22 Jun The Benefits of Facebook Offer Ads

In a world where change is the only constant, getting excited about discounted rates may be the exception. In 2021, no longer are social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others, strictly top and mid-funnel. There are additional ad types and strategies to leverage sales opportunities with potential customers directly through the sales funnel, all while on social media. In 2019, Facebook introduced offer ads and today we’ll dive into why you want to consider offer ads in your future business strategy.

What Are Facebook Offer Ads

Facebook offer ads are a unique ad type that provides discounts/offers in which you can share with your customers on Facebook to encourage shopping on your website, brick-and-mortar, or both. With the ability to offer a discounted dollar amount, percentage, or even a buy-1 get-1 free offer, all of it can be utilized through an offer ad. According to WordStream, offer ads are one of the most underrated Facebook ad types used. Below, we are going to share with you just a few of the many benefits offer ads can have on your business.

How Your Business Can Benefit From Offer Ads

Generate Sales

If your business objective is to drive sales, this ad unit can certainly help. This ad unit is only available for Consideration and Conversion campaign objectives (mid-low funnel focused). Offer ads are born on the premise to drive revenue; and what better way to do that than to encourage current/potential customers to shop using an offer. As you set up the offer ad at the ad set level, you have the ability to include all of the important details like:

• The Offer/Discount
• End Time/Date of the Offer
• Only Valid Online, In-Store, or Both
• Terms and Conditions
• Additional Details

All of these details can be placed on your static, video, or carousel Facebook offer ad! Our team recommends testing different ad types to see which one resonates best with your audience.

e-Comm & Brick-and Mortar Friendly

In 2021, online shopping is as normal as shopping in-store, if not more so. Facebook has recognized this and wanted to provide an opportunity for both online and brick-and-mortar businesses to reach its target audience. One of the benefits of offer ads is the ability to have unique and general promo codes for online shoppers, as well as barcodes and QR codes for redeeming offers in-store. Meaning, businesses have the opportunity to analyze how customers like to shop best, in-store or online, simply by the offer they choose to use at redemption. There is also the option to have one general promo code. However, experimenting with the same offer in various ways is a simple test you can do to learn more about your customers and how they choose to convert. Provide options if possible! 

Also, one of the benefits of offer ads is their ability to remind users who save the offer to refer back to it at a later date. For both online and in-store offers, Facebook will remind users about the offer before the discount expires. Additional information is provided below:

• Online Offers: If you created an online offer, people who saved it will get notifications on Facebook as a reminder before the offer expires.
• In-store Offers: If you created an in-store offer, people who saved it will get an email with your offer so they can redeem it at your store. They’ll also get Facebook notifications about it before it expires.

Reach New Customers

According to TechJury.net, the average user spends 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on Facebook alone. This is a significant amount of time and opportunity to reach new customers where they are: on Facebook. Offer ads initiate the incentive for customers to act with quickness due to an expiration date and time on each offer ad. Additionally, offer ads allow potential customers to learn and try your product or service at a discounted rate as many brands capitalize on “first-time buyer discounts”. This is a strategy in which you can leverage with this specific ad type.

Retargeting Potential Customers

Another benefit of offer ads is the ability to analyze the customers who did and, sometimes, more importantly, did not make a purchase during the offer period. If you’re asking yourself “Why should I report on customers who didn’t make a purchase?”, the answer is: retargeting. When someone claims your offer but does not act on it, that means they’re, at the very least, interested in your product/service. Once the list of “Claimed but not Purchased” users have been created in Ads Manager, your business has the opportunity to retarget the value of your product/service to strong leads; leading them to conversion.

Limited Time Offers Incentivize Purchases

We’ve historically seen that when there’s a cap or time limitation on an offer, people are more likely to take action; offer ads are no exception. Sales come-and-go and history shows that consumers will jump on an opportunity to get the best bang-for-their-buck or a fear of missing out. According to BusinessInsider, 63% of people said that they have purchased a product they don’t need simply because they had a coupon/offer for it. As you set up your offer ad, you have the ability to put a deadline of when the discount ends (for example, valid through June 30th at 11:59 pm). You also have the option to put a certain cap of offers available, whether for inventory supply or to increase buying intent, this can be utilized as well.

Key Learnings

In the past, our team has run multiple different offer ads for a variety of clients. Some were geo-targeted which would garner a higher Cost-Per-Click (CPC) than traditional Traffic campaigns with a “Shop Now” Call-To-Action (CTA), but were still strong campaigns. However, we’ve also experienced better performing CPC’s on other offer ads which were also successful; specifically because the Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS) was above 1.0. When comparing offer ads with traditional Traffic campaigns in success measures, the important Key-Performance-Indicator’s (KPI) to key in on are ROAS and Cost-Per-Conversion. Though an offer ad may result in a higher CPC than other ad types, it’s unique in its intention to increase frequency, provide urgency, remind customers to complete the action, and, ultimately, drive sales.

In conclusion, there are several key benefits to running an offer ad type for your business. Though businesses have different priorities and KPI’s, offer ads should not be overlooked as a valuable ad type to produce sales results. To learn more about different shopping strategies on social media channels like YouTube, Pinterest, and more, check out our post on Social Media Shopping Features.

If you’re ready to take that next step and create additional paths of revenue for your business, contact our team of experts today. In addition, keep yourself up to date on the latest news and trends in social media by subscribing to our e-newsletter, Social You Should Know, below.

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