A couple of years back, Facebook replaced the relevance score with ad relevance diagnostics to make diagnosing ad relevance clearer and more actionable.
Rather than a single number, the relevance rankings are now made up of three parts.
Quality ranking: How your ad's perceived quality compared to ads competing for the same audience.
Engagement rate ranking: How your ad's expected engagement rate compared to ads competing for the same audience.
Conversion rate ranking: How your ad's expected conversion rate compared to ads with the same optimisation goal competing for the same audience.
Ad relevance diagnostics can help you diagnose whether the ads you ran were relevant to your audience. If your Facebook ads aren't meeting your advertising objectives, you can use ad relevance diagnostics to understand what adjustments you can make to increase the effectiveness of these ads.
Here are some tips on where to look to improve them.
1. Serve quality content
Facebook wants to deliver a good ad experience for advertisers and audiences. That means if your ad is low quality, it will likely show it to fewer people.
Make sure your images are good. High-quality visuals, high-res, in-focus.
Keep copy direct.
Limit text in visuals. Try the Facebook text overlay tool here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay
Optimize for mobile. (Close to 90% of people use Facebook on a mobile device)
2. Choose the appropriate ad format
There are countless Facebook ad formats, so choosing the right one and optimising content accordingly will definitely help improve your score. For example, you can upload a different size/shape image for each placement to have them display in the best possible format.
3. Encourage actions and engagements
Positive interactions are a key factor in earning a high relevance score. Create an ad that has a clear call-to-action so that the audience knows how to engage, whether that’s liking, commenting, or clicking through your ad.
4. Consider trying video ads
People linger over a video post five times longer than at a static post. Video is not only good at capturing attention, it’s better at inspiring action, too.
Forty-eight percent of Australians surveyed by Facebook report they’ve made a purchase after watching a video ad.
5. Target the right audience
Facebook allows advertisers to target audiences based on their location, behaviour, demographics, connections, and interests. Custom Audiences can also be created to reach existing customers from your website, mobile app, or other customer lists.
Lookalike Audiences can be created to help you reach people who have similar interests to your existing customers.
6. Keep ad frequency to a minimum
It’s a good practice to avoid showing users the same ad too many times. Users with ad fatigue may block or hide your ad, and that could negatively affect your ad’s performance.
There are a couple ways to reduce ad frequency. First and foremost, plan to cycle and update content regularly. A second option is to create a Custom Audience with a parameter set to exclude those who have already converted.
7. Time ads strategically
Running ads at the right time will have a positive impact on your ad’s performance.
Every advertiser’s audience is different, so make sure to check your Facebook Analytics to see when your targeted audience is most engaged. On your page, go to Insights to find this data.
8. Optimise your campaigns
One of the best ways to improve long-term relevancy is A/B testing. These tests will provide an overall picture of what ad content is most relevant and successful with your customers.
Try running two campaigns that feature different creative. Or try separate campaigns that target different audiences. The insights you glean from these tests can help inform you future campaigns and keep your relevancy on point.
9. Keep an eye on competitors
To rank well on quality, it’s worthwhile to suss out the competition. Facebook’s quality ranking compares your content with other ads in the same market.
Before running a campaign, visit your competitor’s Facebook Pages and click Info and Ads. If your ads don’t stand out, be sure to make the necessary improvements.