Watch What Happens When Consumers Use Facebook
Sarah Sal shared the following story with us about her friend’s encounter with a car rental company while en route to a show in Germany:
Later, I promoted that post using a Facebook ad with the aim of reaching executives at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
The ad campaign had three levels of targeting:
1. Fans
2. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Executives
3. The media
1. Fans
At the time of writing this post, Emaline’s fan page had over 3,000 likes. Getting likes, shares, and comments on the post was important, as it would show Enterprise Rent-A-Car that people were
listening to her complaints.
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Note that targeting those who like your page is done with “Connections” at the ad set level.
The first set of ads targeted her fans to make sure we got as much engagement/reaction from them as possible. We even had a comment from someone saying they did not like the company because of a similar bad experience.
2. Enterprise Rent-A-Car executives
The campaign targeted executives at three locations: the German headquarters in Frankfurt, the European headquarters in London, and the global headquarters in Clayton, Missouri.
To reach the executives, four targeting methods were used:
Targeting people that listed Enterprise Rent-A-Car as an employer, while located in one of the three headquarters in Frankfurt, London, or Clayton.
Targeting people who have Enterprise Rent-A-Car as an interest.
We also targeted based on people who:
Have a management or PR/marketing work title. While located in one of the three headquarters in Frankfurt, London, or Clayton.
Someone located in Frankfurt, London, or Clayton, while working for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
There are more chances that they are also a fan of the company fan page. Of course, this does not mean that everyone seeing the ad works for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
3. The media
This ad set targeted local Berlin newspapers and travel publications:
If you have a story worth sharing, why not show it to people working in the media for a few dollars?
Results
It’s worth mentioning that the ads started running on Friday evening (European time zone). By Saturday morning, my friend asked me to stop them. Why?
The manager of the Berlin branch called her band offering to reimburse them what they would be paying to another competitor that morning. After running the ads, it is interesting to see how the situation changed 100%.
Before we set up the ads, my friend called them to try and find a solution, and they ignored her. Afterwards, the branch manager called her personally offering to fix the situation and admitted they had broken the law and were very sorry. How much did it cost? $10.94-- a small amount to run some laser-targeted Facebook ads.
The ad got 18 clicks from the German headquarters in Frankfurt, 55 from the European headquarters in London, and 30 clicks from the main headquarters in Clayton, Missouri. For the media campaign, we got a total of 17 clicks.
The ads using workplace targeting had the highest CTR and cheapest CPC. Here’s a screenshot from the ad spend breakdown per ad set.
What’s also interesting was that most clicks came from mobile phones, perhaps from being a weekend evening in Europe and a holiday in the US?
Be weary though; If your company pissed off a major celebrity with poor service, how would you respond? Consider that even ordinary consumers have this power now.
JD Lasica from SocialMedia.biz shares his own experiences and outlines how to conduct yourself when amplifying your complaints via social:
I did this recently when my iPad Air was stolen at a W Hotel — and got W headquarters to buy a replacement iPad the next day.
The idea of taking this one step further by buying micro-targeted Facebook ads is genius because, ultimately, you need to cut through the corporate hierarchy and reach the decision-makers directly with a genuine, human message. My advice for those who are wronged? Don’t be abusive or over-the-top angry.
Express remorse that the company isn’t living up to its values or responsibilities.
Have you ever complained about a bad experience with a company via social? How did they respond?
Special thanks to Sarah Sal for her story and campaign data.
See how, for just $1, you can make some serious ripples? It all comes down to who you target. Do you have a dollar to spare to spread your message?