•  Automatic placements is great for video content less than 60 seconds, because then it could showcase itself on Facebook and Instagram simultaneously without you having to do any work. The differences is that once that data is accumulated for that content, you then can decide where you want to customize where that video is being placed, whether it's just on Facebook or just on Instagram. Another thing to keep in mind is that when automatic placements is turned on, it could start to spend most of the budget on the one placement.

• When you're using automatic placements, you're leaving it up to Facebook to figure out. Now, keep this in mind. Facebook gets it right very often, but there's also times where they don't. And so when you're using automatic placements, you're basically telling Facebook, do the work for me. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's not a lot of control available once it's out.

• Custom placements is when you choose exactly where it goes. So if the majority of your audience is 55 and on Facebook you want to only target the Facebook feed.

•  In the very beginning for most people, automatic is going to do just fine. But as you are accumulating data, you need to look at your report and you need to see which placement is generating the sales for you.  

• You can split it off even further and just target the desktop or mobile newsfeed. You can do that as well because now you know which placement is doing best with automatic. It opens up a massive amount of data, including the Instagram side of things, instant articles, messenger, so on and so forth. 
  

David (00:00):

Hey, everyone. Welcome back in this video. We're talking about automatic versus custom placements. Now quite a few people are like, well, what's the difference? You know, automatic is simple. It's easy. I just click a button and let it go. And custom, I have to choose where things need to go. So why does it really matter? Well, consider this. Okay. Automatic placements is great for let's say video content, video content, less than 60 seconds, because then it could showcase itself on Facebook and Instagram simultaneously without you having to do any work. The differences is that once that data is accumulated for that content, you then can decide where you want to customize where that video is being placed, whether it's just on Facebook or just on Instagram. Another thing to keep in mind is that when automatic placements is turned on, it could start to spend most of the budget on the one placement.

David (00:50):

Meaning what if your Facebook feed is a cheaper cost per action, but yet it's spending more money on Instagram? Well, sometimes that happens when there's more volume on one placement than the other. Even if the CPA is not where you want it to be. So when you're using automatic placements, you're leaving it up to Facebook to figure out. Now, keep this in mind. Facebook gets it right very often, but there's also times where they don't. And so when you're using automatic placements, you're basically telling Facebook, do the work for me. And hopefully it works out. And if it works out, you're doing great. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's not more control available once it's out, because the moment you change the placements, it goes back into learning. Now, custom placements, such as, as you can see on your screen here or manual placements is when you could choose exactly where it goes.

David (01:38):

And in this specific client example, we're only targeting the Facebook fee, just the Facebook feed, because a large portion of the audience that buys this product are over 55. And the majority of that audience is on Facebook only. And so I'm able to customize the placement, make sure that it goes to just that one place. That's it? Nothing else. And that's the people who see the ads and everything has done incredibly well that way. But like I said, maybe you have a piece of content, like a video. I love using automatic placements for video, less than 60 seconds. If it's over 60 seconds, then it's only going to play on Facebook anyway. So there's no reason for you, for you to use automatic. You might as well manual or customize your placements. But let's say if it's an image and it's a square image and you use automatic until now that image is going to go everywhere, including Instagram and Facebook stories, which sometimes will do well. Sometimes it won't. So once again, automatic lets you have some free reign. Just go ahead, put it wherever you want

David (02:37):

To put it and hope that Facebook gets it right? Whereas manual or custom placements as I call it is where you can decide where things go. And I would keep this in mind in the very beginning for most people, automatic is going to do just fine. But as you are accumulating data, you need to look at your report and you need to see which placement is generating the sales for you. So in this example of an account, if I wanted to just look at, let's say this one campaign here, I can go to delivery and then placement. And it tells me specifically where those sales are coming from now because I'm only targeting Facebook. It's telling me, okay, desktop, the mobile app and the mobile web, that's all feed. It's telling me that even though my CPA is better on desktop, most of my volumes coming in on the app and that's okay.

David (03:27):

And if I wanted to split it off further, I could technically just target the desktop on Facebook newsfeed. And that's it. I can make it its own campaign. Same thing with just the newsfeed mobile app. I can do that as well because now I know which placement is doing best with automatic. It opens up a massive amount of data, including the Instagram side of things, instant articles, messenger, so on and so forth. And that's when you might want to create a separate campaign or separate ABO where you could do all one campaign, same audiences and just break it up to where it's like this audience is all mobile. This one's all desktop, so on and so forth. And so that is why you want to make sure you understand the difference between automatic and manual or custom placements. And they all have their purpose, but most people are going to start with automatic and then you're going to work your way into customizing your placements. And that is why you need to understand custom and automatic placements with your advertising.