This section provides a set of technical interview questions focused on paid social media advertising (Meta). These questions are designed to assess a candidate’s knowledge and expertise in managing paid social campaigns, including their understanding of campaign objectives, bid strategies, performance metrics, audience targeting, and platform-specific features. Ideal for interviewers looking to evaluate the technical proficiency of candidates in paid social roles, as well as for candidates preparing to showcase their skills in this area.
Types of Campaign Objectives
Awareness:
- Description: Show your ads to people who are most likely to remember them.
- Good for: Reach, Brand awareness, Video views, Store location awareness.
Traffic:
- Description: Send people to destinations such as your website, app, or event.
Engagement:
- Description: Get more responses to your promotions, like comments, shares, and likes.
Leads:
- Description: Collect details from customers, such as email addresses or phone numbers.
App Promotion:
- Description: Promote your app to increase installations or interactions.
Sales:
- Description: Drive conversions through promotions, encouraging purchases or sign-ups.
Awareness Campaign Objectives
Performance Goals for Awareness:
- Maximize Reach of Ads: Aim to reach as many people as possible.
- Maximize Number of Impressions: Show ads to people as many times as possible.
- Maximize Ad Recall Lift: Show ads to people who are likely to remember them.
Performance Goals for Videos:
- Maximize Throughplay Views: Aim to show video ads to people who will watch the entire video if it’s shorter than 15 seconds. For longer videos, target people likely to watch at least 15 seconds.
- Maximize 2-Second Continuous Video Views: Show ads to people who are most likely to watch at least 50% of the video.
Campaign Bid Strategy:
- Highest Volume: Get the maximum results within the budget.
- Cost Per Result Goal: Aim for a specific cost per result while maximizing the result volume.
- Bid Cap: Set a maximum bid amount for your ads.
Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO)
- Explanation: Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) allows you to allocate the budget at the campaign level, rather than the ad set level. If CBO is enabled, Facebook automatically distributes your budget across ad sets to get the best results. If CBO is disabled, you manually allocate the budget to each ad set.
Budget Scheduling
- Explanation: Budget scheduling allows you to increase the budget during specific time periods or on particular dates. This can help you optimize spending during high-traffic periods or promotional events.
Ad Set Spending Limits
- Explanation: Ad set spending limits allow you to set a maximum amount that can be spent on each ad set. This helps ensure that your budget is distributed according to your preferences and prevents overspending on a single ad set.
Advantage+ Audience
- Explanation: Advantage+ Audience is a targeting setting that uses Meta’s AI to determine the audience that will see your ads. This feature helps optimize your ad delivery to reach the most relevant people for your campaign.
Placement Types
- Types of Placements:
- Advantage+ Placements: Facebook’s AI determines the best placements for your ads.
- Manual Placements: You manually choose where your ads will appear. Manual Placement Options:
- Devices: Desktop & Mobile.
- Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network (Facebook-approved mobile apps and websites), Messenger.
- Placement Options: Feed, Stories & Reels, Apps & Sites, In-stream videos, Search results, Messages.
Buying Types
Auction:
- Common Use: Most advertisers use this method.
- Budget Options: Daily budget or lifetime budget.
- Pricing: Variable price based on bids.
- Performance Goals: Reach, Impressions, Ad Recall, Through Plays, 2-Second Continuous Video Views.
- Placements: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger.
Reservation:
- Common Use: Ideal for launching a new brand to increase awareness.
- Budget Options: Lifetime budget.
- Pricing: Fixed Price (CPM).
- Performance Goals: Reach, Ad Recall Lift, Through Plays.
- Placements: Facebook, Instagram.
Difference Between Reservation & Auction Ads
- Reservation Ads:
- Budget: Lifetime budget.
- Bidding: Automatic bidding.
- Pricing: Fixed price (CPM).
- Performance Goals: Reach, Ad Recall Lift, Through Plays.
- Placements: Facebook, Instagram.
- Auction Ads:
- Budget: Daily or lifetime budget.
- Bidding: Highest volume bidding.
- Pricing: Variable price.
- Performance Goals: Reach, Impressions, Ad Recall, Through Plays, 2-Second Continuous Video Views.
- Placements: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger.
Brand Safety & Sustainability
- Explanation: Brand safety ensures that your ads do not appear near content that could harm your brand’s image.
Types of Inventory Filters:
- Expanded Inventory: Shows ads near all types of content (default setting).
- Moderate Inventory: Excludes ads from showing near sensitive content.
- Limited Inventory: Excludes ads from showing near additional sensitive content.
Note: Content that is controversial or offensive will automatically be excluded, regardless of the inventory filter selected.
Brand Safety Tools:
- Block Lists: Locations where ads should not appear.
- Topic Exclusions: Excludes ads from appearing next to content about news, politics, religion, games.
- Content Type Exclusions: Excludes ads from live videos, in-stream videos from non-partner publishers, and Reels from non-partner publishers.
Key Performance Metrics and Formulas
CTR (Click-Through Rate):
- Formula:
CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) * 100 - Explanation: This metric measures the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it. A higher CTR indicates that your ad is engaging and relevant to the audience.
CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions):
- Formula:
CPM = (Cost / Impressions) * 1000 - Explanation: CPM indicates the cost of showing your ad to 1,000 people. It’s a common metric used to gauge the cost-efficiency of an ad campaign.
Frequency:
- Formula:
Frequency = Impressions / Reach - Explanation: Frequency measures how often the average person sees your ad. It helps you understand how saturated your audience is with your ad content.
Engagement Rate:
- Formula:
Engagement Rate = (Engagements / Reach) * 100 - Explanation: Engagement rate shows the percentage of people who engaged with your ad (likes, shares, comments) out of those who saw it. It’s a good indicator of ad effectiveness.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):
- Formula:
CPA = Cost / Number of Acquisitions - Explanation: CPA measures the cost to acquire a customer or lead. Lower CPA means better efficiency in converting views into tangible results.
ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend):
- Formula:
ROAS = Revenue / Advertising Spend - Explanation: ROAS measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. A higher ROAS indicates a more profitable campaign.
This format provides a structured approach to understanding the different aspects of campaign objectives, strategies, metrics, and brand safety in digital advertising.