Yesterday (Jan 22nd, 2013) Facebook announced a new super power for marketers. Within their Ad Platform, you can now track and optimize your Facebook campaigns based on ‘conversions’. Until now, this functionality was only available to advertisers with deep pockets, or those using a 3rd party system.
We are excited about this for a few reasons:
- Native tracking in Facebook removes the need for work-arounds,
- It adds an extra data source to validate your results against web analytics,
- You can now use impression-based optimized Cost per Impression (OCPM) to deliver ads to people who are most likely to convert.
Conversion measurement of Beta tests using optimized CPM have shown that these ads reduced the cost per conversion by 40 percent compared to CPC ads using the same budget. ~ source
How Facebook Conversion Tracking Works
Using the Conversion Tracking Pixel Tool, Facebook advertisers can generate a snippet of javascript code to place on your booking confirmation page. Whenever a guest who has seen or clicked through from your Facebook ad books a stay at your hotel, it registers the conversion in the system.
Static vs Dynamic Goal Values
Facebook allows you to assign your conversion goals with a dollar value. That value can either be pre-set when you create the tracking pixel, or dynamically entered based on the reservation dollar value.
Static Goal Values – These are pre-set when you create your tracking code and are useful for secondary conversion events like email sign ups or if you use a lead generation form for Conference or Wedding Events.
Dynamic Goal Values – While it takes more work to implement, with dynamic goal tracking you pull the actual booking total into your tracking code so you know exactly how much the guest has spent with your hotel.
Knowing the actual dollar value your hotel campaigns generate is huge in determining the ROI of your program.
3rd Party Booking Engines
To set up Facebook conversion tracking you are going to need to work with your booking engine to fully implement the code. Of course you should already have web analytics in your booking engine to truly understand the booking funnel, so this should not be a difficult request.
Facebook Optimized CPM (OCPM)
When you add in conversion tracking to your Facebook campaigns, it gives you an option to switch from cost per click (CPC), to cost per impression (CPM), with the goal of Facebook optimizing your campaign based on a cost per acquisition number. They are touting the stat that this will reduce your cost per conversion by up to 40% compared to conventional Facebook ads running CPC.
- We don’t have access to a whole lot of data as yet to really prove whether this is true for all marketers, or if this is an outlier stat.
- Facebook is also tracking conversions on a View Thru basis. So while your ad may be displayed to a user, did they truly see it?
Facebook is not short of inventory when it comes to pageviews. My concern here is that they can blast your ads to a wide audience and attribute any conversions to your campaign. While no attribution model is perfect, this is a fuzzy logic when viewed from a Facebook perspective.
It’s still early days and we will keep you all updated with results & tips for improved campaign performance as we use the tool.
