2022 Facebook Advertising Trends

COVID-19 Has Impacted Facebook Ads

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is undisputable. The live entertainment, retail, travel, event, and hospitality industries are the most affected. But e-commerce businesses are facing an interruption in the supply chain too. Accordingly, several brands have paused on Facebook advertising.

Following the stay-at-home orders and people having more time on their hands, Facebook’s amount of time has gone up by over 30%. It is among the new ways to kill boredom, stay connected with friends and family, and get information. Resultantly, we have seen a significant rise in ad inventory and a dip in competition among advertisers.

The cost of getting an ad in front of people dipped dramatically, meaning more opportunities for businesses that have maintained operations in these challenging times. From delivery, telemedicine, insurance, e-commerce to digitally powered finance. With that in mind, let us examine ways businesses can leverage Facebook advertising to their advantage in 2022 when we expect COVID-19 to carry through its tribulations.

• Re-evaluate your advertising strategy: Determine how the pandemic has affected your ad demographics and what makes the most sense for your business following the COVID-19 impact.
• Stay updated with new Facebook advertising policies: For compliance and quick ad approval, check if the products you market, your target group, and methodology are subject to Facebook’s new advertising policies.
• Familiarize yourself with the changes to store traffic ads: Facebook has launched new features you can use for store traffic ads to keep your business and customers safe. You can now add Call Now, Message Now, Order Now, and Get Directions call-to-action buttons. Users who see your ads may see a short COVID-19-related message.

The Market Will Determine a Boom or Bust in eCommerce

Despite the economic uncertainties brought about by the pandemic, consumerism is by no means stopping. However, a great deal of consumers has shifted to online shopping. This has seen e-commerce sales climb by 18% to approximately $700 billion, 14.5% of total retail sales in the US in 2020. Unsurprisingly, brick-and-mortar retail sales dipped by 14%.

The pandemic incredibly influences the e-commerce booms and busts we are currently witnessing. Some businesses are enjoying tremendous growth, while others are seeing a dramatic drop in demand.

If your business is in operation during these challenging times, it is best to follow consumer behavior trends to maintain positive cash flow. And with more and more spending their time and money on Facebook, be quick to implement the following advertising strategies to harness this huge lead potential in 2022:

• Aggressively advertise products currently in high demand: To adjust to these unprecedented times, you might consider scaling down advertisements for travel, luggage, and commuter goods, while elevating ads for beauty & self-care, food & cooking, and home improvement products.
• Lower your Facebook ad costs amid the pandemic by targeting a more specific audience, eliminating audience overlap, and testing different creative.
• Your product + working from home: With more individuals being required to work from home, how can your products make them feel more relaxed and comfortable? Highlight this information in your Facebook ads to pass a message that resonates with most of your target audience.

AI, Automation, and AR Ads will be a Thing in 2022

Facebook is heavily investing in artificial intelligence to improve advertising performance on the platform. Here are among the Facebook advertising automation tools that you can tap into to drive more business growth amid the pandemic:

• Automatic Placements: Instead of choosing placements, Facebook will pick them for you, running your ads on places where they are likely to perform best. The channels include Facebook, Messenger, Audience Network, and Instagram.
• Campaign Budget Optimization(CBO): with CBO, you set your budget at the campaign level instead of the ad level. Then, Facebook capitalizes on the budget along with your bid strategy (highest return on ad spend or lowest cost per action) to optimize your spending.
• Automatic Language Translation: For the chosen placements and languages, you can have Facebook auto-translate your adverts into a user’s preferred language. Note that Facebook does not guarantee the translations’ quality, so it is crucial to review each of them manually.
• Dynamic Formats and Ad Creative: If you are using Dynamic Ads, this solution aims to meet individuals in their customer journey’s exact position by delivering a personalized version of your ad. This allows you to show ads in various formats and information based on what people are likely to respond to. Facebook’s test on this machine-learning option found that it outperformed carousel-only ads as follows; 10% increase in lift, 34% improvement in incremental ROAS, and 6% lower cost per incremental purchase.
• Multiple Text Optimization: When creating single-media ads for conversions, app installs, and traffic objectives, multiple text optimization allows you to add different text options for the primary text, headline, and ad description. The variations are based on the individual preferences identified by Facebook’s machine learning models.

Source: FacebookIn September 2020, Facebook introduced the Augmented Reality Ads that allow users to shift to fewer words, more stickers, face filters, Lives, GIFs, emojis, and Reactions. It is all about adding some fun and excitement to ads, thus increasing engagements and conversions. We Make-up, an Italian cosmetics brand, used AR ads to drive a 28-point increase in purchases and a 7.9-point lift in brand awareness by enabling customers to test-drive its latest shade of lipstick. Also, learn how Capital Records boosted the awareness of singer Liam Payne’s new solo single by 5.2 points using Facebook AR ads.

Mobile-First and Mobile Studio are a Game Changer

Mobile advertising’s share of Facebook’s total advertising revenues has grown aggressively over the past few years, from 11% in 2012 to over 90% in 2020. We expect this trend to remain highly relevant in 2022, meaning it is time you forget desktop and focus on mobile-first if you are a marketer.

The most noticeable difference between desktop ads and mobile ads is the content under the image. There is a headline and a URL on mobile, but on desktop, there is a headline and description. When crafting copy for desktop, avoid repetition in the primary text and description at all costs.

For mobile ads, a savvy marketer will include all the vital information in the primary text. It would help if you also need to hook the audience right away since you have less space to work with before the “See More” prompt. Another must for mobile ads is a clear call-to-action button. Without a CTA, you get fewer leads and incur a higher cost of acquisition.

Source: FacebookFacebook Mobile Studio allows you to build killer, emotion-driven ads directly from your phone in minutes. It features easy-to-understand video guides and creative app recommendations for marketers who are dipping their toes in mobile ads or want to revamp their existing ads. Facebook also offers you a downloadable planning brief, so you organize your ideas, message, and campaign objectives without a hassle.

Video Will Continue to Rule Facebook Ad Space

Business owners desiring to make the most of Facebook marketing should pay closer attention to videos. As stated in this post by HubSpot, Facebook registers 8 billion video views daily, with users spending three times longer watching live videos than other content on the platform. It is not surprising that Facebook promised to update News Feed so that live videos enjoy more prominence. On top of that, 84% of advertisers promote videos on Facebook, and 35% of marketers leverage live videos.

During these trying times, many people seek distraction, social connection, and entertainment on Facebook, creating a good storm for video content to be the preferred medium between brands and consumers. Something interesting about Facebook videos is that they do not appear to be ads immediately when users lay their eyes on them. And some advertisers do videos so well that users hardly care that they are being sold. You will want to up your game this way.

With Facebook video marketing, you can choose from several possibilities, including Stories, Carousels, and Playables. You can still elevate user engagement and conversions with new interactivity options like Instant Experiences and Augmented Reality.

Let us dive into critical considerations for building an effective Facebook video advertising strategy:

• Build ads without sound: Facebook discovered that eighty percent of users do not like videos auto-playing with sound, consequently giving users the option to turn off sound on videos. So, your videos should be able to pass the intended message with visuals only. Add closed captions and subtitles, and show (not tell) how your products work to make your videos effective without sound.
• Grab attention quickly: With Facebook videos, you have at most 10 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention. Make your brand visible right away (within three seconds) and get the point across within five seconds.
• Enhance engagement with video poll ads: You can use interactive poll stickers, similar to those available on Instagram, for Facebook videos. With poll stickers, you ask questions, your audience answers them. Not only do video poll ads increase engagement, but they also serve as a feedback collection channel.
• Retarget users who have watched your videos: Retargeting ads are ads displayed to individuals who have taken some action, such as seeing your other ads or visiting your website. When people watch one of your Facebook videos, they signal some interest in your brand and are likely to click on a future ad. Leverage retargeting to grow their interest.
• Harness analytics: On Facebook Ad Manager, you can view several performance metrics related to your video marketing campaigns. Use the analytics to gauge your strategy’s performance and make profitable adjustments.

Knowing Customer Lifecycle is Central to Facebook Advertising Success

Critical to your Facebook campaign success in 2022 is evaluating your customer life cycle and the average customer lifetime value. It becomes easy to determine how much you spend on a lead and remain profitable.

Delve into your customers’ records to understand how leads join your list, the length of time it takes to convert leads into paying customers, and how much money the average customer spends on your products or services. And use this information to develop Facebook advertising strategies that reflect your exact customer data. Then proceed to build innovative ad campaigns that appeal to Facebook’s preferences with creativity.

For instance, as mentioned above, Facebook gives more prominence to video content, so you expect Live Video ads to drive more conversions than image ads.

Chatbot Potential

The modern consumer wants things easy and quick, not only in product and service delivery but also in communication. This is precisely where the chatbot has excelled and will continue to do so beyond 2022.

Business Insider projects that the Chabot market size will expand to $9.5 billion by 2024. Along with this growth, expect more businesses to start using chatbots, on top of the 40 million brands currently using Messenger to interact with consumers.

Source: BusinessInsiderMessenger is a great way to initiate a conversation and overcome the sale objection. Still, when a user interacts with your chatbot, you get a subscriber for future marketing.

Facebook is continually improving the messaging experience for consumers and businesses, with its latest feature allowing consumers to schedule appointments via Messenger. It also enables companies to run lead generation campaigns on Messenger only.

With so much potential for business and sales, chatbot usage undoubtedly ranks among the top Facebook trends for 2022.

The Bottom Line

Often referred to as the social media king, Facebook is here to stay. Your best bet would be to use the above 2022 Facebook advertising trends to revamp your promotional strategy.

If you need help taking advantage of the above trends, GoMarketing Inc can help you with innovative Facebook advertising services geared to crank up user engagement and lead generation. Call us at 805-413-7893 or message us online to schedule a free appointment or learn more about our digital marketing solutions.