Facebook’s ad measurement strategy to determine business performance during Covid-19

As businesses seek to navigate this difficult time, adapt media strategies and determine which marketing activities are most worthwhile, gaining an accurate understanding of ad performance is more important than ever.

However, a key issue that marketers and strategists face when making these adjustments is that many current behaviours depart from the norm. An InMobi survey found that compared to other generations, Gen Z is spending most of their time between playing mobile games (35%), listening to music (33%), and binging on OTT content (22%). Millennials are the largest consumers of news at 46%. 27% binge on OTT content; 22% play games on their phones, 17% are doing online courses and upskilling themselves. Among Gen X audiences, 39% of Gen X population is watching TV while 16% is binging on OTT content. This generation is least likely to engage with mobile games.

These shifts in consumer habits may not extend past the current environment, and so it's important for businesses to evaluate their measurement strategies to ensure that they are gaining a true understanding of the impact of today's conditions, while not developing an inaccurate view of long-term behaviour.

Facebook has launched a guide called ‘Adapting your ad measurement strategy for Covid-19 impact’ where they cover four strategies for understanding advertising performance during extraordinary circumstances.

Simplify your strategy

Evaluating your measurement strategy to adapt to today's conditions does not mean that you need to abandon your existing measurement approaches. Rather than changing course completely, consider simplifying your strategy to focus on using your organisation's current key sources of truth. This will enable you to more quickly understand shifts and make media optimisations.

Re-evaluate tests designed to inform future decisions

With the profound changes happening to people's day-to-day lives, media performance is often unusual. So, when looking at insights from tests conducted during this time, consider the extent to which current conditions are affecting results. Some findings and best practices may still be able to be generalised and used to inform future business decisions, while others may only be applicable now.

Use A/B and multi-cell testing to optimise quickly

To gain a better understanding of today's behaviours, consider running quick A/B and multi-cell tests (A/B tests with a holdout). Through measurement and learning, you can assess the impact of making adjustments in areas such as audience targeting and creative presentation. This will enable you to rapidly adapt your ads, undertake changes with greater confidence and optimise your strategy for the current environment.

Consider impact by industry and marketing conditions

Different industries are facing starkly different realities during this time, with some seeing increased demand and others seeing dramatic drops. Moreover, advertising conditions vary widely by geography and customer base. This means that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Ultimately, the right measurement strategy will have to be tailored to your specific goals, customers and marketing conditions.

Pratham Hegde, Director and Head of Measurement, Facebook India said “Now more than ever businesses, both large and small, need to focus on measurable business outcomes. With the digital landscape rapidly changing, and customer journeys evolving to adapt to the current times, the need to measure truly incremental outcomes is more important than ever.  At Facebook, we’re committed to developing robust measurement along with experts and industry leaders. Last year we piloted the industry-leading Customer Mix Modeling (CMM) that was developed by Nielsen to measure RoI of Brand spends. For performance advertising we continue to encourage advertisers to measure true incremental value as opposed to click attributed measures. We’ll continue to work closely with businesses through these challenging times to help them measure spends more effectively and deliver on their business goals.”

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