Build a Facebook Ads Strategy You Can Be Proud Of: Lessons from Manulife and Meta

The digital advertising landscape is evolving rapidly, and brands need to adapt in time to avoid being left behind. Meta continues to launch breakthrough tools to optimize advertising results: the "Engagement Views" indicator accurately tracks "passive viewing-delayed conversion" behavior, Reels reduces the cost of single ad recall by 8% with its immersive full-screen experience, and seasonal nodes such as Q5 (late December to mid-January) become a golden window for cost-effective marketing due to lower CPA and CPM. The case of Manulife Financial Philippines, which increased its ad recall rate by 24 percentage points, proves the value of creative diversity - it achieved breakthroughs through storytelling, multi-format video materials, and innovative features such as Meta's Reels and "Engagement Views". Brands need to rely on platform innovation to reach dynamic audiences with diverse creativity.

In this article, explore how brands like Manulife and Lancôme have used these tools to achieve remarkable results in their Facebook Ads, and provides actionable insights for advertisers looking to replicate their success.

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1. Meta Innovations Improve Video Ads and Reels Marketing Value

The Meta platform is revolutionizing video ad measurement and brand engagement through its Interactive Views metric and Reels ad placement, providing advertisers with deeper insights and higher returns.

1.1 Interactive Views: Redefining Attribution Logic

The interactive views metric records the conversion of users who watch at least 10 seconds of FB Ads video ads (or 97% of videos shorter than 10 seconds) and take action within 24 hours. This addresses the growing trend of passive viewing, where users delay conversion after consuming content (for example, visiting a website hours after watching a product demo). Meta's internal A/B testing shows that advertisers who adopt this metric have reduced their average cost per conversion by 3% (with a confidence level of 95%), avoiding opportunities lost by relying solely on click attribution.

For brands seeking to optimize campaigns, tools like Topkee’s TAG Precision Audience Targeting can further improve results by matching ad placements to high-intent audiences.

1.2 Reels: A tool to boost brand memory

Reels’ immersive full-screen format (9:16 vertical screen ratio, sound on) and interactive features make it a powerful tool to boost brand awareness. Data shows that Reels has an 8% lower cost per incremental ad recall compared to traditional Facebook Ads placements (with over 88% confidence), and the first three seconds (“golden moment”) are critical to attracting attention. For example:

Manulife Philippines combined real customer cases (e.g., a father using insurance to support his autistic child) with Reels, increasing ad recall by 24 percentage points.
Lancôme Middle East partnered with local creators to launch holiday-themed Reels, increasing ad recall by 25 percentage points in Saudi Arabia.

Brands like Topkee are using multi-format creative strategies to maximize the potential of Reels and ensure content meets Meta’s best practices to increase engagement.

1.3 Reels as a content-driven marketing channel

Reels has evolved from an experimental feature to a core brand promotion tool within the Facebook Ads system, and its vertical, contextualized content format is redefining the digital marketing interaction model. With the help of Topkee's creative diversity framework, advertisers can further improve marketing effectiveness. The framework includes three core strategies: audience segmentation strategy for customizing exclusive Reels content for high-intent and cold audiences, dynamic creative optimization to combat ad fatigue by updating material formats, and data-driven adjustments that combine Meta brand lift research and Topkee tracking modules to optimize Facebook ad performance in real time.

By combining Meta’s innovation with data-driven tools, advertisers can achieve higher engagement and measurable ROI.

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2. Manulife's Creative Diversification Strategy

Manulife Philippines' Facebook Ads campaign focuses on millennials and Generation Z, with storytelling as the core strategy, and delivers customer narratives through multiple video formats: 45-second horizontal videos are used in the awareness stage, and short vertical Reels videos are used in the consideration stage. Combined with various placements such as Reels, Stories, and interstitials, combined with Meta Advantage + budget automation, it achieved a 24 percentage point increase in ad recall and a 3 percentage point increase in purchase intention. The key to its success lies in following the Reels creative specifications (such as placing text in the safe zone and strengthening key messages at the beginning), and using humanized stories such as "Young widows use insurance to protect their children's education" to arouse emotional resonance, reflecting the synergistic value of emotional narrative and technical optimization.

Topkee provides full-process digital marketing services for FB Ads, focusing on diversified and accurate creativity, efficient conversion, and TAG positioning and interactive optimization to help improve advertising effectiveness. Service advantages include: accurate audience positioning through self-developed TAG technology, multi-platform linkage marketing based on the Facebook ecosystem (including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp), and reducing customer development costs through remarketing strategies. At the business level, relying on TTO tools to integrate cross-platform data, covering audience strategies, and supporting multiple advertising formats such as pictures, videos, carousels, AR, etc., to meet brand display, interactive traffic, and multiple goals.

3. Lancôme's Success with Reels Ads

Lancôme Middle East’s Black Friday Facebook Ads campaign demonstrated the transformative power of a Reels-specific creative strategy. The brand worked with Meta and media agency Acquisit to test verticalized, influencer-driven Reels ads against traditional creatives, and optimized the strategy around the platform’s characteristics: using a 9:16 vertical ratio, turning on sound, combining creator content, and enhancing fit through localized storytelling (working with Middle Eastern influencers to create accessible content), technical detail control (ensuring messages are in safe zones, using AR effects and popular music), and audience segmentation (targeting women over 18, high-intent consumers, and CRM customized audiences).

Meta’s brand lift study shows that Reels combined with traditional Facebook Ads has produced significant results: ad recall increased by 25 percentage points in Saudi Arabia and 23 percentage points in the UAE; purchase intent increased by 14 percentage points in the UAE and 10.5 percentage points in Saudi Arabia, respectively. By automatically optimizing budget allocation to high-performing placements such as Reels and Stories through Advantage+ placements, the brand’s people-centric, localized content strategy (such as behind-the-scenes collaboration with creators) not only fits the impromptu atmosphere of Reels but also drives higher click-through rates and advertising ROI in Facebook Ads, validating the value of Reels as a core marketing tool for luxury brands.

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4. Best Practices for Creative Diversification and Effectiveness Measurement Optimization of Facebook Ads

The diversity of advertising creativity not only involves format innovation, but also requires content customization for different advertising features. For example, Reels needs to quickly catch the eye and start voice creativity, while news feed videos are suitable for longer narrative structures. Through automation tools such as Advantage+ delivery and budget optimization, Meta can intelligently allocate resources to efficient Facebook Ads to improve efficiency. Storytelling is the core strategy. Whether it is customer reviews or seasonal themes, ads need to trigger emotional resonance. For example, Lancôme cooperated with local creators, and Manulife Financial used real stories to prove that "resonance" is better than fine crafting.

In terms of effect measurement and optimization, Meta's advanced analytical tools (such as brand lift research) can help advertisers verify marketing effectiveness beyond surface indicators. Take Lancôme as an example. It achieved a 14 percentage point increase in purchase intention in the UAE through Reels, which fully proves the deep impact of this form on downstream advertising behavior. In addition, the combination of Aggregate Event Measurement (AEM) and the "Engagement Views" indicator can minimize the measurement gap of the iOS system and fill the attribution blind spot, while ensuring data accuracy, and comprehensively evaluate the deep impact of advertising on the user journey.

Conclusion

Meta tools are constantly updated, and creative diversification has become a must-have strategy for Facebook Ads. Brand cases (such as interactive viewing indicators, Reels optimization, and Q5 seasonal strategies) prove that innovative formats + storytelling + data optimization can drive excellent results. As video consumption and user behavior change, advertisers need to flexibly test new formats and use automation to improve ROI. Whether targeting Generation Z (such as Manulife) or grasping seasonal trends (such as gaming brands), the key is to continue experimenting, measuring, and iterating. Consult Meta partners or resources to start your efficient marketing journey.