DESKTOP VS. MOBILE ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOK

02Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Key Insights

Mobile ads were launched on Facebook in 2012 and currently account for 84% of Facebook's

total advertising revenue1

Of the 1.71 billion Facebook monthly active users, 92% of them (1.57 million) are mobile users

Mobile active daily users number 1.03 billion on average, an increase of 22% year-over-year

Mobile monthly active users increased 20% year-over-year

Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

Mobile advertising is growing at an unprecedented rate as people are abandoning the desktop

version of Facebook in favor of accessing the site by smartphones. Facebook’s recent Q2 2016

earnings announcement noted that mobile ads currently account for 81% of the organization’s

revenue. Mobile-forward thinking is paramount. In this guide, we discuss recent changes in

the advertising landscape, and compare desktop and mobile advantages.

1 According to Facebook Reports Second Quarter 2016 Results

03Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Since going public in 2012, Facebook has developed a robust mobile advertising

platform. Mobile ads have played a key role in Facebook’s Q2 2016 results beating

projections for both earnings and revenue, with mobile advertising accounting for 84%

of Facebook’s advertising revenue and 81% of total revenue.

Mobile ads have grown explosively for Facebook, contributing to more than 90%

of Facebook’s revenue growth in each of the eleven previous quarters, while desktop

ads and payments have stayed flat.

Facebook’s mobile advertising services have been widely successful especially since

the platform receives 1.03 billion daily mobile users on average. The development

and speed with which mobile ads have become the largest source of revenue for

the company is astounding. This is precisely why mobile-forward thinking is critical

in today’s rapidly changing environment on social media. Mobile commerce is thriving

as consumers are increasingly on their smartphones.

What are the advantages and disadvantages for businesses that wish to excel with

social ads in the competition between desktop vs. mobile?

Introduction

Cross device conversions over time Desktop Ad RevenueMobile Ad Revenue

Q42013

Q12014

Q22014

Q32014

Q42014

Q12015

Q22015

Q32015

Q42015

Q12016

Q22016

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Reve

nue

(in m

illio

ns o

f dol

lars

)

Source: Facebook

04Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Ideal if you need the user’s undivided attention

Better for longer or rich content (videos, HTML5, Flash etc.)

In B2B ideal for lead-generation that requires filling out the forms on the landing page

Use Custom Audiences and target the people that have already visited your website, e-mail subscribers,

and your contacts through their customer journey:

Target leads, prospects, and clients with relevant messaging

People have a longer attention span than on mobiles, so it’s important to test a lot of images

Use Lookalike2 audiences to target the message to similar recipients

Target your Fans - they are cheaper and have a nearly 3x better Click Through Rate (CTR)

One common mistake brands make is neglecting to optimize campaign images for mobile displays,

leading to cut-off and unwieldy graphics. Make sure your campaign visuals are mobile-friendly.

It’s also essential to have a responsive website and landing page if you go mobile. Forms that need

to be filled should be easily clickable on any screen size or ideally prefilled by offering users a social

log-in via Facebook, Twitter or other profiles.

Driving website traffic and conversions Driving website traffic and conversions

Great for media companies that engage their audience within a quick glance

Ideal for links with microsites and landing pages

Helpful for a clear Call-To-Action (CTA) that can grab attention on any screen size

Desktop and mobile strengthsDesktop Advertising Mobile Advertising

2 Lookalike audiences in Facebook gathers a similar target audience to help you target people who are similar to your current customers for Fan acquisition, site registration, off-Facebook purchases, coupon claims and brand awareness.

Facebook analyzes your Custom Audience list and creates a new segment that is optimized based on either similarity or reach.

05Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Identify the best-performing organic posts (by high reach and engagement) in real-time, and promote

them quickly to maximize your reach

Promote posts that are strategically important such as those featuring your latest campaign or product

If video content is being used, have a clear CTA at the end to direct users to the desired place

Publish videos natively (they have better reach and engagement than videos leading outside

the platform e.g. posting a YouTube video to Facebook)

Videos render better on mobile devices than on desktops

Ensure that the video does not require a lot of data

Use location-based targeting whenever relevant

Raising Brand AwarenessDesktop

Desktop vs. Mobile

Mobile

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Cross device conversions over time

Source: Facebook internal data, US, measured May 15, 2014 - JuLy 25, 2014, reported August 2014

Mobile ViewMobile Click

28 days prior

67%

32%

7 days prior

67%

22%

1 day prior

66%

11%

Since mobile is very often the first source of contact with Facebook for a lot of users during the day, mobile ads can help to support a campaign designed for desktop ads.

Raise awareness with light messaging on mobile

Continue desktop ads for final conversion

According to an analysis of Facebook ad performance in the United States, of the people who showed interest in Facebook mobile Ads, more than 32% converted on desktop within 28 days3.

3 Facebook for Business

06Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Post and promote videos nativelyNative videos get more reach than any other type of post - that’s why it pays off to promote them

4 Native Advertising and Organic Reach

While videos are relatively more promoted than photos – 27% of all videos are promoted, compared to 17% of photos – there are so many more photos than videos that the new format is still far more effective at reaching audiences⁴.

Because Facebook videos auto-play silently, it’s essential to make them visually appealing right from the start

Try including a dialogue right at the beginning of a video. If people want to hear what’s being said, they’ll click for sound – and video churn rates show that viewers who make it past the first 5% of a video will likely stay engaged to watch until the end

Make your native videos as shareable as possible - the objective is to make your content worth sharing (when someone shares your post it reflects the highest form of brand endorsement) thus helping to increase brand awareness

6%

5%

4%

3%

0%

Average Organic Reach

Date Range: April - JuLy 2016Note: The sample consisted of 4.705 company pages and more than 300.000 posts

Link Photo VideoStatus

2%

1%

4%

2% 2%

5%

07Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Driving online sales Desktop

Remarket the visitors of the website or visitors that did not complete a purchase Responsive design is essential

Desktop is more suitable, as it ensures users are more likely to catch the ad in their feeds since it occupies more space

Creating a mobile app can be beneficial; get customer feedback to see whether they’d prefer the app

Target your fanbase, provide special deals and not only discounts Use mobile advertising IDs - Android, Apple, Facebook App

Pay attention to the frequency of retargeting to minimize the times a person sees the same ad Connect it with your your offline activities by targeting the users that are nearby your shop

Mobile

08Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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5 Facebook for Business Carousel Ad Performance

Stimulate local in-store sales Desktop

Target your fans, website audience and newsletter audience, cross-testing effectiveness across multiple ad sets

Target ads to people close to your location and offer them something extra for additional value

Improve performance with carousel ads. Carousel link ads drive 30 - 50% lower cost-per-conversion and 20 - 30% lower cost-per-click than single-image link ads5.

Image: Facebook for Business

Use the Offer ad format to provide one-time-one-time-only deals that will be shown to those near your stores

Mobile

09Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Get new installs for your appDesktop

Is your app available on Facebook? Use desktop ads to drive valuable traffic Use mobile targeting and leverage Audience Network⁶ targeting, which posts your ad in other 3rd party apps, to reach the broadest audience beyond Facebook. Ads in the Audience Network use the same imagery you use for your Facebook Ads, so there’s no need for new creative.

Incentivize users to install the app by promoting a special offer e.g. if 1 order is made through the app, the user will receive a 50% discount

Use bright and catchy images to grab attention

Segment your audience and test many different adsVideos are great - learn how to succeed here

Cross-test the video auto-play and click-to-play formatsMake the ad relevant to the interests of those being targeted e.g. a fitness app for fitness buffs

Use the carousel format

Mobile

6 Facebook for Business and the Audience Network

010Desktop vs. Mobile Advertising on Facebook

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Gain more Likes for your Pages Desktop

People have a longer attention span than on mobiles, so it’s important to test a lot of images Be sure to target your Fans

Use extremely clear images - faces work great!

This is difficult to achieve, and so it requires the landing page to be responsive and ideally prefilled

Keep texts short and catchy

The good news is that, that Facebook is now testing new lead gen forms that should simplify the process for mobile⁷.

Performs well for younger age groups

Use a newsletter tab for your Page (don’t worry - this can be done almost pain-free with tools like TabFoundry)

Do not send users away from Facebook to complete the newsletter subscription by redirecting them to another website - use a Facebook native-app on your Page to capture emails for subscriptions

Target Lookalike audiences of your Fans and your newsletter subscribers

Desktop

Mobile

Mobile

7 Facebook for Business

Mobile Sign-up Process

8 Facebook for Business Mobile Sign-up Process

Facebook is testing lead ads⁸ to make the mobile signup process easier by automatically inserting contact information from their Facebook Profile - in the form of an email address, name, and surname.

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