Did you say Facebook Pixel?
You may or may not have heard the term “Facebook pixel.” Either way, we’re going to talk about why you should become familiar with it and how it can help you grow your business. This is NOT a silver bullet. It’s not magic. But if you put in the time and effort, using Facebook advertising and Facebook Pixel can be the most cost effective form of marketing you’ll find these days.
Finding your customer
Let’s talk about the end game. We want to spend the least amount of marketing money to reach our exact customer at the right time to get them to buy. For example, if you sell shoes there are a few times a year that you wish you knew me. In the spring, I start running and I always buy a new pair of running shoes. Imagine if you could get in front of me with your best deal exactly when I was ready to buy and you also knew that I was living in Erie, PA and buying shoes specifically to train for a 10-mile obstacle course race on the sand. Think about how you could cater your marketing message specifically for me!
THAT is the goal of Facebook ads - to get in front of the right people at the right time and offer them exactly what they want based on items they’ve already shown interest in. Make sense? Read on and find out how it all works!
How does it all work?
It works primarily because there are 2.4 BILLION users on Facebook. No matter what you’re selling, I can promise you that your potential buyers ARE on Facebook. But it’s even better than that. Facebook also owns Instagram… so you potential customers are very likely using both platforms.
Here’s the deal. Facebook devised this clever way of putting a tiny piece of code on your website so that when a someone visits your website, Facebook can associate that website visit with the user’s Facebook account. Then, as a marketer, I can run a Facebook ad and show it only to people that have already visited my website (i.e., people that have already shown some level of interest in what I’m selling).
In reality, it goes much deeper than that. You can even show a specific ad to someone that visited a specific blog post on your website (like this one). If you’re reading this and you’re on Facebook you will probably see an ad from us at some point. But rest assured, I don’t REALLY know who you are. Facebook simply puts the ads in front of the right people, but we never get access to any of your personally identifiable information.
It really is a brilliant scheme. Many people claim they hate this type of marketing, but they say the exact opposite with their wallets. This type of advertising converts significantly higher than nearly all other types (word of mouth is always the exception).
Setting it up
This is all great, right? But if it takes a rocket scientist to set it up then who cares. Well, it doesn’t. There are just a few things you need:
A Facebook page for your business
A website to put the Facebook Pixel “code” on
A little patience
I won’t go through all the steps here because there are plenty of people that have already created great tutorials on this topic. Like this guy. As always, if you’re confused you can reach out to us for help (No, we won’t charge you for reaching out to us. Seriously… who does that?).
Setting up a Facebook Pixel is getting easier as time goes on. Facebook itself has significantly decreased the complexity of adding the Facebook Pixel to your website. If you’re using a website builder like WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, etc. you don’t even have to copy and paste code. You can just copy the Facebook Pixel ID (a long number) that Facebook gives you. Again, you can watch the video above or contact us for help when you’re ready to do this.
You should do this sooner rather than later. Even if you don’t do anything with the Facebook Pixel, you can start collecting data. Everyone that visits your website between now and the time you install the pixel is a missed opportunity because you have no way to reach them with your message. Seriously… don’t wait!
“With everything I have going on, how can I justify spending time or money on this?”
Primarily because marketing (done right) is expensive, but Facebook ads are very cost effective. A common metric used in digital marketing is CPM or Cost Per 1,000 Views. For Facebook ads, we target a $5 to $10 CPM depending on the industry, the campaign goal and the target market. That means you can get your ad in front of 1,000 targeted potential buyers for 5 to 10 dollars. Now do you see the importance?
I will warn you that most people have unrealistic expectations for how well these ads convert. Conversion is a different topic that we can cover in a later article, but suffice it to say that there are many factors that go into how well you can convert a marketing campaign to sales. Things like brand awareness, brand cohesion, product-market-fit, target market accuracy, etc. all play a role.
Let me get to the point. Facebook and Instagram ads are the single most cost effective marketing tool to reach new and existing customers for your small business. Whether you have a brick and mortar store, a strictly E-commerce site or anything in between, Facebook advertising can be effective with budgets as low as $5 a day.
Next Steps
So where do you go from here? First, do some Google searching and read a few more articles about the Facebook Pixel. The more you learn, the more equipped you’ll be to make the right decision. If you’re interested in how Facebook ads can help your specific business, contact us and we can give you some ideas (we give all of our ideas away for free, so you should take advantage of that).
Seriously though, we’re here to help if you have questions!
-Josh, Founder of Ghost Creativ