The Q2 Social Intelligence Report from Adobe shows that more people are clicking on Facebook ads despite their falling reach. The increased effectiveness can be chalked up to Facebook’s targeted ad system getting more and more accurate.
The latest data show Facebook ad impressions have fallen 47 percent year-over-year.
As Adweek explains, the numbers comparing YouTube and Facebook are significant. While 51 percent of the people Adobe surveyed said they found Facebook’s ads to be of “genuine interest,” only 17 percent answered the same way about YouTube.
Though cost-per-click is around the same as it was last year, clickthrough rate (CTR) on the Mark Zuckerberg’s social network has skyrocketed. Report data shows Facebook’s CTR is up 99 percent over the same period last year, while Google’s is up 24 percent.
Data shows that of the four types of posts on Facebook — video, image, link and text — image is the clear winner, with a 3.6 percent interaction rate in Q2 2015. While the 1.7 percent interaction rate for a link may seem low, it’s actually up 20 percent over Q2 2014.
Numbers also show that more and more people are accessing social channels via their smartphones over desktop devices. Sites have enjoyed three times more referrals from smartphones this past quarter, and data shows that YouTube users are more likely to access the site on a desktop device.
Facebook’s ad dominance may get even bigger thanks to a recent change it made to its ad system. Last week, the company announced advertisers who buy on a cost-per-click basis will no longer have to pay every time a user likes, comments on or shares the post. Advertisers only pay when users actually click on their ad.
Though that will likely mean a higher cost-per-click, it will also mean a better return on investment.
While the ads may be getting more effective at generating interest, it may also come at the cost of making some users feel uncomfortable with their specificity. Adobe’s survey also asked users if they think targeted ads are too much — 25 percent of regular users said yes, and 43 percent of occasional users said the same.
The report also found that Google’s much-discussed change of its algorithm, which favours mobile-friendly sites, has had a noticeable impact. Those without a responsive mobile site have seen traffic numbers drop 10 percent on a year-over-year basis.
