Did you know that you can look up ads that are currently running on social media platforms?

This week, I took a look ads that are currently running on Meta Ad Library. When you look for ads in this library, you’ll see a variety of Facebook and Instagram ads – including graphics, photos, and reels. My aim in researching ads on the platforms is to analyze what’s working, and what could potentially be improved.

For some reason, Apple stands out to me as the brand of choice. So, in Meta Ad Library, I search for Apple in the search bar, and am then met with a large range of ads from the company.

Looking through Apple’s ads, I notice that the company recently launched an ad on nFebruary 14 promoting how their Mac has long battery life. There are 7 versions of the ad – 5 running on Instagram, and the other 2 running on Facebook. All of these ads have the same caption: “The looooongest battery life on a Mac.”

CTA and Targeting

The CTA is a “Learn More” button. 3 of the Instagram versions of the ad lead to an “Apple at Work” page, specifically to a section about battery life. On a desktop, this section is located on the right of the screen, about 1/4 of the way down from the actual top of the page. However, I need to take account that this ad is mostly being shown on Instagram, which means the CTA would lead to a mobile version. Most likely, the mobile version automatically focuses on the battery life section. Another takeaway is that the link leads to a work related page, meaning that the ad is intended to reach a business-related audience.

2 of the other Instagram ads, along with the 2 Facebook ads, lead to a different page designed for the typical consumer. The page is entitled “Switch to Mac,” and just like the other page, it specifically lands on a section about battery life.

According to Sharon Lee Thony in The Marketing Campaign Playbook, segmentation “allows for more targeted and relevant marketing efforts.”Having this ad campaign reach two different segments is an effective way for Apple to make their ad appealing to different people without having to alter the message. In other words, it’s an efficient way to advertise.

Campaign Objective

Although there’s not a lot of public information available on Meta Ad Library, I would guess that the campaign objective is most likely traffic, but could also be awareness. I’ve ruled out sales leads, and engagement. The ad doesn’t lead users to a page to buy a product or fill out a lead form. It also isn’t crafted to be engaging enough for either platform. It in inferred that the intention of the ad is to get users to click on the CTA link.

First, I’m considering the landing page that users are brought to. For businesses, the page has to do with how the Mac can help at work. For the average consumer, it’s a page about switching to Mac, inferring that the intended audience is people who don’t currently use a Mac (or quite possibly Apple products). According to Meta’s Ad Objectives, traffic campaigns “Send people to a destination, like your website, app or Facebook event.” Apple would want to bring businesspeople who are interested in having a computer with long battery life to a website catering to this need. At the same time, generating traffic from people who have yet to convert to Mac would also help the brand.

I lean towards traffic as being the campaign objective. However, I’m not entirely ruling out the potential of this being an awareness ad. Although Apple is one of the most widely-recognized brands that almost anyone would know of, Meta’s states that awareness campaigns “Show your ads to people who are most likely to remember them.” If Apple wants the Mac to be remembered by businesspeople and consumers who have low battery issues on their current computers, than the awareness campaign could also be an option. However, this doesn’t take into account the CTA link – meaning that the traffic campaign is more likely.

Still, whether the objective is traffic or reach, both of these would align with the “reach” element of F.R.Y. which Olivier Blanchard discusses in Social Media ROI (which ironically has a connection to Microsoft). According to Blanchard, “it’s worth mentioning that reach, as it applies to nonfinancial outcomes is simply how many people you can touch…measured in impressions and touches and a variety of other media-based measurements.” This Apple ad generates traffic to the website, and awareness about the Mac’s battery life. It is a campaign with the aim to reach audience segments that can potentially convert.

Creative Elements

Apple is known to be consistently strong when it comes to design – especially in their visuals. Because of this, using a graphic ad would be the brand’s strong suit. The ad is very strong in terms of it’s visual composition, including bold type, modern design, and sleek style that automatically make it recognizable as coming from Apple. The green used in the image relates to the green color that shows on a charger or batter icon when an Apple product is charging, reinforcing the connection to anyone who is familiar.. The caption is simple and straight to the point, and the multiple Os stress what the brand is communicating in the graphic. The copy in the graphic itself is supported by the caption.

Performance

According to a blog by Mark Irvine for WordStream, there are the average insights for ads on Facebook, within the technology sector. I attempted to find information for Instagram, however, data across industries not readily available for the platform.

• CTR: 1.04% – This stat is moderately better compared to other industries, but is not the highest.
• CPC: $1.27 – Just like CTR, this is average – not exceptionally low, but not high either.
• Conversion rate: 2.31% – This is the lowest conversion rate across all industries.
• CPA: $55.21 – This is the highest across all industries, and further reinforces why Apple wouldn’t want to run a sales or conversion campaign, as the costs tend to be egregiously high.

Taking into account that Apple is one of the largest and most recognizable tech companies, I would imagine that the ad surpasses the average performance compared to a typical tech product. This ad is also very good at grabbing user attention through the visual, as well as having an effective CTA, so this could potentially contribute to better statistics as well.

Potential Optimizations

Although the current ad is already greatly effective, there is always room for improvement!

One way Apple could improve this ad is by leaning into their segments even more when it comes to the creative. From the onset, it isn’t clear that Apple is targeting two different segments – business and consumer – until the link is clicked on. However, changing the caption to specifically reach these segments may make it more engaging, and entice users to click on the CTA. For example, the business version of the ad can have a caption that reads “The looooongest battery life on a Mac, so you’ll never lose power at the workplace.” The consumer-focused ad can have something along the lines of “The looooongest battery life on a Mac to power up your day.”

Another way the ad could be optimized is by making a short video animation of the graphic, instead of the static image. Perhaps motion could be added to the words, and the image of the Mac could fade in along with the “Learn More” button. This could make the ad more engaging to both of the segments being targeted.

References

Blanchard, O. (2011a). Social Media ROI. Pearson Education.

Facebook Ad Objective. (n.d.). Facebook for Business. https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/ad-objectives

Irvine, M. (2024, September 10). Facebook Ad Benchmarks for YOUR Industry [Data]. Wordstream. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/02/28/facebook-advertising-benchmarks

Thony, S. L. (2024). The Marketing Campaign Playbook. STK MKT Entertainment.

Meta Ad Library. (2025). Facebook.com. https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=active&ad_type=all&country=US&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all&search_type=page&view_all_page_id=434174436675167