With its huge user base and expansive reach, Facebook can be a powerful tool for marketers. To succeed with a Facebook ad account, however, you need to understand the data available and how to use it to reach your target audience. If you can learn to properly analyze and use this information, you can create truly effective campaigns that get results.
What Kind of Data Does Facebook Collect?
Facebook collects a vast amount of data from its users, both personal and in regard to their online behaviors. When understood and used in the right way, this information can help marketers create more effective ad campaigns and improve customer reach.
Here are just some examples of the types of data Facebook collects:
- User activity: How users interact with general Facebook content, including page visits, likes, comments, and sent messages.
- Ad engagement: How users interact with Facebook ads, such as clicks, views and sales conversions.
- Location data: Device location information (with opt-in permission).
- Third-party information: Data from third-party sources, such as information purchased from data brokers or tracking cookies from other advertisers.
- Facial recognition data: Data used to recognize faces in uploaded photos (with opt-in permission).
Unfortunately, basic user information like name, gender, age, birth date, place of residence and email address are no longer freely available, which has made targeting more difficult. When Apple introduced iOS14, tracking this kind of information became an opt-in process where marketers need to request permission from users. The result is a much weaker pool of data, forcing advertisers to use alternative targeting methods.
How Does Facebook Use This Data?
Any time there is such significant data collection, there are questions about how it’s used. Facebook uses its user data for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Creating a personalized user experience. By analyzing user behavior and preferences, Facebook can recommend content they’re likely to find interesting and engaging. This keeps users on the platform longer and increases their engagement with Facebook. The data may also inform future Facebook update contents.
- Improving advertising. Information about demographics, interests, and behaviors can be used to help marketers target personalized ads to specific audiences. This can help make marketing more effective, leading to higher click-through rates and conversions.
- Facebook algorithm improvements. In addition to direct feedback from users, Facebook can use their collected data to improve the platform’s algorithms and deliver relevant information more effectively over time.
- Preventing the spread of harmful content and misinformation. Analyzing user behavior and content carefully can help the platform identify and remove false information, hate speech, and other harmful content.
- General research. The information collected can provide insights into things like social trends, public opinions, and consumer preferences. This can be valuable information for sociologists, economists, and other academic researchers.
The Importance of Understanding Your Facebook Marketing Data
The true value of any data lies in one’s ability to interpret it. No matter how much information you have about users’ demographics and online shopping behaviors, it can all go to waste if you don’t understand it well enough. Tools like Facebook Business Manager and Facebook Events Manager can only take you so far if you don’t use them efficiently.
When you can properly organize, analyze, and interpret your Facebook data, you can use the metrics to improve current ad campaigns and identify areas for improvement in your overall digital marketing strategy.
How AdBeacon Can Help You Understand Your Data and Your Customers
AdBeacon is a helpful platform for marketers who want to make sense of their Facebook ad account data. We offer convenient, easy-to-read tools that let marketers track and analyze user activity, measure ad campaign performance, and make better decisions to maximize ROAS.
AdBeacon can tell you more about your Facebook audience—what they like, what they do, and how they behave—so you can create ads that target them better.
Our algorithms can automatically identify high-performing ads and suggest ways to improve campaigns, helping you achieve the greatest ROI within the Facebook attribution window.
Get to Know Your Data Better With AdBeacon Facebook Tracking
Our user-friendly, first-party data platform can help you automate and optimize your digital marketing. It streamlines campaign management, provides data-driven insights, and supports advertising across multiple channels. Businesses can tailor the platform to meet their unique needs, making it a powerful tool for marketing success.
Instead of relying on third-party data from an external broker, AdBeacon uses first-party data directly from your company. This ensures that you’ll always have updated information and the most accurate insights.
To see how AdBeacon can help your company better understand your Facebook data, schedule a demo today.