Breaking Bad Facebook Ads & Targeted Fans

At first glance, the right-column ad seem to have performed better with a much higher volume of impressions and clicks. However, one needs to take note that the right-column ad also showed the ad multiple times to the same user in addition to “social impressions” which highlighted the user’s friends’ relevant activities, which may explain the overall higher impressions and clicks. In comparison, the newsfeed ad showed only once to each user, which was perhaps Facebook’s way to minimize disruption in the user’s experience, naturally translating into lower impressions. However, the higher visibility did generate a higher CTR than the right column ad’s. As the right column ads were not as visible in the user’s line of vision, they were easily ignored and surpassed, as illustrated in their comparatively low CTR and Link Clicks. It is also worthwhile to note that the Newsfeed ad managed to achieve a higher CTR and lower cost per click while spending less than one-fiftieth of the right column ad’s ad spend. Moving on to the scope of target parameters, we will compare three right-column ads that targeted users that liked either #Breaking Bad, #Jesse Pinkman, or was a “die-hard fan” that liked any Breaking Bad subject (heisenberg, #Saul Goodman, #Jesse Pinkman, #Walter White (Breaking Bad), #Skyler White, #Hank Schrader or #Gus Fring).   As seen above, the ads targeted to those that already liked #Breaking Bad had the highest ad reach but the lowest CTR, which was unsurprising as it was the broadest category and did not cater to the users specifically enough. On the contrary, the ad reach for the specific category of #Jesse Pinkman was the lowest, and it generated the highest CTR. The die-hard fan segment fell in the middle as it bundled all fans who liked any character hashtag of the series. In terms of cost-effectiveness, employing a precision targeting campaign like #Jesse Pinkman was preferable over others, as seen in the table below: