In 2011 Facebook became the largest Ad Network of all publishers representing almost 1/3 of display inventory. Historically, I’ve not been too thrilled with Facebook performance. It’s had a reputation for high bot traffic, low clicks and relatively poor backend conversion. I’m also convinced that to be successful with Facebook an advertiser needs a series of creative offerings since the high-frequency can result in ads getting stale quickly and losing their initial performance.
However, through some recent updates we can now retarget BDX new home shoppers in the Facebook marketplace ad position. I was skeptical at first, but with the success of retargeting it was definitely worth a test and I’ve been quite pleased with initial results.
We started the initial test running a ‘generic’ ad driving people back to NHS. We then rolled out a series of Market Specific ads leveraging our creative best practices. Since then Facebook Retargeting is one of our strongest advertising channels in terms of total conversion and bounce rate is in line with what we’ve seen with other retargeting ads. That’s a big win.
What I think is most exciting is that our participating BeBack advertisers can also take advantage of this opportunity. We’re extending Facebook retargeting as part of the BeBack offering at no additional cost for our builders. Now, a builder truly can reach their users ‘everywhere’ and at the same rate as their previous campaign.
In addition to increased reach and improved conversion this is a big opportunity for builders to leverage the social aspect of Facebook. Imagine retargeting a consumer who’s visited your website with an ad on Facebook and asking them to ‘fan’ your brand or to share ‘the home of their dreams’ or get their friends opinion on one plan vs. another. Their truly is a whole litany of marketing strategies that can be applied to BeBack – especially when incorporating a social component.
For more information about BDX BeBack retargeting or how to integrate Facebook Ads with your existing BeBack campaign contact your local sales rep or email info@thebdx.com.
Thane Tennison is Advertising Manager for the Builders Digital Experience and manages advertising for hundreds of homebuilding brands across a network of over a dozen real estate websites.
