User Experience Archives

Use These Success Metrics for Facebook Ads

People can accuse Facebook of so many things (like election interference or housing discrimination), but you can’t say the platform doesn’t provide advertisers enough data. In fact, the metrics Facebook provides is so overwhelming that figuring out what to pay attention to is the hard part. AdEspresso has long been my go-to for all things related to Facebook Ads. According to their updated guide for 2020, there are a few key metrics to keep an eye on: cost-per-result (CPR), ad impressions, click-through-rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), conversion rates, and costs per conversion (CPC). A key takeaway here is to “track impressions to make sure that customers who see your ad do something about it. Otherwise, the ad isn’t effective.”

Choosing Your Cookies

Recently, I was teaching a class about Google Analytics and someone asked about those opt-in to cookies messages. Exactly what percentage of people accept/decline them? Well, here’s the research on that. It’s less about how many people accept/deny the consent notices and more about whether a majority of those “notices” are even GDPR-compliant. The data here suggests they’re not.

Bee Measure is proud to be based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Much has already been said about the events of last weekend, so I debated whether to add my voice in the mix. Then on Wednesday, a friend and I took a walk to see the impromptu memorial of flowers, candles, writing and gifts that mourners assembled at the scene of the crash. I wanted to share the photo my friend took. The image says a lot about the mix of sadness, apprehension and determination we all feel this week. As nonprofits (and nonprofit supporters), we do great work. And we will persevere.
– Emily (from Bee Measure)

What’s New This Week?

Who’s on First, Oops, Facebook?
Business Insider published a new report about the demographics of our fav social media platforms. Here are the free takeaways. And here’s my summary: Snapchat is getting older, LinkedIn is richer and everyone’s on Facebook.

Gender Positive Does Better, Swears Facebook
I’m not sure how much faith I put in research done by Facebook about Facebook to promote Facebook advertising, but I still am heartened by its study of gender in advertising. For an industry that loves to use images like this, it’s good to have stats that ads promoting equality pay off.

Pittsburgh, Not Paris
I love a good case study, so here’s Pittsburgh’s Chief Data Officer talking about how the city built an open data site that displays 311 calls and police blotter data. And the name is a pun too. Gotta love it!

The Protest in IP Addresses
It’s been a while since I’ve covered data privacy issues related to the Trump administration. But it’s back. In the winter, anti-Trump protestors used the site DisruptJ20.org to organize Inauguration Day protests. Then, the Justice Department issued a request for 1.3 million IP addresses to identify site visitors. Now, the site’s hosting company is resisting.

Advice of the Week

End Web Form Intimidation
Your site probably has a form, or two, or 10. Mine has several, and it only has a dozen pages. I love the content from MarketingExperiments.com, and this video on optimizing website forms provides solid advice. (Just ignore the annoying ads.)

Cool Visualization of the Week

86% Eclipsed
Let’s end this on a fun note. Nothing is currently bringing the US together quite like the solar eclipse. So here’s Vox’s fun, interactive graphic to show you what the eclipse will look like in your zip code. Why can’t you be closer to totality, Charlottesville!