Are you overspending on Facebook Ads like we were?
The Expand Interests checkbox in the Facebook Ad Audience builder certainly sounds like a great idea. According to Facebook:
“This option lets Facebook automatically expand the interests in your detailed targeting criteria if there’s a chance to reach more people likely to convert.”
We ran a little experiment to see what would happen if we turned this option off on several of our ad sets. The ad sets we tested were a mix of warm and cold audiences, some based on interests and behaviours, others based on custom audiences and lookalikes.
The Expand Interests checkbox in the Facebook Power Editor
We found some really interesting outcomes in each ad set’s performance. There were changes in results (in this case on-site purchases), reach and the cost per result.
You’ll see the changes in more detail in the video below, but let’s just say that the biggest impact that unchecking this Expand Interests box on cold audience ad sets had a big impact on how many results we got and how much we spent. We saw more purchases at significantly lower cost per result.
Here’s what you’ll see in the video:
- Where to find the Expand Interest checkbox
- Before and after comparison of ad set performance with the Expand Interest turned on and off
- How a big drop in ad reach may have helped make more sales
Watch the video here
Your turn
Start running a few experiments. Let us know how it goes and if you’re seeing similar results to ours in the video above. This could be a big win for your business or your clients if you manage ads for others.
If you’d like help running experiments like these, please schedule a time to chat and we’ll get you going.