Facebook's App Event Optimization proves beneficial for e-commerce players

The holiday season is here, and businesses on Facebook are much more happier than we are, as the social media giant’s App Event Optimization feature has taken off spectacularly.

Introduced in July to drive more sales through apps, by using Facebook’s vast network of data and improved, tailored targeting of consumers who are most likely to purchase a product.

You may have noticed products that you browsed through, or added to your cart, but did not purchase, following you to Facebook in the form of ads. That’s Facebook’s Dynamic Ads feature which captures signals to promote specific products to users, encouraging them to take action.

As Facebook states, more than 40% of purchases during the holidays are made through mobile devices; apps to be precise.

App Event Optimization was created keeping this in mind, to eliminate wasted efforts and revenue, advertising products to people who have no relevance to them.

It uses Facebook’s compiled database of user behaviour from Facebook’s core platform, Instagram and the Audience Network, to understand who wants what and will actually click buy.

Months after it was launched, App Event Optimization has delivered the results it promised, with homegrown online marketplace, Snapdeal experiencing significant success by leveraging Dynamic Ads.

“Snapdeal has a wide variety of products. By using dynamic ads, we have the flexibility to appeal to a diverse set of customers by showing specific products to the people who have demonstrated interest in them. By showing relevant content, we've seen an increase in repeat transactions in the app, and seen a 6-8X return on ad spend. Dynamic ads and mobile app remarketing with Facebook is an important part of our mobile app strategy, " said Mayank Jain, Head of Growth at Snapdeal.

Internationally, Jet.com, a new entrant into the e-commerce business also used Dynamic Ads to re-market products to consumers who browsed products on their website but did not make a purchase.

"Dynamic ads allow us to automatically show highly relevant creative to people who have demonstrated intent while using our app. As a result, dynamic ads have been an extremely effective native acquisition tool, increasing CTR by 63% and decreasing CPA by 56% in our Facebook app campaigns,” said Lauren Picasso, Associate Director of Marketing at Jet.com

Another beneficiary of Dynamic Ads have been US based social video game service provider, Zynga, who have developed games for Facebook, Google+ and mobile phone platforms iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Zynga re-engaged their lapsed players and nudged their active, albeit non-paying users to make purchases. The company witnessed a 6.3x increase in total return on ad spend among seven day active non-payers, and a 19.3x increase in total return on ad spend among seven day lapsed players by advertising across Facebook, Instagram and the Audience Network.

Within months of introduction, App Event Optimization and Dynamic Ads have delivered astonishing results at minimal costs, and could be adopted by more and more businesses in the coming months.