Social Media Advertising Research & Evidence-Based Practice 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which platform-native tool is primarily used for measuring incremental reach and conversion lift on Facebook campaigns?
- Google Analytics
- Facebook Conversion Lift Study (Correct answer)
- Sprout Social Reports
- Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings
Correct answer: Facebook Conversion Lift Study
Facebook's Conversion Lift Study compares outcomes between exposed and holdout groups to measure true incremental impact.
Question 2: An ad researcher wants to avoid 'peeking' at results too early during an A/B test. Why is this problematic?
- It increases ad spend unnecessarily
- It inflates statistical significance leading to false positives (Correct answer)
- It reduces creative diversity in the test
- It violates platform terms of service
Correct answer: It inflates statistical significance leading to false positives
Stopping a test early based on interim results inflates the Type I error rate, increasing the chance of declaring a winner that doesn't exist.
Question 3: What is the key difference between reach and impressions in social media ad measurement?
- Reach counts clicks; impressions count views
- Reach counts unique users; impressions count total ad displays (Correct answer)
- Reach is organic only; impressions include paid
- Reach measures video completion; impressions measure link clicks
Correct answer: Reach counts unique users; impressions count total ad displays
Reach refers to the number of unique individuals who saw an ad, while impressions count the total number of times the ad was displayed.
Question 4: A researcher discovers that users who saw an ad three or more times were less likely to convert than those who saw it once. This finding relates to:
- Attribution modeling
- Ad fatigue and frequency effects (Correct answer)
- Recency targeting
- Lookalike audience decay
Correct answer: Ad fatigue and frequency effects
Declining conversion rates with increasing frequency indicate ad fatigue, a well-documented phenomenon in social advertising research.
Question 5: In social media advertising research, what does 'incrementality' measure?
- The total revenue generated by all ads
- The additional conversions caused solely by the ad, beyond what would have happened organically (Correct answer)
- The percentage increase in ad spend month-over-month
- The number of new audience segments tested each quarter
Correct answer: The additional conversions caused solely by the ad, beyond what would have happened organically
Incrementality isolates the true causal effect of advertising by comparing outcomes to what would have occurred without the campaign.
Question 6: Which attribution model gives 100% of conversion credit to the last ad a user clicked before converting?
- Linear attribution
- Time-decay attribution
- Last-click attribution (Correct answer)
- Data-driven attribution
Correct answer: Last-click attribution
Last-click attribution assigns full credit to the final touchpoint in a user's journey before they complete a conversion.
Question 7: A social media researcher uses synthetic control groups when randomized assignment isn't possible. This is an example of:
- Experimental research
- Quasi-experimental research (Correct answer)
- Ethnographic research
- Grounded theory research
Correct answer: Quasi-experimental research
Quasi-experimental designs approximate experimental conditions without true randomization, using methods like matched control groups.
Social Media Advertising Research & Evidence-Based Practice 4
Which platform-native tool is primarily used for measuring incremental reach and conversion lift on Facebook campaigns?