Improve the relevance score of Facebook Ads: checklist!

Your Facebook Ads campaign is running. As a gauge, Facebook shows the relevance score per advertisement: a score from 1 to 10 that indicates how your target group responds to your advertisement. Interaction increases your relevance score, and a lower relevance score means lower costs per interaction. So. How do you increase that relevance score?

What is the Facebook relevance score?

The relevance score is a gauge: Facebook does nothing else based on this number. The score is displayed in ad management per ad after your ad has been shown more than 500 times. The interaction with your advertisement changes, so your relevance score also changes. Daily. Do you not yet see relevance score in your Facebook Ads ads and do you have 500 views? Just you set columns.

Relevance
As with everything on Facebook, it's all about relevance. This makes everyone happy: Facebook because everyone stays on Facebook longer, you as an advertiser because your budget generates more, and Facebook users because they see more sensible ads on Facebook that better match their experience.

What lowers your Facebook ads relevance score?

Duh. When your ad is not relevant. Facebook uses the following signals for this:

• When someone clicks on 'I don't want to see this'in your Facebook page ad. (with target group: people who follow my page)
• When someone clicks on 'hide ad " in your ad focused on target audience selection.
• When Facebook expected that people will hide your ad. That expectation is based on the above two points and a low amount of interaction.
• Very little interaction: so few clicks, conversions, sharing, likes and comments. Facebook measures the time that a Facebook post is viewed, so that will also play a role.
• A low interaction follows from it not properly addressing your chosen target group: wrong tone of voice, image that does not cause 'scroll stopping', wrong arguments or call to action. In short: just a stupid advertisement.

What should I do with a low relevance score?

Facebook does not do anything with ads with guaranteed delivery, such as for reach and frequency. It does, however, have a small impact on the costs and delivery of brand awareness campaigns: those are optimized for reaching people, not for inciting a specific promotion.

You don't have to do anything with it. But that is not so wise. Because. Your relevance score is a signal: How well are your ads doing? How much does your budget provide in proportion? A low relevance score is an ass kick to improve your relevance. So…! How do you do that?

Improve Facebook Ads Relevance Score

A low relevance score means a mismatch between your target group and your advertisement. Improve the two!

Target group options

Make your target group more specific. A large target group is nice and big, but too general. Go filtering. Focus on a specific location (especially if you have a physical store such as a butcher or hairdresser), age, gender, interests and specific behavior. You can also use the Facebook pixel to compile a target group of people who have visited your website, or who actually did a conversion on your website. Read my article for this: create target groups in Facebook Ads.

Advertisement with stopping power

Take on the role of your target group. How does your ad appear? First focus on the image.

Remember that 70 percent of all Facebook use on an app takes place on a mobile. Your advertisement comes along in a fierce scrolling session: does it attract enough attention from your target group? Does it stop them to see what they see now? What emotion does your image evoke? What idea do you give them? Why would they pay attention to your paid message at all? Make your message simple. Bright. Clearly. And. Related to the product or what you are promoting.

Seduce with your text

Look at the text: the arguments you give to take action. Do they really apply to your target group? Are you connecting? Does it appeal to your target group on the experiences, challenges and issues they have? Avoid using misleading content. You might get the attention and the click, but that also has the opposite effect on Facebook: a bad experience leads to negative signals leads to a lower relevance score leads to poorer results for your budget.

Refresh

At a certain moment your target group will know your advertisement. Old news. It just becomes annoying. Cut that campaign. Even though it continues to work offline or elsewhere for a long time. Refresh. Don't you post the same message on Facebook every time and then promote it? Why do you do that with a Facebook Ads aimed at your website? It comes exactly the same. Get in touch with your inner butterfly and change your ad.

Interaction!

Ask a Question! For example about multiple images in your ad: which one do you like better? Or give something away for free via a download.

Keep testing to increase your relevance score

When you start a campaign, you actually don't know anything. Of course: you have an image of your target group, the kind of messages that have worked in the past, on Facebook and other channels, but you don't know how it will turn out. You just start. Real optimization only starts when you receive data about your advertisements, such as the relevance score. Therefore try out different advertisements and different target groups. Show ad A to target group X and Y, and show ad A and B to your target group X. This way you can see which ad fits better with which target group. See what the differences are between your ads. Between your target groups. And learn.

Yes. But. I don't understand.

Facebook does not always provide great service. That's why the disclaimers:

• Relevance score is one interpretation: it's not about this. It is about your business objectives. You choose Facebook Ads as the means to achieve it. The Facebook Ads relevance score shows how it works generally speaking works. Are you a supplier of, for example, trucks satisfied with that one sale per month? Then don't be distracted by the relevance score.
• Compared with Google Adwords and the Quality Score works differently: the QS x bid determines your position there. A better QS in Adwords immediately leads to lower costs. A better relevance score on Facebook only indicates that your ads are doing well. Facebook does rather: interaction x bid = position (probability of places).
• You are not selling on Facebook. You are responding to the interests of your target group with nice content. Your relevance score for your Facebook advertisement therefore tells you how well you are doing.
• Avoid offensive content. For your target group this can result in negative signals (hide message / hide everything from) that lower your relevance score. And when they click through but the landing page disappointing (clickbait: you never believe what happened then), Facebook sees that too. The time between the click and further Facebook behavior was then too short, and that also results in a lower relevance score.