How you can use Google Tag Manager to boost your Facebook Ads
Are Your Facebook Ads Doing More Harm Than Good?
Picture this: Your ad is popping up in the newsfeed of viewers targeted in your campaign, but they’re not converting because your targeting is a bit off.
Instead of creating interest, you could end up creating irritation as no one wants to be pitched things they aren’t interested in buying.
This is especially true for marketing that spills into people’s private world.
We expect to be pitched a bunch of products we don’t want when we go to shopping malls and stores — like the nail guy chasing everyone down to give unsuspecting shoppers a free nail buff in exchange for a 45m pitch on a $50 bottle of nail oil you always knew you never wanted.
Frustrating though it may be, we just go to the other side of the walkway and keep walking while avoiding eye-contact and tucking our hands in our pockets.
But when we’re in our own space, it’s even more frustrating to feel set upon by ads and sales offers we don’t have any real interest in purchasing.
And let’s be honest, even though social media is a public and worldwide platform, it’s highly personal and intimating in form and function. That’s why Facebook is always adding new updates limiting how many business posts are visible in the newsfeed.
People want human interaction, not sales interaction.
So if your sales offer hits their personal space, they better be well targeted to ensure you aren’t feeding frustration towards your brand and products.
No one wants to be the nail guy in the mall walkway.
In addition to creating brand irritation, you can’t ignore the monetary cost of poor ad targeting. Advertisers can see a 1000% difference in cost-per-click rates when comparing audiences well-selected through precise data and audiences selected on poor data.
Choosing the right audience can save you loads on ad costs while increasing conversion and success.
Which brings us to the point of this blog! We’ve talked a fair bit about marketing analytics with your website in our previous blogs, and now it’s time to show you other vital areas you can flex your data-savvy skills — like your Facebook Ads!
In this blog, you’ll:
- Learn why Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Facebook Ads are a match made in data-heaven
- Gain clear instruction on how to install and GTM and Facebook Pixels on your site
- Identify what measurements are most valuable for key targeting insights
- Know how to apply those measurements for powerful, precise, and converting ad audiences and campaigns
Though Google and Facebook are competitors in some areas, they make a pretty magical team when you mix and match the tools they offer.
If you’re already using a Facebook Pixel on your website, you know it CAN track a good bit of data when its users are becoming your visitors. Still, it can also miss the mark when it comes to refining and organizing that data for your use.
GTM is a massive asset for clarifying and providing easy data analysis that allows you to get more bang for your buck when planning and running campaigns.
With this pairing, you don’t only get analytic reports on the campaign ad performance itself, but you can also track what happens when people leave Facebook and hop onto your website. This is thanks to those micro-managing tracking minions we discussed in our previous blog about using Google Tag Manager to track your site activity.
When you pair the data tracking capabilities of GTM with Facebook’s targeting, you get paid campaigns that:
- Deliver a higher ROI through clear, unique, and purchase-ready audience creation
- Enhance your brand reputation and visibility
- Accurately track success rates (or the lack thereof so you can fix things quickly)
- Acquire multiple data-proven paths for accurate lead retargeting, upselling, and more.
Getting access to this ad boosting asset is as simple as installing a quick snippet of code onto your website, connecting your accounts, and reveling in all the data now dancing at your fingertips.
You’re a wicked revenue-generating devil now!
Well… after we install the code, that is.
3 Simple Steps For Installing GTM And Activating Your Facebook Pixel
What you’ll need before getting started:
- A Google Tag Manager account
- Your Facebook account
- Your Website (You need to be able to modify your code; otherwise you’ll need your tech team to handle this)
- Around 30 undisturbed minutes
- An iced cold beer or a caffeine loaded latte
Ok, maybe that last one was just for me, but feel free to improvise with your own in-the-biz-zone brew.
Step One: Installing GTM on your site
Log in to your Google Tag Manager account, and from the dashboard, you have two choices: either link an existing account or create a new one.
For existing accounts:
- From your selected account, click the Admin tab.
- Select Install Google Tag Manager from the right-hand listing.
- This will bring you to the code snippet you’ll need to install on your site.
For new accounts:
- Select Create Account from your dashboard.
- Fill in the necessary information.
- Agree to the terms of services.
- Click Complete.
- You’ll then see a pop-up window containing your installation code.
Easy peasy! That was so quick, and I bet you haven’t even sipped your brew yet! Let’s keep going.
Next, you’ll hop on over to your website host, open your source code, and paste your snippet it into the top of the page you need to track (though you should have it on every page of your site for full data tracking).
You can find Google’s Set-up and Installation Guide here for more info if you need it.
**Pro Tip: If you have Google Analytics installed, you’ll need to remove that code and replace it with the GTM code. If you don’t, you’ll be getting double the data — and though that might look cool, it’s going to mess up your analytic accuracy.
Step Two: Installing the Facebook Pixel, which can be done using GTM(!)
Now you’re ready to bring on the Facebook Pixel so you can see what your Ad leads are doing on your site.
You’re going to jump back to your Google Tag Manager account for the following steps:
- Open your website’s container and select Add a New Tag.
- Select Custom HTML Tag under Tag Configuration, and add a name for your Tag.
Next, you’ll be opening your Events Manager.
- Select Details for your pixel info.
- Click Set Up and select Manually Install the Code Yourself.
- Copy the entire pixel base code.
- Go back to Google Tag Manager, and you’ll paste the code in the HTML container.
- Open the Advanced Settings dropdown and click Once Per Page under Tag Firing Options.
- Under Triggering, select All Pages.
- And finally, click Save.
If you need more info, hop over to Facebook’s support page for further detailed help. Note that Facebook is transitioning to a newer version of Events Manager, and menu options may vary depending on what version you’re using.
Boom! Done! Not too shabby, huh? Take a moment to enjoy your brew while we get into a few potential actions you may want to utilize with your new tag mastery.
Step Three: It’s Tag Time!
If you jump back over to your Events Manager page, you’ll see your Install Pixel Code box still open.
If you’re not quite ready to jump into customized tags, you can select Recommended Set Up.
If you opt to create tags manually, click on Manually Add Event Codes under section 2 of your Code box. A dropdown list will present a series of tag options to choose from.
From here, you’ll want to follow most of the same steps as above:
- Open your website’s container and select Add a New Tag.
- Select Custom HTML Tag under Tag Configuration, and add a name for your Tag.
Go back to Events Manager and:
- Select your desired Tag (add to cart, initiate checkout, etc.) under Manually Install Event Code.
- Copy the event code.
- Go back to Google Tag Manager, and you’ll paste the code in the HTML container.
- Open the Advanced Settings dropdown and click Once Per Page under Tag Firing Options.
- Under Triggering, select your desired Trigger.
- And finally, click Save.
Congratulations, you can now add, edit, and manage your tags!
Tag, Advertize, and Make Money!
Now that you have everything installed, what will you do with it? Ahhh, that’s the beauty! With the data coming in from your Facebook Ad activity, you’ll be able to:
- Create custom audiences based on data collected by your pixels.
- Get people-based insights from users who visited your site through Facebook.
- Create custom tracking to gather data on specific actions like cart abandonment, page jumping, etc.
- Make pivotal tweaks to your campaigns if you see your KPIs aren’t hitting their marks due to minor targeting flubs.
- And also, create powerful retargeting campaigns to recapture interested leads that didn’t close or are ready for your next offer.
You see, the way you measure, analyze, and apply your data will vary from business to business and campaign to campaign, but knowing how to use those measurements is vital across the board.
After all, it’s not just about money.
It’s also about making a positive brand impact through meaningful and magnetic social media interaction that sets you apart from the hundreds of competitors in your market and their timeline.
Make sure you’re standing out for the right reasons.
I hope you’ve found this blog post to be fun, helpful, and informative! I’ll catch you next week when we tackle Meaningful Insights Through Google Analytics.
If you need help identifying what measurements are most valuable for key targeting in your company, reach out and schedule a chat with one of our data masters! We can also help you install all your tags and codes just in case that beer or latte didn’t get the job done.
