#25: What’s the Difference Between the Facebook Ads Pixels and Other Q&A

Today’s episode is one of our Q&A shows and this time we’re focusing on questions around Facebook ads.

People have emailed in or asked questions via voicemail which you can do here on the Show Notes page.

A couple of these questions also come from a presentation I did last week at Social Media Marketing World here in San Diego. The presentation was all about Facebook ads fundamentals but I got a lot of great questions that were more advanced too so we’ll be covering those as well.

If you have a question you’d like me to answer in an upcoming episode, whether it’s about Facebook ads or any other paid traffic strategy, just click the orange “Start Recording” button below and you can leave me a voice message there with your question.

If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone who specializes in the topic of your question and get the answer for you.

Here are the Questions We’ll Cover Today:

1. Is there any benefit in paying for Facebook Page Likes anymore? Back in the day it was really big but now that it’s integrated within any Facebook ad, I’m wondering if there’s any value in spending money to increase Page Likes?
2. One thing I’m still getting hung up on is the Custom Audience Pixel. If I have multiple sites using the same pixel and I want to create an audience that hasn’t visited my site in 14 days, how does this pixel know I want it for one site and not the other?  I want to track these sites separately, but I only see one option for “people who haven’t visited in a certain amount of time”.
3. I would like to know why we have to set a conversion pixel for the ad set and then for the ad. What is the difference?  Meaning, when you’re tracking conversions, you have to choose which conversion tracking pixel you want to use and then Facebook also asks makes you choose which pixel you want to optimize for.
4. Should I be testing Facebook video ads?

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Got A Question You Want Answered On the Podcast?

Every month I’m doing a Q&A episode where I answer your questions about Facebook ads and paid traffic.  If you ask something I can’t answer or I feel will be better answered by a specific expert, I’ll find that person to get an answer for you.

To ask a question to be answered on the podcast, click below and leave me a voicemail.  All you need is a microphone and Internet connection.

Other Episodes You’ll Like

#24: How to Use Yahoo Gemini for Mobile, Native & Search Ads

#23: What Businesses Should & Shouldn’t Be Using YouTube Ads with Tommie Powers

#22: How to Use YouTube Videos to Grow Your Audience and Increase ROI with Derral Eves

#21: How to Turn Casual Leads Into Rabid Buyers with Charles Kirkland

Transcription of Today’s Show

Question #1:

The first question comes from Marshall Stevenson from SockBox.CA and he asks, “Is there any benefit in paying for Facebook Page likes anymore? Back in the day it was really big but now that it’s integrated within any Facebook ad, I’m wondering if there’s any value in spending money to increase page likes”.

Marshall, I get this question quite a bit. It’s a great question. Here’s my answer for you:- If you have a smaller budget (meaning if you don’t have an unlimited budget to spend on Facebook), I would not be focussing on spending your money on getting more fans on your page.

The reason for that is because you can get fans as a secondary benefit from your ads. If you’re running ads to get website conversions or clicks to website, when your ad is shown to people who are not already fans of your page, they’re going to get that Like Page button in the upper right hand corner of your ad, which I believe is what you’re referencing in the question. For that reason, for those people who aren’t actually clicking through to your website or converting, they might be becoming a fan of your page. That’s a targeted fan, that’s a good thing.

To say that you would spend a big budget on just getting fans on your page, I wouldn’t focus on that anymore because the lack of the organic reach is down to about 2-4% of your fans actually seeing your content.

I would focus more on using Facebook ads to drive conversions, get people over to your website or landing page for them to get on your email list. That’s where I’d be spending your budget.

Question #2:

Spencer from J12Media.net asks “One thing I’m still getting hung up on is the custom audience pixel. If I have multiple sites using the same pixel and I want to create an audience that hasn’t visited my website in 14 days, how does the pixel know that I want it for one site and not the other? I want to track these sites separately but I only see one option for people who haven’t visited in a certain amount of time. I’m so confused by it, they should just make multiple pixels, it would make my life easier!”

Yes, it would Spencer! This is a great question. Basically, you get one custom audience pixel for your Facebook ads account. Technically in their terms and conditions, they say that you may not manage more than one advertiser or client through a single ad account. That’s a little open to interpretation, if they mean one advertiser or client, meaning different websites, I would say yes. The way around that would be to get into Facebook’s Business Manager, which is set up for agencies and people that manage multiple accounts. If you want to be tracking people who have not visited your site in the last 14 days and you have multiple sites with one pixel, you can’t do that. It’s not going to know which one you want to set that up for. What you can do is track different URLs, different specific pages on those different sites. You can have one pixel, place it on each of those sites that you have and then track traffic that’s coming to specific pages on those different sites.

I wish I had a better answer for you but that’s the reality as it is right now. I’ve heard some rumours that some people have multiple website custom audience pixels for their one Facebook ads account. I don’t know those people so I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in it, I just heard some rumours there.

Question #3:

The next question comes from Marie, “Hello Rick, I’d like to know why we have to set a conversion pixel for the ad set and then for the ad. What’s the difference?” (Meaning, when you’re tracking conversions, you have to choose the conversion tracking pixel that you want to use at the ad set level and then again at the ad level)

I’m going to flip over to Power Editor. Ad the ad set level, keep in mind that it’s where you’re setting the conversion pixel that you want to optimize the campaign for. For example, when you want to do website conversions as your objective, meaning you want to get people to register for an event or opt-in to your email list, at the ad set level you are selecting the conversion tracking pixel that you have set up that you want the ad to be optimized for. Basically you’re telling Facebook to show your ad to as many people within your target audience who are most likely to convert against X conversion.

I understand that this gets a little bit confusing because you could be using multiple pixels within your campaign. You could be tracking opt-ins, sales (which I would encourage you to be doing) but at the ad set level when you’re selecting your conversion tracking pixel, keep in mind that you’re telling Facebook that you want to optimize the campaign to get more of your opt-ins.

At the ad level, underneath where it says The Tracking Section, you’re going to select the pixel that you want to track with. Remember, you’re optimizing for the pixel that you selected at the ad set level. What do you want to get more of?

At the ad level, you’re selecting the tracking pixel that you’ve set up to show you how many of those conversions that you have got.

99% of the time you’re going to be choosing the exact same conversion tracking pixel.

For those who are more advanced, what you might want to test is to select your sales conversion tracking pixel at the ad set level to see how that does.

What I teach in my course is to select the exact same conversion tracking pixel at the ad set level and then again at the ad level. There is a bit of a difference there. You should be optimizing the campaign for that initial opt-in to get them into your sales funnel and further down the road.

Question #4:

The next question comes from Mike and he wants to know about Facebook’s video ads and should he be testing them.

Absolutely you should be testing video ads right now. This is something that has come to the forefront over the past month or so. Especially if you’re running YouTube ads right now, I would definitely be testing video ads on Facebook, it’s a great time to be testing.

If your goal is conversions, make sure that you’re also using a conversion tracking pixel along with the video ad. I’m getting ready to test them myself and I’ve been talking to a lot of people recently who are seeing a really good cost per view and also low cost per conversion with the videos.

I’ve also tested out videos and I see greater organic reach with videos on my page. It’s getting seen by more people than a “normal” post would do. The reason for that is there’s such a big push on Facebook with video. Just last week, Facebook came out during their F8 conference and announced this whole initiative with the embedded video player.

This is their response to YouTube (it’s taken them a while to get here!) but it’s a big video push for Facebook in 2015. If you have the opportunity to be testing out some video ads, I’d definitely be doing it. Keep the videos short. Remember the mindset of people on Facebook, they’re there to share with their friends and family so you have to catch their attention quickly.

This might work really well if you have a testimonial video from a clients or a student or customer you’ve had and use it in retargeting. So if someone comes to your sales page but doesn’t buy, you could retarget them with a video ad of a testimonial of one of your clients. Or similarly you could retarget someone who has landed on your opt-in page or registration page but didn’t opt-in. You can retarget people who have come to your website.

Those are warmer potential leads and might be a really good opportunity to test video ads.

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