Facebook Ad Conversion Rates Best For Consumer Goods Industry

April 6, 2012

experian-facebook-ad-conversion-rate-by-industry-april2012.jpgIn 2011, Facebook advertising performance was best for consumer goods and retail industry campaigns, with conversion rates of 58% and 49% respectively, finds Experian Marketing Services [download page] in an April 2012 report. Dating (45%) and media (43%) campaigns followed relatively closely, ahead of travel (40%) and entertainment (38%), with automotive faring worst, at an 18% conversion rate.

The US had the highest conversion rates, at 52%, followed by Spain at 50% and Germany at 46%.

Ads Drive Traffic to Websites

The study finds that there is measurable value in Facebook advertising for marketers wishing to acquire fans, engage fans, and drive traffic from the social network to the company’s website. Experian insight suggests that in fact, for companies that have focused on traffic as a goal, Facebook advertising can be a significant source of high-value traffic. Using one media company as an example, the study reports that the company realized a 37% increase in website traffic once customers became a fan of their Facebook page, while the frequency of visits to their website by these fans rose by 7%. Indeed, the company’s Facebook fans were 5 times more likely to visit their website than non-fans, and accounted for 18.5 visits per year.

According to a Social Fresh report released in April, the most common reason for running Facebook ads is awareness (61%), ahead of audience growth (53%) and conversion (44%).

Entertainment Gets 21% Share of Downstream Traffic

Looking at industries visited after social networking and forums during December 2011, Experian finds that the entertainment industry held 20.95% share of total downstream traffic, ahead of social networking and forums (18.57%) and search engines (14.94%). The shopping and classifieds (8.43%), email services (5.82%), and news and media (5.29%) industries also received a significant proportion of downstream traffic that month.

Other Findings:

  • Pinterest received nearly 21.5 million total visits during the week ending January 28, 2012, almost 30 times higher than the number of total visits just 6 months earlier, for the week ending July 30, 2011. It is now the third most-popular US social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter. According to a PriceGrabber survey of online shopping consumers released in April, though, Facebook and Twitter probably will not be challenged any time soon, as they appear to be more popular than Pinterest even among Pinterest account holders. Among Pinterest members who also have a Facebook and/or Twitter account, 77% said they do not login to Pinterest more than Facebook and/or Twitter. The survey found that overall, 10% of online shopping consumers reported having a Pinterest account.
  • According to the Experian report, visitors to Pinterest in the 12 rolling weeks ending January 28, 2012 skewed female (60%) and between the ages of 25-44 (55%).
  • When compared to the entire social networking category, Pinterest over-indexes on share of visits from states in the Midwest, Northwest, and Southeast, including Missouri (4.1% vs. 1.9%), Utah (3.4% vs. 1.1%), Alabama (3.2% vs. 1.5%), and Oklahoma (2.9% vs. 1.2%).

About the Data: The PriceGrabber results are based on a survey of 4,851 US online shopping consumers conducted March 13-26, 2012.

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