Action Steps for Getting Started With Facebook Retargeting

New to retargeting?  The previous post covered the Basic Concepts of Facebook Retargeting.

Facebook calls collecting of information about visitors and customers to your Websites creating “Custom Audiences.” You can Promote Posts to these audiences and that is generally called “Retargeting.”  Now that we have some of the concepts and keywords to help you get started. Let’s take the next step…

We are going to take a brief (very brief) look at each of the six simple steps involved in Facebook Retargeting.

We covered this is the previous post, but here are the six simple steps involved

 

 

1. You open up your Ad Manager Account in Facebook and obtain a snippet of JavaScript.

NOTE: There is only One Snippet of JavaScript per Ad Manager Account. It Doesn’t matter how many websites you manage the code is identical.

 

Go to Ads Manager à Tools

Create a Custom Audience to Get The JavaScript Code

#1 – Click on Tools

#2 – Click on Audiences

#3 – We will create an Audience with this button

Open The Create Audience Drop Down Menu

#1 – Click on Create Audience

#2 – Click on Custom Audience

We are interested in Website Traffic

Choose Website Traffic

            Click on Website Traffic

 

Here is one option.

In the Next Screen let’s ask for everyone who visited our site

Everyone Who Visited Selected Pages

#1 – Pick the kind of website traffic

#2 – In this case include the string you want Facebook to look for

#3 – Change this to 180 (the max that Facebook allows)

#4 – Name your Custom Audience

#5 – Click on Create Audience.

Choose Everyone Who Visits Specific Pages

Data for Everyone Who Visits My Website

#1 – Choose the second option – “People who visit specific web pages

#2 – Enter the domain for your website (leaving off the http:// – some will enter http://www.YourSite)

#3 – Change to 180 days – the max Facebook will search

#4 – Name the Audience

#4 – Click on the Create Audience Button

You will get a Thank You Screen – click OK

Now you will see your new Custom Audience in the list of audiences. Obviously there can’t be any data – you haven’t put the JavaScript code into the Header of Your Website yet.

Get the JavaScript Code (the Pixel)

Steps to Get the Pixel

#1 – That is the Custom Audience Name we just entered on the last screen.

#2 – Put a check mark in the darn near invisible box to the left of your next Customer Audience

#3 – that will activate the “Actions” button – it was grayed out until you clicked the little check box. Click the Actions drawdown menu

 #4 – Click on View Pixel

Note:  Here is a nice article about this:    http://www.jonloomer.com/2015/07/16/facebook-upgraded-pixel/    

 

Copy the Pixel Code

#1 – Copy the code (Ctrl-C or Cmd-C)

#2 – You will need this little piece of code too.

 

The code seems to work just the way it is, but I’d like to do what they tell me since it may have implications I don’t understand. (In face I’m SURE it does.)

Paste the Code into NotePad

This is what the code looks like after I pasted it into NotePad.   Note the </script> line near the bottom.

We need to go back to our web browser and get the other small piece of code I pointed out above.

Paste the code Right ABOVE the </script> line.

Now we have the JavaScript to put into our website.

Modified JavaScript Code

#1 – This is the line of code we just entered.

Highlight all of the text (Ctrl-A or Cmd-A) and Copy (Ctrl-C or Cmd-C)

 

2. You insert this code so that it runs every time a page is displayed. (This is called “putting the code in the Header”). This sets up your website so that Facebook can tell who visited you site. It also lets you create Custom Audiences for any individual page on your site. You do exactly what we did above, you just substitute the URL for the page you want instead of the root domain name. (Aagain I would remove the http://)

 

WORDPRESS INSTALLATION

I’m going to show you two WordPress installations. Other Themes may have their own way of doing this. Websites that are not WordPress also have their own way of doing this. It often involves editing a file like Header.php.

 

WordPress Installation 1: The Theme Does Not Have a Place To Enter the Code

 

1. I install a WordPress Plugin called AddFunc Head and Footer (This is a standard Plugins à Add Plugin   Search for AddFunc Head and Footer. Select it and click on Install and Activate)
2. To Insert the Pixel Code Click on Settings à Head & Footer Code

 

Running Head and Footer Plugin

#1 – Click on Settings

#2 – Click on Head ^ Footer Code

You will see a place to put the Site Wide Head Code

Insert Site Wide Head Code

#1 – Here we are in the Head and Footer Plugin Page

#2 – Paste your modified JavaScript here. (Of course you can do the edits here. I made it an extra step to keep people where they were used to being as long as possible. J )

#3 – This is the link we inserted

#4 – Click on DONE and you are DONE

 

WordPress Installation 2: The Theme Does Have a Place To Enter the Code

Here is an example of a Theme that DOES HAVE a built-in place to put this code. The theme is called ProductPages.

Click on the Theme Name à Dashboard

Product Pages Dashboard

#1 – Click on Theme Name

#2 – Click on Dashboard.

Scroll down the page and you will see a place to put Header Code (They call it Google Analytics, but since Google Analytic’s code goes in exactly the same place this will work find.)

Insert Into Tracking Code Box

#1 – Here is the Tracking Code place

#2 – This is the line of code we inserted into the basic JavaScript we copied from Facebook

#3 – Click on the SAVE ALL CHANGES Button at the bottom of the screen

WE ARE DONE!

NOTE: You might be tempted to save this code in a file somewhere. I would NOT. Facebook changes this stuff all the time. If you install this code next week, there might be a better version available that you would miss.

Now a very small image (1 pixel x 1 pixel) is displayed when someone views a page on your website.   A pixel is one of the tiny dots that make up your screen. Our typical monitors have over 1,000 dots going across each of the virtually invisible rows that make up the picture on our screen. This super tiny image is virtually invisible to the naked eye.   This code ends up being called a pixel. It is named after the one pixel by one pixel image that is displayed.

3. A visitor comes to your website and views a page. The tiny image is displayed on each page they visit.
4. The image being displayed is not on the website being visited. The website has to go out to another company (like Facebook) and ask for the image. When a website tries to display Facebook’s image, Facebook collects information about the browser and the person viewing the page. For Facebook this means they collect the viewer’s Facebook ID, what page they are viewing and a lot more.   All of this information is stored in a HUGE database. Facebook alone must have trillions and trillions of records in their database.
5. As the owner of the website and a Facebook account you can ask Facebook to search their database and create a “Custom Audience” of everyone who visited a certain page or a certain website.
6. When you are ready you make a post on one of your Facebook Fan Pages and pay Facebook to ‘Promote The Post” to members of the Custom Audience.

Let’s gp ahead and show step 6 where we are here. We are going to create an ad and send it to a custom audience.

There are eight SMALL steps involved here.

1. You must create a post on a Facebook page that you are an administrator on. This post is your ad.
2. You start to create an ad in the Facebook Ad Manager.
3. You select your Facebook Page
4. You select your post (you can create the post here. This is called a Dark Post, it never actually shows on the Facebook Fan Page.)
5. You select your Custom Audience as your target
6. You set your budget
7. You decide where you want the post to show (Desktop newsfeed, Mobile Newsfeed and/or Desktop sidebar.)
8. You Submit the Ad for Review.

 

STEP 1 – Create a Post that Will Be Your Ad (We will do this below as a Dark Post.

Start to Create the Ad

The next step involves picking which Facebook Fan Page you will use to host your post.   You must be an administrator of this page. You may need to create a page if your product is not congruent with any of the pages you already have. (I wouldn’t sell baby toys on my Boxer Page.)

You have a choice of putting your post on the page before you start there is a small plus sign below that lets you create a post on the fly. This will be a Dark Post – it will never be seen by anyone browsing the Facebook page. (Often a good thing since you don’t want your small pages flooded with nothing by advertisements.)

Pick Your Page and Your Post

#1 – Choose Boost Your Post (the name many change again tomorrow J )

#2 – Pick the Facebook Page from a drop down list of pages.

#3 – Either pick the Post you want to Boost or

#4 – You can create a Dark Post here. (If you create a Dark Post, you will end up having to select it from the drop down – #3 above – anyway.)

#5 – Click Continue

 

Be Sure to Make a More Descriptive Title for This Ad

Improve the Title

#1 – That title doesn’t give you much help about what the post is about. Fix that.

Now Select the Custom Audience You Want to Target.

Select Custom Audience

#1 – Here we see a more descriptive title

#2 – Here we are picking an existing Custom Audience that has several hundred people targeted.

Note: When you create most ads you need to adjust for Gender, Age, Interests, etc. Here you Do Not need to do that. These people have already self-selected themselves into the group.

Scroll Down and SET YOUR BUDGET  (Not Shown)

Pick Where the Ad Will Display

#1 – Here I turned the Right Side Feed off

#2 – Submit the Ad for Approval

 

Two More Advanced Steps

1. Viewed and did not purchase – What you would actually like to do is target those who viewed a sales page and DID NOT buy the product. To do that you start the ad with a custom audience that visted the Sales Page and subtract a Custom Audience that visited a Thank You page after their purchase. That leaves you with the people who did NOT buy. It some situations (like when the purchase is made on Amazon), you can’t tell who actually purchased and in that case the best you can do is target those who visited the page.
2. Pretty Link – The link I put in the ad is actually sends the people who click to a plugin on my website called Pretty Link. That plugin does tow things a) it counts how many people clicked on the link and b) it redirects the visitors to the actual page I want them to go to. In this case that page link also contained considerable information in the form of parameters. That way I get a relatively short link in my ad and the visitor goes where I really want them to go.

SUMMARY

We just walked through the following:

1. Getting the JavaScript Code from your account in Facebook
2. Placing the JavaScript Code into a WordPress Site.
3. Creating a Facebook ad using a Custom Audience created using JavaScript code.

 

 

 

Until Next time, you have a Great Day!  Oh Hale Yes!

– Hale Yes!

 

Skype hale.pringle

Email:  Hale@

 

Connect with me of LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

P.S. If you are working to move sell your products on Amazon and it just isn’t working, I can help!  You can also take a look around http://, especially the resources menu option. You will see that I am a Certified eCommerce Coach with Ann Sieg and the Head Coach for Ecom Masters – FBA Edition.  We are selling lots of things online – mostly using FBA through Amazon.  In addition to eCommerce I specialize in list building, am a Certified Internet Marketing Trainer with Ann Sieg and an award winning blogger. I’ve also written three books on AWeber (AWeber: Quick Start) and over 20 others. You can email me or give me a Skype call. I’ll give you the benefit of my years of experience and many thousands of dollars in training and searching the rabbit hole called Internet Marketing and especially selling physical products online.  My Cell is 321 279 9615