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Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns & Performance 5: Meta’s New Updates Are Nothing New

advantage+-shopping-campaigns-&-performance-5:-meta’s-new-updates-are-nothing-new

Meta unveiled two new updates to the platform for marketers recently. The first, Advantage+ shopping campaigns, are an actual update to the system we use for ad campaigns. The second, Performance 5, is a list of best practices for using this new system.

It’s been a while since Meta announced any kind of new direction for ad buying on its platform. Much of this seems to be in response to iOS 14. So it’s a big deal in the Meta universe.

At CTC, though, we’ve been intensely tracking our clients’ campaigns since the iOS update, and have already been implementing most of these new practices for years.

That said, here’s a quick breakdown of the changes.

What are Advantage+ shopping campaigns?

Advantage+ shopping campaigns are essentially a new algorithm for Meta ad campaigns. It’s a brand new campaign type within Ads Manager. We've been testing it for a few weeks now and seeing pretty good results, but it's still early.

It attempts to streamline the process and remove a lot of the optionality and manual placements in campaign settings. It’s moving toward a model of blended prospecting and remarketing — which we’ve already been doing at CTC for years.

While Advantage+ does streamline the account structure, you still have to think about budget allocation and optimization.

Meta is basically saying: If you want to succeed with this new algorithm, you’re going to have to use these Performance 5 best practices.

What is Performance Five?

At Meta’s Performance Marketing Summit they rolled out “Performance 5.” It’s essentially an update to their previous model, “Power5.”

It’s simply a short list of best practices for advertising on the platform.

Especially after the changes brought about by iOS 14, there’s been a lot of questions around new guidelines and tips for getting the best performance out of Facebook and Instagram ad buying.

Performance 5 aims to answer all these questions.

This new set of advice comes in conjunction with one of the biggest technical updates to the platform in a long time: Advantage+ shopping campaigns. This new system and the new set of best practices are meant to work together.

What are the five pillars of Performance 5?

Meta's Performance 5 is an updated version of their previous Facebook Power5 best practices

Performance 5 attempts to address the environment at large — wherein people distrust the data they're getting from Meta (since iOS 14) and are moving onto other social platforms (like TikTok).

Truth is: We’re already doing all these things at CTC. And we have been for a while.

1. Account consolidation

This is really all about getting your campaigns out of the “Learning Phase.” Meta recommends consolidating campaigns and structuring accounts in a proper way to get assets out of the Learning Phase.

Many times, when we do audits for new clients, we see their budget spread across a lot of campaigns — $10 here, $20 there — and that’s a red flag. It’s one of the first things we ask during audits: What percent of your account is in Learning Phase?

It’s something we’ve been doing for over a year. Not necessarily a new thing for us as an agency. But, Advantage+ Shopping campaigns are a functional new piece of this concept.

Learn more about the Facebook Consolidated Account Structure

2. UGC content and creators

Meta rolled out the Creator Marketplace to acknowledge how essential creators have become over the past two years.

I would imagine they see TikTok as one of their biggest threats in terms of ad dollars and daily average user growth. So this is their attempt to mimic the success of its creator program

3. Creative diversification

Meta is doubling down on the future of video. Instagram’s shift to video content with Reels exemplifies this best practice.

They want to encourage brands to use creator content and diversify your creative portfolio so it feels engaging and dynamic for the end user.

Again, this is something we’ve always done at CTC. We’ve been working with creators and testing a wide range of creative assets for years.

Performance 5 just marks the first time Facebook is really coming out and confirming these are the best ways to find success on its platform.

4. API set up

Make sure you have a Facebook Conversions API set up with Shopify or a custom integration — that server to server connection is really important for the data. After iOS 14, pixel tracking took a hit, so this is in response to that degradation.

At CTC, all of the accounts we manage have a custom API set up. We’re continuing to invest in more custom integrations.

A great API connection basically enhances the customer profile. Shopify's giving Facebook a lot more information about the customer. And it's making sure everything that happens on the Shopify store is being passed through to Meta.

Setup Facebook marketing CAPI on Shopify
Make sure everything that happens on Shopify is passed to Meta

5. Results validation

This is all about attribution. Again, it’s in response to iOS 14 — attribution tools are all the rage now that the data coming through the platform is less reliable.

Clients want to know: What are we reporting on? What's the attribution model? This is where Meta recommends more lift studies.

I think Meta is probably seeing more people pull dollars off Facebook, and they're hoping lift studies will validate the platform again.

Ecommerce Facebook ROAS 12-Month Rolling YoY
Learn more about how Apple’s update has affected advertising

With lift studies, we can do tactical tests to get quantifiable data on how campaigns impact buying behavior. They recommend doing them every quarter and modifying behavior as needed.

The goal is to give you more data on the true long-term impact of the platform, beyond what you’ve been able to see in a seven-day window.

Eager to learn more? Stay up to date on the latest happenings in the DTC universe by signing up for our newsletter or partnering with our team.


Trent Kerth

Trent is the Director of Paid Social at Common Thread Collective. Connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Special thanks to our friends at Common Thread Collective for their insights on this topic.
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