Facebook (a.k.a. “Meta”) recently announced a restructuring in the area of campaign objectives. The list of options will be cut down from eleven to six. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to run campaigns for the objectives that have been removed. It only means that there is a consolidation of options at the top level.
What are Campaign Objectives
When you begin creating an ad campaign on Facebook (a.k.a. “Meta”), the first choice you need to make is what campaign objective to use. This is so that you can achieve the results you want for your business. For example, do you want to drive traffic to your website? Or do you want engagement with your Page posts? Selecting the objective that makes sense for your goals will focus the campaign and all applicable options on achieving that objective.
Objectives – Main Categories
There are three general categories of objectives. They are:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversions
The Old Objectives System
As mentioned above, the outgoing system offered a choice of eleven objectives. Consolidating them down to six is a good idea, in my opinion, because advertisers will more easily understand the choices. These are the eleven options that have been offered:
- Brand Awareness
- Reach
- Traffic
- Engagement
- App Installs
- Video Views
- Lead Generation
- Messages
- Conversions
- Catalog Sales
- Store Traffic
Even though the purposes of these objectives are mostly self-explanatory, they could still be somewhat intimidating to those who are new to running ads. Consolidating some of the options could be helpful.
The New Objectives System
Some of the former options will be lumped together at the top level. For example, the categories of Catalog Sales, Store Traffic, and Conversions will now fall under one objective – Sales. So, if an advertiser chooses the sales objective, they will then choose the “location” where they want the Sales to occur, such as in a store, on a website, etc. This is naturally more user-friendly than having all of the options offered evenly at the top level.
Here is a grid showing the old objectives in the left column and how they will be consolidated in the right column:
Conversion Location and Events
The conversion location is the place where your desired business outcome will occur. For example, if you create a campaign with the Leads objective, you can choose Website, Instant Forms, Messenger, Phone or App as your conversion location. Depending on the conversion location you select, you’ll then choose a conversion event. The conversion event you choose establish the action you want your audience to take once they’ve landed on your conversion location.
Note, not all conversion locations have more than one conversion event option, because the conversion event is assumed. For example, if you choose Messenger as your conversion location, you won’t see any conversion event options.
Let’s assume the goal for your Leads campaign is to encourage people to contact your business through your website. So, you’d choose Website as your conversion location and Contact as your conversion event. You’ll note that you also have Lead, Submit Application and Schedule as alternative conversion event options.
Understanding the Results
The changes to campaign objectives will not change the reporting of results. They only affect the way in which a campaign is set up, making the process more user-friendly.