Utilizing Google Analytics to Track Your Facebook Advertising Efforts

You’ve likely heard that Social Media is the wave of the future. Companies will be able to target any exact demographic through Facebook like never before. This ability to pick only qualified traffic is so beneficial that numerous advertisers are testing the waters and trying a hand at Facebook advertising.

Figure 1: This is a figure of the Facebook advertising platform.

But while the Facebook platform appears easy to use and very straightforward, there are two major qualms advertisers have encountered. First, and likely most important, there is no surefire way to monetize Facebook (including sending traffic to a Fan Page and Facebook advertising). And second, there is no conversion tracking on the Facebook advertising platform.

How Do I Track Conversions from Facebook?

The lack of tracking leads advertisers to use the E-commerce function in Google Analytics. By affixing a specific URL to the Facebook ads, Google Analytics will track the URL as a link from Facebook only. In the same sense, having a unique landing page exclusively for Facebook ads will show only what clicks came from Facebook. You then are able to monitor all the variables you would normally track in a PPC Campaign, such as bounce rate, time on page, or transactions.

One thing to take note of; there does appear to be a discrepancy between the metrics tracked within Facebook and Analytics. Make sure to look through the Traffic Sources within Google Analytics to confirm that Facebook has everything tagged properly.

Below are two suggestions to get optimal results when trying Facebook advertising:

• Do a Cost-Per-Click Campaign – Facebook has both a CPC or CPM (Cost-Per-Impression) option when creating campaigns. Historically it has been seen that Facebook ads get numerous impressions, but very few clicks resulting in a low CTR. To avoid unnecessary costs, stay away from CPM Campaigns.

• Have an Updated Fan Page – People now, more than ever, have turned to the Internet to browse, research, and make purchases. The more fans engaging with your Facebook Fan Page, the more reputable your company will look. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth.

To summarize, because Facebook does not have its own conversion tracking yet, using Google Analytics has been the preferred and free method for tracking. Make sure to monitor Facebook campaigns as closely as you would any other PPC campaign to ensure the data is being recorded and tracked correctly.

By Abigail Wolf
Paid Search Analyst

Sources:

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Analytics/thread?tid=3c60ac1fe6a36c65&hl=en