Facebook expanding Marketplace ads to more countries & campaign objectives

Last year, Facebook began letting a select number of advertisers run ads in Marketplace, the site’s online shopping platform where users can buy and sell items locally. Without making a formal announcement, Facebook opened the ability to run ads in Marketplace to all US advertisers in January and expanded it to Canada in May.

This week, Facebook announced that Marketplace ads will be available to campaigns targeting Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, advertisers using video views and reach campaign objectives will be able to extend their campaigns to Marketplace within the next few weeks (Marketplace ad placements are already available for traffic, conversions, and product catalog campaign objectives).

Currently, Marketplace serves as an additional targeting option for video, single image and carousel-format ads beyond the News Feed, but ads cannot run exclusively on Marketplace. Advertisers can access Marketplace inventory by selecting Automatic Placements when setting up their campaigns. Reporting on Marketplace ads performance is available within the Ads Manager, including website purchases and return on ad spend.

In a blog post, announcing the expansions, Facebook explains how advertisers can take advantage of Marketplace targeting and shares campaign results from two brands that opted to have their ads appear on Marketplace.

Thread Wallets, an e-commerce company that sells wallets, lanyards and phone cases in a variety of designs, increased its year-over-year return on ad spend on Facebook by 41 percent by extending its campaigns to Marketplace. Ads that appeared in Marketplace drove more than 350 conversions from February 10 through March 5. According to Logan England, Thread Wallet’s director of e-commerce, Marketplace cost-per-click (CPCs) were 71 percent lower than the News Feed.

“Within that data set, our return on ad spend was over 4x, which was great. That’s more than a full point better than the News Feed. We’re seeing about a 4.64 return on ad spend in Marketplace versus 2.87 in News Feed. Obviously there’s a volume difference there, but the return you’re getting is great,” says England.

FabFitFun, a women’s lifestyle brand that offers seasonal subscription boxes, also saw higher returns when ads extended to Marketplace. During a 30-day campaign that included ads in Marketplace, FabFitFun generated a 2.2x return on ad spend and 16 percent lower cost per acquisition.

“We have since rolled out Marketplace targeting to all our campaigns and will continue to do so as long as placement continues to drive strong performance,” says the company’s co-founder and co-CEO, Michael Broukhim.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.