Pros and Cons of the 11 Facebook Campaign Objectives + How to Choose the Right One for You

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**Update: On September 15th, Meta announced the finalized rollout of ODAX. Facebook Ad accounts now have access to ODAX immediately. However, if you prefer using one of the 11 objectives described below, you can do so by simply duplicating an existing campaign. There is still value in identifying which Facebook ad campaign objective you should be using. The campaign objectives did not change, they were simply consolidated into fewer options. We are hitting the ground running on a new blog post to share best practices for the ODAX transition so that you can make the most of the new interface. Stay tuned! Subscribe today to be the first to know when it drops.

Are you using the correct Facebook ad campaign objective to reach your performance marketing goals? Would a different advertising objective increase performance?

Facebook has various ad objectives to choose from, and we’ll admit; the list can be intimidating – but we’re here to help! Let’s break down the different ad objectives so you are fully equipped to make an informed choice when setting objectives for your next campaign. The first step in determining which Facebook ad objective to optimize toward is to consider the goal you are trying to reach. Facebook delivers different results based on your objective – choosing the wrong one can derail your entire campaign.

The Three Stages of the Facebook Campaign Marketing Funnel

Facebook breaks down its objectives into three different stages of the marketing funnel:  

1. Awareness
2. Consideration 
3. Conversion

These three buckets are then broken down into specific objectives.

Depending upon which version of Ads Manager you have, you will either see the original interface (shown above) or the new ODAX (Outcome-Driven Ad Experiences) interface. The ODAX interface is meant to simplify your choice of objectives, reducing them from eleven to six. 

Since the rollout is not yet universal, we’ve compiled an all-encompassing guide to all eleven options!

Awareness – 2 Objectives

Top of the Funnel (TOF) campaigns are designed to generate interest in your offerings.

1. Brand Awareness: This objective primarily shows ads to people with the highest probability of remembering them. It is designed to re-engage customers and attract new fans but not prompt a specific action.
   • Pros: It stands to reason that if people recall your ad, they are more likely to visit your site, become leads, and even become purchasers.
   • Cons: Due to extensive budget requirements to effectively reap the benefits of a Brand Awareness campaign, this objective is better suited to larger businesses. 

2. Reach: This objective maximizes the number of people in your target audience that will see your ad AND the number of times they see it. 
   • Pros: You are more likely to show your ads to a more significant percentage of your audience “bucket.” Therefore it is most efficient with niche audiences. You can also set a frequency for how often your ads are shown to this audience.
   • Cons: If your company is new to the market, you may need to spend more of your budget reaching fewer people with greater frequency. 

Consideration – 6 Objectives

Middle of the Funnel (MOF) campaigns are designed to generate low-intent actions. However, it is also great for encouraging increased interest in your brand.

1. Traffic: This objective is meant to show ads to people who have the highest probability of leaving Facebook by clicking through to your website or app. You can further optimize for link clicks or landing page views. 
   • Pros: Excellent way of building retargeting audiences. Also, if you optimize for Landing Page Views, your ads will primarily be shown to people who will wait for your site to load.
   • Cons: They are not designed to generate meaningful actions or conversions.  

2. Engagement: This objective is best if you want people to engage with your ad. It helps you to get more post engagement (likes, comments, shares, offer claims), page likes, and event responses.
   • Pros: Highly effective for garnering offer claims, increasing page fans, and scoring social proof. It is also beneficial for building engagement audiences to retarget.
   • Cons: You risk eliciting negative responses, which poison your engagement retargeting audience by filling it with NON-fans. For example, you could post about green energy and get negative engagement that populates your engagement audience–not so helpful if you are selling electric vehicles.

3. App Installs: This objective is pretty straightforward. Use it if you want to send people to the App Store or Google Play Store to install your app.
   • Pros: Facebook prioritizes showing your ad to people who are more likely to go to a direct download page within one of the app stores.
   • Cons: To get the best results, you must register your app with Facebook and implement the SDK.

4. Video Views: Best objective if you want views on your video. Facebook will prioritize people who have an affinity with video.
   • Pros: Creates an excellent retargeting audience, especially since you can choose the percentage of the video viewed to build the audience. Also great at building brand loyalty since you can highlight nearly any aspect of your business/product offering.
   • Cons: This objective is not intended to solicit any action other than viewing a video. Also, remember that you do not have to choose Video Views to use video in your creative.

5. Lead Generation: The best option if you want to collect customer information (like name, email address, phone number) by auto-population without leaving the Facebook ecosystem.
   • Pros: You can also add customized options to your lead form, multiple-choice questions, appointment requests, and even include questions that require short answers.
   • Cons: The quantity of leads is often greater than you would receive when sending users to your site. However, lead quality often suffers since auto-population is such a low barrier to entry.

6. Messages: Unsurprisingly, this objective best targets people who are more likely to send you a message. They have three options: Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Message, or Whatsapp.
   • Pros: Excellent for directly engaging people and establishing a quick rapport. It is beneficial for answering pre-purchase questions and overcoming objections.
   • Cons: When customers (or potential customers) message, they expect a quick response. If you do not have the resources to manage messages effectively, it is better to use a different objective. You do not want to seem unresponsive.

Conversion – 3 Objectives

Bottom of the Funnel (MOF) campaigns are designed to evoke specific, measurable actions such as signing up for a newsletter, buying your product, or even calling from your website.

1. Conversions: By far the most popular objective, conversion campaigns are designed to show to users who already have experience with your brand via the awareness and consideration stages. The goal is to entice people to take significant action on your site or app. 
   1. Pros: Excellent for directly engaging people and establishing a quick rapport. It is especially useful for answering pre-purchase questions and overcoming objections.
   2. Cons: Conversions is definitely the objective that takes the most pre-planning. Ideally, you should have the Facebook pixel and Conversions API (CAPI) installed on your site, verify your domain, and configure your most important eight events.

2. Catalog Sales: This is a variation of the conversion objective, utilizing Dynamic Product Ads. It is meant to re-engage users based on their interaction with your website.  
   • Pros: This objective is beneficial if you have a large catalog of products on your e-commerce site.
   • Cons: Catalog Sales requires you to create a Facebook catalog/feed. Unfortunately, this is often a daunting process that deters media buyers from utilizing this advanced objective.

3. Store Traffic: The Store Traffic objective is meant to drive foot traffic to stores with multiple brick-and-mortar locations. Ads are delivered to people who are close to your physical location.
   • Pros: This objective is perfect for media buyers that want to bridge the gap between digital and traditional advertising.
   • Cons: Ads target users based on location only. Other factors, such as interests and demographics, are not considered.

Conclusion

You should now have a better understanding of Facebook Campaign Objectives and optimizations. It is important to remember that Facebook uses your selection of campaign objectives to determine who sees your ad and how often. When unsure, it is best to test different objectives to see which best meets your goals.

Ready to take your social advertising to the next level? Reach out to us today for all of your performance marketing needs. We are here to help. 

Kim Reynolds

Kim is a Senior Team Lead Account Manager at Adlucent. With over 20 + years of experience in the digital advertising space, Kim has helped business owners transverse the digital landscape as a social media strategist, online advertising expert, and trend spotter.