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User value, sometimes called ad quality and relevance, is one of the critical factors the Facebook ads algorithm uses to decide whether to show an ad and how much the advertiser pays. User value answers the question: How useful is this ad to this user at this time?
Factors That Impact Facebook User Value
User value is all about the quality of the user experience. Facebook doesn’t want to bombard users with low-quality or irrelevant ads. It uses signals from within the platform as well as third-party sites to determine how useful and relevant the ad is to the target audience.
- Landing page quality — If your ad leads to an irrelevant, poorly optimized, malware-infected, or misleading landing page, user value suffers. Facebook measures click-backs from landing pages. It is a strong negative signal if users who click on an ad immediately return to Facebook.
- Landing page experience — Advertisers are also penalized for poor landing page UX, including pop-up ads and a high volume of display ads.
- Click-through rates — High click-through rates are a clear indication that the ad appeals to the audience.
- User feedback — Ads that are hidden or reported by significant numbers of users are considered to provide low user value.
- Ad quality — This includes factors such as text-to-image ratio, creative quality, clickbait, sensationalized language, and other factors that might lead to a poor experience.
Ad relevance diagnostics also affect user value. These are metrics Facebook uses to figure out how relevant an ad is to the chosen audience. Facebook surfaces ad relevance diagnostics to advertisers, who can use them to optimize their campaigns. Among other factors, ad relevance metrics include quality ranking compared to other ads competing for the same audience, engagement rates, and conversion rates.
How to Improve User Value for Better Facebook Ad Performance
The Facebook ads algorithm attempts to optimize for two overarching factors: Facebook’s revenue from advertising and the experience of Facebook users. Facebook doesn’t prevent advertisers from creating ads with low user value, but it does punish them with high CPMs relative to better and more relevant ads.
Consider a lead generation ad intended to generate traffic for a landing page. If the ad is well-targeted and directs to a useful landing page with information valuable to the user, the CPM will be relatively low. But if the ad is misleading and leads to a landing page that bombards the user with pop-ups and irrelevant ads, the CPM will be much higher.
To optimize user value, advertisers must focus on the holistic experience their ads provide, from the creative assets and copy to landing pages and beyond.