Short answer: To calculate the conversion rate on Facebook Ads, we divide the number of conversions you have had in a period of time by the total number of visitors you got. Multiply this result by 100 and you get a percentage of the people who converted, out of the total number of visitors. Continue reading this blog to find out more about conversion rate and how you can track it on Facebook.
One of the most popular channels for digital advertising is Facebook, a social media platform that always comes to mind when we think of social media in general. Advertising on Facebook is easy, convenient and it does get revenue to small and medium businesses especially since they don’t have huge budgets to invest in traditional marketing.
Facebook advertising offers a comprehensive and complex reporting system and it registers a variety of metrics that can show you a lot about what your customers are doing, how to make them become your customers, and how to keep them loyal.
What Is the Conversion Rate?
Amongst the most lucrative metrics, you will find when running Facebook Ads, the conversion rate is the most relevant in telling you if your ads had success or not. Conversions are what digital marketers call an action that was targeted by advertising. In other words, whatever you wanted to achieve when publishing your ad.
Common examples of conversions are:
- Subscribing to a newsletter
- Registering on your website
- Making an online purchase
- Downloading an app or a file
- Filling in a form
As you can see, the conversion itself is established by you, the advertiser, according to your marketing plan and what you want to achieve with your Facebook Ad campaign.
So, what is a conversion rate?
To calculate the conversion rate on Facebook Ads, we divide the number of conversions you have had in a period by the total number of visitors you got. Multiply this result by 100 and you get a percentage of the people who converted, out of the total number of visitors.
How to Make Successful Facebook Ads
To launch a successful Facebook ad campaign, it’s important to understand how the platform works.
When you create a campaign, the first step is to choose an objective. You should do that before you even begin setting the ad copy, media, and the rest. Choosing the right objective is very important, as Facebook will offer you the option to personalise your ads in a way that fits that objective. Let’s learn more.
The Facebook ad objectives are categorised into three main groups:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversions
Awareness Objectives
- Brand awareness: it makes your brand more known to people.
- Reach: it shows your ads to as many people as possible within your target group.
Consideration Objectives
- Traffic: getting traffic from Facebook to a destination you choose (landing page, app, etc.)
- Engagement: Determine people in your target group to engage with posts on your Facebook pages by giving you likes, reactions, comments, etc.
- App installs: convincing users to install an app you advertise on Facebook
- Video views: getting Facebook users to view your video content
- Lead generation: lead collection, like getting information about potential customers through online forms.
- Messages: encouraging people to contact you through the messenger feature
Conversion Objectives
- Conversions: getting people to take an action you want (they buy a product, register, fill in a form, etc.)
- Catalogue sales: leading people to your catalogue, to show your products
- Store traffic: convincing people to visit your brick-and-mortar store.
As you can see, Facebook defines very precise objectives for your ad campaigns. It’s important to note that a lot of these objectives represent different stages of the sales funnel. Through some of them, you collect leads, and others help you finalise a sale.
Defining the correct objective when you start creating your ad campaign is important, as it organises your campaigns in a logical way, following the natural course of a visitor becoming a lead, and a lead becoming a customer.
Facebook Pixel: How to Define a Conversion with Facebook Ads
So, we have defined the general objectives a Facebook ad campaign can have. What next?
Well, even though defining an ad campaign’s objective in the Facebook dashboard is important, it’s not enough to start counting the actual conversions you will get. It’s important to note that selecting the right objective will only customise the ad in a way that will help that kind of conversion.
Try to get a very clear picture of what you want to achieve when creating a Facebook ad. After having this clear goal in mind, it’s time to implement it.
Facebook Pixel is an HTML code generator that creates tracking codes you will have to add to your website. It helps with tracking conversions and finding out what actions a certain visitor has taken before on your website. You can then use this information for re-marketing purposes.
When creating a Facebook pixel, you set it up for a certain “event” (action). Facebook has pre-defined 17 events, but you can create a custom one if needed. Here is Facebook’s guide on how to create a Pixel.
Once an event is defined, you can set parameters that will add to the accuracy of the conversion tracking: the monetary value of an event, the currency, basket content, etc.
How to Track Your Conversions
You can track your conversions and conversion rates on Facebook Ads, after running an ads campaign. By selecting Campaigns, Ad sets, or Ads in the Ads Manager, you will be able to customise the columns in the drop-down menu and see what interests you most.
Once you have defined your conversions and added the Pixel code on your website, the data will start collecting.
Reporting in Facebook Ads contains numerous metrics that you can use for optimisation and monitoring. Here is what the most important ones track:
- Clicks (click-through rate, number of clicks, link clicks, cost per click, etc.)
- Conversions (average conversion rate, cost per conversion, conversion value, etc.)
- On-Facebook (purchases, leads, etc.)
- Media (video watch time, etc.)
- Performance (reach, impressions, social reach, social impressions, people taking action, etc.)
- Engagement (page likes, page mentions, shares, comments, offer claims, etc.)
This is just the tip of the iceberg to what you can track with Facebook Ads, and reporting on the platform would take another extensive guide on how to read and measure. The beauty of Facebook Ads is that it’s easy to use, so it doesn’t discourage beginners from trying it, but you can do a lot more as you accumulate experience and know-how.
Getting a good conversion rate might be achieved with simple actions or with a complex campaign plan. As you go, remember that one of the crucial things in getting a higher conversion rate is the human connection you have with your audience and how you reach them.
Do You Need a Higher Conversion Rate in Facebook Ads?
Australian Internet Advertising has a team of highly skilled and experienced digital marketing experts who can work with you to create efficient, highly targeted ads campaigns that work. While you focus on the communication with your audience, we can handle the technical part and help you understand your visitors better.
We aim to get more revenue to our clients, and achieving these results keeps us in the top advertising agencies in Sydney. Contact us to find out more!
