Facebook Shows You 5 Important Ways To Measure Success

Measuring Facebook key to Social Media Success

When you are running ads on Facebook, different options exist for executing campaigns today. That includes the tracking of actionable success metrics.

You are probably familiar with the sponsored (paid) ads. But, you might also consider the sponsored stories, which can be really good for your brand lift.

How do you determine which is better for you business? Analytics and monitoring is key.

No matter what you choose, including the (must-do) free options (the Facebook account itself, events, groups, applications, newsfeeds, etc) – it will be important for your business to reveal what your users do on your Facebook network.

Performance graphs, real-time measurements and in-line ad management are a few of the new things you’ll need to understand.
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A Simple Facebook Guide – Advertising Tips – Reporting/Metrics (Part 4 of 4)

Facebook is easy if you know how. This is a short guide (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) for learning how to start Facebook Advertising.

Facebook Data.

The most well researched ad won’t do you much good if you don’t take advantage of FaceBook’s reporting and metric functionality.

It isn’t enough to post an ad; you must also take a minute to see what is working and what isn’t.

Facebook metrics make it easy to review ad data and info on users who view or click it.

Understand your environment.

Understanding whom an ad appeals to or who clicks the giant go away button can help you craft more effective ads.

To be effective, review profile information, click through rates, impressions, social likes, and even information on those where your ad was cancelled (stopped). Keep in mind that a low CTR is expected. If you are used to seeing 2-4% click through on Google Adwords for example, don’t expect that for Facebook. The key is to continue the cycle explained in each of the Facebook Guide posts we’ve shared with you.

Testing images, titles and body text and running reports to see how you do will be important. Keep in mind, different times of day will have an impact as well. You can add a special URL tracker to see where the biggest impact (clicks/engagement) happens.

Related articles for Facebook Reporting and Metrics

• Facebook Click-Through Rates Are Below Average and Shrinking (observer.com)
• Facebook Ads Get Half the Clicks of Network Banners (clickz.com)
• The Fallacy of Social Media Evaluation (thesocialweb.co.uk)

A Simple Facebook Guide – Advertising Tips – Facebook Setup (Part 3 of 4)

Facebook is easy if you know how. This is a short guide (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) for learning how to start Facebook Advertising.

After all the thinking and research, it’s finally time to set-up your Facebook ad.

Now the fun really begins.

Use the information developed in steps one and two (links above) as guiding principles as you choose a title, text, a destination URL and a picture for your ad.

Remember!

Your title need to be attention grabbing and less than 25 characters.

Text is even more difficult – 135 characters to reach your goal.

A stunning and representative picture is also critical.

To finish, top off the ad with the destination URL that most represents your company or product!

Find more Facebook Ad setup tips here.

Don’t be afraid to test.

In fact, if you spend too much time analyzing here – you’ll never get out of the starting gate. Testing is key. Run reports daily, and learn what works – and what doesn’t.

When you create ads, make sure you are targeting your audience – in a way that “speaks to them”. Don’t throw sales jargon out there. Be a friend, and use the “friend of friend” feature to have people “Like” your ad as well.

Consider using a Fan Page directly, and test between pages (website and Pages).

Related articles Facebook Setup & Pages

• Facebook Ads Can Now Specify Any Page Landing Tab as a Destination (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook Rolls Out New Pages Layout (allfacebook.com)
• Facebook Announces New Design and Upgrades to Fan Pages (hubspot.com)

A Simple Facebook Guide – Advertising Tips – Competitive Research (Part 2 of 4)

Facebook is easy if you know how. This is a short guide (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) for learning how to start Facebook Advertising.

Competitive Research.

Defining goals is only the first step of a successful Facebook ad campaign.

Next, focus on competitive research.  This research plays a role not only in creating targeted ads, but also in creating a feasible budget for ad placement.

Build a competitive analysis by focusing on a couple of factors.

The first is your targeted demographic.

Facebook makes it simple to target almost any group of people you can imagine, so picking the right one is critical.  Next, spend some time researching the language or ‘keywords’ you ad will include.

Competitive research is step two in a winning Facebook campaign. Make sure you understand your audience and target smaller chunks of your demographic – don’t go too broad at first.

Do you know what your competition is doing?

Search for them in Facebook, and check other important social media channels like Twitter, LinkedIn & YouTube. What are they doing there? How are they “inter-linking” social media assets and Facebook. Do they have a Facebook fan page specifically, or just a profile page? How often is content updated? What ads are they running? (if at all)

Related articles on Competitive Facebook Research

• More on Competitive Analysis Using Keyword Opposition to Benefit Score (stuntdubl.com)
• What Are You Doing To Engage Your Facebook Customers? Here Are 5 Tips You Can Do! (socialmediadudes.com)
• Intentional Targeting: Search vs. Facebook (searchenginewatch.com)

A Simple Facebook Guide – Advertising Tips – The Strategy (Part 1 of 4)

Facebook is easy if you know how. This is a short guide (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) for learning how to start Facebook Advertising.

If you are looking for more ‘face time’ with potential customers, advertising on Facebook may be great opportunity.

Begin your quest by identifying some workable goals.

Remember that not all ads are driven by the force of the sale.  In fact, a more workable solution may be using Facebook advertisements to generate leads, increase brand awareness or generate increased traffic for a specific page of your site.

Use these goals to help develop text for your ad – always remembering that Facebook limits the number of words you can use.

A successful Facebook strategy always starts with identifying  specific goals. What objectives are you thinking about?

So, what goals have you defined? Here are some examples:

How many leads? How many new likes? How many fan pages? How many ads? What pictures to use? How many new content pieces each day? Contests? Quizzes? What else?

And, goals don’t get met in a day. Space these over time, and make sure you have a process in place to make it happen. Build out a plan for it, including resources if you don’t have it.

Related articles About Facebook Strategies

• Facebook Announces New Design and Upgrades to Fan Pages (hubspot.com)
• How To Create and Optimize a Facebook Content Strategy – Advice from Alison Zarrella (bethkanter.org)
• New Facebook Pages: Everything You Need To Know (allfacebook.com)