Brand-building ads outperform direct-response messaging on Facebook, the social network, when it comes to driving short-term sales for industries like e-commerce and retail.

These findings emerged from a study by Facebook, Analytic Partners, the measurement and analytics firm, and GroupM.

Why it matters

With marketers often facing budget pressures and a need to drive immediate results, the temptation can be to solely run direct-response ads on channels like Facebook. That approach, however, may not be the most impactful for fueling an immediate sales spike, and may also lack long-term effects.

Takeaways

• As targeted ads are more expensive on a cost-per-thousand...