What Are Facebook Ad Space Units?
Ad Space Units (ASUs) are Facebook’s on-site advertising, one example of a wave of new
advertising types that live at the crossroads of earned and paid media. These ads appear
on the right rail of Facebook’s user interface and consist of a headline link, description text and
graphic or logo. ASUs are served in up to three available positions under the “Sponsored”
header on the right side of Facebook’s pages. The only page these ads don’t appear on is the
initial login screen.
How Do ASUs Work?
The ads can be purchased on a CPM or CPC basis, with a minimum campaign budget of one dollar per day. CPCs are incurred with clicks on the title, image body, and if you choose the fan/event ad options, CPCs are incurred with clicks on the “Like” link and “Yes” and “Maybe” RSVP links.
The advantage of using the CPC model is obvious: you only pay when an interested party clicks through your ad making it a more efficient use of advertising dollars. However there are some cases when a CPM ad might be preferable, especially when the goal is to drive new Fan Page Likes.
To increase the relevancy of the ASUs, Facebook dynamically targets the user based on public profile information, status updates and wall postings.
Best results for both types of ASU come from clear, compelling calls to action in ad copy. Evidence shows that this is magnified by the quality of interactions on the brand’s own Facebook page, which drives up the likelihood of the ad being seen as well as Liked.
Other targeting options include: location, age (by default Facebook targets users 18 and older), gender, education, workplace, relationship status, relationship interests, and language. A form of keyword targeting called Likes and Interests can also be used based on user’s public information and profile updates, as well as information from similar users.
Facebook does not currently guarantee clicks or impressions on CPC ads, and traffic volume estimates are not available via its CPC only self-serve advertising platform. They are, however, available on deals directly negotiated through Facebook representatives. Dedicated account support is limited to brands that spend a minimum of $50,000 a month.
Performance reporting will be handled through the Facebook UI, and provides data on impressions, clicks, and CTR. Currently, Facebook is developing scheduled reports which will be e-mailed to participating advertisers. Additionally, if you choose to direct users to a fan or events page, Facebook provides a breakdown of your fans’ actions.
Why a brand should consider ASUs
Facebook currently has an estimated 400 million plus users and continues to grow. The level of on-page engagement is greater than that of most sites and users tend to spend more time per session on average than on sites like Google.
With proper ad copy and coupled with a well-managed and optimized Fan Page, Facebook ads can deliver results far above typical digital ad units such as standard and even contextual display ads. While the results may still lag behind search advertising on click frequency, when properly targeted and deployed they can be significant response drivers.
Recommendations
While Facebook does offer self-service advertising, the enhanced metrics and flexibility of what is offered to agencies on a direct buy suggests that most brands should use this approach for any serious campaign. In addition, agencies such as Reprise which have cross-agency expertise in both social media and CPC advertising are ideally suited to handle keyword-based targeting and research, call to action messaging, culling insights from front and back end data, and the interplay between earned and paid media that this type of advertising thrives on.
