When running Facebook ads, one of the most important decisions you need to make is choosing the right objective for your campaign. The objective you select determines how your ad is optimized, how it is delivered, and how your results are measured. With so many options to choose from, it can be tricky to know which objective is best suited for your goals.
What are Facebook ad objectives?
Facebook ad objectives are the specific goals you can choose when setting up a campaign. They allow Facebook’s algorithm to optimize your ad delivery and targeting to achieve the outcome you want.
Here are the main objectives available on Facebook:
- Awareness – Get more people to see your ads
- Consideration – Drive consideration of your product/service
- Conversion – Get more conversions on your website
- Catalog Sales – Promote product catalog items
- Store Visits – Increase visits to your retail locations
- App Installs – Get more app installs or re-engagement
- Lead Generation – Collect more leads for your business
- Messages – Increase messaging conversations
- Contest/Promotions – Promote contests, sweepstakes or promotions
- Callbacks – Get more phone call leads
- Post Engagement – Get more engagement on your posts
- Video Views – Increase views of your videos
- Event Responses – Promote events and get more responses
The objective you choose sends signals to Facebook’s algorithm about the results you want to achieve. The algorithm then optimizes your ad delivery to get more of those desired outcomes.
How do I match objectives to my goals?
To select the right objective, you need to consider your overall marketing goals and what you are trying to achieve. Here are some common goal types and the recommended objectives for each:
Brand awareness goals
If your priority is to get more exposure for your brand and reach a bigger audience, objectives like Awareness or Video Views are best. These focus on maximizing the number of people who see or engage with your ads.
Consideration goals
If you want to drive interest in your product/service and get more people considering it, Consideration is the ideal objective. This focuses on generating more consideration actions like site visits, catalog views, etc.
Conversion goals
If your aim is to drive actions on your website like purchases, signups, content downloads or other conversions, choose the Conversion objective. This optimizes for more conversion events.
Catalog sales goals
If you want to promote specific product catalog items or online stores, use the Catalog Sales objective. This drives more product views, adds to cart and purchases.
Physical store goals
To increase foot traffic to your physical stores, use the Store Visits objective. This helps get more people to visit your retail locations.
App promotion goals
If you want more app installs or app re-engagement, choose the App Installs objective. This focuses on generating more installs and opens of your app.
Lead generation goals
If your goal is getting more leads and conversions in lead gen forms, use the Lead Generation objective. This aims to increase submissions of forms on your website or Facebook.
Messaging goals
If you want more messaging conversations via Messenger, WhatsApp etc., select the Messages objective. This drives more messaging exchanges.
Promotion & contest goals
If running a contest or sweepstakes promotion, choose the Contest/Promotions objective. This helps get more entries and engagement with your promotion.
Phone call goals
If you want more phone call leads, use the Callbacks objective. This results in higher phone call volumes from your campaigns.
Engagement goals
If your goal is to get more likes, comments, shares or other engagement on your Facebook posts, choose Post Engagement as the objective.
Picking secondary objectives
In addition to your main campaign objective, you can also select a secondary objective if you have multiple goals.
For example, you may choose Conversion as your primary objective but also want Lead Generation as a secondary goal. Or you could select Catalog Sales as the primary objective and App Installs as the secondary one.
Choosing a secondary objective gives Facebook additional signals about multiple outcomes you want to drive. The algorithm incorporates these secondary aims to further optimize delivery wherever possible.
Objective best practices
Here are some best practices when it comes to selecting Facebook objectives:
- Match objectives to your overall marketing strategy – Don’t use random objectives without tying them back to core goals.
- Test different objectives – You may find a secondary objective starts to outperform your primary one over time.
- Use detailed objectives – Pick detailed objectives like Conversion over vague ones like Awareness when possible.
- Align ad creative with objective – Design your ads and creative content to match the chosen objective.
- Track objective-related actions – Make sure you implement tracking for the metrics tied to your objectives.
- Review performance regularly – Check reports frequently and adjust objectives if needed.
The importance of tracking events
To make the most of your Facebook objectives, it’s crucial to track objective-related events and actions properly.
For example, to use the Conversion objective effectively, you need to track website conversions. Or to leverage Catalog Sales, you need to tag product catalogs and track actions like product adds.
Proper tracking ensures Facebook has the data it needs to optimize delivery towards your goals. Tracking also provides key performance metrics so you can accurately evaluate campaign results.
Some common actions to track for different objectives include:
| Objective | Actions to Track |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Impressions, reach, frequency |
| Consideration | Site visits, landing page views, catalog views |
| Conversion | Purchases, signups, content downloads, form submissions |
| Catalog Sales | Product views, adds to cart, purchases |
| App Installs | App installs, app opens |
Conclusion
Choosing the right objective is crucial for Facebook ad success. Match your objective to your overall marketing goals and properly track related actions. Test different objectives and be prepared to adjust over time based on performance. With the right objective and tracking in place, you’ll get campaigns that effectively drive results.