India has highest Facebook ad CTR, Mexico overall best country for Facebook ads: Kenshoo

The report, with the gimmicky title ‘Social Media Advertising Global Games’, is based on aggregated global data across a wide range of brands whose Facebook ad campaigns are managed on the Kenshoo Social Platform.

According the firm, the dataset examined for this report spans nearly 65 billion Facebook ad impressions and 20 million Facebook ad clicks during the 12-month period beginning 1 March 2011 and ending 29 February 2012. While over 100 countries were analysed, only 11 were selected for inclusion in the report based on a statistical significance of at least 100 million impressions from ads that were uniquely targeted to each country. Of the 11 countries, only India was from Asia-Pacific.

Overall, the study declared Mexico the best country in the world for Facebook advertisers with the lowest average-cost-per-thousand (CPM) at US$0.069, followed by Turkey (US$0.073) and Brazil (US$0.13). These countries therefore are most likely to generate the “most efficient rate for ad impressions”.

Mexico also led the rankings for average CPC with US$0.19, followed again by Turkey US$0.25 and India US$0.33.

Furthermore, Mexico, along with Turkey have as many Facebook users as they do broadband subscribers, indicating that Facebook is being used heavily via mobile devices, said the study. “Savvy marketers can reach these connected populations through targeted mobile ads and take advantage of efficient Facebook CPMs,” recommended Kenshoo.

In terms of frequency, Kenshoo noted that on average, conversion rates "drop off significantly after the sixth ad impression". The countries that reached maximum effectiveness before the sixth impression were Switzerland (5.81 impressions) and Austria (5.86).

The study also measured the average exposure rate (percentage of the entire desired target audience) of Facebook ads across the markets. It noted that countries with higher CPMs would be at a disadvantage here as it “requires higher budgets to reach the total targeted audience”. Overall, Facebook ads in Turkey lead the list with 51 per cent exposure to its target audience, followed by India (45 per cent). These two were far ahead of the third ranked nation, Austria where ads on Facebook were likely to be seen by only 23 per cent of its target audience.

Countries with the worse average exposure rate were the US, the UK and France – all three of which were likely to reach less than 10 per cent of their intended audience.

Besides CPM, chances are that the markets that perform best in terms of average exposure rates also enjoy a less competitive marketplace. Italy, Mexico and Turkey all enjoy boast the lowest maximum recommended bids for Facebook, signally lower levels of competition.

Whereas Facebook advertising in the United States and United Kingdom are highly popular leading to these countries having the highest CPM and CPC rates. “For advertisers to effectively compete, they must use advanced targeting techniques, sophisticated bid algorithms, and refresh creative assets often,” recommended the report.

In Europe, the study identified Italy as a “diamond in the rough” and a great place for advertisers to test Pan-European campaigns. “A high CTR indicates that Italians are willing to interact with Facebook ads, and a low max recommended bid from Facebook so ads can be placed relatively inexpensively.”