On the 19th October, Facebook announced that US users can order food, book appointments and buy cinema tickets through the Facebook app, thus removing the need to log in elsewhere. This revelation follows Facebook’s announcement of a marketplace where users can buy and sell products in direct competition with companies like ebay and Etsy.
Although Facebook’s product portfolio expansion is not surprising, the speed at which they are expanding into these types of conversion options is notable. This move caters to the fact that users do not like to be taken away from what they are doing in app.
When running video ads on YouTube and Facebook, we have seen a ten-fold increase in cost per click (to site) on Facebook compared to YouTube. This is likely because users were more reluctant to click away and were much happier staying in the app. Although cost per views were significantly lower on Facebook, users tended to not want to leave the social network. Interestingly, these new formats and options make Facebook even more direct response in its execution.
All Response Media Viewpoint
It is only a matter of time before Facebook rolls this out to the UK. This is exciting to see as Facebook’s portfolio expansion will undoubtedly improve conversion rates. What is even more interesting is that according to Accenture, up to 87% of consumers dual-screen when watching TV. Additionally, a 2015 Google report showed that almost half of those who dual-screen are social networking at the time. From an ARM perspective, we plan to not only continue to marry DRTV and social, but also overlay stronger ads with a built-in conversion process to deliver better ROI.
