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How To Use Facebook Pixel Reporting To Identify Who Is Secretly Using Fetch And Render In GSC On Your Site

August 3, 2017 By Glenn Gabe Leave a Comment

Using Facebook pixel reporting to surface fetch and render.

I can see you, and now you can see me. :)

A few months ago, Dan Sharp from Screaming Frog wrote a killer post about how to use fetch and render in Google Search Console (GSC) on almost any site. Fetch and render in GSC enables you see how Googlebot is rendering any page on your site (since it fetches all necessary resources to render the page at hand, including JavaScript, CSS, images, etc.) It enables you to detect differences in how Googlebot is viewing your page versus the average user.

It’s an awesome tool and can help identify blocked resources, trouble with rendering content, etc. If you want to learn more about what you can find using fetch and render, you can check out my Search Engine Land column titled Fetch and Horror.

Dan’s global fetch and render approach was to iframe urls from another unverified website on your own domain and then use fetch and render in GSC. It works, and pretty darn well. I’ve set this up and tested it myself, and it does indeed work.

For example, here’s a third party fetch of the Big Green Egg homepage (one of my favorite grills btw):

Using Global Fetch and Render

That’s cool, but let’s face it, rendering a site that you don’t own and control does give you a creepy feeling. You aren’t really authorized to use fetch and render in GSC on any site other than your own verified site(s). So rendering another person’s site is like virtually trying on their clothes from the comfort of your own home. Yes, that sounds creepy and it’s a good analogy. You are basically “fetching around”. You might feel like this:

Global Fetch and Render is creepy.

And for those on the opposite end (being fetched), they can feel violated when someone is fetching and rendering their urls in order to see if there are any render problems. Again, it’s all a bit creepy.

But Are You Really Invisible?… No, Everything Is Trackable
As I was testing this out via my own setup, I started wondering how easily sites being rendered without consent could tell a third party was doing this. And if they could check that easily, it could lead to some uncomfortable situations. Which leads me to my next point…

Facebook Pixel Insights, With A Twist.
I was recently checking out Facebook’s pixel reporting and noticed an interesting finding. If you’re not familiar with the Facebook pixel, it enables you to cookie any visitor to your site and then retarget them back on Facebook. It’s a powerful approach that I’ve written about several times before (especially for boosting content to various custom audiences).

As I was reviewing the pixel reporting in Facebook Business Manager, I checked the domains tab. And clicking that tab just might blow your fetch-and-rendered mind. It will show you any domain where your pixel has fired. And I mean any domain.

Mind blown.

In theory, most sites should only see their own domain listed… so if you see others listed, then something funny could be going on (like another site scraping your pages). And of course, this would show any site that is iframing your content. And that’s exactly what you need to do in order to fetch and render another site’s urls. Do you see where this is leading?

How To Access Pixel Reporting in Facebook Business Manager
In order to view your Facebook pixel reporting, first access Facebook Business Manager. Once you do, click the hamburger menu in the upper left corner. You’ll see several options in the menu, including Pixels. Click that link in the menu and you’ll be taken to a screen that shows all of your “pixel fires”.

Pixel reporting in Facebook Business Manager

Once you are viewing your pixel reporting, you’ll see four tabs, including Events, URLs, Domains, and Devices. The Domains tab is the one you should check out.

The Domains Tab in Facebook's Pixel Reporting

When checking the list of domains in my reporting, I noticed the test domain I was using to set up global fetch and render using Dan’s approach.

Here’s what I saw:

Facebook pixel reporting for domains.

So my own domain is listed, which is correct, but there are several others there that shouldn’t be. And one is the domain I’m using for global fetch and render. Uh oh, I caught myself. :)

Caught fetching around.

Beware, Your Digital Camouflage Isn’t Perfect:
OK, this means any site using the Facebook pixel could easily see that you have been fetch and rendering their urls. Cue creepy music. Remember, everything is trackable on the web (ok, almost anything). So, before you fire up your new global fetch and render setup, just know that websites have an easy way to identify who is fetching around. And by the way, who would think that Facebook would be the one helping SEOs uncover this? Ironic, don’t you think? :)

Big Recommendation: Set up FB’s tracking pixel (for more than this reason!)
When Dan’s global fetch and render approach was published, many were thrilled to try it out (myself included). But there were some concerns about who might be fetching your own site. Now with the Facebook pixel reporting, you can easily check the domains where your pixel is firing. And if any of those domains aren’t your own, then they just might be “fetching around”.

So definitely set up the Facebook pixel, and for more than just this reason. Boosting content to custom audiences is an amazing way to help get your content in front of a very targeted audience. And now that you can see who is rendering your own content, there’s yet another benefit to installing the Facebook pixel. So do it today. It should only take you a few minutes to set up.

In closing, fetch and render is powerful, but be careful if you’re “fetching around”. Facebook apparently has the back of site owners, and those site owners just might see you poking around. See what I did there? :)

GG

 

Filed Under: facebook, google, seo, social-advertising, social-media, tools

How To Hack Boosted Posts Via Facebook Ads Manager To Target Multiple Custom Audiences At One Time

June 2, 2016 By Glenn Gabe 7 Comments

Boosting a post via Facebook Ads Manager

Boosting Facebook posts to custom audiences is a great way to reach a targeted audience (and at a relatively low cost). Many people running Facebook pages don’t realize this, but you don’t have to boost a post simply to your fanbase. Instead, you can boost a post to any custom audience you have set up in Facebook. That includes people on your email list, people that have visited your website, and any lookalike audiences you have created. That’s where the true power lies.

By boosting to a custom audience, you are getting in front of people that already know of your brand, have engaged with your company in the past, etc. Your boosted posts can show up in the News Feed (both desktop and mobile), and you’ll find boosting an incredibly cost-effective way to advertise. In my experience, boosting to a custom audience has yielded strong engagement with low cost. And that’s a great combination for any advertiser.

The Problem – How Traditional Boosted Posts Work
So you can tell I’m a big fan of boosting posts, but I haven’t explained the part of boosting that annoys the heck out of me. When you boost a post the traditional way (right from your Facebook page), you don’t have many targeting options available. You can select a single custom audience, but you cannot combine that custom audience with other targeting options. That means that you might not be able to gain the momentum you might be looking for from the boost. For example, wouldn’t it be great to boost a post to multiple lookalike audiences all at one time?

The only way to target another custom audience for a traditional boost is to change the targeting down the line (you can switch from one custom audience to another, but you can’t combine them.) Here’s an example of “resetting” the targeting for a boost down the line:

Changing an audience for a Facebook boost.

From an overall targeting standpoint with traditional boosted posts, you can’t geotarget by country or city, you can’t layer on other targeting like demographics or interests, and you can’t select multiple custom audiences at one time. And if you’re targeting lookalikes (which are currently built by country), you cannot target multiple lookalike audiences to reach several countries at one time. So boosting is great, but there are limitations… until you learn what I’m about to show you. :)

Can You Boost A Single Post To Multiple Target Audiences At One Time?
Yes, you can. And I find many people don’t even know it’s possible. But you can’t accomplish this by using the traditional method for boosting Facebook posts. But, by using Ads Manager or Power Editor, you can boost a post by creating a specific campaign for the boost. And when you do, you have all the power of Facebook ads combined with the power of custom audiences. You’ll be able to set up multiple ad sets with their own targeting, you’ll have many more targeting options available, and you’ll be able to target multiple audiences (in multiple countries) from the boost all at one time.

What About Likes, Shares, and Comments? Where Will They Show Up?
It’s important to know that all likes, shared, and comments from your boosted posts will show up in the original Facebook post (when boosted via Ads Manager). I know some people think that since you are creating ads via Facebook Ads Manager that any likes, shares, and comments will not show up in the original post. That’s not true… they definitely will. For example, see the screenshot below.

Engagement will show up in a boosted Facebook post.

How To Set Up a Boosted Post Campaign Via Ads Manager
Let’s say you just posted a new update on your Facebook page and you want to boost that post. But, you want to boost the post to multiple custom audiences, including lookalikes from across multiple countries, all at one time. Good luck trying to do that with a typical boost.

Instead of using a traditional boost, we’re going to set up a campaign in Ads Manager for boosting the post. And when we do, we’ll be able to set up multiple ad sets, combine audiences, and reach multiple lookalike audiences across countries, all in one shot. Here we go.

1. Set Up Your “Boosted Posts” campaign.
Go to Ads Manager and create a new campaign. Choose the consideration marketing objective and “Engagement” which uses the page post engagement objective. Give your campaign a name at the bottom of the screen and click continue.

Boost a Facebook post via Ads Manager.

2. Define Your Audience
OK, this is one of the core reasons to use Ads Manager to boost an update. This is where you can select your custom audiences, combine those audiences, target lookalikes across multiple countries, etc. You also have tight control over geotargeting. For example, you can even target specific cities within a country if you want. You can also layer on additional targeting, like age, gender, language, and interests. Seriously, you have killer options here compared to simply boosting a post.

Selecting an audience for a boosted campaign in Ads Manager.

3. Choose Placements
Next you can choose where your boosted posts show up in Facebook. I typically select both desktop and mobile News Feed, but you also have options for Instagram and Desktop Right Column.

Selecting placements for a boosted post in Ads Manager.

4. Budget and Schedule
You’ll notice you have much more control over your budget and scheduling when boosting a post via Ads Manager. You can set your budget, the type of optimization for ad delivery, you can use ad scheduling if you use the lifetime budget option, you can set delivery type, and more. I told you that you’ll have more control… Once you’re done, click continue.

Selecting a budget for a boosted campaign in Ads Manager.

5. Select Creative
Now you can select the Facebook post that you want to boost. You can also create a post to boost if you want to start fresh. For this example, select the Facebook page you want to use, and then select a post to boost. Once selected, you’ll see the post show up in the ad preview area. That’s where you can preview the boost across the placements you selected in step three (Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, etc.)

Choosing a Facebook post for a boosted campaign in Ads Manager.

6. Review Your Order
I typically click “Review Order” at the bottom of the window to make sure everything looks ok before launching the campaign. If everything looks good with your settings, then click “Place Order”. Once you do, the boost will go into review, and it should go live shortly.

Bonus: Create Additional “Boosted” Ad Sets
Since the boost was created in Ads Manager as a typical Facebook campaign, you’ll notice there is an ad set created for you. Targeting and budget are completed at the ad set level, so you can actually duplicate that ad set to target multiple audiences and countries by ad set if you want. You can also set different budgets per ad set. Again, you have much greater control by using Ads Manager.

For example, maybe you want to have ad sets by country so you can analyze each one at a granular level. You can also have greater control over budget by using multiple ad sets. And once again, it’s important to know that you cannot accomplish this with a typical boosted post. Here’s an example of multiple ad sets for a boosted post targeting separate custom audiences with distinct budgets.

Using multiple ad sets for targeting and budget for a boosted post campaign.

A Note About Power Editor and Boosted Post Campaigns:
For those of you that love Power Editor (PE), you can absolutely set up boosted post campaigns in PE (using the page post engagement objective). The process is slightly different, and a little more involved, but you can definitely achieve exactly what I explained in this post when using Power Editor. I won’t provide the step-by-step instructions in this post, but just know that you can create boosted post campaigns via both Ads Manager and Power Editor. Here’s a screenshot from Power Editor where you can see the option for “Post Engagement”.

Boosting posts in Facebook via Power Editor.

Summary – Hack Those Boosted Posts!
After reading this post, I hope you see the power of boosting Facebook posts via Ads Manager or Power Editor. By doing so, you have much more control over custom audience targeting, geographic targeting, demographic targeting, budget, and more. Boosting posts via Ads Manager definitely enables you to overcome some of the shortcomings of a traditional boost. I recommend trying it out soon and testing out various options. I think you’re going to dig it. Boost away.

GG

 

Filed Under: facebook, social-advertising, tools

Facebook Ads for eCommerce – How To Combine Custom Audiences, Lookalikes, and Unpublished Posts to Target Customers and Similar Users

August 12, 2013 By Glenn Gabe 6 Comments

How to use unpublished posts as Facebook Ads

I used to be extremely critical of Facebook Ads in the past.  But that’s before Facebook released a boatload of functionality for enhancing your campaigns.  Sure, marketplace ads, or ads running the right sidebar, have seen declining engagement over the years, but that’s just a fraction of what you can do now with Facebook Ads.  And I’m finding many advertisers don’t know about the powerful options available to them.

For example, there’s FBX (or retargeting on Facebook), news feed targeting, mobile-only targeting, promoted posts, custom audiences, lookalike audiences, unpublished posts, etc.  And with this enhanced functionality comes better targeting and performance.  Now, I still think paid search can reach someone who is searching for a specific solution at the exact time they need it, and social advertising can’t do that (yet).  But, using advanced targeting within Facebook can absolutely make an impact, and on multiple levels.

In this post, I’m going to explain one method of using three pieces of functionality in Facebook Ads that might change your view of social advertising.  It has for me, and I’ve been using this technique for some time now.  It leverages unpublished posts, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences to target your current customers, and users similar to your customers, when you are running a specific promotion or sale.  It’s a great way to make the most of your current assets, and at a relatively low cost.

Meet Unpublished Posts
I find many business owners have no idea what unpublished posts are.  If you fit into this category, then today is your lucky day.  Unpublished posts enable page owners to create page updates that don’t get shared with their entire fan base.  In addition, you can run ads based on the unpublished posts and use a wealth of ad targeting to reach the right audience (which can include current customers).  Interesting, right?

Unpublished posts in Facebook

The easiest way to create an unpublished post is to use Power Editor.  And if you’re running Facebook Ads and not using Power Editor, you should start today.  It offers a lot of functionality and targeting options not available in Ads Manager (which is what advertisers use on Facebook’s website).

By clicking “Manage Pages” in Power Editor, you can actually craft a page post.  But since we want an unpublished post, you can create the update and not publish it.  That’s ultra-important, since we want to use the post as an ad, and not an update that’s broadcast to your entire fan base.

Creating an unpublished post in Facebook using Power Editor.

So, if you’re an ecommerce provider running a specific sale, you could create an update focusing on that sale, with an understanding it will reach a very specific audience (and not every fan).  I’ll cover how to target specific parts of your customer list soon, including people that are similar to those users.  Once you create your post, you can click your account ID in the left pane to return to your ads dashboard (in Power Editor).

Now we’re ready to talk about custom audiences and lookalikes.

Meet Custom Audiences and Lookalikes
I wrote a post earlier in the year about custom audiences in Facebook.  You should read that post to learn how to set them up.  You’ll need a custom audience in order to use the method I’m covering in this post (since that’s the audience you will target, and it’s also the list you will use to create a lookalike audience).

Custom audiences enable you to upload a list of current customers, based on your in-house email list.  Then, Facebook will match up the list with users on the social network.  Yes, you read that correctly.  That means you can target your in-house email list (or parts of that list) via Facebook Ads.  Awesome, right?

Using Custom Audiences in Facebook

Once your custom audience is created, you can use that list to target current customers with specific promotions and sales.  And you can use unpublished posts to reach them.  Did you catch that?  I said unpublished posts.  That means getting your targeted promotion in front of your current customers (whether they are fans of your page or not).

Great, but what’s a lookalike?
Lookalike audiences enable you to base a new audience (set of Facebook users) on a custom audience (your current customers).  Facebook reviews a number of characteristics about your custom audience (your current customer base), and then finds people similar to your customers.  Yes, once again, eye-opening targeting opportunity ahead.

Imagine you had five custom audiences set up, all containing specific customers for specific categories of products.  Then you could use lookalikes to find similar people (which you can then target via Facebook Ads).  The old days of Facebook ads seem so caveman-like, right?  :)

How To Set Up Lookalikes
Once you have set up a custom audience (following my tutorial), then you can easily select that audience in Power Editor, and choose “Create Similar Audience”.  Choose “Similarity” in the dialog box and Facebook will find users that are similar to your in-house list (based on a number of criteria).  It could take up to 24 hours to create the list, but I’ve seen it take much less time than that (especially for smaller lists).

Using Lookalike Audiences in Facebook

Combining Unpublished Posts, Custom Audiences, and Lookalikes
OK, we have covered unpublished posts that contain targeted messages about new promotions or sales.  We have also covered custom audiences based on our in-house email list.  And, we have covered lookalike audiences, which enable us to target similar people to our own customers.  Now we are ready to tie them together.

1. Create a New Campaign
In Power Editor, you can create a new campaign and set the campaign parameters like name, budget, etc.

Creating a new Facebook campaign in Power Editor.

2. Create a New Ad
Click the “Ads” tab to create your ad.  Under “Type”, choose “Ad”, and then select the radio button labeled “For a Facebook Page Using a Page Post”.  That will enable you to choose an unpublished post for your ad.

Creating an unpublished post ad in Facebook.

3. Choose a Destination
For “Destination”, choose your Facebook Page.  Note, your page’s image and title will still link users to your page, but the post itself can drive users to the sale landing page on your website.  Your post itself is where you should place the link to your landing page (on your own site).  In addition, you should add tracking parameters to your destination urls for your unpublished post (so you can track each campaign via your analytics package).

Choosing an ad destination for unpublished post ad in Facebook.

4. Select An Unpublished Post
Now, choose your unpublished post to use that post as the actual ad.  Note, you can also create your unpublished post at this stage (using Power Editor).  That’s a nice feature that was recently added.

Selecting a page post for an unpublished post ad in Power Editor.

5. Choose your placement:
OK, how awesome is this?  You get to choose where your unpublished post shows up.  For example, in the News Feed (Desktop and Mobile).  This is the most powerful placement in my opinion.  Your ads will show up directly in someone’s news feed versus along the right side.

Choosing ad placement for unpublished post in Power Editor.

6. Choose Your Targeting
Under “Audience”, you can choose targeting, based on the goals of your campaign.  Note, this is not where you will choose your custom or lookalike audience, although the tab is titled “Audience”.  You can choose location, age, gender, etc. if you want more granular targeting than just the custom audiences we created earlier.

Choosing ad targeting for unpublished post in Power Editor.

7. Choose Your Audience (Yes, this is what we’ve been waiting for.)
Under “Advanced Options”, you’ll notice the first field is titled “Custom Audiences”.  If you start typing in that field, your custom audience should show up (based on what you named the audience when you created it).  Once selected, it should show up in the field.  You can leave the rest of the targeting options located below as-is.

Selecting a custom audience for an unpublished post ad in Power Editor.

Clarification Side Note:
To clarify what we’ve been doing, this ad will target your current customer list.  When you create a second campaign, you can choose your lookalike audience.  Then you can run both campaigns and target both your current customer list and people similar to your current customers.   And since they are in separate campaigns, with separate tracking parameters, you can track performance by audience.  Awesome.

8. Select Your Pricing and Status Options
For this example, let’s choose CPC and enter the desired cost per click.  Facebook will provide a suggested CPC to the right.  Once completed, you’re ready to rock.

How to set pricing for an unpublished post ad in Power Editor.

9. Upload Your Campaign
Click “Upload” in Power Editor and your ad will be uploaded to Facebook, where it will need to be approved.  Once approved, you’ll receive a notification that your unpublished post is live.

Uploading an unpublished post ad using Power Editor.

Why this approach works:

1. Exposure and Sharing
By using this approach, you can get your latest sale or promotion in front of your current customers as they browse Facebook, while also providing a great opportunity for that sale or promotion to get shared.  For example a current customer might like your update, and it could hit their friends’ news feeds, which can provide even more exposure and opportunities to land new customers.

2. Engagement
Even though the unpublished post is technically an ad, it still looks and works like a typical page post update.  That means users can like, share, and comment on the post.  And yes, users often do like and comment on unpublished post ads.  Remember, the unpublished post ad is hitting users’ news feeds (both desktop and mobile), so there is a strong chance they will be exposed to your ad.   And if it’s crafted well, then there’s a chance that a certain percentage of that audience will engage with the post. It’s a great way to engage your current customers, while also engaging similar people (via a lookalike audience).

3. Page Likes
Gaining more page likes is an added benefit to using this approach.  Sure, you want people to click through to your sale landing page and buy, but you probably also want more page likes (so you can reach more people with your organic status updates down the line).  I’ve seen unpublished post ads work extremely well for gaining more page likes (across industries).  For example, a recent campaign I launched increased page likes by 7% during a one week period.  Not bad, when you take into account the other benefits from running the campaign (like exposure, sharing, engagement, and sales – which I’ll cover next).

4. Sales (and other important conversions)
Using this approach can yield a low CPA, high ROAS method for increasing sales for specific promotions.  I’ve run campaigns where the CPC was under $0.40 per click, and depending on the specific campaign, return on ad spend (ROAS) can be extremely strong.  For example, 2000 clicks at $0.40 per click is $800.  A conversion rate of 2.0% and an average order value of $75 would yield $3000 in revenue and 275% ROAS.  That’s just a small and quick example, but unpublished page post ads could yield a shot in the arm pretty quickly.

And from a B2B standpoint, with average order values typically much higher than B2C, the ROAS could be even greater.  Even a handful of sales could generated thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars in revenue.  For example, a recent campaign I launched for a client focused on items starting at $1000 (and some were up to $5000 per item).  Even one sale at $5K based on the campaign I mentioned before would yield a strong ROAS.

And let’s not forget other important micro-conversions on your website.  For example, newsletter signups, which can be a great driver of revenue for any ecommerce provider, app downloads, requests for more information, etc. all fall under this category and can start forging a relationship between prospective customers and your business.

What’s the Downside?
OK, I love using this approach, but social advertising brings some unique challenges with it.  Since what we’ve covered is an actual page post, and not a straight ad, users can interact with it.  That means both positive and negative interaction can occur.  For example, you might have some unhappy customers post their negative feedback in the unpublished page post ad.  How you deal with that situation is for another post, but I always recommend addressing the problem directly (in the post).  But again, there are several situations that can arise, and I’ll try and address them in a future post.  Just keep in mind that users can comment, and those comments might not always be positive.

The Power of Unpublished Posts, Custom Audiences, and Lookalikes
After reading this post, I hope you better understand the power of using unpublished posts along with custom audiences and lookalike audiences.  Unfortunately, the features and functionality I covered in the post are not readily apparent to many Facebook advertisers.  And that’s a shame, since they can be extremely effective for businesses looking to engage current customers and new audiences, while also increasing sales.  I recommend testing this approach soon to see if it can be effective for your business.

You can start today. Create a custom audience, create a lookalike audience, and use Power Editor to create unpublished post ads.  You may never look back.  :)

GG

 

Filed Under: ecommerce, facebook, social-advertising, social-media, tools

AdWords for Twitter – How To Set Up Keyword Targeting Campaigns in Twitter Ads [Tutorial]

April 19, 2013 By Glenn Gabe Leave a Comment

Keyword Targeting in Twitter Ads

There was a big announcement on Wednesday in the advertising world.  Twitter finally launched a keyword targeting solution for Twitter Ads.  Yes, that means AdWords-like targeting for Twitter.  Many in the industry (including myself) have thought for a long time that Twitter should launch something like this… and it’s finally here.

As soon as I heard the news, I ran to my Twitter Advertising dashboard to jump in.  Based on setting up my first set of campaigns, I decided to write this post to detail how keyword targeting works in Twitter, how to set up a campaign, explain the targeting options you have, etc.  My hope is that after you read this post, you’ll be off and running with your first AdWords-like Twitter campaign. :)

What is Keyword Targeting in Twitter?
Let’s start with a quick introduction.  With this new release, advertisers can now promote certain tweets based on keywords that users are searching for on Twitter, based on keywords used in their tweets, or based on keywords found in tweets users recently engaged with.  When a match is made, your promoted tweet has an opportunity to win placement either in a user’s Twitter stream or in the search results (for when someone searches Twitter).

A Promoted Tweet looks like this:
Example of Promoted Tweet

 

Creating Your First Campaign
In your Twitter Ads dashboard, you should click “Create campaign” in the upper left-hand corner.

Create a keyword targeting campaign in Twitter Ads

 

Next, click the “Promote your Tweets” button to select a promoted tweets campaign.

 

Select campaign type in Twitter Ads

 

Once you select a promoted tweets campaign, you should click the button labeled “Target by keywords” to create a keyword targeting campaign.

 

Select keyword targeting in Twitter Ads

 

Your Options (Feed and Search)
When you decide to launch a keyword targeting campaign in Twitter, you’ll have to decide if you want to target the search results or users’ timelines.  I like that Twitter forces you to break out campaigns by type, since I would have recommended doing that anyway.   This will enable you to better analyze the effectiveness of your targeting (very similar to breaking out display network and search campaigns in AdWords).

Target search or users' timelines

 

Keyword Match Types
Next, you’ll need to address the keywords you will target for your campaign.  Similar to AdWords or Bing Ads, you have several options when targeting keywords.  You can choose unordered match (which is similar to broad match), phrase match, or exact match.  Unordered match will match your keywords, but those keywords can be in any order.  Phrase match requires the keywords be in the exact order you list, but other keywords can be at the beginning or end of the query.  And exact match requires a perfect match on the keywords you enter – without any other keywords in the query.  Exact match is the most restrictive of the match types and is only available when you target the search results.

Choosing keywords for your Twitter Ads campaign

 

Note, you can also import keywords as comma separated, or line separated (which is a nice option for importing keywords from other platforms).

 

Importing keywords in Twitter Ads

 

Negatives
If you are familiar with paid search advertising, then you already know the power of using negatives.  Well, Twitter Ads enable you to include several types of negatives, including negative broad match, negative phrase match, and negative exact match.  Note, negatives are only available when you target the search results versus users’ timelines.  This makes sense, since most tweets don’t contain a few words (like a search query does).  When you use a negative, it tells Twitter to not show your ad when the negative appears in a search query.

Using negatives in keyword targeted campaigns in Twitter Ads

 

Your Ad, I Mean Tweet
When you use keyword targeting, you are setting up a “Promoted Tweets” campaign.  So, you aren’t setting up ads.  Instead, you are choosing a specific tweet to promote.  That’s important to understand or you can make the mistake of tweeting out an ad-sounding message during the campaign creation process.  When you set up your keyword targeting campaign, you can select a tweet to specifically promote from your stream.  You can also create a new tweet to promote, if that makes more sense for your campaign.  And yes, that makes the most sense, since you will want to tag your destination URL’s so your analytics package can accurately report your campaign statistics.

Selecting a tweet to promote in Twitter Ads

 

Personally, I think Twitter can learn something from Facebook here.  Using Facebook Ads, you can create an unpublished post to promote, and then use various targeting methods to reach your audience.  I would love to have that ability using Twitter Ads.  For example, an advertiser could create specific tweets to promote that wouldn’t necessarily show up in their stream (that all of their followers would see).  That would also enable you to split test your tweets more effectively.  Hey, it’s just an idea. :)
Targeting Options for Keyword Campaigns in Twitter Ads

Location Targeting
Once you choose your keywords, set negatives, and choose your promoted tweet, you can target your audience in a number of ways.  For example, you can use location targeting to limit your promoted tweets to users in a specific geographic region.  As of now, you can target users by country, state, and metro area.  For example, you can target the United States, New Jersey, or the Philadelphia Metro area.  Note, you cannot target at a smaller city or town level (at least yet).

Location Targeting in Twitter Ads

Target by Gender
In addition to using location targeting, you can also target by gender.  There are radio buttons for “any gender”, “male only”, and “female only”.  Twitter infers gender by the tweets shared by users, by their profiles, and by their follow graphs.  Using gender targeting, you can test response rates by gender (by splitting out campaigns by gender).  That’s exactly what I did when setting up my first keyword targeting campaign.

Gender Targeting in Twitter Ads

Device Targeting
Keyword targeting campaigns also enable you to target by device.  For example, you can target desktop and laptops, iOS, Android,  Blackberry, and “other mobile devices”.  You can use this targeting capability to split mobile and desktop campaigns, to target specific platforms, etc.

Device Targeting in Twitter Ads

 

Bid and Budget
At the bottom of the campaign setup screen are fields for campaign budget, daily budget, and maximum bid.  You can also use standard or accelerated delivery for your daily budget, which will either spend your budget as fast as possible starting at midnight, or spread that budget throughout the day.  When setting a maximum CPC, Twitter will supply a suggested bid range.

Setting a bid and budget in Twitter Ads

Once you have entered your keywords, chosen a tweet to promote, set up targeting, and set your bid and budget, then you are ready to rock and roll.  Simply click the “Create Campaign”  button at the bottom of the screen to launch your campaign!

Long Overdue, But Glad Keyword Targeting is Here
Although many in the industry believe this is long overdue, I’m thrilled that Twitter has finally released keyword targeting for Twitter Ads.  Over the past few days, I’ve been setting up various campaigns and testing performance, engagement, etc.  I plan to write more posts in the near future, based on the results of my initial campaigns.  So stay tuned.  In the meantime, I recommend jumping in yourself.  You can set up your first keyword targeting campaign today by following the instructions I included above.  Good luck.

GG

 

 

Filed Under: sem, social-advertising, twitter

How to Combine Custom Audiences in Facebook Ads to Enhance Your Targeting [Tutorial]

February 15, 2013 By Glenn Gabe 2 Comments

Custom Audiences in Facebook

Facebook recently released a powerful new option for advertisers called Custom Audiences.  Using custom audiences, advertisers can leverage their current in-house list of customers for targeting ads.  By uploading a list of emails, phone numbers, or UID’s, you can create a custom audience that can be used for targeting Facebook campaigns.

In my opinion, this was a brilliant move by Facebook.  It brings a unique targeting capability to the social network, and can be extremely useful on several levels.  For example, are you launching a new product?  Then use your custom audience to make sure your current customers know about the new product by reaching them on Facebook.  Know that a certain group of customers are interested in a given category of products?  Then use a custom audience to target just those customers with specific ads, copy, and calls to action.  The sky is the limit with regard to ideas for targeting your current set of customers, and I’ve been using custom audiences more and more recently.

Using Segmentation to Move Beyond Your One In-house Email List
A business can easily export its in-house email list and upload it to Facebook to create a custom audience.  It’s relatively straight-forward to do so, and you can accomplish this via Power Editor.  Once Facebook processes your list, it’s available to use when targeting an audience.  But, you shouldn’t stop there…  You can slice and dice your in-house email list and upload several files (if you have criteria for segmenting your list).

For example, do you know which customers are interested in which categories you sell?  Break those out.  Do you know which customers are tied to which purchases?  Sure you do, break those out too.  Once you do, you’ll have several targeted lists of emails that you can combine to hone your targeting.  And who doesn’t like that idea?

Combining Custom Audiences
When using Remarketing in AdWords, there is something called custom combinations.  When advertisers create a custom combination, they can create a remarketing audience that includes one audience, but excludes another.  That’s extremely powerful and provides a lot of flexibility for businesses trying to reach their customers via retargeting efforts.  Well, combining custom audiences in Facebook Ads enables you to do the same thing.

Here’s a simple hypothetical situation.  Let’s say you sold amazing new earphones that are invisible to the naked eye.  You already blasted an email out to your current customers and received some orders.  If your full email list was uploaded to Facebook as a custom audience (which should be done anyway), then you could create a second audience that includes customers that already purchased the new earphones.

Then, when you create a new campaign targeting your in-house email list (promoting your new earphones), you can exclude the list of customers that already purchased them.  This saves you from looking foolish, cuts down on wasted impressions, wasted clicks, and wasted budget.  Yes, that’s a simple example, but shows the power of creating custom combinations in Facebook.

How To Use Custom Combinations with Facebook Ads
Let’s quickly walk through how to set this up in Facebook.  Below, I’m going to explain how to first create a custom audience, and then how to upload and use a second audience (that can be used to hone your targeting).  Let’s create a custom combination using custom audiences in Facebook:

1. Export a straight list of customer emails as a .csv file.

Exporting a CSV of emails to create a custom audience.

 

2. Launch Power Editor and click the “Custom Audiences” Tab.
Note, if you’ve never used Power Editor, set that up now, download all of your campaigns, and then revisit this tutorial.

Custom Audience Tab in Facebook Ads

 

3. Click the “Create Audience” button and enter the name, description, and choose the type of list. 
For this list, click the “Emails” radio button.  You should also click “Choose File” button to locate the csv file we just created in the previous step.

The Custom Audience Dialog Box in Facebook Ads

 

4. Click “Create” and Facebook will upload your list and create your custom audience. 
Note, it could take a few hours for Facebook to process the file.  That depends on your list.  Remember, Facebook is going to scan the emails and try and match them up to current Facebook users.

 

5. Wait for Facebook to process your custom audience.
The status for the custom audience will say, “Waiting” while Facebook is processing the file.  That will change to “Ready” when the audience is ready to go.
You should also see the audience size (based on the users that Facebook could match up).

Custom Audience Status Message

 

6. Repeat the process in steps 1-5 to create a second custom audience (the hypothetical list of customers that already purchased our killer new earphones).
Make sure you give the new custom audience a descriptive name like “customers-invisible-earphones”.

 

7. Create a new campaign that will be used to target your current customers that have not purchased your new earphones yet.
Simply use the standard process for setting up a new Facebook campaign.

Creating a New Facebook Campaign

 

8. Select your custom audience.

When you create a new ad within your new campaign, you can hop down to the “Audience” tab.  You can click the button labeled “Use Existing Audience”.  Then select your full in-house email list.  That’s the first custom audience we created.

Use Existing Audience in Facebook Ads

 

9. Now select the custom audience to exclude.

Next, click the “Advanced Options” tab under “Audience”.  You will see an option for “Excluded Audiences”.   You can start typing the name of the custom audience containing customers that already purchased your earphones (the second custom audience we created).  The audience name should auto-populate when you start typing.  After selecting the audience, you should see the “Estimated Reach” number drop, based on excluding the new list.

Combining Custom Audiences to Enhance Targeting

 

10. That’s it, you have now used a custom combination to hone your targeting using Custom Audiences!
Your ads will now only be displayed to customers on your email list that have not purchased your new earphones yet.

Summary – Combine Audiences for Power
As I explained earlier, using custom audiences is a new and powerful way to reach a targeted audience on Facebook.   It combines the power of a current, in-house email list with the flexibility and intelligence of segmenting your audience.  Don’t look foolish, don’t waste clicks, and don’t waste budget.  Use custom combinations to slice and dice your current customer list.  Now go ahead.  Set up your campaign now.  :)

GG

 

Filed Under: facebook, social-advertising, tools

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