AUSTIN, TX: Reckitt Benckiser (RB), the FMCG manufacturer, has identified an online strategy which helps it find the right balance between achieving mass reach and granular targeting on platforms like Facebook.

Efrain Ayala, Social Media & Mobile Manager/North America & Europe for Reckitt, discussed this topic at the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas.

More specifically, he outlined some results of research undertaken by Oracle, the digital services and software firm, on behalf of RB, and concerning the optimal reach for major brands on Facebook.

"Oracle did a meta-analysis of over 200 sales studies that they conducted through Facebook advertising," Ayala said. (For more details, read Warc's exclusive report: Reckitt Benckiser proves the importance of online reach.)

"And what they saw in the top-performing sales of those 200 studies was that they all had one thing in common: they reached at least 22m unique users over the course of the campaign."

Drawing on such insights, Reckitt fine-tuned its consumer-engagement strategy – in the first instance, by seeking to reach more than 22m people, to guarantee this benchmark is ultimately met.

Breaking down this exposed group into constituent parts, however, would reveal it features a mix of targeted audiences that are relevant to the product in question.

"When we think about how we drive volume with social and video, we've moved to a model where we're really trying to get to that sweet spot. So we … aim to hit about 30m unique users efficiently," Ayala said.

"It's very clear for fast-moving consumer goods that there's a direct correlation between reach and sales, so we need to map out the right reach," he stated. "It's about stacking the right audiences together so we can get to the scale efficiently."

Data sourced from Warc