Cats Protection raises awareness with mobile-first video ads and Facebook Brand Lift
Overview
Cats Protection – formerly the Cats Protection League – is the UK’s largest feline welfare charity. As well as promoting cat welfare and educating pet owners on the importance of neutering, the charity is perhaps best known for rehoming cats and kittens through its regional centres across the country.
The Goal: Cats Protection was keen to get a better understanding of how many more people Facebook could reach alongside its ongoing TV advertising activity. It was also interested in finding out the effect on ad recall of using ad creative designed specifically for Facebook mobile, compared with using long-form video ad creative.
What was the role of digital within the media mix?
Cats Protection worked with Facebook Marketing Partner Shuttlerock to build mobile-friendly video ad creative based on Cats Protection’s TV ad, using Facebook’s best practices for mobile. As a result, the video was no more than 15 seconds long, with versions in the Stories-friendly 9:16 format as well as the square ad format, and clear branding in the opening seconds. They decided to compare the performance of this ad creative with “business as usual” ad creative that also featured the TV ad video, but without mobile best practices applied.
During the TV ad campaign period, both Facebook ad versions were seen by broad UK audiences across all Facebook placements. To measure the impact of the online campaign, Cats Protection and agency John Ayling and Associates conducted a Nielsen TAR study to measure the incremental reach of the Facebook ads above and beyond TV reach, plus a Facebook brand lift study to understand the impact of the mobile-first on brand awareness.
Key statistics
What results did you attain? What was the biggest achievement?
Analysis of Cats Protection’s campaign showed that Facebook was more effective at reaching younger audiences than TV and that mobile-first Facebook ad creative generated higher recall at a lower cost than standard ad creative. Results from the March 1–April 30, 2020 campaign included:
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9.6-point lift in ad recall with mobile-first ad creative
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60% lower cost per incremental brand lift with mobile-first ad creative, compared to standard ad creative
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33% of audience aged 18–29 reached with Facebook versus 4.2% with TV (Nielsen)
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3X lower cost to reach target audience with Facebook compared to TV (Nielsen)
What was the killer headline?
Assessing the impact of mobile-first video ads with Facebook Brand Lift
