Nobody really talks about the Facebook relevance score, but it’s one of the metrics that you should be paying attention to if you want better ads on the platform.
What do you mean by better ads?
We’re talking about dropping your costs and increasing the number of people we show ads to.
Now, doesn’t that sound like every growth hacker’s dream?
It sure is.
In this guide, we take a look at what you can do to improve your Facebook relevance score, what are the implications of a better score, and how this will all come together in the long run.
What is the Facebook Relevance Score?
The Relevance Score on Facebook is how the platform rates the quality of the ads that you’re putting out on it.
The higher the score, the better the perceived quality according to the algorithm.
Sounds simple right?
It is, to be honest, but with all things digital marketing, it always helps if you can better understand it.
The goal of the Facebook Relevance Score is to make sure that you have a gauge of your ad’s quality.
Does it always work?
Well, it depends on who you ask. However, you need to know that you’ve got to pay attention to it since it’s an “in-house” metric.
The score is on a Likert scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, and the aim is to get better scores with the ads that you put out.
How do they work?
Simple.
Facebook determines the score by how it expects your ad to perform based on negative or positive feedback from your audience.
If they hide your ad, that’s negative feedback, if they have a high propensity of converting that’s considered positive.
Why Is It Important?
Better scores don’t just mean lower costs when it comes to reaching people, it also can also help you assess campaigns that are already currently running.
You can literally use the score during your testing to figure out which campaigns have a better chance of making a difference.
And, that’s saying a lot.
Here’s the thing.
These metrics are from Facebook themselves so that means you get to know how the platform itself rates your chances of doing great.
Understand Your Ideal Customer Profile
The first thing that you have to do is to take a look at your ideal customer profile.
We cannot stress this enough in any campaign that you’re doing.
The foundation of growth hacking is to understand who your customer is.
- Who are they?
- When are they easiest to contact?
- What kind of things are they into?
- Where do they hang around online?
- Why would they be interested in your offer?
Mind you, this is an oversimplification of the process and there’s a lot more than you have to ask yourself when building an ideal customer profile/persona. (Plus the fact that you’re likely to have more than one type of customer.)
Once you answer these questions, only then can you answer, “how do I convert them?”
This type of foundation-setting is integral in growth marketing and without going through this step, you will not be able to create content that will resonate with them.
If you want to increase your Facebook relevance score, you need to make sure you know who your customers are.
A/B Testing Your Ads is Crucial
One of the best ways to improve not only your Facebook relevance scores, but all of the ads that you have running, is to run A/B tests before you invest your entire ad budget on a particular campaign.
Here’s why it works.
A/B testing allows you to verify your hypotheses.
Think about social media ad campaigns as part art and science.
The art is knowing how your customer will respond and the types of content you’ll put out that might resonate with them, but the science is getting to test if these types of content work.
Enter A/B testing.
A/B Testing Your Audience
Split testing can involve your audience.
This is either done by checking if your ideal customer profile actually is on and responds to your ads on Facebook or adding variations to your demographics a little by little to check if this makes your ads more engaging.
Even though this takes a lot of time, it saves you a lot of money in the long run, and it allows you better understand your audience demographics on a more granular level.
For example, do certain prospects from a particular geographical locale respond better to ads if they are more likely to be interested in a certain subject.
These little differences might seem painstakingly hard to understand, but they are key to getting you one step closer to better ads on the platform.
A/B Testing Your Ads
Since you’re done with your audience, it’s time to take a look at your ads themselves.
Now, a lot of people might do these two things, either an A/B test for two very different campaigns or an A/B test for more minute differences.
Want to know how growth hackers A/B test?
We try to do it with as many factors as possible.
Copy, images, videos, etc. all have to be tested. It’s just after that initial round of testing can you A/B test for more subtle differences.
Keep Trying
Just because your Facebook relevance score isn’t increasing as much as you would want it to doesn’t mean you stop trying.
You can always keep experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t.
That’s the essence of growth hacking.
Takeaways on Facebook Relevance Scores
At the end of the day, it’s not the only score that matters.
But, that doesn’t mean you should disregard it.
There’s a reason Facebook put it there and that’s because it can do wonders for your campaigns.
It’s still one of their in-house barometers of what works and what doesn’t, and paying attention to it does help a lot.
If you can’t get it to the level that you want it to be, that’s perfectly fine.
You just have to keep trying.
