Social Media Case Studies: Instagram & Facebook Working in Tandem.

Can running Facebook and Instagram together really drive overall CPMs down while achieving better reach? And what’s the most effective way to use these two social platform giants to increase app engagement?

Thankfully our strong global partnership with Facebook has allowed us to get involved with two Australian beta tests.

Keep reading to uncover our strategies and results!

Facebook and Instagram beta test with Huggies

Background

Huggies’ range of nappies meets the needs for all mums. For this campaign, they wanted to reach every mum to share their latest initiative, the Nano Premmie Nappy – their tiniest nappy ever. We wanted to reach as many mums in the Australian market while being as efficient as possible, to ensure every mum had the opportunity to see the message.

While Facebook is a key channel in Huggies’ marketing strategy, Instagram had mainly been an organic, community building platform. Women aged 25-54 are one of the fastest growing age groups entering Instagram as active users but the perceived high Instagram costs compared to Facebook were a worry.

Hypothesis

The theory is that by selecting both Facebook and Instagram, the Facebook algorithm will increase cost-effectiveness.

As the server has more choice, over time it will pick whichever option is most cost-effective.

While usually this is Facebook (outlined in the orange rectangles below), sometimes Instagram ads are less expensive (as outlined in the purple rectangles).

Aqua represents the least expensive option as chosen by the server – but this had yet to be proven.

So we talked to the Facebook office in Sydney and together ran a split test to find out if Facebook and Instagram perform better together (higher reach at lower cost) than Facebook by itself.

The results

By running Facebook and Instagram simultaneously compared to Facebook only during the same period, we achieved:

• 10% more people reached
• 9% lower cost per reach

 
When compared to all 2017 Facebook placements, we achieved:

• 31% increase in video views even while we were optimised for reach

Key takeaway for brands

While Instagram ads can often seem prohibitively expensive, running Facebook and Instagram ads together can achieve higher reach at lower cost.

Using Facebook and Instagram ads to increase app engagement for 7-Eleven

Background

The 7-Eleven Fuel App is all about delivering great value, innovation, and convenience to their customers. The app allows drivers to search their five nearest 7-Eleven Fuel Stores to find the lowest price on fuel. Consumers can then ‘lock in’ that price and redeem petrol for that amount at any 7-Eleven store in the country within seven days.

Challenge

The app was being downloaded but consumers weren’t taking full advantage of its money saving capabilities; only a small percentage of total users were locking in a fuel price or redeeming offers in store.

In the second quarter of 2017, Resolution was set the challenge of increasing the number of app installs.

But more importantly, we focused on increasing post install app engagements – which in turn drove in-store transactions for 7-Eleven.

Strategy

We chose Facebook and Instagram based on their historical performance for 7-Eleven and their fuel app. What’s more, the two platforms’ audience targeting for apps far exceeds anything else on the market.

We also knew that by integrating Kochava (a mobile app marketing tracker) which integrates directly with Facebook, we could find a better way to employ data that would allow us to create personalised ad experiences and drive exceptionally valuable engagements.

We also made the decision to test integration with Brand Networks (our preferred marketing developer) so we could utilise their optimisation algorithm which would allow us to make more frequent and efficient bid optimisations to help deliver 7-Eleven’s target cost per acquisition.

Results

• 460% ROI
• 15,236 Fuel Price Locks generated
• 48% increase in ROI compared to the first quarter of 2017 despite a 28% decrease in ad spend
• 18% increase in active users throughout the first quarter compared to the second quarter
• 30% reduction in cost per install (CPI) across the quarter

Key takeaway for brands

If your brand has an app or apps that are central to your bottom line, why not have your agency trial a similar strategy? Alternatively, reach out to us if this has piqued your interest. Our programmatic team has won a swathe of accolades for their pioneering work including B&T’s Best Programmatic Trading Team 2016.

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