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Ideas & Innovation

Relevance Score in Facebook Ads – What is it and How to Improve it

Relevance Score in Facebook Ads – What is it and How to Improve it
Sep. 26,
2017

Have you ever looked at your Ad Set and wondered why some of the ads have performed better over the others? While marketers look for many things in their Campaigns to diagnose a prevalent problem, the relevance Score gets ignored.

As marketers, we need to remember that relevance determines the cost of distribution of ads. The ignorance of marketers in finding and understanding this key metrics can partially be blamed on Facebook too. While Google Adwords places relevance (quality) at the center of their campaign structure, you must dig around a bit to find “Relevance Score” on Facebook.

Please remember that Facebook’s relevance score is akin to Google Adwords’ Quality Score. If you’re a fan of Adwords Quality Score, you need to dig deeper to find and optimize your Facebook Ads’ Relevance Score too. It may make your ads pop more and achieve better Click-Thru rates or better engagement; whatever your objective.

What is Facebook Ads’ Relevance Score and Where to Find It?

The Relevance Score is a measure of the quality and engagement of your ads. Please remember I am saying Ads and not Ad Sets or Campaigns. This means, the Relevance Score is calculated by the base unit of your Facebook Account Structure and that is the Ad. Remember that the base unit in Adwords is the keyword.

Facebook Relevance Score can take a value from 1-10. With one being the lowest and ten being the highest (of course captain obvious!). A relevance score above 8 is great to have, and you need to monitor it continuously. Relevance score on Facebook is a moving target, and it is updated daily.

To find your Ads relevance score, go to Ads Manager>Ads tab. Open the Columns drop-down and under Columns >> Customize Columns >> select Relevance Score. You should also look at the two columns just below Relevance Score that say: Positive Feedback and Negative Feedback. These two columns tell you how your customers are interacting with your ads.

OK, I know what Facebook Relevance is, but how does Facebook calculate it?

Facebook calculates the Relevance score for an ad based on the interaction with the audience. If your audience takes more positive action on your ads such as commenting, sharing, or Liking your content, you get more Positive Feedback. It also pertains to the conversions, and the link clicks on your traffic campaigns. However, Facebook has intentionally kept the “secret sauce” hidden.

However, if your Audience reports your Ads to Facebook or hides them in their newsfeed, Facebook counts this as negative feedback.

Facebook mentions relevancy score to be measuring the “expected” outcome. This means that Facebook learns from the interaction, gathers Positive and negative feedback data and then updates the relevancy Score based on this data. This makes sense too, as Facebook shows Relevancy Score only after 500 impressions a day. Also, important to note is the fact that Relevancy score can be updated daily.

If you’re struggling with a weak Facebook relevance score, you need to work on your Audience targeting. You can do this by matching your audience more closely to your ad creative and using Interest, Demographic, and Behavior targeting. You also may need a clearer and creative ad copy that communicates with your target audience in a better way.

If you are observing your ads’ Relevance Score go south, it may be the time for you to create a new ad or refresh your audience. A tactic that seems to have worked the best for me is the Lookalike Audience targeting. What I mean is that when the ad performance starts dipping and Relevancy Score proves it, I stop that Ad Set and create another ad set that targets the LookAlike audience of the initial Custom Audience or Saved Audience that I used in the first ad set.

Are There Any Cases Where Relevance Score Does Not Matter?

  1. If you’re running ads that you bought using the Reach and Frequency buying type, Relevance Score will not matter.
  2. If you buy the Ad using Auction type but are optimizing it for the Reach objective, the Relevance Score will not matter.
  3. If you Choose Daily Unique Reach or Impressions under Optimization for Ad Delivery, Relevance Score will not matter.
  4. If you run a Local Campaign, Facebook will show it to as many people as possible in the radius you selected, and again, Relevance Score will not matter.

The above points prove that Relevancy score is important, but that is only for campaigns where you want users to take action such as Link Click or Conversion. If your objective it to Reach out to the maximum number of people in an Audience, Facebook will show your ad to the highest number of people without worrying about the Quality. That is why Reach and Frequency buying type is so important for brand marketers who do not want to depend on the Facebook algorithm to determine who sees their ad.

In the real Facebook advertising world, does great Relevance Score get you a lower CPC and a higher CTR or is it the other way around? From my own experience, it seems like whenever I deploy great ad creatives with laser-sharp targeting and a great audience focus, the cost of lead acquisition goes spiraling down. Even the Relevance Score shows 8/9/10 in those cases. What have you discovered? Share your experience us here. Contact Cibirix if you have any questions about your business’ marketing needs.

About Author

Prashant Yadu

Prashant Yadu

SEO/SMO Analyst

Prashant Yadu is a Social Media Analyst at Cibirix, and he’s now been part of our team for over five years. His particular area of focus for us revolves around Facebook advertising. With the help of his analytical skills and creative ideas, Prashant has helped to generate some remarkable results for our marketing clients. Before diving deeper into social media marketing, Prashant’s work focused on search engine optimization, where he handled both On-Page & Off-Page SEO for business clients. When he’s not hard at work, Prashant enjoys watching movies, listening to music, and hanging out with friends/family.

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