Facebook ads allow advertisers to target potential customers based on their intent to purchase. When setting up a Facebook ad campaign, advertisers can choose from different buying types to indicate the type of consumer they want to reach. The main buying types available on Facebook ads are:
Awareness
The Awareness buying type targets people who may be interested in your brand, product, or service but aren’t ready to make a purchase yet. This buying type is best for increasing brand awareness and reaching new audiences who don’t know about your business yet.
Some examples of when to use the Awareness buying type include:
- Launching a new product or service
- Increasing brand awareness for an established business
- Promoting brand content like blogs, videos, etc.
- Reaching a broad, untapped audience that may not be familiar with your brand
The Awareness buying type casts a wide net and does not focus solely on people likely to make a purchase. It’s ideal for brand building and generating interest in your business.
Consideration
The Consideration buying type targets people who may be interested in purchasing your products or services. These people know about your brand but aren’t quite ready to make a purchase yet.
Some examples of when to use the Consideration buying type include:
- Promoting a product catalog or menu of services
- Driving traffic to your website
- Boosting engagement with your brand content
- Remarketing to previous website visitors or customers
The Consideration buying type helps nurture prospects along the sales funnel by serving ads to people who already know your brand but need a little more information before buying.
Conversion
The Conversion buying type targets people who are most likely to purchase your products or services. These people have already considered your brand and are now ready to make a purchase.
Some examples of when to use the Conversion buying type include:
- Promoting an online store or product listings
- Boosting sales of specific products
- Increasing conversions on landing pages
- Driving traffic to complete a purchase
The Conversion buying type helps maximize sales by serving ads to people showing intent signals that indicate they are ready to buy. This is the buying type with the highest chance of generating sales.
Brand Awareness vs Consideration vs Conversion
To summarize the differences:
- Brand Awareness targets people unfamiliar with your brand to increase awareness.
- Consideration targets people already aware who need more information before purchasing.
- Conversion targets people ready to make a purchase from your brand.
Awareness works at the top of the sales funnel, Consideration in the middle, and Conversion at the bottom when users are ready to convert.
How to Choose a Facebook Ad Buying Type
Here are some tips on how to select the right buying type for your Facebook ad campaigns:
- If launching a new brand or product, start with Brand Awareness to increase reach.
- If sales are a priority, use Conversion buying for the highest chance of driving purchases.
- Consider using Consideration for remarketing to past customers or visitors.
- Evaluate which stage prospects are at in the sales funnel and choose the corresponding buying type.
- Test different buying types and compare performance to see which works best.
- Combine different buying types across ad sets for a multi-touch attribution strategy.
Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences
Facebook Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences can further target your ads regardless of buying type. Some options include:
- Custom Audiences – Target past customers, email subscribers, website visitors, app users, etc.
- Lookalike Audiences – Reach new people similar to your existing audiences.
Use these audiences in combination with your chosen buying type for optimal ad targeting.
Targeting by Buying Stages
Facebook offers more advanced options to target users by their stage in the buyer’s journey. These include:
- Awareness – People who may be interested in your brand or category but have not engaged yet.
- Consideration – People who know your brand and are considering a purchase.
- Decision – People who have decided to make a purchase but haven’t completed it yet.
Targeting by specific stages like this can help you tailor ads to where users are in their path to purchase.
Analyzing Results by Buying Type
When running multiple ads with different buying types, make sure to analyze the results for each segment. Look at metrics like:
- Reach and impressions
- Clicks and clickthrough rate (CTR)
- Engagement rate
- Conversions and cost per result
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Compare buying types to see which is working best. Double down on the high-performing types and reconsider any with poor results.
Optimization Tips
Some best practices for optimizing your buying types include:
- A/B test different buying types and audiences.
- Review ads frequently and pause low performers.
- Create single buying type ad sets for clean data.
- Add negative audiences to exclude irrelevant users.
- Keep ad copy and creatives tailored to each buying type.
Continual testing, monitoring, and optimization will help you dial in your targeting over time. Adapt as you gain more data and insights into audience behavior.
Conclusion
Facebook’s buying types for ads – Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion – allow advertisers to strategically target users by their intent to purchase. Aligning ads to where users are in their buyer’s journey helps serve the right message at the right time. Combine buying types with Custom/Lookalike Audiences and stage targeting for powerful ad targeting capabilities.