by Bryan Bren
Make the Most of the Business Page
A free marketing tool for businesses is your business’s Facebook page. On this page, businesses and brands can not only post information about their products and services, but can also post links, images, and text. This page can be customized to help the target audience understand the persona of the business or brand. Your Facebook corporate page will help you develop your brand identity and allow you to show the human side of your business. You do not have to be formal when posting content on Facebook; you can loosen up your tie a little.
You have to consider what content your potential audience will see. You can post images on social networks, links, videos, etc. if this is relevant to your business and you think your audience appreciates it.
For example, if you own a local shoe store, maybe you can post videos of animals walking around in tiny shoes, or you may publish an article that will provide readers with information on how to measure the size of their feet and shoe type or inserts that help with pain in the legs and other benefits. The content you publish should be entertaining, educational, and content updates to your business.
Facebook has a personalized form of advertising in the form of Facebook Ads. They appear in the page columns of the Facebook site. They contain a title, a slogan, a picture, and a link that redirects the user to another Facebook page, a Facebook-linked application, or even an external website. By incorporating Facebook advertising into your Facebook marketing strategy, you can increase the number of likes or clicks on the site.
Advertising features on Facebook include demographic targeting (which uses user data based on their age, location, education, and interests). You can set advertising budgets and test ads (multiple versions can be tested simultaneously to compare their designs and settings), which are built-in tools to measure the effectiveness of advertising.
Facebook does not publish the click-through rate or the CTR data, so their overall effectiveness is unknown. Facebook ads have a click-through rate of 0.051%, and the average CPC (Cost per click) is about $ 0.80. However, these costs may vary depending on the targeting options and the competition. Once the user likes your page, they essentially become subscribers to your corporate page. All your messages and actions are displayed in their newsfeed. This will increase the number of users interacting with your business and help build relationships that can lead to conversions in the foreseeable future. You will learn more about the different costs involved later on in this book.
Facebook Contests
Another marketing tactic for Facebook that can help you increase your fan base and visibility is through contests or sweepstakes. If you are hosting a contest on Facebook, you should understand that these contests cannot be done through Facebook—as in, if you are hosting a contest where the winner will be decided based on the most number of likes or comments received on a specific post, it does get tedious to manually go through all the posts. Instead, using a third-party application is a good idea.
Most businesses use third-party applications to create a Facebook competition, and then they redirect users from the Facebook page to this application. There are several free and paid applications that you can use for it. Applications like ShortStack provide you with different competition templates, and Pagemodo is a free application for Facebook competitions.
An example of a simple Facebook contest idea is “like to win” content. If your business wants to increase its online visibility, then this is a good contest to conduct. The users merely need to like a specific post on your page to enter the contest, and the winner can be chosen through a lucky draw.
Facebook Sponsored Posts
Facebook page owners must pay a fee to ensure that their posts reach a certain number of users in order to increase their reach and impressions through the use of advertised Facebook messages.
Some may wonder why they have to pay for their subscribers to see their contribution. Well, if the user likes the page, the information and updates to this page should be displayed in their news feed, right?
The answer might not always be "yes." The above assumption only works if the user spends all of their time on the Facebook newsfeed. That does not happen often, does it? Who will spend all their time watching the news feed on Facebook?
Therefore, it is likely that the user will not see updates to your page in their news feed. If your subscriber views their newsfeed as and when your article is published, chances are the user will see your post. However, there is no guarantee that this will be done.
So, this is where the concept of sponsored posts comes in. Through a sponsored post, you can increase the chance of being seen in the user's newsfeed. Sponsored posts are visible to existing fans and can connect with fans' friends. Configuring the promoted messages is easy. Just click on the button that appears below the messages on your page.
Facebook Open Graph
Facebook Open Graph connects your Facebook page with other sites for your business. This allows companies to mark the actions of a particular user in their application. Billions of interactions are published daily with the Facebook Open Graph.
Businesses can create third-party applications that contact the user and send notifications to Facebook when that user performs a specific action with that application. This provides the opportunity for creative interaction options that go beyond the usual Like and Comment parameters. Messages can encourage users to listen, to try, to read, or to offer something creative that a business has to offer. In most cases, a website or application that prompts the user to log in to Facebook has something to do with the user's connection through the open Facebook graphic.
Spotify is an example of how Facebook Open Graph becomes an incredibly useful tool in Facebook marketing. It all starts with an invite to open Facebook. Normally, this is followed by a permission request, and most users usually click on it without thinking about it. Upon receiving user approval, Spotify may broadcast the songs the user hears in a friend's news feed. Spotify offers users various options, such as the favorite song that your friend listens to that you can now listen to or to even add it to your favorites in the Spotify app.
Open graphics options like these are unique and different from all the clutter that is usually present in the user's newsfeed. Most Facebook games typically use the Facebook Open Graph options when they post a notification, when a user unlocks a level, or when a user completes a level. This strategy seeks to leverage the concept of word-of-mouth marketing.
Sponsored Stories
This is a type of advertising on Facebook that shows user interactions with their friends. Sponsored Stories aims to maximize the use of word of mouth. For example, if a user sees their friends like this page, they are more likely to notice this page. The goal of Sponsored Posts is to make users do the same things as their friends. When a friend of a user likes a page or announces a proposal, information about it is published in the user's newsfeed. However, these messages are usually easily overlooked. With Sponsored Stories, you can ensure that these posts are in a preferred position and appear in the news feed and the right pane. For mobile devices, Sponsored Stories is the only ad format available.
Advertising stories are not just about likes or offers; they can also be used with all Facebook Open Graph applications. If a friend has Scramble with Friends installed on Facebook, Sponsored Stories show users their friend just played this game and invited them to "challenge them" or "play with them" or another similar option. They are more effective than regular Facebook ads. Use the Facebook ad creation flow to create ad stories on Facebook easily.
Share on Facebook
With Facebook, advertisers can maximize the retargeting of Facebook ads with real-time bidding. Advertisers can focus on their potential audience using data about the history of their web search. Each time a user visits a product page on a merchant's website but does not make a purchase, they can use FBX (Facebook Exchange) on Facebook to run an ad for the same product. Previously, Facebook ads with retargeting were s
hown in the sidebar, but these ads have been shown in the news feed these days. This is good news for all FBX advertisers as the speed of responses to ads in the newsfeed is higher than the number of ads placed in the right column.
Chapter Six: Facebook Pixel
If you want to use Facebook ads, there is one important tool you must start using immediately. The tool is called Facebook Pixel, and it can help you make the most of your social advertising budget. In this section, we will take a look at how using Facebook Pixel can benefit you and your business.
The Benefits of Facebook Pixel
What is Facebook Pixel? Facebook Pixel is a simple code which can be included on your website. It helps collect data that you can later use for optimizing ads, building a targeted audience for ads, tracking conversions from Facebook ads, and remarketing to those who have taken some action on your website in the past. Facebook Pixel helps track users who interact with your website or Facebook ads by using cookies. The Facebook conversion pixel and the custom audience pixel were initially the two types of pixels available. However, Facebook discontinued the conversion pixel in 2017, and if you were using it, then you need to switch over to the latest version of Facebook Pixel.
What do you need Facebook Pixel? It provides information that comes in handy while creating future ads on Facebook that better target your audience. The tracking data provided by Facebook Pixel helps make sure your target audience views your ads. It also tracks whether those people perform the action you desire. This, in turn, helps increase your rate of Facebook ad conversions and improves the ROI.
Uses of Facebook Pixel
Even if you haven’t started using Facebook ads, you must install Facebook Pixel immediately. It will start collecting all the essential data right away, so you don’t have to start from scratch when you are ready to create a Facebook ad.
Conversion tracking
Facebook Pixel enables you to see the way people interact with your website upon viewing your Facebook ad. You can also start to track customers across various devices. This essentially means you can see if users view your ads on a mobile device and switch to a desktop before taking the desired action (maybe making a purchase) or if it is the other way around. By keeping this data in mind, you can fine-tune your ad strategy and calculate your ROI.
Facebook retargeting
By using the data from Facebook Pixel, you can retarget and create dynamic ads that are aimed toward users who have visited your website in the past. For instance, you can retarget those users who added a specific product on their wish-list on your website or left it in their shopping cart. This is a part of psychological marketing where you increase the chances of a user performing the desired action by increasing the visibility of your Facebook ad. Repeatedly seeing your Facebook ad makes the viewer more likely to follow through on the desired action, such as purchasing a product.
Lookalike Audiences
By using the targeting data, you can develop a profile of a lookalike audience consisting of users who share similar interests, likes, and demographics with those users who have interacted with your website. You can essentially increase your base of potential customers by using this technique.
Optimizing Facebook Ads
By using the pixel data, you can optimize your Facebook ads for better conversion as well as value. The only conversion you can work on optimizing is linking clicks if you don’t have a Facebook Pixel. With Pixel, you can optimize the ads for such conversions in sync with your business goals like email sign-ups or product purchases. By using this data, you can also optimize your ads based on the value. You can track data related to aspects such as who buys from your site and how much they spend. By using Facebook Pixel, you can target your ads toward those users who are likely to make high-value purchases.
Better access
If you want to use web conversion campaigns, customize audiences from your website, or create dynamic ads, then you need Facebook Pixel. You also need this tool to track different metrics like cost per conversion or cost per lead.
How to Use Facebook Pixel
Facebook Pixel can be used for collecting data related to two different types of events. The two types of events include the predefined set of standard events and custom events. What is an event? An event is a term used to define a specific action a visitor must take on your website like signing up for an email list or buying a product.
There are 17 predefined standard events according to Facebook Pixel that you can use, and they are as follows:
Purchase- whenever someone purchases on your website.
Lead- whenever a user signs up for a trial or identifies themselves as a lead on your website.
Complete registration- as stated in the name, it refers to the action where a user registers themselves on your website.
Adding payment information- whenever a user enters their payment information while making a purchase on your website.
Adding to the cart- whenever a user adds a product to their shopping cart on your website.
Adding to wish list- whenever a user adds a product to their wish list on your website.
Initiating checkout- whenever a user starts the checkout process or initiates a purchase on your website.
Search- whenever a user uses the search option to look for something specific on your website.
View content- whenever a user lands on a particular page on your website.
Contact- whenever a user contacts you or your business.
Customize the product- whenever a user selects a specific variation of a product like color or design.
Donation- whenever a user makes a donation to a charity of your choosing or any other cause you mention.
Finding location- whenever someone tries to find the location of your business.
Schedule- whenever a user schedules an appointment with your business.
Starting a trial- whenever a user signs up for a free trial for something specific you offer.
Submitting application- whenever a user applies for a specific program, service, or product you offer as a credit card.
Subscribing- whenever a user subscribes to a paid-for service or product.
You can also include more details to the set of standard events available by using parameters or extra code. These parameters help customize the standard events according to the type of currency, content, basket contents, or the value of a conversion event. For instance, you can use Facebook Pixel to track the number of views a particular category receives on your website instead of tracking the overall views. If you have a website selling pet supplies, you can use the Facebook Pixel to track the views received for different categories of pet supplies.
The next option available to you is creating a custom event instead of using the regular events. You need to use URL rules based on particular URL keywords or URLs while creating a custom event.
Steps to Create a Facebook Pixel
Now that you are aware of the different metrics you can track and the benefits of tracking them, it is time to create a Facebook Pixel and add it to your website.
Step one: Create a pixel
Open Facebook Events Manager and click on (≡) present on the top left-hand side of the screen. The click on Pixels.
Now, click on the button “Create a Pixel.”
Name the pixel, enter the website’s URL, and click “Create.”
While selecting the pixel’s name, remember that you can only create on a pixel per ad account while using Events Manager. The name must align with your overall business instead of a particular campaign. If you use the Facebook Business Manager, you can use more than one pixel per ad account.
Step two: Add the pixel code
If you want to start using the pixel to gather information from your website, you must add some code to your website. There are a couple of ways you can do this, and it essentially depends on the website service or platform you use.
If you are using Squarespace, Google Tag Manager, or any simi
lar e-commerce platform, you can install pixel without altering your website code. If you work with a developer or anyone else who can help edit your website code, you must provide them all the details they need to install pixel into your website. If neither of these options is applicable to you, you must directly install the pixel code into your website. There are several steps you must follow.
Click on the “Manually Install the Code Yourself” option while setting up your pixel. Now you need to copy and paste the pixel code into the header code of the website you want to use it on. You need to post the pixel code between the first tag and the second
You will notice an “Automatic Advanced Matching” option on your screen in the setup menu. By turning on this option, the pixel helps match the hashed customer data from your website to the users’ respective profiles on Facebook. It allows you to track the conversions precisely and creates a wider custom audience.
Enter your website’s URL and click on “Send Test Traffic” option to check whether the code has been installed properly or not. Once the Facebook Pixel starts to track, you must click “Continue.”