Why 11 Facebook Business case studies showed great results

facebook business case studies
Millions of businesses, big and small, use the Facebook family of ad services and apps.

  • 4 million businesses advertise on Facebook
  • 75% of all brands on Facebook promote their posts
  • 50% growth in Facebook advertisers from 2015-2016 (source: DMR)

Facts show Facebook Business is big, fast growing and easy for businesses to access.
But, in a situation like this, there are always plenty of losers and winners.
Here are 11 Facebook Business case studies that showed great business results. What makes for success is each brand clearly established a business objective for their ad investment. See for yourself.

  1. ADDIDAS: Wanted to showcase its latest premium athletics Z.N.E Hoodie with a captivating video while also promoting related items. To advertise the collection, adidas uploaded its video creative and product catalog. The product images in the experience were automatically pulled from the product catalog. The ads also featured 4 complementary products beneath the video, such as sweatpants, shoes and accessories. Their campaign had a 43% decrease in cost per conversion and 5.3X return on ad spend.
  2. AIRBNB: Wanted to reach people with its “Live There” campaign—which pointed to Airbnb as an alternative to mass tourism. They developed a Facebook and Instagram campaign that would reach people where they spend a majority of their time: mobile News Feed. Ad creative highlighted the magical experiences that were made possible through Airbnb. For instance, one video showed people watching a sparkling Eiffel Tower from the balcony of their vacation rental, while ad text encouraged others to “Live Here.” Within four month, Airbnb had a: 1) 4-point lift in purchase intent in the UK and India, 2) 6-point lift in purchase intent in Germany and Australia and 3) 125 million people reached.
  3. BAKED NYC: Has one location in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan. The bakery is especially proud of its Oprah-endorsed brownies. Baked NYC wanted to broaden its customer base and encourage people to sign up for its email list. Baked NYC built videos around pre-ordering pies for Thanksgiving using only a $20 tripod, a $15 clamp lamp, a phone and a variety of apps to create stop-motion videos with animated text overlays. Baked NYC targeted baking fans to generate subscriptions to its email list. To reach people most likely to pre-order a pie, Baked NYC ran those ads to those living within a one-mile radius of both its locations.
    Baked NYC’s seasonal campaign, which began on November 9, 2016 and ran until Thanksgiving. It helped reach a local audience, drive qualified people to its website and increase sales of its Thanksgiving pies. It achieved: 1) 40% increase in pie sales, 2) 68% increase in leads and 3) 30% decrease in cost per lead
  4. GENERAL MOTORS ONSTAR: OnStar is a subsidiary of General Motors that provides subscription-based services for emergency, security, guidance, connectivity and vehicle management. The OnStar team wanted to increase sales of its 4G LTE Wi-Fi data plans among owners of General Motors vehicles that are OnStar-enabled. General Motors’ data to create a Custom Audience of people with OnStar-enabled vehicles and segmented them. OnStar also used a “Call Now” call-to-action button for the first time. It received hundreds of phone calls, further proving its ads resonated with GM owners. The advertising effort generated a 2.3% overall sales lift for OnStar’s 4G LTE Wi-Fi data plans and 7.2% sales lift among people who had never used a data plan.
  5. GOPUFF: Is an on-demand delivery service launched in Philadelphia in 2013. goPuff wanted to boost awareness of its app and increase downloads so that it could encourage more people to place an order through its on-demand service. goPuff examined its Audience Insights dashboard to determine the best audience to target with this campaign. The built a series of mobile app install ads, which direct people to the app store where they can immediately download the app. GoPuff drove more app downloads and sales, delivering a 35% increase in app installs, 30% decrease in cost per install and 35% decrease in cost per purchase after download.
  6. MICHAEL KORS: Is an American luxury fashion brand, known for its handbags, ready-to-wear and watches. The company has 780 locations worldwide. The fashion brand wanted to measure the impact that its Facebook ads had on its offline sales. Using link and carousel ads, the fashion brand drove traffic to its physical stores, and then used offline conversions to measure the impact its ads had there. The 4-day September 2016 campaign revealed:1) 33% increase in attributed return on ad spend, 2) 31% increase in attributed transactions and 3) 25% increase in attributed revenue.
  7. OREO’S: Used a business milestone to generate awareness and brand vitality. To celebrate its 100th birthday, Oreo produced 100 Facebook Posts in 100 days that turned trending news stories into “visual treats.”  Oreo garnered over 231 million media impressions from over 2,600 articles. They increased their Facebook fans by over a million and increased their Facebook engagement by 195%. They also increased their share rate by 280% with each post being shared an average of 1,472 times.
  8. PIXELBERRY STUDIOS: Is a gaming studio in Mountain View, California that develops socially-minded games for young people. Pixelberry Studios wanted to increase downloads of Choices among players around the world, particularly among people most likely to pay for additional features. Pixelberry Studios developed mobile app installed ads and optimized its ads for certain app events, including installs and purchases. Optimizing for app events ensures the ad is automatically targeted to the people most likely to take that action. They had a: 1) 2.2X increase in rate of acquiring payers with app event optimization (compared to traditional mobile app install ads), 2) 27% increase in return on ad spend with international targeting (compared to traditional single-country campaigns) and 3) 30% decrease in cost per paying player with international targeting (compared to traditional single-country campaigns).
  9. SHUTTERFLY: Is the market leader in digital personalized photo products and services. To increase sales at Shutterfly.com, the company wanted to provide a high-value offer—a free personalized white ceramic mug—to reach a specific demographic: moms with kids at home. Using Facebook Offers, Shutterfly could distribute a unique, single-use offer code to each person who clicked on its ad. The new Offers feature gave the company better control over how many people redeemed the offer. The 3-day campaign successfully reached Shutterfly’s target demographic and got them excited about the unique mug offer. The campaign also achieved over 16,000 offers saved, over 8,000 purchases and 11X return on ad spend.
  10. SMARTBUYGLASSES: Provides quality designer eyewear online. As an online-only retailer, SmartBuyGlasses continuously aims to grow its revenue. For this month-long campaign, it wanted to increase sales by at least 30%. SmartBuyGlasses decided to segment its ad placements after learning that product ads tended to be more successful in desktop News Feed, and that special offer images featuring people wearing its products were more effective on mobile. The campaign achieved 30% increase in sales, 2X increase in traffic and 35% increase in conversions, year over year.
  11. TREE HUT: Is a maker of hand-made watches, known for its one-of-a-kind, nature-inspired designs with personalized engravings, each handcrafted out of real wood. Tree Hut wanted to boost awareness of its handmade wooden watches and increase online sales by using the data available on its third-party ecommerce platform. Taking advantage of Facebook’s advanced targeting and measurement tools, the company used Shopify’s Facebook pixel integration to install the pixel on its website and advanced targeting to deliver personalized dynamic ads to the right audiences, increasing sales by 4.1X.

Do these Facebook Business case studies help you see how to to use Facebook advertising effectively? Do you need a partner to help your business on Facebook?

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