When I started in advertising about 20 years ago, marketers were swept up in the new information age and created campaigns hoping that customers would actively search for their products. It made sense. If you need something, you look it up and find the right product to fit your needs.
The problem? This simply isn’t how people shop. So why, after all this time, are some brand marketers still expecting new customers to find them?
The changing customer journey
Businesses that compete successfully in the modern marketplace know that the consumer journey has changed too much to sit back and wait for people to come to them. They know that today, products find people before people find products.
Let me give you a personal example. I’m someone who loves the social interaction of working out with other people and never saw the appeal of exercising at home alone. So it never would have occurred to me to actively search for—let alone buy—an exercise apparatus. But then one day on my Facebook I discovered an option that would keep me connected to a fitness community, and this awareness drove me to invest in a Peloton bike.
Similarly, I enjoy the experience of going to the mall to shop for clothes, but who has the time? I started to notice some beautiful mobile ads in my Instagram feed that featured outfits that appealed to me and I found myself signing up for a monthly clothing subscription service.
Creating awareness and intent at all stages
One reason I have a passion for working for a company like Facebook is that the platform provides what I believe is the best opportunity for brands to build awareness and create purchase intent at any stage of the purchase funnel. Take Toyota for example, which saw incredible performance from running Facebook ads in a campaign to promote a Camry launch, thanks to ensuring a mobile-first approach and full-funnel strategy.
Facebook worked hand-in-hand with Toyota’s advertising team at Saatchi to design a full suite of creative assets and included traditional ad formats like video and carousel, as well as more innovative formats such as Instagram Stories, lead ads and Canvas. In addition to this content ecosystem, Saatchi deployed a comprehensive media approach from start to finish.
They began by priming audiences using Facebook’s TRP (Targeted Rate Point) product and increased touchpoints by optimizing for reach and frequency and auction. Toyota’s multicultural agencies—Conill and Burrell—followed a similar approach, leading the way in their categories.
As a result of its Facebook campaign, Toyota saw its best brand results to date, as the campaign drove a 17 percent increase in incremental reach to TV across Toyota’s TRP buy.
Another example is American Express, where the brand marketing team was tasked with creating attention-grabbing ads to find more business people to apply for and use its new OPEN charge card. To capture discovery, the team launched a digital ad campaign using Facebook’s full-screen Canvas ad format.
The beauty of the Canvas ad format reminds me of my print advertising days. It helps brand marketers create eye-catching (and thumb-stopping) campaigns that are product-first—but better—because they seamlessly move the customer through a story that leads from awareness to purchase, thereby meeting a business’s key performance indicators.
For American Express, using Canvas to highlight a visually captivating story helped to move its target audience down-funnel by first generating awareness, then increasing interest by emphasizing the benefits of using its OPEN Business Platinum card, to finally realizing conversions as people filled in and submitted applications straight from the ad unit. The results of this Facebook campaign exceeded the company’s expectations, as they realized a 52 percent higher return on ad spend and a 27 percent decrease in cost per action by using Canvas, as compared to using other digital ad formats.
The clear solution
If you’re in charge of a brand that’s looking to find new customers and grow, it’s an optimal time to get back to basics and think about creating awareness for your brand using today’s technologies. We’ve seen that when products find people, businesses find growth. Smart marketers don’t passively wait for purchase intent. They proactively create purchase intent and drive discovery of their products.
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Michelle Morris is a VP for Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook. She leads a national team that drives business value in a mobile-first world for brands in the automotive, financial services, insurance, real estate and restaurants verticals.
