Facebook

by the Numbers
The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center
of the Social Web
July 2014

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

Executive summary
Over the past two years, advertisers have rapidly adopted retargeting on Facebook to drive key
metrics like conversions, app downloads, and lead generation. Recognizing how valuable its been for
advertisers, Facebook expanded their product line and now offers marketers two ways to retarget their
website audiences on Facebook: through the Facebook Exchange (FBX) and through Custom Audiences
from your Website (WCA).
At AdRoll, the introduction of WCA meant we could give our customers access to Facebooks mobile inventory.
Advertisers who use Facebook on both desktop and mobile for retargeting are better equipped than ever to
reach customers where they spend their time online, whether that means smartphones, tablets, desktops, or
a combination of all three.
In order to produce the most comprehensive research currently available, we looked at over 800 million
impressions from 215 AdRoll advertisers running retargeting campaigns on three channels: FBX (on desktop),
WCA (on mobile), and web sources other than Facebook. Our findings show that, by continuing to release
high-performance targeted ad products, Facebook has become a proven direct response channel:

Our study demonstrated that the CPM cost of News Feed ad impressions on mobile is 57% lower than

News Feed impressions on desktop, and mobile ads generate a 10% higher CTR. This results in a 61% lower

CPC for ads in the News Feed on mobile compared to the News Feed on desktop.

As a complementary channel, mobile adds an average of 3.8% incremental conversions to an existing

retargeting mix of web and News Feed on desktop.

Much like News Feed on desktop, mobile is ideal for driving direct response through promotions and

content marketing. By adding mobile to an existing campaign mix of web retargeting and News Feed ads

on desktop, advertisers see on average 29% more clicks.

In our three-month study, mobile grew from 0% of impressions on the News Feed to 6.51%. In the sample

we studied, mobile ads through WCA now account for 8.25% of all News Feed clicks.

By layering News Feed campaigns on desktop onto web retargeting, advertisers serve on average 5.7%

more impressions and get an impressive 53% more clicks.

The apparel, beauty, and technology industries have had the quickest adoption of mobile ad sizes, while

media and entertainment serve the highest-performing mobile campaigns.

www.adroll.com

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

What is retargeting?
Retargeting lets advertisers selectively reach out to consumers who have already visited a companys site
or mobile app with messaging tailored to the type of intent theyve shown and their interaction with the
site. Personalized advertising keeps a company top of mind for the right customers, bringing them back
for critical repeat visits that add up to a conversion. According to a recent AdRoll customer survey, 76%
of marketers planned to increase their retargeting budget in 2014, bringing it in line with search engine
A customer
comesas a must-have
Thetactic
shop
but leave
displays your
marketing
and email marketing
for reaching
and convertingAdRoll
potential customers.

to your site.

before purchasing.

www.yoursite.com

Your Site

ads on s
them back and keeping your

Your AD

www.relatedsite.com

Buy Now!

Customer

AdRolls campaign performance of 13.4x ROI is impressive. Theyve helped

us attract new customers that werent aware of our brands or our hotels,
while improving our conversion rate and lowering our costs per booking.
Casey Ueberroth, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Preferred Hotel Group

www.adroll.com

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

Retargeting on Facebook
News Feed
Facebooks News Feed supplies some of the most valuable ad real
estate online. By advertising in the News Feed, marketers have the
best possible chance of reaching over a billion monthly active Facebook
users. These highly engaging native ads combine a large image with
social elements (like, comment, and share). And because a single
insertion persists in the users News Feed, each placed ad gives an
advertiser multiple opportunities to reach the customer.

Facebook at a glance
Reach

1.28 billion monthly active users

Mobile reach

1.01 billion monthly active users

Desktop ad formats

News Feed and Right-Hand Column

Mobile ad formats

Page Post Link and Mobile App Install

Message:
500 characters, including spaces
Image:
600x315px (displayed as 400x209px)

Title:
25 characters, including spaces
Body:
90 characters, including spaces
Social elements:
like, comment, share

www.adroll.com

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

Right-Hand Column (RHC)

Facebooks Right-Hand Column ads give advertisers more chances to reach the massive Facebook audience.
Though the ad unit itself is smaller and doesnt have all the native social functions of its larger News Feed
cousin, its prominent placement, lower cost, and more readily available inventory make it an effective tactic
for driving results.

Image:
600x315px (displayed as 244x133px)

Title:
25 characters, including spaces
Body:
90 characters, including spaces

After a day of running ads on the Facebook News Feed with AdRoll,
we saw a 600% increase in conversions.
Gokce Cozen, Marketing Manager, Udemy

www.adroll.com

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

Facebooks Custom Audiences from

your Website (WCA)
What is WCA?
Facebooks WCA lets advertisers match visitors who came to a website with the Facebook audience in
order to retarget them with personalized ads in the News Feed on mobile, as well as desktop. Since
Facebook users are just as likely to check in from a phone, a tablet, or a desktop, WCA represents an
early opportunity for cross-device retargeting.
WCA also lets advertisers layer additional Facebook demographics, like age and relationship status,
onto their campaigns. This gives advertisers more options than ever for refining high-performance,
highly relevant retargeting campaigns.

WCA ad formats
Through WCA, advertisers have access to inventory specifically built to achieve mobile goals:
Page Post Link ads help drive traffic to an advertisers mobile-optimized site by targeting desktop
site visitors when they browse the Facebook News Feed from a phone or tablet.
Mobile App Install ads improve mobile app adoption with ads that send users to the Apple App Store
or Google Play where they can install the app with a single click.

Mobile App Install ad

www.adroll.com

Page Post Link ad

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

WCA vs. Facebook Exchange (FBX)

As retargeting on Facebook continues to evolve, the advertisers who get the best results are the ones
who understand the most effective ways to take advantage of Facebook inventory. Here are some of the
key differences between FBX and WCA:

Bidding

FBX

WCA

User-level real-time bidding

optimized to any metric:
CPC, CPA, reach, etc.

Proprietary Facebook
bidding algorithms:
CPM, CPC, and oCPM
(for larger segments)

Segmentation
Inventory

RTB-level segmentation
based on products viewed,
time spent on site, pages
viewed, etc.

URL-based segmentation

Desktop News Feed and

Right-Hand Column

Desktop and mobile

Dynamic creative

Ability to layer on
additional FB data

Lookalike retargeting

Granular conversion
tracking

Cross-device
conversion tracking

For more information, visit

http://blog.adroll.com/deciphering-retargeting-on-facebook-fbx-wca

At Jane, weve always been very active on social media and had a strong focus on
driving revenue in our social media marketing. After partnering with AdRoll to
leverage Facebook, we saw an ROI on our click-through conversions of over 200%.
JD Stice, Chief Operations Officer, Jane

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

Key performance metrics

To see how mobile retargeting on Facebook performs in relation to News
Feed ads on desktop and web retargeting, we looked at over 800 million
impressions from 215 AdRoll advertisers. We selected these advertisers
because they were running retargeting campaigns on Facebook on
desktop and mobile, and web sources other than Facebook from March to
July, 2014. The advertisers included in this analysis spanned all industries
and had budgets ranging from $20/month to over $5,000/month.

Click-through rates (CTR)

While we were impressed with News Feed ad performance on desktop, we
found that mobile had even higher average click-through rates. Mobile ads,
within the engaging Facebook app, are driving the highest response rates

Our app installs

definitely improved
once we turned
on AdRolls mobile
retargeting product.
Weve seen a 160%
spike in app installs
since starting.
Casey Kohner, Web Product
Manager, Trek

weve seen yet.

News Feed on desktop

News Feed on mobile

CTR over web retargeting

CTR over web retargeting

8.1x

9.1x

News Feed campaigns on mobile and desktop show higher CTRs than web
retargeting, contributing to more efficient costs per click (CPC).

Cost per click (CPC)

Given the higher social engagement of News Feed ads, its no surprise
that both desktop and mobile campaigns performed strongly compared to
display inventory sources on the web.

News Feed on desktop

News Feed on mobile

CTR over web retargeting

CTR over web retargeting

24%

70%

Mobile ad sizes, with their larger display relative to screen size and
generally higher engagement than desktop, give advertisers a
cost-effective channel for reaching consumers.
www.adroll.com

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

News Feed costs: desktop vs. mobile

News Feed ad

Demand hasnt yet fully ramped up for the newly available mobile ad sizes.
Perhaps because advertisers are not yet bidding as aggressively for these

impressions cost
57% less on mobile
than on desktop

units, we noticed a 57% drop in CPM for mobile compared to desktop.

Incremental reach and performance

News Feed inventory introduced advertisers to a new way to retarget
customers. By layering News Feed on desktop onto web retargeting
campaigns, advertisers in our study generally saw 5.7% more impressions,
53% more clicks, and 58% more click-through conversions.

Adding News Feed on desktop:

5.7% more impressions, 53% more
clicks, 58% more conversions

We wondered: since the News Feed audience is the same on

mobile and desktop, would mobile campaigns still drive additional
traffic and conversions? As our advertisers launched retargeting

Adding News Feed on mobile:

4% more impressions, 29% more
clicks, 15% more conversions

campaigns on mobile, we confirmed that it does. When adding

mobile ad sizes, advertisers saw approximately 4% more
impressions, 29% more clicks, and a 15% increase in
conversionsand thats from early test budgets. As budgets grow,
we expect incremental impressions and conversions to increase.
News Feed on mobile is proving to be a strong direct-response channel.
News Feed accounted for 60% of the Facebook advertising spend in our
study, with mobile ads generating twice the clicks of ads on desktop.

News Feed is 60% of total Facebook

advertising spend, and mobile ads
generate 2x the clicks of desktop.

These strong results may be the result of the improved ratio of ad unit
to screen size: the highly visible, highly engaging mobile ad unit is ideal
for driving performance-based goals.

Adding Facebook
results in 73%
increase in conversion.

Impressions

Clicks

Conversions

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

AdRoll inventory analysis

Based on the success of our mobile pilot program, we rolled out mobile ad sizes on Facebook across our entire
customer base. The apparel, beauty, and technology industries have been the quickest adopters; meanwhile,
businesses in the media and entertainment industry have run the highest-performing mobile campaigns.
Mobile is still growing, and its already off to a very promising startas weve seen with the advertisers
included in this analysis. Although only 6.51% of ad insertions in the News Feed came from mobile, they have
driven an impressive 8.25% of clicks across all advertiser News Feed campaigns.

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www.adroll.com

FBX

WCA

News Feed clicks

10

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

Weve seen growth in retargeting everywhere, but the steady increase of retargeting on the web has
been surpassed by an even more rapid adoption of targeted advertising on Facebook. Though still a
comparatively small percentage of total clicks, the introduction of mobile ad sizes will only increase
advertisers efficacy and reach.

Clicks by channel (month over month)

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Conclusion
The key takeaway for marketers is that most successful advertisers take advantage of all available options for
retargeting, maintaining cross-device reach. Although mobile is still a growing channel, retargeting across
desktop and mobile through Facebook is becoming part of every always-on marketing strategy.

www.adroll.com

11

Retargeting on Facebook

The Analysis of Retargeting in the Center of the Social Web

About the authors

Kexin Chen
Associate Marketing Manager, AdRoll
With a background in customer advocacy and international communication, Kexin manages integrated
marketing for AdRolls global expansion. She pioneered AdRolls customer marketing program, Power
Brands, and today drives our advocate marketing programs.
Priya Gopalakrishnan
Solutions Analyst, AdRoll
Priya is a data analyst on the Solutions team, conducting in-depth reporting and analysis around our full
stack of products. She uses her background in business intelligence, big data, and data visualization to
illuminate industry trends in AdRolls campaign and customer data.

About AdRoll
AdRoll is the worlds largest retargeting platform, with over 15,000 active advertisers worldwide and a
97% customer retention rate. AdRoll provides unmatched transparency and reach across the largest
display inventory sources, including Google AdX, Twitter, and Facebook. For more information, please
visit http://www.adroll.com.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.