Although it may not be the powerhouse it once was, Facebook is still a formidable marketing tool, especially for certain target audiences. You can increase brand awareness and grow your online community organically and their advertising platform can also be a great resource for finding prospects. The majority of users click on an average of 12 ads every month – with 190 million monthly active users in the U.S. alone, the potential audience for your ads is huge!
The ad program is based on an auction model, with campaign pricing and delivery changing over time, based on an algorithm that determines who sees your ad, where and when they see it, and how much your ad costs. The algorithm analyzes a variety of factors, including your target audience, your budget, and perhaps most importantly, your goal for the campaign.
Facebook Campaign Objectives
When creating an ad campaign, one of the first things you’ll select is the campaign objective, AKA your goal. Basically, your advertising objective is the action you want people to take when they see your ads – visit your website, register for a seminar or webinar, download content, etc.
As your online marketing develops, your campaign goals will change. Initially, your campaigns may focus on building brand awareness and getting more visitors to your website. As your site traffic increases, your goal may change to acquiring new leads, then move to encouraging people to sign up for seminars or webinars.
Campaign Objective Options
Facebook offers three different types of objectives, with several options available for each type.
- Awareness
- Brand Awareness – increase people’s awareness of your firm and the services you offer.
- Reach – show your ad to as many people as possible in your target audience.
- Consideration
- Traffic – send people from Facebook to any URL you choose, such as your webinar landing page, a blog post, etc. Here at the Academy, we frequently use Traffic Campaigns to promote online webinars. They are an inexpensive option, but the campaigns aren’t as targeted, so the leads you collect may not be the most qualified.
- Engagement- reach people more likely to engage with your post. Engagement includes likes, comments, and shares.
- Video Views – share videos with people on Facebook most likely to watch it.
- Lead Generation – collect leads. Create ads that collect info from people interested in your service, such as blog or newsletters subscriptions. It’s important to note that the lead gathering happens entirely on the Facebook platform itself, rather than on your website. Because signing up is so convenient, these types of campaigns work well. Many of our Members are using Lead Ads to build their email lists and fill their pipeline.
- Messages – connect with people on Messenger, Instagram Direct, and WhatsApp. Communicate with potential or existing customers to encourage interest in your firm.
- Conversion
- Conversions – encourage people to take a specific action on your website, such as registering for a seminar or webinar.
- Sales and Store Visits are the last two options, though neither will likely be used often by law firms.
Facebook Tracking Pixel
Conversion Ads send traffic from Facebook to your website, where the Facebook Tracking pixel must be installed. The pixel is a piece of code installed on your website that tracks the activity and engagement of your visitors and enables you to measure the effectiveness of your ads.
The pixel can help you better optimize your ads, improve targeting of the right audience, and allow you to remarket to people who have visited a specific page or taken a desired action on your website.
Ad Tracking and Apple’s Privacy Initiatives
With the release of Apple’s iOS 14, all apps, including Facebook, are now required to get a user’s permission to track their activity as it relates to ad-targeting. This change will impact how Facebook tracks and shares data collected from the Facebook pixel. In response, Facebook is testing its own prompt, showing users a prompt that provides details on its use of personalized ads. Users can choose whether they want to opt-in on Facebook and Instagram data tracking.
How this impacts ad campaigns, if at all, remains to be seen, but in the short term, you should expect that the data collected from your Facebook ads via the pixel will likely be less than accurate. In the meantime, you can rely on other marketing metrics, such as Google Analytics and other tools that may be available on your website.
Rita Chaires
Director, Web & Online Marketing Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com
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