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Facebook Conversion Tracking Tool: Are Your Prospects Converting or Disappearing?

Heather Campbell — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:17:47 +0000

Facebook Search Graph isn’t the only new news Facebook has released lately. But, since Search Graph hasn’t rolled out yet (it’s still in beta and we don’t have access to it), we’ll focus on something that impacts every Facebook advertiser right now- Facebook Conversion Tracking. Advertisers can already see actions users are taking if the ads direct the user back into the Facebook page, but, what happens when the user is directed off Facebook and into the advertisers’ Web site? Sure, you can see conversions/goal completions within Google Analytics or whatever analytics program you use….provided you tagged ad URLs correctly. Now Facebook has made it easier to see, at a glance, what is happening from within the Facebook interface.

Found Video Recap

What is Facebook Conversion Tracking?

Facebook Conversion Tracking Tool enables the advertiser to track a goal they want the target audience to complete. If you’re running a Google AdWords or Bing Ads campaign, you’re probably familiar with conversion tracking. Facebook conversion tracking works much in the same way. Advertisers can track: purchases for an e-commerce site or additions to the shopping cart, leads via form submissions, important page views, or other conversions you deem important.

Conversion tracking works based on a snippet of code, or a pixel, that is added to the page you want to track. The pixel should not be placed on every page of your site, only the important ones. Once the pixel is placed, you can see the number of users who complete a goal. Conversion tracking helps advertisers make educated decisions about which ads, targeted audience segments, geography, etc. are working or not working.

Creating the Tracking Pixel

Creating the Facebook Tracking Pixel is easy. Facebook does all the hard work; all you need to do is copy and paste the pixel onto the page you want to track. When you create a new ad, you will see an option under Campaign, Pricing and Schedule for Conversion Tracking. Click the Create Tracking Pixels link. A new window will open for you to Create Conversion Pixel. Simply click the link, name your pixel, choose a category for the goal (i.e. checkout, sign up, etc.), and click next. A box will pop up with the pixel that needs added to your site. Note: The pixel needs placed in the head section of the page your tracking for the code to work properly.

Is the Conversion Tracking Working?

You can check the status of your pixel by checking the Conversion Tracking link on the left sidebar of the Facebook advertiser interface. If the code says Unverified in the status column, this may mean there has not been a conversion yet, or the code is installed improperly. If you know a lead came in through a Facebook ad, check that the pixel is complete and positioned between the and section of your page.

The Facebook Conversion Tracking Tool is a much-needed addition to help advertisers understand how users are interacting with their site once they leave Facebook. In order to get a crisp, clear picture of users make sure you’re segmenting your campaigns to fine-tune and really target users. Let us know how you plan on using the Facebook Conversion Tracking Tool. We’d love to hear from you.

Heather Campbell

Heather is a Digital Advertising Manager here at Direct Online Marketing. She handles search engine and display advertising, as well as social media pay-per-click advertising, for clients across many, diverse industries.

Facebook Stalking: Site Retargeting on Facebook is a Reality

Justin Seibert — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:45:19 +0000

Toward the end of last year, facebook opened up the possibility of site retargeting through its ads. And you thought based on the first part of the title I was going to talk about the new facebook graph launched publicly last week.

A quick primer on retargeting: retargeting is cookie-based advertising that allows you to serve ads to people based on their past actions. Site retargeting at its most basic level is when you serve ads to people who have already been to your site. From there, you can splice it all sorts of ways, such as serving up ads to people based on content already read or tracking down shopping cart abandoners.

Okay – maybe Fatal Attraction clips are not the most effective way to sell you on retargeting.

Up until last December could retarget users throughout the Web through various ad networks, but not on facebook, who kept their advertising exchange closed off. Well, now you can hit up those visitors, although you’re not able to do it directly through your own facebook advertising account. You need to do it through a Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX) partner. These partners include folks like our friends at AdRoll, Simpli.fi, and Chango.

How you pay will depend on which partner you use, but I can say we’ve seen comparable costs and results to other types of site retargeting we run for our clients, particularly when it comes to view-through conversions.

If you’d like to get started with facebook retargeting, give us a shout. Costs are affordable even for small advertisers and there’s no minimum campaign length, so there’s no reason not to test it out.

Found Video Recap

Moved to the bottom. I know Alex was talking to Dan, but doesn’t seem like she wants to be ignored, period.

Justin Seibert

Justin Seibert is the President of Direct Online Marketing. He regularly speaks on search engine marketing, social media optimization, and online reputation management and was named a 2012 Top 25 Most Influential Pay Per Click Expert by Hanapin. Follow him on twitter. Why not check out the company on facebook while you're at it?

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A Smorgasbord of AdWords & Twitter Features

Kristen Watson Perko — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:07:22 +0000

In admiration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day we’re giving you a smorgasbord of updates. Why? Because pirates love smorgasbords. Arg!

Found Video Recap

Google AdWords Removes Custom Shape Tool

We’ve been hearing about it for months now, but the custom shape tool is now gone from the targeting options in Google AdWords. However, the designated market areas (DMA) may actually help you define your target areas more easily. When I found out on Friday that I needed to remove the custom shaping or risk having clients’ campaigns paused, I was in panic mode. Shiver me timbers! However, after comparing the DMA’s to the custom shape, they matched up almost exactly. Plus, choosing the DMA is as easy as manning the crow’s nest. So, if you fell asleep on this one, take a look at the DMAs to see if they match close enough.

Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! We’re on to our next topic.

Google AdWords is Sharin’ the Budgetary Love

For me, budgets are like swabbing the deck. They need constant monitoring and cleaning to prevent mishaps. Take a little from this campaign and give to this one…..and do it again in two weeks. Well, in order to make budget sharing easier, Google now offers Shared Budgets- a new feature that lets advertisers allocate a single daily budget across multiple campaigns. According to Google this will make it easier to match your AdWords spending with how your business allocates its marketing budget.

To create a shared budget, click on the Shared Library link to the left of the user interface (under your campaign list). Give your budget a name and select the campaigns you want to share the budget across. You can choose standard or accelerated delivery, just like under your regular campaign settings.

While I’m very excited to test the shared budgets feature, I’m a bit skeptical. As with ad groups that can cannibalize a campaign budget, the same could be said for a campaign that cannibalizes the shared budget. I’ll let you know if we need to batten down the hatches on this one.

Now, for a joke:
Knock knock.
-Who’s there?
Interrupting pirate.
-Interrup–
ARRRRRRR!

Yo Ho Ho! Twitter’s Got a Brand New Look!

Ahoy, Twitter users and advertisers! If you’re currently an active Twitter user, you may have noticed some recent changes. For companies and businesses using Twitter Advertising, the new features are yet another way to promote your brand(s) and engage followers.

Here are the highlights of the new Twitter features (some advertiser-specific, some for all users):

The profile header photo. This is similar to the cover photo on Facebook and Google+ and can be viewed not only on computers, but on iPad, iPhone and Android devices as well. You can upload your own custom image that complements your background and profile images.Like most header or cover photos, the image should be relatively high quality, with minimum dimensions set at 1252px x 626px. To add your own, simply upload your selected image in the Design section of your account settings.According to the Twitter Advertising blog, the new header image will replace the banner on enhanced profile pages (EPPs).
Pinned Tweets. Advertisers can pin important Tweets to the top of their profiles. If more than one Tweet is pinned, Twitter automatically selects the one that is most popular.
The background image. Not technically a new feature, but it’s been changed slightly. Twitter users and marketers now also have the ability change the alignment of the background image (left, right or center), which provides a bit more flexibility when designing a creative, fun Twitter profile.
Finally, Twitter also moved users’ photos and personal bios to more prominent positions on profile pages, giving them more visual appeal.

So will you be taking the opportunity to design a more unique, creative Twitter profile or have you already? If you’ve created a masterpiece, feel free to share it with us!

A final word to the wise–if you haven’t added your own header image by November, you’ll automatically get upgraded to the gray default image of doom. So get your profile shipshape before then. Savvy?

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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More Analytics: The LinkedIn Follower Statistics Section

Kristen Watson Perko — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:21:39 +0000

We already have analytics for search and advertising, YouTube, and Facebook, so it makes sense that LinkedIn would develop their own on-site dashboard that displays follower statistics. Along with basic data like number of followers, total impressions, and updates, LinkedIn provides more specific follower demographics, including seniority, industry, region, company size, and more. In short, it’s a basic chart that sums up the information you’d normally have to get by using filters and a calculator.

The Found Video Recap

The Data LinkedIn Follower Stats Gives You

All of the charts bear a resemblance to those in Google Analytics and some provide month-by-month statistics. Want to know how many new followers your company acquired in September 2011 or how your number of followers has changed over the past year? It’s all there.

Overall, the LinkedIn Follower Statistics section is yet another way for companies to monitor how successfully they’re engaging with people through social media. Of course, this shouldn’t be the only monitoring tool you use, but LinkedIn’s colorful charts provide high-level, easy-to-digest data to supplement your other measurement efforts.

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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A Google Social Analytics Summary + the New Backlinks Report

Kristen Watson Perko — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:59:21 +0000

One new feature in Google Analytics that I have enjoyed exploring lately is Social. Its main purpose is to measure your social impact across different networks and channels. You can also monitor the performance of your social pages and profiles and identify what specific content is performing well through social networks.

According to Google, being able to track user interactions allows you to identify valuable networks and content, ultimately providing additional insight for helping you reach goals or increase conversions.

The Social section shows traffic from the major social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as from blog and social bookmarking sites. Here is a short overview of what each section offers:

Sources

Identify networks and communities where people engage with your content and view basic metrics, like Average Visit Duration or Pages/Visit. This section allows you to see what content is performing well across each individual network.

Pages

The Pages section provides additional engagement metrics for individual URLs. Once you click on a URL, you’ll be able to see which networks referred the most traffic to that page.

Conversions

Measure the success and impact of your social campaigns by aligning them with your on-site goals and conversions (or ecommerce transactions, if you’re into that). From this section, you can identify which networks provide the highest ROI or monetary value. Of course, you’ll need to define goals and goal values to see conversion data.

Social Plugins

The Social Plugin report shows you how many people shared your content through social actions. You know those little buttons on your site that let people instantly share anything and everything? You can view that data in this section, but you’ll have to do some preliminary setup to track non-Google+ actions, obviously.

Social Visitors Flow:

The Social Visitors Flow section is especially handy when you’re tired of all those numbers. If you’re familiar with the Visitors Flow feature in the Audience section of Analytics, this is essentially the same tool for social. You can easily see the paths your visitors took through your site from specific social networks. The flowchart also clearly shows dropoff points.

The Verdict

Social analytics is a great way to monitor your social media impact, discover valuable social networks, and identify shareable content. If you’re new to Social analytics, I really recommend checking it out in-depth. If you’re an Analytics whiz and have been using Social since its release in late March, read on, as they added a few changes this week.

New Feature: The Backlinks Report in Google Social Analytics

According to Google, they monitor the web for sites linking to your published content. Once they find those links, they provide all the important data right in Social analytics. This data includes backlink URLs, post titles, dates, and sometimes even a particular user.

To get to this feature, you’ll need to navigate to the Pages section.

Select a specific URL, and then click on the Activity Stream tab.

Scroll down, and below the chart, you’ll find the blink-and-miss-it Events section, which is where your links are documented.

This article provides some additional screenshots and analysis. Overall, the Google Analytics backlinks report is a simple, easy-to-read list, even if you don’t know a lot of link logistics. For seasoned link builders and SEO specialists, it’s not necessarily Webmaster Tools, but it is updated much more quickly and is at least worth exploring.

The Found Video Recap

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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New Google+ Page Updates: Still Trying to Keep Up With Facebook?

Kristen Watson Perko — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:42:23 +0000

If you use Google+, you might notice some new updates today. I’ve included a couple screenshots so you can visually compare the differences.

Google+ Changes

Here are some of the Google+ changes we’ve noticed so far:

Instead of the icons across the top of the page, your new Google+ page features a menu of buttons down the left side of the screen. According to the official Google blog, this menu update allows some of the following actions:

You can rearrange the icons in any order…just click and drag.
You can hover over some of the apps for access to “quick actions.”
You can hide apps by moving them into the “More” section.

Along with the new sidebar, it seems as if Google may have borrowed some concepts from its old pal, Facebook. The new, innovative design they’ve released features a large section where users can add a cover photo. Wait, didn’t Facebook just release the cover photo option? Surely just coincidence (great minds think alike, and all).

Finally, yet another aesthetic difference in the new pages is the profile photo, which is now larger than it was previously. So break out your high-res photos and personalize your Google+ page. Like Facebook, you’ll have to use a fairly large image for your cover photo (at least 940 x 180).

Old Google+ page:

New Google+ page:

Google has also suggested that they’ll be launching even more significant updates in the near future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the Google+ changes—are they fresh and exciting, or simply another attempt at keeping up with Facebook?

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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Facebook Check-In Changes are Coming Soon (Timeline Wasn’t Enough?)

Kristen Watson Perko — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:38:28 +0000

As we all know, Facebook has been making some changes lately. Although you’re probably tired of me talking about them, and I’m sure you’re all experts on the Timeline layout by now, I have one more update. I promise this will be the only blog post about Facebook that I write this week.

Back in 2010, Facebook introduced users to check-in features, which were (and still are) similar to geosocial network Foursquare. Every time someone checks in at a local business using Facebook, the business’s total check-in number goes up on their Page. Generally, this makes sense, and many loyal patrons check in regularly to their favorite places. But are some people checking in too often?

I think Facebook decided that, logically, if someone visits the same restaurant, park, museum, or business multiple times each day, each subsequent return after the first should not be considered unique. So, in an effort to increase the accuracy of check-ins, Facebook plans to implement a few changes to the check-in functions, and according to Facebook, they’ll occur in a few weeks. Without further ado…

Facebook Check-In Changes

The biggest change is that any subsequent check-ins will no longer count as separate visits if they occur within 12 hours of the first. Similarly, Facebook will also be more accurate in counting photo check-ins, combining all photos from the same location into just 1 check-in. However, any other individuals tagged in those photos will still count as an additional check-in.

But will these changes have a drastic effect on local business Pages?

Overall, I think most businesses will maintain their current number of check-ins, and even loyal patrons probably won’t visit twice within 12 hours. I mean, I guess there are some exceptions. Technically, if someone eats dinner at McDonald’s around 7PM on Wednesday and then returns for breakfast on Thursday morning at 6:30AM, their visits should technically be considered separate.

But would you really want to tell everyone that you’ve eaten at McDonald’s twice within 12 hours?

So in the next few weeks, watch your check-ins, and let us know if you notice any serious statistic spikes!

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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The LinkedIn Follow Company Button: Start Using It

Kristen Watson Perko — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:45:54 +0000

Today, I’m reminding everyone to use the new(ish) LinkedIn Follow Company button on their website. This update actually rolled out on February 27, 2012, but an email about the button was also sent out around March 7, 2012. If you haven’t started using the Follow Company button, you may be missing out on opportunities to connect with others. Not to mention, everybody else is doing it (note: this is not peer pressure, it’s peer push-in-the-right-direction).

For Customers & Fans:

The LinkedIn Follow Company button is a great way to interact with some of your favorite companies. You’ll easily be able to see any news or updates from companies from your own homepage, so it’s more like twitter or facebook in concept. Check out the LinkedIn blog for more great tips on how to find and follow companies with LinkedIn’s new button feature.

For Companies:

According to LinkedIn, adding a Follow Company button to your website or any digital marketing material will make it easier for potential customers, prospects, and fans to follow your LinkedIn Company Page. Once people click on your Follow Company button, they’ll automatically follow your company if they’re logged in to LinkedIn (if not, they’ll be prompted for their information).

So…go get your own personalized LinkedIn Follow Company button. Visit the LinkedIn Developers page. Fill out the short form with your company name and choose whether you want to display your follower count and the button, or just the button. Click Get Code and a snippet of code will be generated, which you can then add to your website.

If you’ve been using the LinkedIn Follow Company button as either an individual or a company, feel free to let us know what you think!

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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Reach 75% (Instead of 16%) of Your Fans with Facebook’s New Ad Features

Heather Campbell — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:36:52 +0000

More than likely you already have a Facebook page for your business. (And if you don’t, shame, shame on you!) So let’s say that you have a very important event coming up and you turn to Facebook to share this event with all your Fans. You figure some of your fans may share it with their friends and hopefully you’ll get a nice turnout. Well, what if I told that you might only reach 16 percent of your fans in a week with a standard story? That’s not many.

In order to increase your brand’s reach and ROI, Facebook has launched three new features:

New Page Features: Facebook refers to the new Pages as “Mission Control for your Business” and they’re not kidding. You now have the ability to really tout your brand’s identity and engage with your audience like never before. See Kristen’s post on The New Facebook Pages Design for the deets on this overhaul.

Reach Generator: Instead of reaching only 16 percent of your fans, with Reach Generator you can reach 50 percent each week and 75 percent each month- Guar-an-teed! WOW, that’s quite a jump in brand exposure and quite a tall-guarantee!

Facebook will turn your post into a Sponsored Story that is placed on the right side of your fan’s homepage or within their news feed for both desktop and mobile customers. Yes, I said mobile. This new feature enable you to reach mobile users!

Premium on Facebook: Again, Facebook will take your post and replicate it across four premium placements; 1) right-side of the homepage, 2) news feed on the homepage, 3) news feed on mobile, and 4) log-out page.

The best part about Premium is the ability to target Facebook users….not just your fans! This is an opportunity to grow your Facebook presence and raise brand awareness with users who aren’t already “Liking” you. For non-users, the Premium ads will not appear in their news-feed; only on the right side of their homepage.

When combined with Reach Generator, businesses can reach and engage 75 percent of fans within a month’s time and a well-run campaign can deliver social drive ROIs of 3 times or greater.

How to Get Started with New Facebook Ad Features

Ok, sign me up. I’m in. I want 75 percent of my fans to see my event. Oh, wait. There’s one small pitfall of these new features on Facebook; you have to meet their criteria in order to qualify. What’s that criteria, you ask? While I’m not privy to this information because it hasn’t been made public yet, we assume that a large brand with hundreds of thousands of fans would easily qualify.

We’ll keep you ‘posted’ about the qualifications once they have been ‘shared’ with the world. Stay tuned!

(While the puns may be bad, none were harmed during the writing of this article!)

Heather Campbell

Big News: The New Facebook Pages Design

Kristen Watson Perko — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:25:53 +0000

When I walked into the office this morning, Justin yelled, “Are you ready for big news?” I wasn’t, but now that I’ve had time to look into the issue, I have to admit…it is big news: Facebook is rolling all Facebook Pages over to a new design on March 30, 2012.

If you’re a company, you probably already have a company Facebook Page (or at least you should), so this update is especially significant. Luckily, Facebook is giving Page administrators a chance to preview the changes, so you should be able to avoid any last-minute switchover panic. Read on to view the main points of the tour.

The first thing you can do is preview what your Facebook Page will look like after the launch. The first thing I noticed is that the design looks and feels a lot like the timeline that many people are using for their personal Pages.

You actually have the option of publishing the new version of your page right now, but I would suggest taking the tour first, or at least reading the rest of this post.

1) About

You’ll now have the option to choose a cover photo. This is a large banner photo that functions as a visual selling point. You shouldn’t put a blurry, off-center photo here or anywhere, for that matter, unless your company specializes in blurry, off-center photography or something similar. According to Facebook, the official dimensions of a cover photo are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.

The cover photo is a new addition, but you will still need to provide a small, square image to function as your main profile picture. Your profile picture shows up everywhere and represents your Page on all other parts of Facebook.

2) Views

One feature of the new layout is that photos, likes, and apps are now at the top of your Page, which means they’re a bit more accessible than before. You should make sure your photos are relevant and eye-catching, because they’re in the first spot by default. However, other apps can be rearranged, so you can put your most important ones first.

3) Star, Hide or Pin

You can edit “stories” on your Page by clicking on the star or pencil icons.

The star makes the story wider and more prominent, whereas the pencil allows you to hide, delete, or pin a story to the top of your Page.

4) Admin Panel
The Admin Panel lets Page administrators moderate their Pages more easily.

You can view your Page’s activity, insights, and interactions by clicking on the Admin Panel.

From within the Admin Panel, you can also manage your Page and users, invite people to your page by email, create ads, and visit the Help Center.

5) Messages

Your company Page’s followers or viewers can now contact you by sending messages. You’ll be able to view any new messages you have received in the Admin Panel as well. This is a more personal way to interact with people who have specific questions or need additional information.

Changes to Your Facebook Landing Pages

One of the most important Facebook Page updates is for landing pages. According to research, you’ll still be able to send people to landing pages by using their specific, individual URLs, but you won’t be able to change the default landing view. This means you won’t be able to create a custom Welcome page for people visiting your Page…they’ll always see your timeline.

All Page admins should take the official new Facebook Pages tour before the launch next month, or at least log in and explore the preview. As I mentioned, the Help Center can be found under the Admin Panel, and I highly recommend reading some of the articles.

Kristen Watson Perko

Kristen Watson Perko is a Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Online Marketing.

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