What is Facebook Relevance Score? As the name suggests, it is a metric that measures how relevant is a Facebook ad to the targeted audience.
In layman’s terms, this is to gauge to what extent your targeted audience is responding to your Facebook ad, via engagement signals such as like, share, comment, click, watch time etc.
Facebook Relevance Score ranges from 1 to 10, your ad will get a higher score if the response rate is good, and the ad will continue to be shown to more people with relatively lower unit cost.
Otherwise, Facebook will hesitate to serve your ad if the Relevance Score is low, hence the ad will only continue to be served with higher CPM and CPC. However, is this scientifically proven?
Does Facebook Relevance Score affect your ad cost?
Not guilty until proven, right?
We have gathered and analyzed a sample data executed back in November 2018, targeting the Malaysia audience, with link clicks as the only bidding method.
Here’s how it looks like, refer to the footnotes on how data is sampled.
From the table above, CPC (Cost per Link Click) will reduce by an estimated RM0.10 for each point increase in your ad’s Relevance Score.
In other words, you will be charged more if you don’t optimize your ads towards your targeted audience. A higher Relevance Score will lower your CPC and improve your ad reach.
Your ad message targeted at the most receptive audience will generate clicks and improve CTR, and subsequently improve the Relevance Score. The higher your Relevance Score, the lower you pay for each click or CPM.
So, how do we improve the Facebook Relevance Score?
Improve your ad creative & CTR
Your targeted audiences are gauged by positive signals, such as reactions and link clicks on your ads, in order to gain a higher Relevance Score.
When a user scrolls past your ad without interacting with it, your CTR will fall and this will be considered a negative signal.
A higher positive signal can offset your negative signals, sort of like a vote. The goal is not to have more negative signals, the goal is to have more positive signals than negative signals.
To improve your positive signals, you must create compelling ads that drive action. An effective tactic is to offer an incentive for users, luring them to click through to your website for it.
For example, you can have a sales-oriented ad for products in your online store or offer baits like a free ebook to generate leads.
Monitor your targeting & refresh the ad
Your ad’s Relevance Score is dynamic; as it is constantly updated based on users’ feedback. Showing the same ad over a long period of time to the same group of people will lower your Relevance Score.
To remedy this situation, target another set of audiences with the same ads to gauge receptiveness. Otherwise, refresh your ads with a new image, a new ad format, change your ad copy or reword your offer if you are going after the same set of audience.
Keep in mind that conversion might not be a metric that affects your ad’s Relevance Score. Your ad performance (not business performance) relies heavily on the Relevance Score.
Conclusion
The Relevance Score is an indication of your ad’s performance; affecting your ad spend and reach. You should optimize your ads in order to get a higher Relevance Score.
However, it is just a figure for Facebook to determine a user’s receptiveness towards an ad. This score does not include conversions so you might want to evaluate your campaign performance based on your conversion figures too.
Footnotes:
- The Relevance Score baseline is set at 3 and 5, for 2 different ads on a controlled group targeting mothers in major cities in Malaysia.
- The estimated increment is linear, but a diminishing return is expected between the Relevance Score of 7 until 10.
