Before we dive into what features you should be considering in self-serve, lets firstly recap on why a self-service ad platform is the only choice for online retailers.
Cost: Removing the third party means you have more budget for advertising, as you are not paying for a managed service. The accrued savings can be used to strengthen your ad campaigns, as you can increase your ad budget and bids.
Control: Complete ownership of ads means you can apply industry knowledge and manage the campaigns precisely how you want. You control the design, the execution and the reporting.
Speed: The time to getting your campaign live will be dramatically reduced as you are not using a third party. The clue is in the name, ‘direct response’. In most aspects of business, response has to be quick, as quick as it can. Therefore, adding an additional layer to a process is going to increase response time. Retailers need to be able to act when necessary, so handling the direct response ads makes perfect sense. Responding to your competitors, stock levels, or offering a discount are all decisions that if delayed, can cost your business money.
Features You Should Be Looking for in a Self-Service Facebook Ad Platform
Without using a self-serve platform, the variety, velocity and volume of data makes in-house management of DR ads cumbersome. Look for software that:
- Enables you to rapidly create Facebook Ads, easily scale and increase your ROI. For online retailers, it should offer the ability to turn product catalog feeds into ads in seconds.
- Dynamic product advertising. This is where an advertiser automates aspects of the creation of ads with contextually relevant information to a consumer based on previous actions or related to products, offers and prices. Thousands of personalised ad versions featuring different recommendations can be automatically created. Having different attribution variables means that you can be a lot smarter with your advertising.
- Highly customizable URL tracking, with the ability to integrate with Google Analytics and/or other analytics tools. With sophisticated tracking, you can quickly understand how much revenue was generated by each advert, and which Facebook ad is performing best. Understanding which ad is giving you the best return allows you to intelligently focus your spend.
- Intelligent reporting that enables you to get granular visibility into campaign performance.
What are your experiences with self-service ad platforms? Lets us know below!
