Facebook Offers New Buying, Video & Targeting Options For Mobile App Ads

Facebook today announced buying, video and targeting enhancements to its mobile app advertising program.

Starting this week, advertisers will be able to buy app ads that are optimized for reach and frequency. “This allows advertisers to boost awareness while controlling how often someone sees an ad,” Facebook explained in a blog post.

“For example, advertisers can set their app ad campaign to reach 5 million people with a frequency cap of three impressions per person for one week. Since reach and frequency optimizes for unique reach, it should only be used for campaigns with brand awareness goals, like those for app launches or updates.”

Autoplay video is also an option for mobile app ads and now advertisers can place video in ads using Power Editor. “This holiday season and moving forward, when eligible, video mobile app ads will play automatically in News Feed.” Not stated was how videos are determined to be eligible.

App developers will be able to go after users of Fire devices and drive them to the Amazon Appstore. Previously, app install or re-engagement ads only linked to the Apple and Google Play stores. “To advertise Amazon Appstore apps on Facebook to Fire tablet users, combine Fire tablet targeting with the ‘New smartphone and tablet owners’ targeting group, which can be found under Behaviors during ad creation.”

Facebook, touting the holiday season as a good time to market mobile apps because many people receive new devices as gifts, offered five tips for app advertising success:

1. Find New Device Owners. Smartphone sales grew 25 percent last holiday season compared to the quarter before.1 New devices means new opportunities for app installs. Advertisers can reach new device owners by targeting people that have recently used Facebook on a new device. This targeting option can be found under Behaviors during ad creation.
2. Reach Specific Devices. If your app is optimized for certain devices, you can target people using newer device models such as the iPhone 6, Nexus 10, Samsung Galaxy S5, and Kindle Fire.
3. Optimize Campaigns For Your Business Objective. To get the most efficient delivery for mobile app install ads, choose “Optimize for installs.” For app launches and major updates, where the goal is broad awareness, use Reach and Frequency buying.
4. Identify Your Top App users & Find People That Look like them. To drive app installs, build a Custom Audience using the top 25 percent of users. Then build a Lookalike Audience based off of it to find people with similar characteristics.
5. Test multiple Ad Creatives, Including Video. As new mobile devices are activated over the holidays, this is the perfect time to test new ad creatives. Test five to 10 new concepts to improve overall campaign delivery and achieve campaign goals.

About The Author

Martin Beck

Martin Beck was Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter from March 2014 through December 2015.