Twig

We wanted to share with our readers some really exciting stats from a recent Facebook Ads campaign that Twig launched with one of its ecommerce clients. 

If you’re looking to drive high-value traffic to your site and achieve a positive ROI on your ad spend, you may be interested in the results we’re getting. 

Campaign Goal

The goal for the Facebook Ads campaign was to acquire customers for the client’s ecommerce site and create an action, while reducing their average CPC of $1.00. The action was defined by getting users to share the ecommerce site’s link on their Facebook profile. 

Campaign Overview 

We tested 3 different variations of ad units, and 16 different targeting specs based on:

1 - Relevancy to the brand
2 - Facebook suggested bid
3 - Volume of impressions  

Twig's Platform created 48 combinations of ad units and targeting specs, and uncovered the highest performing ads. We were able to automatically allocate the budget towards ads getting the most clicks at the lowest CPC.

Campaign Results

• CPC: $0.27 
• CTR: 0.125%
• Action Rate: 10% (Percentage of users who clicked on the ads and subsequently shared the link on their Facebook profile)
• Overall user acquisition: As a result of users clicking on the shared links, the cost per user acquired was further lowered by 22% to $0.21 per user.

*The client was previously spending $1.00+ CPC while getting a 0.03% CTR

Data from Compete of referral traffic metrics in February 2010 shows that Facebook drove a comparable amount of traffic to top retail sites as Google: 

Source: Compete, Inc. Monthly Normalized Referral Traffic Metrics /February 2010

In our previous post we discussed how retailers can optimize their site to drive measurable traffic and sales from Facebook and Twitter users through RTO (Real-Time Optimization) and RTM (Real-Time Marketing).

Through these methods, customers can socially engage directly on the retail site by logging in with their Facebook or Twitter profiles. This way, customers are able to broadcast their social activity from the retail site onto their Facebook or Twitter feeds, with a link back to the retailer's site. 

We also discuss how a retail site with 100k monthly active users increased site traffic by 10.4% by utilizing RTO and RTM. Read more: "There's SEO and SEM, but what about Real-Time Optimization and Real-Time Marketing?" 

Consumers are getting an increasing amount of their content from their Facebook and Twitter streams. In fact, according to recent analytics shown on Compete, Facebook is now driving more traffic than Google to top portals including Yahoo and Bing. Facebook is also "among the leaders" for other types of sites as well. 

Forever21 drives more traffic from Facebook than from Google  

Here is a snapshot from Compete.com of the top 5 traffic referrers to Forever21.com, a top apparel retail site. The highest traffic referrer is Facebook with 14.17% compared to Google with 12.14% of referring traffic.

Looking deeper into Facebook usage statistics revealed on their press page, we can see how traffic to outside sites is being generated. Specifically, around 50% of the 400 million active Facebook users login on any given day, and the average user on Facebook has 130 friends, and more than 5 billion pieces of content is shared each week. Also, the average Twitter user has 126 followers according to a lead engineer at Twitter. So for every piece of content shared on Facebook or Twitter, a potential network of around 130 people are exposed to it.   

How retailers can acquire new customers beyond SEO and SEM

For the past decade or so, the majority of resources going into retailers' online strategy goes towards SEO and SEM. However, there's a clear shift in the way people are accessing content by depending more on their Facebook and Twitter streams for discovery. Google recognizes this with their launch of Google Buzz and by incorporating real-time content from Facebook and Twitter streams into their search algorithms. 

To acquire customers via the Facebook and Twitter streams, retailers can use Real-Time Optimization and Real-Time Marketing to acquire measurable traffic comparable to SEO and SEM. 

So what is Real-Time Optimization and Real-Time Marketing, and how can retailers use these methods to drive measurable ROI?   

Real-Time Optimization is the process where retailers optimize their site to drive traffic from Facebook and Twitter streams. Retailers achieve this by enabling their customers to frictionlessly engage in social activity right on their site, using their Facebook or Twitter identities. For example, a customer uses their Facebook or Twitter account to contribute social activity right on the retail site, and their activity gets published on their Facebook or Twitter feed with a link back to the retailer's product pages. The customer's friends see the link in their Facebook or Twitter streams, and a certain percentage click-through to the retail site. 

Real-Time Marketing is the process where retailers give incentives for customers to share links to products or promotions on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. For example, a retail site could set a budget that goes directly towards discounts for customers who drive traffic from their Facebook or Twitter networks back to the retailer's product or promotion.

Adding buttons like ShareThis is a good first step, but isn't as effective because it requires too many clicks and isn't integrated well into the retailer's site. Customers want to be able to easily connect with each other around products, so retailers just have to let them. 

Here's an example of the amount of traffic a retail site with 100,000 monthly users  acquires by utilizing Real-Time Optimization: 

• RetailerX.com has 100,000 MAU (monthly active users)
• 1% (or 1000) of the 100k users engage in social activity on RetailerX.com using their Facebook or Twitter identities 
• These 1000 unique links gets published on those users' Facebook or Twitter streams
• Each user has avg. of 130 friends/followers on Facebook/Twitter 
• 8% (or 10,400) of their friends on Facebook/Twitter click-through to the retail site

Conclusion: RetailerX.com gets a 10.4% traffic boost with 10,400 new customers. This is achieved with only 1% of customers on their site engaging in social activity.

So while retail companies are spending an increasing amount on acquiring customers through paid search, retailers can open a new channel of socially referred traffic with a much more cost-effective approach. Acquiring measurable traffic doesn't start with your Facebook Page and Twitter account strategies. Instead, social design must be integrated and optimized within your site experience. 

This way, customers can bring their real identities with them onto retail sites, and frictionlessly communicate and express positive sentiment with others around the retailer's products. Moreover, since this activity is posted on Facebook and Twitter, the customer's friends get to join the conversation and discover the retailer's products. 

• Email us! We'd love to send you more information about our solutions. bizdev@intwig.com  
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