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Facebook Offline Events does something few platforms can: tie online advertising to offline conversions. It is not a new feature in Facebook Ads manager, but few marketers make it a priority in their social media strategy.

Offline event tracking demands significant time and effort to gather customer data, import it into Facebook, and make sure it is consistent. In addition, API integration may demand scarce development resources.

However, businesses with brick-and-mortar presence can reap major benefits. Advertisers can unearth an added layer of conversion metrics driven by their campaign efforts.

If you’re not familiar with Facebook Offline Events, keep reading. If you’re already convinced and want to learn more, read our real-world example, below.

What are Facebook Offline Events?

Facebook Offline Events give advertisers the ability to upload customer data and track which offline events in the customer journey were influenced by their ad campaigns. A custom value can be assigned to each designated event, allowing advertisers to measure their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) directly within the platform.

Tying your offline conversion events (and conversion values) back into the Facebook ad platform provides advertisers with a level of tracking not otherwise available through the platform. This tracking is the best way for advertisers to track online-to-offline performance for their ad campaigns.

While you may immediately think these offline events only apply to in-store purchases, it also allows advertisers to track phone calls, coupon redemptions, and appointments booked among other offline conversion points. Any action that is not recorded online and may contribute to an eventual conversion is trackable.

Below are a handful of examples where offline event tracking is useful:

• A customer redeems a coupon for a free service
• A customer places an order over the phone
• A customer books an appointment in-person

How Do I Upload a Data Set For Facebook Offline Events?

Getting started with Offline Events on the platform is all about the data set you upload.

When putting together your data set, advertisers must upload the following:

• Customer details (name, email, and/or phone number)
• Event details (if it was a lead, registration, purchase, etc.)
• Event value (the dollar value of the event detail that occurred)
• An accurate timestamp of the conversion event

Ideally, upload your data to the platform daily. The more often your data set is uploaded, the more reliable your data insights will be. Find full details on how to upload a data set to the platform here.

Facebook uses the customer data included in the data set to determine which users converted offline after engaging with your Facebook campaign. The proper attribution model makes tracking more accurate.

What are the Benefits of Using Facebook Offline Events?

Properly using Facebook Offline Events adds a much-needed data layer to any advertiser optimizing their ad campaigns around conversion points that happen offline. We’ve seen advertisers in a wide variety of verticals benefit. Some fit the typical offline conversion model. Others do not.

Harvard Business Review analyzed the value of a like and determined that although engagement on social media does not translate directly to sales, advertising does.

Upwards of 80% of the marketers surveyed couldn’t quantify their social media efforts at that time. Two years later, the issue still exists.

Combine that with the fact that 90% of retail sales still occur offline, and it is likely that your Facebook campaigns are contributing significantly more to the customer journey than you know.

To ensure that your Facebook advertising strategy is getting the proper credit it deserves, companies who operate offline in even the smallest capacity should take advantage of the ability to match offline conversions to their Facebook campaigns.

If your business or customers interact with your brand offline in any way and you’re not tracking offline events, you’re missing value in the tracking of your marketing efforts.

For businesses where conversion points only occur in a physical store, it’s nearly impossible to determine the impact of your digital marketing efforts without some kind of offline conversion tracking. Businesses built purely with physical locations typically have minimal conversion events on their site, making it even harder to determine campaign effectiveness.

For many of these advertisers, the majority of their Facebook campaigns are optimized to build Reach or Brand Awareness. As an advertiser, it can be difficult to wade through the vagueness of the Brand awareness algorithm, especially since the main KPI attached to the objective is estimated and in development.

With offline event data, advertisers can finally put together a closer-to-complete picture showing the direct conversion impact of a social media campaign.

A Real-World Example

We have a client whose only financially-tied conversion points come offline. They have top-of-the-funnel conversions on their site, but those pale in comparison to the importance of their offline conversion points.

Historically, they have used Reach and Brand Awareness metrics as key performance indicators of their Facebook ad efforts.

After putting together a detailed data set, our client uploaded roughly 400,000 purchase events from the last three months to the Facebook platform.

Using their selected attribution window of 7-day click (users who purchased in 7 days after clicking an ad), we were able to directly attribute over 1,000 of those purchases during February.

The ability to upload and track the offline data allowed us to show a ROAS just a touch over 400%.

Without the ability to upload this information and track it using Facebook’s Offline Events, we wouldn’t be able to track the effectiveness of the campaign to the level of granularity we did – taking significant measurement and credit away from the effectiveness of the campaign.

Regardless of the amount of revenue generated offline, any advertiser with an offline touch point can benefit from understanding exactly what events are driven by their Facebook campaigns.

If you are not utilizing offline events through Facebook’s ad platform, you are missing out on a piece of your paid social ROAS.

And for some advertisers, that may be a large piece. For others, it may be just a small sliver, but why leave a stone unturned when tracking the effectiveness of your paid social efforts on Facebook?

The post Not Using Facebook Offline Events? You’re Missing Out appeared first on Portent.

Updated: March 2019

We published the original Google Analytics Cheat Sheet back in 2010. Here it is, updated for 2019, still free, still no registration required. Take a look:

The post The Google Analytics Cheat Sheet appeared first on Portent.

With podcast advertising, marketers aren’t given the hard and fast metrics to measure success we’ve come to expect.

There is no clear way of knowing which podcasts will yield the best results.

And, we can’t track response. We’re asking listeners to engage with our brand outside of the traditional digital landscape. We have to measure their response to an auditory input. There is no direct way to do that.

Keeping these roadblocks top of mind, we’ve given a lot of thought on how to effectively measure podcast advertising. If you’d like to take a page from our playbook, start by looking at the following:

• Downloads per Episode
• Direct and Referral Traffic
• Exclusive Offer Code
• User Engagement

Let’s dig deeper into those metrics.

Downloads per Episode

Downloads are based on the number of unique downloads each episode receives to a computer, tablet, or a mobile device. This information is readily available to podcast hosts, and it is also the metric they use when determining podcast CPM rates.

However, this metric is not stable. As the podcast grows, the number of downloads grow with it. To ensure that sponsors get what they pay for, podcast hosts take their average number of downloads and round that number down. Because of this, their estimate will always be lower than the final download count.

To get the “true” number of downloads, be sure to follow up with the podcast host 30 to 60 days after the sponsored episode airs. You may be surprised by the difference between the actual download count and the original prediction. From our experience, the download count tends to be much higher.

Pro tip:

Podcasts with a high download count don’t always result in the best ROI and the number of downloads a podcast receives shouldn’t be the only factor you evaluate when picking a podcast to sponsor. If your product or service fits into a particular niche, you’re better off sponsoring a smaller podcast that is more in line with your offerings.

Direct and Referral Traffic

Most of the traffic will come from podcast listeners who search for your company after hearing the on-air ad read. If you’re tracking your efforts with Google Analytics (GA), you’ll likely see a spike in your direct traffic.

If the podcast includes their sponsors in the show notes, (a roundup of the key episode takeaways published on the podcast website), you may also see an uptick in your referral traffic from inbound links.

Here’s a show notes example from the Developer Team podcast and how they choose to talk about their sponsor, Linode:

To measure the effectiveness of the podcast ad, you’ll need to set up the right tracking. Below is a set of instructions for setting up a segmentation in Google Analytics.

Step 1

Start by opening any report and selecting + Add Segment

Step 2

Next, click on + New Segment

Make sure to create a new segment for each podcast that you’re sponsoring.

Step 3

Name your segment using the name of the podcast, then add filters (e.g., podcast domain, landing page you’re promoting in the on-air mention).

Step 4

Monitor the segments you created by filtering your traffic down to Source/Medium OR by simply applying the segments to the All Traffic view in GA.

Make sure your data range is set for the time frame when the first podcast sponsorship has aired.

Pro tip:

To better account for the increase in your direct traffic, create a dedicated ‘welcome’ landing page and ask the hosts to send their listeners there. For example, if Portent were to sponsor a podcast, we’d create a welcome landing page with a URL that looks something like this: www.portent.com/nameofpodcast.

Exclusive Offer Code

Offer codes, trials, and discount incentives are the most straightforward ways to measure the success of your podcast advertising efforts. Exclusive offer codes can be read on-air by the host, included in the show notes, or shared in the body of the ‘welcome’ landing page. We recommend sharing the offer code on the ‘welcome’ landing page. As mentioned earlier, sending listeners to this landing page will help you gain a better understanding of the uptake in your direct traffic.

However, if you’re not planning to create custom a ‘welcome’ landing page, ask your hosts to read the promo code on-air. When going this route, ask the host to give their listeners instructions on how to use the promo code (e.g., go to domain.com and enter the offer code at checkout).

If you haven’t offered incentives in the past, consider creating a service trial offer, giving 15-20% off a product, or offering free shipping.

Regardless of what you choose, make sure that the offer is customized for each podcast that you sponsor. This way, you don’t have to make any assumptions or set up additional tracking to see what podcasts have driven the most signups.

Pro tip:

Create a discount or trial offer unique to the podcast advertising initiative. Don’t use offers that already exists on the site. You want the offer to feel exclusive and unique to podcast listeners.

User Engagement

Let’s say, for instance, during the sponsorship time frame you see an uptick in traffic, but listeners are still not converting. You can interpret this in one of two ways:

1. There’s a misalignment between the podcast listener and your target customer
2. Podcast listeners aren’t ready to convert

To help you figure out this situation, we recommend looking at the following user engagement metrics in GA:

• Bounce rate
• Time on site
• Average pages per visit

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the rate at which a user leaves the landing page without browsing any further. This metric is given as a percentage, with a higher percentage meaning high bounce rate and a lower percentage indicating a low bounce rate.

Depending on the action you want the user to take on the landing page, a high bounce rate may not be a bad thing. However, if users are bouncing within seconds of arriving on that page, you know that the page is not meeting their expectations.

Time on site

In GA, the time on site is tracked as the Average Session Duration. It’s the amount of time the user spends on your site during the duration of their visit.

Time on site can help you gauge podcast listeners’ interest in your product or service. If time on site appears to be high compared to other channels, then this tells you that the listeners are engaged.

Average pages per visit

The average pages per visit metric is the number of different pages the user looks through during their visit. The more content users consume on your site, the more interested they are in your offerings.

Pro tip:

When examining user engagement metrics, remember the Gestalt principle: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In other words, don’t over think the performance of individual metric, focus on the performance of all metrics as a whole.

Tying It All Together

While podcast advertising isn’t a new phenomenon, podcast analytics are currently at an infancy stage. If you want to give this medium a go, do your research, learn about the latest trends, and ask the podcast hosts about the data insights they have available.

Now that Apple Podcasts, the largest podcast directory, is finally investing in podcast performance insights, and Spotify has acquired the two data-driven podcasting platforms, the future of podcast advertising (and measurement) is brighter than ever.

But until these analytics platforms are available for sponsors, we encourage you to take matters into your own hands, set up appropriate tracking, and continue to iterate on the process along the way.

The post 4 Effective Metrics For Measuring Podcast Advertising appeared first on Portent.

I want to share a secret with social media marketers: you’re not doing enough to sell your work, and attribution modeling is the silver bullet you’ve been waiting for to measure performance.

Social media attribution windows are an increasingly critical topic, one which marketers are working to find tools that can help them better justify their efforts. Social attribution windows give us the ability to track user actions within a length of time (view or click) and connect with the source.

Attribution measurement is a rapidly-evolving and competitive space, but it’s plagued with several significant problems: it’s incredibly complicated from a macro level, often convoluted at a micro level, and overall just plain difficult to understand if you lack extensive experience in digital marketing.

This lack of experience means that many marketers don’t understand how individual social channels measure attribution and aren’t putting in the work needed to know how their channels impact one another. Social media work runs a significant risk of having its results marginalized when the platform’s attribution models are ignored, given the indirect (but powerful) impact social has on things like consideration and customer nurture.

If you’re a social media marketer and you don’t have a solid grasp on attribution windows and modeling, it’s vital to understand the concept. Whether it’s defending your social media budget or getting proper credit for your social channel’s performance, attribution is something you need to understand well enough to discuss with your stakeholders.

To help build the concepts, I have broken out attribution window details and how to locate them for four of the largest social media platforms.

Attribution Windows on Facebook and Instagram

The two largest social networks have a total of seven different attribution windows for advertisers. The largest window (28-day click, 1-day view) is the default setting that appears in the ads manager.

You can change the Facebook attribution window by following these steps:

1. Go to your ads manager account and select the Columns drop-down menu.



2. From the drop-down menu, select Customize Columns near the bottom.



3. Finally, click the blue Comparing Windows link, choose the various attribution windows you want to compare, and then click the blue Apply button.

Attribution Windows on Twitter

Twitter has even more attribution windows to measure performance based on post-engagement and post-view actions.

You can change the Twitter attribution window by following these steps:

1. Go to your ads manager account. Click on Tools, and then select Conversion tracking from the drop-down menu.



2. Select any of the blue Edit links under the Modify Event column.



3. Adjust the post-engagement or post-view attribution windows, and then click the blue Save conversion event button.

Attribution Windows on Pinterest

Pinterest has by far the most attribution windows out of all of the social channels. Don’t get overwhelmed with the choices. Use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as references for the best Pinterest attribution window. Having a consistent attribution window across social channels will help equally measure performance.

You can change the attribution window in Pinterest by following these steps:

1. Go to your Pinterest ads manager account, click the Export button, and then select Custom export from the drop-down menu.



2. Click on the Pinterest Tag Settings at the top, and then select the drop-down menu for the various attribution windows.

Comparing Social Platform Performance

Marketers have worked hard to understand the best ways to attribute social channels since the tools could measure performance on their websites. Asking how much credit social platforms deserve for driving sales of a product might be relatively new, but marketers have been refining the process of understanding digital attribution across other channels for years.

Utilizing the individual social platforms’ analytics tools is the first step to measuring performance and learning which click and conversion window is best for your company. The next step is to cross-reference with other web analytics platforms like Google Analytics to see how all of the social channels contribute to performance with their marketing efforts.

You’ll need to ensure Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) have been added to your ad URLs to track on Google Analytics accurately. That will provide a holistic view of how the platforms are performing based on the user’s website actions (sessions, add to cart, purchase, etc.).

How To Choose The Right Social Media Attribution Window

We’ve discussed the importance of social media conversion windows and how to locate them in the platform. Now, let’s determine the best attribution window for your business.

In a perfect world, you’d have access to a data scientist who could build a custom attribution model that best fits your organization. If that’s not an option, third-party platforms like Google Analytics are capable of building out custom attribution models to align with your business model.

We recommend selecting an attribution window that’s consistent across the social platforms and shows the actual impact of each channel.

Our recommendation is to start with a 7-day click attribution window. That means the social platform will take credit for the conversion event (lead, add to cart, purchase, etc.) for anyone who visits your website in the last seven days after clicking your social media ad.

Your team can adjust attribution windows based on the data tracked monthly, but you need to be making informed decisions along the way that data can’t do on its own.

What’s Next?

As you leverage attribution modeling to show the value of social media marketing, you’ll almost certainly find yourself in spaces where data attribution becomes messy or complicated to parse out (especially in eCommerce or verticals with numerous touch points).

As your understanding of attribution grows, so will your desire for a toolset that allows you to better track and measure attribution across your marketing stack.

Social media marketers should look to Facebook’s Attribution Tool or similar soon-to-be-released tools from Google. These platforms allow you to quickly move around different social attribution models to assess the efficacy of your channel work and will help you better understand the role social media plays in your primary KPIs.

The post Social Media Attribution Windows: A Platform by Platform Comparison appeared first on Portent.