FB shares measurement strategies for businesses to overcome COVID-19 hurdles

With the COVID-19 outbreak impacting consumption patterns, media spends and strategies of businesses are also feeling the heat.

Nearly 89 per cent of advertisers, as per Facebook, have taken action with their budgets in response to COVID-19, while 45 per cent have gone for adjustments in media usage or shifts in budget among media types.

According to Pratham Hegde, Director and Head of Measurement, Facebook India, now more than ever businesses, both large and small, need to focus on measurable business outcomes.

Since ad delivery systems like Facebook’s can be influenced by these shifts in advertisers and consumer behaviour, the social media giant has been asking advertisers to strategize their spends accordingly.  

Facebook’s FBIQ study points out to four strategies to adapt to ad measurement during COVID-19. Among the suggestions are - simplifying strategy, re-evaluating tests designed to inform future decisions, using the platform’s A/B and multi-cell lift testing to optimize quickly and considering impact by the industry and marketing conditions.

While restrategizing has been on the cards for most marketers when it comes to ad spends, Facebook’s A/B and multi-cell lift testing come in extra handy. Providing further details about the two tools, the study says: “Testing can help you adapt your ads and optimize your strategy for the current environment. A/B tests let you change variables, such as your ad creative, audience or placement, to determine which strategy performs best and optimize your current campaigns. A/B testing helps ensure your audiences will be evenly split and statistically comparable. Add a holdout to your A/B test to make it a multi-cell lift test and measure incremental lift on a cost-per-conversion lift basis.”

Sharing further details about developing a robust measurement system, Hegde said: “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.”