Facebook is a company built on data, but advertising is inherently a creative space.

We’ve known for some time that different kinds of ads are better suited to different environments. For example, a great radio ad may not perform as well on TV, and a great TV ad may not perform as well on out-of-home media. Similarly, not all video ad formats work well in Facebook’s News Feed. In 2016, we worked with MetrixLab to help us understand what kinds of ads work best in the Facebook News Feed, and which creative practices advertisers should consider adopting to better ‘feed-proof’ their creative.

MetrixLab analysed 68 FMCG video campaigns from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and they found that only 8 of the 68 video ads tested (12%) were assessed as top performers, while for 53 (78%) the performance was sub-optimal or problematic. MetrixLab dug into the data to understand why this had happened and what differentiates the top performers from the rest. They found a simple, clear difference: video ads designed with Facebook’s feed news feed in mind worked well, but traditional TV ads didn’t.

From this analysis, MetrixLab was able to recommend that advertisers and agencies should consider integrating four key principles into their Facebook video ads:

1. Incorporate brand identity early (within the first 3 seconds).

2. Show the brand for at least half the video’s duration.

3. Make the video as short as it can be and as long as it needs to be.

4. Feature the message up-front for those who may not watch the whole video.

This work was followed and expanded on by subsequent white papers, helping us understand more about the importance of creativity in the age of mobile, the persuasive power of video and how to capture attention in feed.

There are stand-out features that Instagram can help bring to a media plan, including perceptions of the advertiser as imaginative, distinctive, creative, inspiring and cool [1]. When compared with Facebook, Instagram was found to more strongly fulfill users’ desire for fun, relaxation and discovery [2], and created a greater sense of surprise and delight [3].

However, another way that advertisers might wish to incorporate Instagram into their media plan is by using it and Facebook together in what we call Placement Optimisation. The benefits of this approach are typically around efficiency rather than brand perceptions: Placement Optimisation finds people in a target audience on either Facebook or Instagram, which can reduce a campaign’s CPM [4]. However, to be certain that this approach is both effective and efficient, we needed to understand how the same video would perform in feeds across both Facebook and Instagram feeds.

With this in mind, the next evolution of the analysis undertaken by MetrixLab in 2016 was to understand if the creative rules that apply to Facebook also apply to Instagram. In short, can the same video be used effectively on both Facebook and Instagram to drive greater efficiency in CPMs and a comparable level of campaign performance?

To test this out we asked MetrixLab to look at 80 video ads. We selected a combination of video ads from across Facebook and Instagram, with half passing as feed-proofed video (based on MetrixLab’s classification from 2016), and half which we termed ‘non-optimised’, as they didn’t meet MetrixLab’s classification and / or didn’t work without sound [5].

MetrixLab tested each ad on both Facebook and Instagram, and found a crucial correlation in performance between the platforms. This means that ads that perform well in one feed will generally perform well in either feed.

The study also confirmed the outcomes from the 2016 study, showing that twice as many non-optimised videos perform sub-optimally on breakthrough. It also looked at the ability to generate response generally, and found that the ads perform similarly outside of the feed environment. Non-optimised ads aren’t bad ads, in other words, but the context and environment of feed is such that it may reduce their ability to have the desired impact when not in keeping with MetrixLab’s 2016 recommendations.

Finally, MetrixLab found that feed-proofed video is also more likely to create optimal performance on both Facebook and Instagram on ad recognition and message-take-out, and make it more likely that people will watch the video for longer.

MetrixLab’s 2017 analysis confirmed our theory coming out of 2016, that to maximise the performance of and return from campaigns, advertisers should consider using video that incorporates the brand identity within the first 3 seconds, keeps that brand identity present for at least half of the video ad’s duration, uses adequate available time required to tell the story and features the message up-front.

The 2017 analysis also confirms that MetrixLab’s feed-proofing guidelines are not limited to Facebook, but are instead general best practices for building creative for Placement Optimised feed-based campaigns.

However, given the distinctive – and at times, different – performance capabilities of Facebook or Instagram, and between how, when and why people use them, it’s important that advertisers distinguish for themselves how best to leverage these two powerful platforms based on their campaign objectives. For example, utilising Instagram may prove ideal for advertisers who objective is to change perceptions of their brand [6].

Other great news from this research is that an advertiser whose primary goal on Facebook is cost efficiency can – and should – extend her campaign to Placement Optimisation. She can expect that her feed-proof video can work equally as well on Instagram as on Facebook, and with consistent outcomes.

In addition, extending a Facebook campaign to include Instagram can help increase the size of a campaign’s available audience by allowing it to reach people across what are arguably two of today’s most important mobile platforms. Advertisers may also find they benefit from a lower CPM while keeping a consistent level of return, which could ultimately increase their return on ad spend [7], or campaign efficiency.

[1] Through the Lens of Instagrammers

[2] A Tale of Two Feeds

[3] A Tale of Two Feeds

[4] Placement Optimisation is when you choose to utilise both Facebook and Instagram within a campaign, and let our system choose where to serve ad impression based on which is cheapest at any point in time. Both Facebook and Instagram have average CPMs, but the CPMs vary based on supply and demand at the user level. If you want to reach 70% of an available audience your CPM will be greater than if you want to reach 50% of the same available audience, all else held equal. By using Placement Optimisation you increase the overall size of an audience, meaning your campaign reach represents a lower percentage reach, and therefore has a lower CPM.

[5] As sound does not play automatically across Facebook and Instagram’s feeds, we added this criteria to ensure the brand and message could be conveyed effectively for all users.

[6] Through the Lens of Instagrammers and A Tale of Two Feeds

[7] By reducing your CPM an advertiser can either get the same return from lower spend, or use saved money to extend reach and, all things equal in audience response, generate a greater return from the same spend level. Both of these situations will generate a greater return on ad spend. More on this can be seen in our white paper Optimizing Audience Buying on Facebook and Instagram.