Facebook Ads Case Study: The Ride

The Ride is Canada’s get-me-there app (www.GetTheRideApp.com), helping users connect with local cab companies and transit options. It’s the ultimate transportation tool that works everywhere in Canada.

The app pulls transit information from cab companies, buses, subways, and more into one place for customers so that they can easily decide how they want to get around. It’s most often used in urban areas by customers who are over 24.

The Challenge: Scaling the Business While Lowering Costs

The Ride used Facebook ads to help scale their business in the past, but they wanted to apply their findings from previous tests and lower their costs. They decided to test cinemagraphs against still images to see if they could be more cost-effective in their Facebook ads strategy while increasing conversions.

“It’s always [challenging] trying to find the most cost-effective way to engage with potential customers and tell our story, incentivize, or attract an install,” said Michael Sachter, VP of Marketing for The Ride.

“The big thing with cinemagraphs is – versus a static image – it’s more arresting. You have a very brief amount of time to get someone’s attention when using Facebook or other social media so having something that’s visually got an eye-catching motion in the middle of a frozen still is very appealing to test.”

Facebook Ads Campaign Objectives

The Ride used app installations at the main objective for their A/B Test. App installs are the best indicator of the relationship with the customer. Once an install occurs, The Ride is able to deeply engage the individual with the app. They also wanted to acquire users at lower costs.

Facebook Ads Targeting 

The A/B test was managed by Facebook Preferred Marketing Partner AdParlor, who used lookalike audiences to target potential customers. Half of the audience was exposed to the still image ad, while the other half was exposed to the cinemagraph ad. 72% of The Ride’s budget was spent on targeting Android devices, with the remainder spent on iOS devices.

Facebook Ads Case Study: Cinemagraphs Outperform Still Images

The creative that The Ride used in their A/B test showed their app being used in the everyday busy lives of their target market. With over 174,000 impressions across the campaign, the results showed that The Ride’s audience was more compelled to click-through and download when they viewed the cinemagraph ad. The conversion rate from clicks to install (CVR) was 3.9x higher with the cinemagraph ad compared to the still image ad.

At the same time, The Ride saw how cinemagraphs can have a significant impact on their cost-savings. Their cost per install decreased by 65% with the cinemagraph ad, demonstrating how the medium can drive cost-effective strategies.

Michael noted that Facebook is a great platform to experiment and connect with audiences, whether through A/B tests or other multi-tests, because of the access to different audiences and the analytics. Cinemagraphs have helped The Ride as they continues to explore their reach on Facebook.

“That’s the real appeal of Facebook – that it’s such a catch place for so much of Canada and then we can do broad testing and look at segments and refine our messaging,” said Michael. “Cinemagraphs, in that journey, have proven to lift our results.”

The Ride’s Cinemagraph Future

The Ride is exploring how else they can incorporate cinemagraphs into their social media and digital advertising strategies going forward. The results proved the economic impact of using cinemagraphs over still images, but as Michael shared, they challenged The Ride to consider how cinemagraphs can impact other interactions with their customers, on Facebook and beyond. “We’re obviously delighted by the results, but [they] also challenge us to look for other versions of the creative that might still push towards even better results.” We can’t wait to see what move The Ride makes next.

Download a PDF version of the case study here.