by Rianna M. Hill | rianna@pancakedigitalsolutions.com
When creating an advertising strategy on Facebook, there are several objectives to consider. What is the purpose of the advertising campaign? What actions do you want the audience to take when they see the advertisement? This post takes a look at the first objective in the consideration phase of Facebook ads: Traffic.
According to Facebook, the objective of a traffic ad is to: “Send people from Facebook to any URL you choose, such as your website’s landing page, a blog post, app etc.”
This is one of 12 posts for the Facebook Ads Objectives Part 3: Traffic. Traffic simply means people visiting a website. This includes number of people visited, number of times visited, and a collection of other metrics for what people do once they get to the website.
As the first objective on the consideration phase of Facebook Advertising, the traffic reach is geared towards a warm audience. This means people are likely already familiar with the brand or they have heard of the product before. Traffic to a website is like people visiting a store, if the website is the virtual storefront.
Link Clicks
The objective of traffic ads is to optimize towards someone clicking the link in the ad. Therefore. the main metric measured for this ads objective is link clicks. This can come from a user clicking directly on the link in the text, the button, or the image. However, it does not take into account if the user actually goes through to the landing page or spends time on the page. Some research has indicated that up to 80% of some ads link clicks were accidental.
Regardless, this ads objective is optimized toward users in your audience most likely to click a link. There is a place for this in many ads strategies.
The Facebook Pixel
The traffic Facebook advertising objective is when the Facebook pixel becomes important. The Facebook pixel is a bit of code that is placed on the website to track what users do once they get to the website. With the Facebook pixel, you are also then able to create an audience of people who have visited your website to show them more ads. This is part of the stepping stone from a warm audience to a hot audience.
Here is more about the Facebook pixel and how to install your own.
When to Use the Traffic Facebook Ads Objective for Your Business
First and most important, your business must have a website for the traffic ads. There must be a link to advertise with this objective. It can work for Etsy stores, but ideally, you will be advertising towards your website.
Using this traffic objective for your business is a great way to get people familiar with your website and to spend time on the website. This builds a warm audience of people that are familiar with your brand and products/services. While you can see some sales from this objective, it is usually just a piece of a successful ads strategy.
On the Table…
The is the Facebook Ads Objectives Part 3: Traffic blog for this 12 part series. Traffic ads are measured by the metric of link clicks, optimizing towards users clicking a link. For your Facebook ads strategy, this is a great way to build a warm audience of people who have viewed your website. It is a step between people learning about your brand and buying your product/service.
Learn more about social media for business and Facebook Advertising in our free group, Marketing for Makers.