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Facebook is slowly rolling out their newest test on Facebook Ads. If you’re one of the lucky few digital marketers who are part of the beta test, you should be thanking your lucky stars!
Facebook and Instagram have had the in-app ‘Shop’ function for quite a while now, but due to the lack of paid traffic, the feature has seen limited success so far. This is because it mainly depends on organic traffic, which we all know is a thing of the past if you’re looking for scalable results. This new Facebook Ads test has the potential to boost the Shop function exponentially.
So what is this new test, you ask? To put it simply, Facebook conversion ads currently have the option to lead traffic to, and count conversions on, your website, app, on Facebook Messenger, or through WhatsApp. The new option being beta tested currently is to lead traffic to your “Website and Shop”. This means that traffic will be split between your website and your Facebook Shop, with 90% and 10% of traffic going to each respectively. Below is what the option will look like for you if you’re part of the beta test.
Our answer for the time being: A resounding YES!
You’re likely running conversion ads leading to your ecommerce website right now. The main difference here is that just 10% of your traffic will be led to your Facebook shop, where they will be able to make purchases as they normally would on your website.
While your current campaigns may be performing well, the reason we say you should definitely create at least one ad set to test this feature is that until Facebook takes the next step in rolling out this feature, you will not be charged for impressions that are led to your Facebook Shop, while the other 90% of your impressions will be handled normally. In layman’s terms, you’ll get FREE TRAFFIC! (and potentially, conversions).
Before we get into what this means for the future, we need to understand Facebook’s reasoning behind this feature. According to industry expert Will Perry, “Facebook is moving toward owning its own payment processor for e-commerce purchases. Facebook owns the data on-platform and is incentivized to help advertisers improve their data and reporting.”
Will also predicted that “there will be a huge initiative toward driving one-click purchase through paid social in order to give brands and advertisers the data they want to see in order to continue advertising.”
Our expectation is that this feature will eventually cause a sizable shift in the online shopping experience because:
- Data will be collected, processed, and tracked through Facebook, which should help marketers gain more powerful, actionable insights on their audience.
- Customer payments will be streamlined, allowing for less friction in the online shopping process. Conversion rates should increase significantly as a result if all goes according to plan.
- E-commerce websites will start to experience a decline in key metrics at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel due to shifts in consumer behavior.
It’s difficult to know for sure whether this feature will have the effects we expect it to, or that it will even be fully rolled out anytime soon. However, the sheer potential of this move from Facebook to affect e-commerce stores and platforms around the globe means that we as growth-driven performance marketers have to be ready to embrace the change and react quickly to be able to leverage the potential of this shift as soon as it rolls out.
If you’re an entrepreneur looking to drive your business’ key metrics forward, book a digital consultation session with us to deep dive into the correct growth strategy for your business. If you want to increase your online sales, check out our ecommerce service and contact us!