I think in every situation where we rely on a platform, there are several thoughts that routinely go through our heads:
“Why did the set it up this way, it makes NO sense.”
“Ugh WHY CAN’T IT JUST [insert seemingly logical function there]?!”
While AdWords certainly has its quirks, on the whole it tends to be pretty efficient these days, especially when using Power Editor.
Facebook…eeuuhhh, not so much. Every time I use it, these “it would be cool if they’d let us…” thoughts fly through my head. At conferences attendees ask me what I think the platform will have in the future. I’m terrible at predicting things, but here’s a compilation of my latest wishlist, some of which are things we will actually get in the future.
Enhanced targeting based on user actions
Facebook has really started to step it up here in the past year, with the ability to target users based on video watch times, time on site, and a few others. One of those additions has been the ability to create a bucket of users who have interacted with your Facebook page:
Once you click there, you get these options – the one for FB Page is the one you want:
There’s one subset in particular I’m most interested in, and it’s the one tied to Facebook Page. The two things I see huge potential for in here:
This opens up a lot of possibilities to get more granular data tied to these things, such as:
- Targeted based on reaction type or engagement type – This means they commented, liked, or did one of the other reactions on the post/ad. How great would it be if you could specifically create an audience for people who liked or loved a post/ad? Or even with those who did a negative reaction, the ability to create them as a negative audience for remarketing would be fabulous.
- Specify the post/ad that they engaged with – Right now you can only select one of these options, and it would apply to all content. But if I’m running different kinds of content for different offerings, I want to follow up with messaging specific to what they interacted with. We already have this ability in choosing to remarket to users who watched a certain portion of video, where we can choose the specific video…so let’s extend it to other types of content!
More Powerful Editor
For all its drawbacks, the Google AdWords Editor has a lot of PPC folks spoiled. The ability to quickly scale and build out in a fast and responsive interface is a huge time saver. The best Facebook has to offer is Power Editor, and there is very little in it that qualifies as “powerful.” It’s buggy, it has limited functionality, it can be clunky…an offline drag and drop ability would light my world on fire.
Find and Replace for URL Parameters Field
While I appreciate the Find and Replace option Power Editor has, it only does it for certain fields, which can get really annoying.
For example, I have a client that uses a custom attribution model in Analytics, so the utm codes are life. What Facebook says doesn’t mean anything. So errrrrrything has to be utm tagged by campaign, ad set, creative name, etc. They spend a considerable amount of money every month, so when a new creative launches, it means creating an ad, putting it in a bunch of other ad sets…and then manually. updating. every. URL parameter. field.
Yes, it sucks. Yes, it takes awhile.
Speaking of Duplicating Ads…
Let’s talk about the limitation that drives me crazy here/
First, I am THRILLED they added the ability to duplicate a creative into multiple ad sets:
What I don’t like is that you can only duplicate to ad sets in a single campaign at a time. If I want to duplicate to multiple campaigns, it becomes a longer process. Fix dis, plz.
Amp Up the Split Testing Feature
I wrote about the FB Ads Split Testing feature already, so I won’t belabor the same points all over again except to say they’re all still valid.
I’m also still nerd rage-y that it has to run with a defined date and budget. When I identify the winner in the split test, why can’t I just continue to run it ongoing? So silly. And you know that if I try and duplicate those results as a normal campaign again they’ll be totally different because: Facebook Algorithm.
This Won’t Be the Last List
To their credit, Facebook evolves at the speed of light, and I’m more happy than not with their features. These are just the ones that I find myself saying I wish they had at LEAST once a week.
I’m sure I’m forgetting some things – what are your “I wish they hads”?