Benchmarking Facebook campaigns : Blugrapes

To date, Facebook marketing campaigns across the ASEAN region have delivered five billion impressions, 2.4 million users' clicks and more than 700,000 trackable leads or number of times a user clicks 'Like'.

According to the study, Facebook marketing campaigns deployed in the ASEAN region, have on average a 0.04 per cent click through rate (dividing clicks by impressions) and a 33 per cent lead conversion rate across 15 consumer marketing industries. 

Although the 0.04 per cent click through rate is lower than the average for online display ads (0.2 per cent), the conversion rate of 33 per cent is much higher than the average for typical online advertisements at 2 to 3 per cent. Blugrapes attributes the lower click through rate to the fact that Facebook ads are designed to be less intrusive and therefore only deliver clicks from users who are genuinely interested. 

As for performance indicators across industries, entertainment leads the charge with a click through rate of 0.09 per cent, followed by F&B (0.08 per cent), travel (0.07 per cent) and beauty (0.05 per cent).

"Social media marketing campaigns within these service-oriented industries typically involved compelling content and were often filled with time-sensitive tactical promotions. These strategies attract and engage users better and have an immediate call to action," stated the report.

As for performance indicators across countries, Indonesia (0.08 per cent), the Philippines (0.08 per cent) and India (0.07 per cent) returned the highest click through rates. The countries with the highest lead conversion rates were Malaysia (47.5 per cent), Indonesia (41.7 per cent) and the Philippines (40.2 per cent). 

In the absence of standardised ROI measures for social media campaigns, Blugrapes offers the following tips for marketers:

• Optimise advertisements on a daily basis to ensure good click through rates
• Ensure consistency of copy, image and destination to reflect consumer relevancy
• Focus on consumer value through compelling content and clear call to action will ensure high click through and lead conversion rates

Blugrapes is a performance-driven marketing company focusing on social media marketing, mobile marketing, media tracking and integrated digital marketing solutions.The study is based on social media campaigns conducted by Blugrapes from 2009 to early 2011, and includes work for Coca-Cola, Dulux, Friso and Toshiba Notebook Computers.