Now you have identified your goals, you are ready the start using Facebook’s advertising platform.

The first choice you must make when setting up a Facebook campaign is to choose which advertising option you would like to use – Facebook calls this your ‘Objective’. This decision directly links to the goals that you decided upon last month.

Here’s what that looks like in Facebook:

Facebook Advertising Objectives

Facebook give you options of Awareness, Consideration or Conversions and you need to know what each ‘Objective’ does before you select the right one for you.

Conversion is the only option that will show your ROI – if a financial transaction is your goal – at the end of the campaign. This allows you to track conversions that take place outside of the Facebook environment, like your website. This requires a little work by a developer or marketing specialist to set up the conversion pixel (to record conversions), which is a snippet of code to be implemented on your website, enabling you to track the progress of the user. Here is the Facebook Pixel Implementation Guide. Your report will show the cost per conversion for this advertising model.

Consideration is about generating traffic to your website, application or landing page. It can be used for increasing engagement around your post within Facebook or it can be used to generate leads within the Facebook environment. This option will not show a direct ROI within Facebook. But, if you have your Google Analytics set up correctly, you will be able to track your conversions that way. If your goal is to generate leads, you can track success of those leads throughout your sales cycle. Your report will show a cost per click for this advertising model.

Awareness is more for branding, where you effectively spray your message out to your target audience. For this advertising model, your report with show the cost per impressions (number of times your advert is shown) or cost per reach (users who see your advert).

Below I have provided examples of businesses which might use each ‘Objective’:

1. Conversions

Rather than losing yourself in the big numbers of reach and views and clicks, the conversion option will tell you exactly how many conversions took place throughout your campaign outside of the Facebook environment, and the value of those conversions if a financial transaction was required.

This means that Facebook will show your advert to the people who are most likely to purchase your product, or complete whichever Goal you have identified, based on your target demographic.

When to use the Conversion option:

  • E-commerce (on your website)
  • Sign-up form (outside of the Facebook environment)
  • Enter a competition (outside of the Facebook environment)

Your Facebook report will show:

  • Budget: amount you spent on advertising through Facebook
  • Conversions: number of completed the goals, as a result of your Facebook advertising. Eg, onsite purchase or sign-up or competition entries
  • Conversion Value: revenue generated through the conversions
  • RESULT: Conversion value – your budget spent = Return on your advertising spend

Scenario
John owns an e-commerce website and is only interested in conversions on his website.

Set Up
To measure the performance, John asks his website developer to implement a Facebook conversion pixel before setting up the campaign

Report
Using this objective, John can expect his report to look something like:

  • Budget/Spend: $100
  • Conversions/Sales: $10
  • Conversion Value/$: $1000
  • Return on Advertising Spend: $900

2. Consideration

The consideration option enables you to send traffic to your website, encourage Facebook users to ‘engage’ with your content, watch videos or generate leads. Note: it will not show you how much revenue is generated through your campaign within your Facebook report.

You will set up your campaign to achieve your desired goal, and Facebook will show your adverts to the users that are most likely to complete that goal, based on your target demographic.

When to use the objectives option

  • Direct users to your website
  • Direct users to a landing page, like a blog or promotional offer
  • Have users watch your video
  • Generate sales leads and collect their data within the Facebook environment

Your Facebook report will show

  • Budget: amount you spent on advertising through Facebook
  • Reach: number of users who saw your advert
  • Impressions: Number of times your advert was shown
  • Goals: Number of goals you achieved, like link clicks, video views or leads
  • RESULT: Number of goals achieved/your budget spent = cost per goal

Scenario
John is looking for more leads for his sales team, but his website is not built to capture leads.

Set Up
John builds a lead generation campaign in Facebook, and states what data her would like from the leads – name, email, phone number and company name etc

Report
Using this objective, John can expect his report to look something like:

  • Budget/Spend: $100
  • Reach: 1,000
  • Impression: 2,000
  • Goals/Leads: 20
  • Cost Per Lead: $5 per lead
  • Data: John can export the leads, along with all their data, to a .csv file and start marketing to these warm leads

3. Awareness
This option will see your advert ‘reach’ the highest number of Facebook users. You will see huge numbers, as the advert is seen by the users within your target demographic, but it will not take users outside of the Facebook environment. These adverts are there to be seen, not to be acted on.

An awareness campaign to get as wider reach as possible within Facebook, which will dovetail with your marketing activity using other channels, such as print, radio, direct mail and outdoors (billboards, buses, trains and bus shelters).

When to use the objectives option

  • Branding in conjunction with your other marketing activity
  • Delivering a message which does not require an action. E.g. Shop opening soon

Your Facebook report will show

  • Budget: amount you spent on advertising through Facebook
  • Reach: number of users who saw your advert

Scenario
John is hosting a free event that is not ticketed. It will appeal to a very broad audience so he wants to spread the word to as local people as possible within Facebook, working alongside his advertising in print, by email and on local bus shelters.

Set Up
John builds an advert in Facebook, sets his target audience and budget.

Report
Using this objective, John can expect his report to look something like:

  • Budget/Spend: $100
  • Reach: 6,000

Active Networks will often use more than one of the objectives above to generate the best possible results. We may use the awareness objective to deliver a message to as many people as possible, followed by a conversion or consideration campaign with a direct call-to-action.

Next month, we will talk about defining your target audience, the length of your Facebook campaign and deciding on your campaign budget.

Want to learn more about Facebook advertising?
Call: (02) 9905 6011
Email: marketing@peninsulaliving.com.au