How to find out that they money you spent on Facebook marketing was worth enough?
What if it be otherwise? Most advertising doesn’t work where you can monitor the viewers of your ads from time to time. Think of a traditional billboard, for example. There’s no record of who has seen your billboard. There is no certain way to calculate how many people have seen it and then purchased your product because of this billboard.
Despite of its nature, social media is pretty much the same. However, there are a few ways to track ROI in several easy ways:
1. Coupons and Offers
If you offer a promotional coupon only on Facebook, then you can have 100% assurance that every coupon which customers purchased came from Facebook. Facebook introduced a more formal version of coupons called Facebook Offers. So far, more than 42 million customers have redeemed an Offer. Creating an Offer is fairly straightforward and can be tracked via a barcode for in-store Offers or an online redemption code for online offers. David Baser, Facebook’s product manager for Facebook’s Page Insights stated that “It allows online and offline stores to quickly see where the traffic is coming from”.
SweetFrog, a frozen yogurt company in Morganville, W.V., posted an Offer on its Facebook Page in November for $4, which covered “all you can fit in a 12 oz. cup.” Though more than 9,200 people claimed the offer on their desktops, just 144 people redeemed it in store. In mobile, the ratio was better: 3,747 people claimed it on their mobile devices and 382 — about 10% — claimed them in store.
2. Call Tracking Phone Numbers
Another thing to try is to provide unique call tracking phone numbers on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to learn which channel drives the most leads and conversions.
3. Conversion Measurement
The latest Facebook tool for measuring ROI is Conversion Measurement. Conversion Measurement lets advertisers track the behavior of people who click through an ad. If a customer clicks and then goes on your site to register, then you have proof that the ad was at least effective for that. Of course, the ideal scenario is when a customer clicks through an ad and then buys something on your site.
Baser says by adding Conversion Measurement to your ads and webpages is as simple as cut and pasting a few lines of code. “Anybody who runs a website should be able to do it,” he says.
In theory, when used in conjunction with OptimizedCPM, another Facebook tool, you can use the conversion data to get a better idea of whom to target. For instance, Fab used this combination to cut its cost per new customer acquisition by 39%.
4. Google Analytics
This won’t tell you what people are buying, but at least you can see if traffic is coming from Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest to your website. If you run an ad and see a bump in traffic, then you have a good idea that it’s working.
5. Look at Overall Results and Then Work Backwards
Perhaps the simplest way to calculate ROI is to look at your overall sales and then attribute a boost at least in part to your social media advertising or activity. Sam’s Chowder House, for example, ran a status update on its Facebook Page about a special and doubled their business that day compared to the same day in 2011. “The only thing they did differently was a status update,” says Baser. Of course, this is a fairly blunt instrument. There are various factors including the weather, the day of the week and the economy that might have an effect as well.
However, the tips above will only give you a limited snapshot of how well your social media advertising is working. Most marketers often give up on social media advertising because they don’t see much measurable activity. As a part of the company, they shouldn’t look at social as its own channel. A search marketer will say social media doesn’t work because customers don’t click and buy stuff, while there’s brand value there. You will certainly build a relationship.