In this series of Campaign Spotlight posts (the first one is this one!), we want to provide a bit more guidance on:
- How each campaign can help your business grow
- What types of businesses should consider running each campaign
- How to determine how many points to offer in exchange for user participation
With that, we'll get started by diving right into our "Facebook Page Visit" campaign!
Why Did We Create a "Facebook Page Visit” Campaign?
For any business (but especially for relatively new ones), maintaining an active and engaging Facebook presence is important for countless reasons.
For starters, many consumers view a large number of Facebook Likes or Twitter Follows as an indication of a business’ trustworthiness – especially those consumers who are unfamiliar with your business.
Case in point: If you knew nothing about either of the two businesses below (which are both relatively well-known eateries in the Boston area), which one would you feel more comfortable visiting or purchasing from?
The question wasn’t designed to be a trick – 99% of people would choose the first option, which is well-managed and has over 3,000 likes (not to mention a very enticing-looking burrito as the cover photo!). Almost without realizing it, we feel much more comfortable interacting with a business that has a dedicated base of followers (not to mention a little bit of content as well).
A strong social media presence can also help give your company a meaningful SEO boost. While Google has come out and publicly stated that metrics such as number of Likes for a Facebook Page do not influence SEO directly, more linked content to and from your Facebook page can certainly help your SEO. If your Facebook Page is popular enough, the Page itself will even start appearing in a high position on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) as well.
Above all else though, Facebook Page likes are critical because they help drive engagement with customers and site visitors. This goes right back to our Repeat Purchase Pathway infographic – engagement is the first (and arguably the most critical) step on the road to increasing the LTV of each of your customers.
Once a consumer visits and “likes” your Facebook Page, they’re automatically subscribed to any and all updates about your business going forward. Better yet, they receive those updates in the same place that they’re reading messages, viewing pictures, and writing about their social circle. There’s arguably no better way to earn a consumer’s trust and ensure that your business is top of mind when they’re ready to make their next purchase.
A Note of Caution: Why Isn’t It a “Facebook Like” Campaign?
Be careful of any app or other service provider out there that offers you the ability to directly incentivize Facebook Page likes. Last year, Facebook announced that they were banning developers from offering any form of incentive in exchange for likes.
From Facebook directly:
“You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, check-in at a place or enter a promotion on your app's Page.”
So while we can help you incentivize visits to your Page, nobody is allowed (per Facebook) to incentivize consumers to click the Like button on your page.
When Should I Use the Page Visit Campaign?
Whether you’ve just created your store or you’re beginning to earn your first sales, the Facebook Page Visit campaign is designed for you – it’s a great way for you to convert your initial momentum into a strong social media presence.
If you’re just starting out, asking visitors to your site to visit your Facebook Page is a great way to convert a casual browser into an engaged potential customer. And if you’ve already earned a few purchases, then it’s important to engage those first-time spenders so that they eventually become repeat purchasers.
If you’ve already put a significant amount of effort into building your Facebook Page, consider whether the Facebook Page Visit campaign would add enough value to your business; if you already have 100,000 Likes on your Page, it simply may not be worth it to provide an incentive to attract incremental visitors.
How Do I Set Up a Campaign?
You can get a Facebook Page Visit campaign up and running in a matter of seconds. Literally. Everything you need to run the campaign is in one incredibly simple screen:
Remember, once your campaign is set up, it will automatically appear in your widget (if you’ve enabled the widget on your site). You’ll also have the option to send emails to your customers, and we’ll soon allow you to easily share the campaign on social media as well. For example, wouldn’t you love to tell your Twitter followers to check out your Facebook Page (and vice versa)? We’ll allow you to do that in just a couple of clicks.
How Many Points Should I Offer?
While it depends on the business, we recommend offering somewhere between 10 and 100 points for a Facebook Page visit. The average is likely around 25 or so.
There are two key variables when it comes to deciding how much to offer for a Page visit: the value of a Facebook like, and the percentage of Page visitors who elect to like the Page.
Estimates as to the value of a Facebook like vary widely. Based on the studies in the linked Business Insider article, a Facebook like could easily be worth $5 – 10 on average, especially when factoring in the potential for repeat business. This number skews even higher for businesses selling higher-priced goods, or where more frequent transactions are the norm (i.e. where customer LTV is higher than average).
Hubspot also has a good tool to help calculate the value of a Like based on a number of variables specific to your business.
But there’s one more variable that we need to take into account when determining how much to pay for a Facebook Page visit: “What percentage of visitors to my Page will decide to 'Like' it?” As we grow, we’ll continue to collect data on this statistic and update it for our merchants, but we believe this figure could range from 2 – 10%. The exact percentage is heavily dependent on the quality of your Page; more frequent, relevant updates will yield more likes per visit.
Putting it all together, a Page visit could therefore be worth anywhere from $0.10, or 10 points ($5 per like * 2% of visits resulting in a Like) to $1.00, or 100 points ($10 per like * 10% of visits resulting in a like).
By the way, it’s worth noting that everybody can run a Facebook Page Visit campaign, because it's part of our $0 per month plan! We think $0 is a pretty good price to drive engagement with your Facebook profile :)
We’re incredibly excited about debuting the Facebook Page Visit campaign for our merchants, and we’re thrilled to see that a number of you have already set up campaigns! As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need help or have any questions!
