Coffee Break Guides Day One: The Facebook Pixel

We get asked almost every day what the Facebook pixel is, why it’s important and how the hell you install it!  That’s why today’s Coffee Break Guide is all about the precious pixel…

Coffee Break Guides

What Is It?

A pixel is a teeny bit of code that goes into the back end of your website.  If you have built your website on a system like WordPress you’re in luck, as there are lots of great plugins that you can download for free such as Pixel Caffeine and Pixel My Site, then it’s just a case of putting your unique pixel code into it which takes seconds.

So what happens next?  Well, if someone visits your website from anywhere, for example, a Google search, directly typing in your website address, an email link, your Facebook profile, the pixel will ‘fire’ and register that person’s visit to your website.  You can also install ‘lead events’ which are extra bits of code that you ONLY place on certain pages.  Here are some examples:

AddToCart – you can use this to track when someone adds something to their cart.  This way, you can send abandoned cart messages to those who didn’t complete the purchase, and get them to come back.

InitiateCheckout – this will track who started the checkout process, you can then retarget people who didn’t complete a purchase with a discount code for example.

Lead – you could install this on the ‘thank you’ page after someone submits an inquiry, so you then know which of your ads led to an inquiry on your website.


How Do I Use It?

1. Retargeting
The pixel allows you to target people with ads based on actions they’ve previously taken on your website.  So for example, you can create a custom audience in Facebook and say ‘show my ad to anyone who has been on my website in the last 7 days’.  This is ‘retargeting’ and it is so effective when trying to convert clickers into enquirers.

They say on average someone needs 8 interactions with a business before they make a purchase – depending on the value of the item and decision-making process, it can be even more than this.  It’s important to not only run ads consistently but be retargeting content to your website visitors, building that trust and increasing the chances of a conversion.

2. Lookalikes
Not only can you target people that have been to your website, you can also find people that are just like them!  Facebook profiles each and every one of us, and it can take a look at your pixel data to find an audience that is just like the people visiting your website and taking action on it.

Lookalike audiences can have a 48% higher click-through rate than a general interest audience.  One laser clinic we worked with said her phone was on fire the first day we switched from an interest-based audience to lookalikes, and we have similar results for many different industries.

3. Reporting
One great thing about the lead event pixels is that you can match back conversions from your ads, so you know which one worked the best.  You can see in ads manager how many actions were 
taken on a pixel, for example, a fire of the lead event pixel on your inquiry form would show you how many people sent an enquiry after seeing a specific ad.


Sounds Great!  How Do I Get One?

Facebook have made this process nice and easy, but if you need any help getting your pixel set up, you can send us an enquiry here.  This step by step guide walks you through how to get the pixel from your Facebook ads manager account:

Have any questions?  We’d love to help!  Just drop us an enquiry here and we’ll be able to answer any questions you have.

READ DAY TWO: THE LANDING PAGE HERE


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Google Ad Suggestions – Save Time, Increase Sales

At a recent visit to Google NYC, we learnt that over 44% of people only have 1 ad in each ad group, which is a rookie fail.  Luckily, Google have just launched a cool new tool called “Ad Suggestions” to save us time and make us more money #win-win.


Research has shown that ad groups with 3 or more high-quality ads can get up to 5% to 15% more clicks or conversions than ad groups with only 1 ad, provided ad rotation has been optimised.

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We are all so different, one or two good ads are not going to appeal to everyone.  As an example, under 30s are generally more receptive to a 10% off message than a free shipping message.  We’re all searching for ads that solve different problems, one ad cannot possibly keep everyone happy.

So with multiple campaigns and ad groups, who has time to create multiple ads for each seriously?!

Introducing auto Ad Suggestions, and they’re pretty damn good.  We were shown examples of ads written by a human and some by a bot – it really was impossible to tell the difference.

Auto Ad Suggestions

How it works is, Google’s genius bots scan your existing ads, and re-phrase/re-order to create different versions of the ads.  You can also apply some clever rules to personalise ads further, which are called ‘if statements’.  For example, an ad that says “Stay at The New Yorker Hotel from $200 per night” could be personalised to include “10% off for Returning Guests” when the ad is shown to a previous booker.  

Google is also working on ‘in market’ audiences for search, currently a feature open to display only.  This uses past search and browsing history to nail down if someone is a serious searcher, and actually ‘in the market’ to book now.  These are warmer leads so will be able to drive higher conversion rates.

Check out more from our time at Google in our blogs here.

10 Golden Insights from Google Experts

We picked up some amazing Google Adwords tips on our recent visit to Google NYC.  Check out our top 10 tips below…

1. The Magic Number 7

Stick to 5-7 ad groups per campaign as a maximum – too many ad groups can kill your campaigns.  This may conflict with what you (and we) have been told by Google in the past so make sure you move with the times.

2. Location Issues

Having multiple locations in a campaign will give Google a headache.  It is trying to evenly split your budget through the day, but as different time zones come into play, you’ll struggle to get all of the impressions you could be getting.  Split your locations down to timezone to boost impression share.

3. Be Clever with Terms

It may be obvious, but it was interesting to see such a huge difference in auction prices for ‘rigging’ vs ‘moving’, and ‘dog trainer’ vs ‘dog training’ – make sure you’re really testing your terms, and using your budget wisely.

4. Scale Slowwwwlllyy

When a campaign is on fire, the urge to pump that budget up must be resisted as it can trash a campaign.  Try to avoid increasing budget by more than 10-15% weekly so the campaign remains stable.

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5. Copy and Paste

When you want to change your match types, make sure you copy and paste then pause the old terms.  If you change the existing term match type, you’ll lose the historical data for it which is always annoying.

6. Tackle Timewasters

Sick of wasting budget on dreamers?  Try out the ‘price from’ extension to filter out those who won’t convert.  If you have a high ticket product or service, also consider a call only ad, as you’ll be more likely to convert them this way.

7. Get a Google Number

Message extensions are a really handy way to get instant leads – the faster you get back to them the more likely that they’ll convert.  Don’t want to share your mobile number?  Get a free Google number to disguise your personal one.

8. Remarketing Wins

Your past buyers are 5 x more likely to convert than new customers.  Many clients think they don’t have to remarket as customers will just come back.  The truth is we’re a fickle bunch – a free shipping offer, 10% off, or just being in the right place at the right time could sway your past customers to use someone else – grab them back!

9. Lookalikes are Hot Leads 

Lookalike audiences can have a 65% higher click-through rate than other audiences!  As with Facebook, Google knows SO much about all of us to such depth, these lookalike audiences they can build are amazing and ready to be tapped into.

10. Be Ad Smart

In each ad group, you have the ability to show a series of different ads with variations in the message.  Despite this, over 44% of people only have one ad in each ad group!

I will be writing a whole blog on the brilliant dynamic ad opportunities now available to make automatic variations and increase CTRs, watch this space for more!

Check out our other blogs here

COLLECTION ADS

Collection ads are getting AMAZING results for our eCommerce clients.

This is one of the latest creative options from Facebook designed for mobile users.

Your audience can see products featured in your video, click them and browse in app before hitting the add to basket page.

It’s the perfect solution for that drop off through the purchase process, encouraging more customers through to conversion.