All you have left to do is make sure your site is optimized and traffic-driven, ensuring that it converts visitors into paying customers.
Easier said than done. How do you even kick things off?
Many brands use Facebook ads to drive traffic to websites. Facebook has recently helped business owners achieve this better, with Facebook Events Manager. It is a feature within Facebook Business Manager, also known as Meta Business Suite.
Further reading: How to Drive Traffic to Your Website
How does Facebook Events Manager actually relate to your website and how does it help optimize your Facebook ad’s performance?
In this post, let’s go through and discuss how Facebook Events Manager can help improve your Facebook ads, improve your ad strategy, and ultimately drive traffic to your website.
What Even are Events on Facebook?
Learning how things work with the Facebook Event Manager means first understanding what an ‘event’ on Facebook means.
Facebook Events Manager’s main role is to optimize your Facebook ads by tracking how it affects your website’s activities. These activities are what we call ‘events’.
Trackable Events by Facebook
- Leads from contact forms
- Clicking of specific links on your website, like your Call To Action (CTA) button
- Page views
- Purchases
- Cart activities
- Proceeding to checkouts
- Completion of payment information
- Search
- When someone contacts your business
- Product preferences
- Appointment bookings
- Subscriptions
- Application submissions (for a service, product or program like a credit card)
- And many more.
The way that Facebook does this is by embedding a code into your website, known as the Facebook Pixel. This tracking code feeds data back to your Facebook Events Manager so that the FB algorithm knows how to optimize your ads to reach certain goals that you have picked.
One of the ways it can really benefit your ads is by reducing the costs of your ads so that you’ll know which segments of your target audience are responding better than others.
This will eventually lead you to plan your spending on ads better, and not throw your net out to those segments that are not producing results. In essence, you should see a better Return On Investments (ROI) for your virtual marketing efforts.
This targeting exercise for your ads will use the data from your website to target both new customers, as well as retargeting repeat customers.
An Overview of Facebook Events Manager
Facebook is one of the top social media sites available and it has one of the most well-developed marketing algorithms when it comes to targeting potential customers. This is one of the reasons why Facebook ads are such a popular mode of social media marketing.
The team at FB is always developing ways by which your Facebook ads can reach their full potential and be as effective as possible in terms of reaching the targeted market and audience.
The key to this is, of course, to fully understand how these ads work. In the larger business Facebook overview, FB has introduced the Event Manager function with the aim of tracking events that result from Facebook ads.
We have previously seen what these website events are. Now let’s take a look at the different sections under the Events Manager:
Facebook Pixels
Facebook Pixel is one of the data sources that Facebook Events Manager can source from. A Facebook Pixel is a shortcode that can be embedded into your website’s back-end programming.
A Facebook pixel can track up to 17 user events, this includes purchases, leads, completion of registration, wishlist completion, send to cart, checkout, and many more.
Many of these events can also be tracked in detail with different parameters. For example, in tracking payments or checkouts, you can track the different types of currency being used by customers.
Offline Events
As the term implies, you are also able to link your FB Event Manager to source data from the real-world activities of users. One example of an offline event that can be tracked is if you have a brick-and-mortar store, like a restaurant or beauty salon.
This is particularly useful for local businesses that have a physical store and would like to measure their conversion rate by purchases made there.
You may be interested in: Benefits of Local SEO for Businesses
App Events
In addition to just your website events, you can also track events on your mobile app using a Facebook Pixel. App events management is more or less the same as tracking events on your website.
Tracking the Events Manager on your app will allow you to know the weaknesses in your apps and how to correct them. All you have to do is add a Facebook Pixel to your app and allow it to feed information back to your Facebook ads manager.
Custom Conversions
Facebook has standardized the parameters of all the events that they track, but you’re allowed to customize the parameters on some of these events, which is called custom conversion events.
In this feature, you can tweak the parameters of an event tracking by adding rules and specific preferences to it in order to support the type of business page you run.
Partner Integrations
If it suits your business, and if you choose, you can actually forego having a Facebook Pixel on your site or app. You can achieve this by integrating with certain partners to manage purchases, interactions, and customer behavior.
These partner platforms already have an arrangement with Facebook whereby they provide user analytics to FB. Some of these platforms include E-commerce sites, offline conversions, website platforms, mobile platforms, tag management, and marketing software.
Why Facebook Events Manager?
As a website owner, the Event Manager Facebook has provided will give you invaluable information. It isn’t just limited to optimizing your Facebook ads. The benefits extend to other parts of your business operations too.
Here are some other ways Facebook Events Manager can help your marketing efforts:
Audience Tracking
Knowing audience behavior with a Facebook tracking pixel on your website or app isn’t just about tracking purchases. It gives you an insight into the habits, preferences, and general character of those who visit your site.
There are many ways you can use the data you’ve gathered on the Event Manager Facebook.
For example, you can use the data that you obtain from here to improve your website’s user interface and design for a more seamless customer experience. Another good usage for it is to craft direct response copy and persuasive copy for your ads.
Conversion Tracking
Both online and offline conversion events that are tracked by Facebook Pixel will be fed to FB’s marketing algorithm so that they will know which users have a better chance of responding to these ads.
One way that Pixels can help ads is in the act of targeting and retargeting. Targeting refers to Facebook’s marketing algorithm showing your Facebook ads to people who are ‘lookalikes’ of your tracked conversion event.
This means that they will target FB users who share the same gender, age group, location, and so on, with your successful customers.
Additionally, there’s also retargeting whereby ads from your brand are shown to those who have purchased from you before or visited but did not complete the purchase.
There is an option in FB Events Manager to select conversion as your tracking priority, and this will give you access to Facebook’s Aggregated Events Measurement tool, whereby you can find the Conversion API.
Optimize Your ROAS
As a marketer for your brand, you’ll want to make sure that you get adequate Returns On Ad Spend (ROAS) for whatever you spend on Facebook ads. [1]
With the marketing events manager, you will be able to tweak ad parameters and even improve the ads themselves to ensure that every cent is spent on highly effective targeting strategies with high conversion rates.
Prioritizing Conversion
Events Manager has a section where you can prioritize different events, like leads or conversions. If you set a priority, the algorithm will set your Facebook ads for events that reflect that priority.
Therefore, if you prioritize conversion, your ad will depend on the event data for conversion and optimize your ad for conversion itself.
Setting a priority will allow the algorithm on Facebook to know what is important for you and your business.
The Different Types of Conversion Events
Conversion is the ultimate goal of any business. This is because everything else has to lead to users actually spending money on your brand.
Turning a member of the public into a paying customer is what conversions are about, and the journey there is actually an art form.
Facebook’s Events Manager allows you to target and strategize for three main types of conversions. They are:
Standard Events
Facebook has more than twenty different types of predefined events that can be tracked. These standard events have parameters that are standardized and can’t be changed.
They are divided into three different levels, namely:
- The awareness stage. This tracks the actions of users who are just beginning to learn about your brand and website and are still curious. They include in-app ad impressions, in-app ad clicks, searches, and content views.
- The consideration stage. At this level, users are weighing the pros and cons of buying your products or purchasing your services. At this stage, they’re doing a lot of detailed research on your website. The events tracked at this stage include add to wishlist, completion of payment details, add to cart, contact, initiate checkout, and several more.
- The actual conversion stage. At this level, users are more or less already serious about making a purchase and are already considered customers. Some of them may be returning customers too. The standard events provided for this stage include purchase, customize product, subscription, rate, and the like.
Customized Events
If you want to tweak the parameters of the standardized events that FB tracks, the Events Manager allows you some freedom to do that too.
At their customized events section, you’re allowed to customize up to 100 events that have details that are suited to your business needs and website design.
These customized events are pretty useful if you would like to track one very specific user action, that has some slight changes from a standard event.
Offline Events
Thankfully, Facebook Pixel Events Manager doesn’t just stop at tracking online consumer behavior on your website or app. It can also track real-world behaviors too, such as Point of Sales (PoS) conversion.
You can provide conversion data from your physical store to FB by manually entering the data or linking a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or PoS system using partner integrations to automate the data transfer process.
Setting Up Facebook Events Manager and Configuring Conversions
The process of setting up Facebook Events Manager is actually quite easy. You should begin by knowing how to find events on Facebook.
From your personal ad account, go to your selected Facebook Business Manager account page.
Step One: Locating Facebook Events Manager
Once you’re on your business page, you need to go to business Facebook com overview. Click on Meta Business Suite or Business Manager in the top left corner.
You’ll see the ‘All Tools’ option on the left bar. Click on it to open the list of tools. You’ll be able to see Events Manager under the ‘Advertise’ section of your Business Manager.
Step Two: Adding a Data Source
Once you’re in the main FB Events Manager dashboard, the first thing to do is add a data source. This is to determine where your source of analytical data is coming from.
Click on the round green plus sign on the right. You’ll be asked whether you want to add a web, app, offline or CRM source.
Once you select the source, you’ll be guided step by step on how to connect this source, including (if you choose web or app) creating a Facebook Pixel and embedding it into the back end of your page.
Step Three: Adding Events
Once you have your data source set, you can now add events to track. There are many standard events that you can add from both the Meta Facebook pixel as well as from the Conversions API. A Facebook Pixel tracking events from web browsers while the Conversions API tracks events from the Facebook server.
When it comes to Conversion APIs, you can do it manually or use partner integration. Some of the partner SEO website builder platforms that are supported include Shopify, WordPress, and WooCommerce.
Click on ‘Add Events’ and then choose your standard events and follow the subsequent steps as recommended by Facebook. These steps include opening your website URL and then choosing to start the Facebook setup tool to track specific buttons or to track the URL.
Once you’ve completed the steps, your event will be added to a list at the bottom of the Events Management page.
Step Four: Domain Verification
If you have not already done this, now is the time to do it. Go back to the main Business Manager list of tools and pick ‘Brand Safety’ under the Business Settings option.
Here, you can choose Domain Verification and follow Facebook’s instructions to verify your website domain address. This step is important so that the Aggregated Events Measurement tool can work correctly.
Step Five: Test Your Events
The easiest way to do this is to check the list of events, and if everything is working well with your data source, you should see a green exclamation mark next to the event in your list. If not, you’ll have to troubleshoot to ensure that the data feed is as accurate as possible.
You can check the ‘Diagnostics’ tab on the top of the Data Source to see what is wrong with any of your events.
Another way to test your event is to choose the ‘Test events’ tab to see if your events are being received correctly.
Step Six: Create Custom Conversion Events
When you choose an event to be tracked here, Facebook will apply standard parameters to that event. The good news is that you can customize events to fit your needs and the unique characteristics of your page.
All you have to do is pick ‘Custom conversions’ on the left side toolbar and start creating your custom conversion.
Step Seven: Prioritize Your Events
You can manage your events according to their importance at any given time. Under Aggregated event measurement, choose ‘Configure Web Events’. Under this, you can choose the domain you want to configure, and then click ‘Manage Events’.
You’ll be able to set which events are given a higher priority than others, and which ones are less important. Facebook allows you to prioritize up to 8 events in one set.
Tips for Optimization of Your Events
One of the ways you can use your events tracking is in the Ads Manager. Go back to the main toolbar and click Ads Manager on your ad account.
Here, you can create a campaign and select ‘Conversions’ as its main objective on your Facebook Business Manager.
When setting it up, at the Ad set page on your Business Manager, choose which events you want to achieve with this ad campaign. It should preferably be the event that you have highly prioritized in your Facebook Event Manager.
While your campaign is running, you will be able to track the effectiveness of your ads by seeing the events in the ad manager reports, as well as the cost for each event.
You will be able to see the in-app events like comments, clicks, and shares reported there, giving you a clearer picture of how effective your ad campaign is.
This feature also makes it easier for you to compare the effectiveness of different campaigns that you may be running simultaneously.
Source: Facebook
What’s Next For You?
Facebook Events Manager is a great tool that you can incorporate into your Facebook ads campaign. This is because it gives you great insight into whether your Facebook ads are working or otherwise.
Measuring your ads will allow you to improve your ad targeting, so that you can increase conversion rates at the end of the day.
Do contact us if you want to know more about how Facebook Events Manager and other social media marketing tools can benefit your brand’s social media marketing efforts in the short and long term.
