Always on campaigns in your dynamic product ads

February 14, 2021

Always-on campaigns (i.e. campaigns that run all the time) can create fantastic results in addition to your ongoing campaigns on Facebook.

In general but especially for your dynamic product ads.

 

Imagine if your advertising managed itself and directed customers to your store while you sit back and have a coffee (or drink, depending on the time of day)? And what if you didn't have to invent and create new campaigns in an endless stream constantly?

 

That, in fact, is the goal of this post—to inspire you towards a campaign setup that creates better results for your Facebook advertising because you let Facebook's algorithm work for you (for longer).

At the same time, it frees up more time in your work day, where you can then pick a little extra about your campaign peaks.

 

Sounds too good to be true, yeah. But it really doesn’t have to be.

 

Below you will find inspiration for how your always-on advertising and your ongoing campaign peaks play each other well and play elegantly together. Kind of like if Messi and Ronaldo were on the same team.

 

We start with ongoing campaigns.

 

All webshops run campaigns - some just get significantly more out of them

Every eCommerce store works with campaigns that are a combination of offer periods, new products, seasons, holidays, or something else.

 

Unlike always-on advertising, these are campaigns that:

  • Require a limited period

  • Must help generate revenue or attention here and now

  • The target group has to notice them in their feed, which is why something extra is often made of them—either in relation to creatives, message, or products

Always-on advertising doesn’t work under the same kinds of constrictions.

Campaign example: Attire A advertises its new autumn collection

Imagine you sell clothes via your webshop (maybe you don’t even have to imagine). Let's call them Attire A.

 

When it comes to generating revenue in the clothing industry, seasonal changes are especially important. A new season creates a good reason to switch out the wardrobe. This is also the case for Attire A's customers.

 

In the autumn, Attire A received a lot of new styles at their door, which you have to highlight in a new campaign along with a video where the clothes are displayed in beautiful autumn surroundings and situations. The video is relatively expensive to produce and is only to be used for this particular time-limited campaign peak.

 

What you could do, then, is create a separate product set for the autumn products,  which you then turn into a series of collection ads.

You can even use the video as a cover video to help grab the viewer’s attention while the products are being presented below with price and description.

 

In fact, as a result of this, a ROAS of 6 isn’t entirely unheard of. Because really, Attire A is based on an actual case.

And there’s more.

 

Boost your seasonal campaigns with always-on retargeting

In the months leading up to Attire A’s autumn campaign, they ran an always-on campaign with more generic retargeting, which ended up generating thousands of sales for a ROAS of 10.

But there’s even more, which we’ll get into momentarily. First, let’s take a closer look at the always-on mindset.

Always-on with retargeting in focus

Always-on can work across the entire customer journey, but there is a certain type of campaign that is typically prioritized:

Always-on retargeting.

 

By retargeting we mean campaigns with targeted ads:

  • People who have looked at products but not put in basket

  • Persons who have placed products in the basket but not purchased

  • Persons who have purchased products and who would potentially purchase more

These audiences are dynamic and are based on the behavior of users on the site—and thus the ads also become dynamic.

 

And they run non-stop. Over seasons, promotions, and holidays. Hence always-on.

 

But for the ads to work properly and ‘always-on’, text and creatives must (preferably) be made adequately generic so that it can be used across seasons, categories, and products.

 

In return, they must be adapted to the individual retargeting stages, so that the text is always relevant to the target group, whether they have bought a product, looked at a product, or put a product in the basket.

 

Back to Atttire A - How did they achieve a ROAS of 10?

Their always-on retargeting was set up with generic texts several months before their fall campaign was to be activated. And to the three aforementioned retargeting audiences.

 

Over that period, Facebook's algorithm had been given the freedom to grow wiser about audiences, products, and performance—without any human interference or tossing the ads back into the learning phase.

 

Before the fall campaign peak, performance for the always-on campaign was good. 

When the autumn campaign was activated, it generated extra attention and thus extra traffic to the webshop—traffic and attention that the retargeting ads picked up and converted into sales.

 

Over the following few months, this led to 19% more sales, 33\% lower price per conversion, and 54% higher ROAS compared to the period within the retargeting ads alone.

 

Just by letting the algorithm do its work.

3 considerations for your always-on retargeting

There are, as with anything else, many things to consider, but if you start with these three, you’re off to a great start.

  1. How long is the customer journey typically for your customers? Use this knowledge to decide how far back you need to set your retargeting audiences. 2 days, 5 days, 30 days, 180 days? 

  2. What is the repurchase rate among your customers? This has an impact on how relevant a cross-selling campaign is and which products should be highlighted in that case.

  3. When is ROAS too low? While always-on is meant to fit and optimize itself, you should always keep an eye on the development of your campaign. The algorithm can only take you so far. Set goals for your always-on advertising, set up automatic rules on Facebook, and get a notification if developments go the wrong way. 

Reap the benefits of a never-off sales engine

This doesn’t mean that you, we, and everyone working at Facebook have become redundant. On the contrary.

As mentioned, while the algorithm can do a lot of great things, it is also severely limited in many other areas.

The goal is make the most out of as little as possible. In other words, your job is to:

  • create a better and more relevant experience for users, since they are more likely to encounter ads tailored to their stage of the customer journey.

  • get better results from your ads, since the algorithm is given the freedom to optimize and do its job.

  • dedicate more time to analyzing campaign peaks and other tasks, because your always-on campaigns are as self-sufficient as they are.

Because the always-on mindset can work across the entire customer funnel, it can also work across goals.

Whether you create leads through lead ads, awareness through video ads, or sales through dynamic product ads, always-on campaigns can act as an engine that never slows down.

A never-off engine that ensures results both during and outside campaign peaks—even when you are busy with other tasks.