Facebook Marketing Guides & Resources
I recently started a private Facebook group focused on the Digital Economy and Professional development. This is a great opportunity to stay up to date on latest platform changes and learn from other members of the community. The members are comprised of people who took classes with me, as well as a few industry vets. It's called A Group Called Digital Marketing, and I post about once a week.
As mentioned, Facebook Blueprint is a great way for you to learn the fundamentals of how to create and measure campaigns on Facebook. You have the opportunity to enroll in learning objective based modules which are updated on a frequent basis.
You'll definitely want to make sure you've added the Facebook pixel in order to build your custom audience based on people who visited your page. Here's a step by step guide for how to create and install the pixel. Remember, you'll need to place this code on your page, so a developer may need to get involved. Want to make sure your pixel is working properly? Install the Facebook Pixel helper in your Chrome browser. You'll then be able to verify the pixel placement, and troubleshoot any challenges you may encounter.
Also, this pixel allows you to retarget website visitors by creating a Website Custom Audience. Here's another guide which walks through the process in detail. You can now serve additional ads to website visitors, with the goal of them completing an additional action. Lastly this pixel allows you to take advantage of Lookalike audiences. These audiences help you find more people who look like your current customers, visitors to your website or Page fans.
You’ll then need to make sure you’re measuring conversions. In order to do so, be sure to review the Defining Conversions section of the Facebook Pixel Implementation Guide. I strongly recommend enrolling in the Facebook Blueprint training module which covers creating conversions, as well as various use cases.
Once your campaigns are up and running, you'll want to know how to measure their performance. To do this, review the Guide to Ad Reporting in Ads Manager. Be sure to read the section on Customizing Columns in Ads Manager, as this will allow you to view metrics specific to your unique goals and objectives. Facebook Analytics is a great way to get more in-depth information about your overall performance.
As we mentioned, video is a great way to capture the attention of your target audience, but you’ll want to provide captions as well. Here’s a guide that walks through how to manually and automatically add these captions.
I know there's a lot of information here. However, the most important thing you can do is establish your goals before you start hitting buttons. From there, you'll want to start testing and learning.
Additional Reading:
Campaign Planning Maintenance
Campaign Objectives and Use Cases, Defined
Campaign Optimization Blog and Excel Template
Blogs
Facebook IQ (Facebook and industry data w/insights)
Facebook for Business (Industry specific case studies)
Tools & Guides
Facebook Ads Guide with Dimensions and Text Limits
Automatically add captions to Facebook video ads
Facebook Text Overlay Tool (Make sure your reach won't be decreased due to excessive text)
Facebook Pixel Helper (Identify and troubleshoot your pixel implementation)
Facebook Performance Benchmark Data by Industry
My Recorded Class
Additionally, I recently created a recorded class Facebook and Instagram Marketing Demystified. This 25 video course covers much of the same material as the class you attended, but goes more in depth on various topics.
Specifically:
- Digital Marketing Campaign Planning
- Creating Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences
- Implementing the Facebook Pixel
- Setting up Conversion Tracking
- Using the A/B Testing Tool
- Leveraging Facebook Automated Rules and Scheduled Reports