Facebook releases tools to help marketers understand how ads boost their business

Facebook today unveiled a new suite of tools designed to help marketers better understand how ads on the social network boost their business.

In a blog post, Facebook said its new tools expand capabilities which allow “advertisers to accurately determine the additional business driven by Facebook ads and make future marketing decisions based on this information.”

That capability is known as “conversion lift measurement.”

Facebook believes its advertising partners need to understand conversion lift because it’s the best way they can understand how ads placed on the social network drive sales.

When an ad campaign begins, the system works by first establishing a randomized test group of people that see the ads, and a control group of people that don’t. Throughout the campaign, and at its end, advertisers share their conversion data with Facebook, which then analyzes the conversion lift generated by the ads.

“Advertisers who work directly with Facebook teams will be able to set up conversion lift studies with their account representative and then see results, in near real-time, right in Ads Manager reporting,” Facebook wrote. “In time, we will look to expand our conversion lift offerings to cover more use-cases and more complex studies.

“We already offer lift measurement solutions through both our own tools and third-party partnerships. Today’s announcement is a step toward making lift measurement available to a wider portion of our clients around the world so they can accurately measure the impact of their ads.”