AS A SMALL-BIZ owner, it’s important to maximize your ad spend by keeping tabs on its effectiveness and creating target audiences. If you’re among the 93% of small businesses (according to Buffer) that use Facebook as a marketing tool, you might want to check out Meta Pixel, a piece of code added to your website that can track and report the actions of visitors —say, appointment bookings or even phone calls — generated on your website by your FB and IG ad campaigns. This information can be used to retarget ads, among many other things.
Eyepic Eye Care in New York City has had promising results using the tool, and INVISION recently talked to Nicolas Arreste, the practice’s former marketing manager and the co-founder of BEGOOD Creative Marketing Agency (begoodagency.com) to get a sense of how it works.
THE IDEA
Arreste introduced Eyepic (eyepiceyecare.com) to Meta Pixel in 2020 as they were launching digital marketing initiatives. “We integrated the Meta Pixel with their website to efficiently track ad spend, return on investment [ROI] from advertising campaigns, and custom key performance indicators [KPIs],” says Arreste, who describes Pixel as “essential” to achieving Eyepic’s goal of building custom audiences based on website behavior and ad interactions.
THE EXECUTION
Arreste oversaw the installation of Meta Pixel on the website, then created KPIs and presented the results of marketing efforts, such as Meta advertising, monthly. “If you are not familiar with the back end of your website, you will likely need your developer’s help to install the required code for the Pixel to fire correctly,” he said. It is free to use. Once a practice installs the Pixel, it will start to analyze site traffic; after it has a visitor’s info, it can retarget them in a tailored way. Eyepic set a monthly marketing budget and KPI. Arreste did not disclose their spending, but offered a hypothetical scenario: “Practice A can spend $500 monthly and must generate at least 150 new patient leads. This would create a cost-per-lead KPI of acquiring new leads at $3.33.”
A common user journey, he says, starts with a practice launching ads on Google that link to a unique landing page with a promo discount for CLs. From there, the practice retargets users who visited the page in the last 30 days and did not convert. “Website visitors are served promotional video ads encouraging conversion on Meta platforms,” says Arreste.
Besides the Pixel, a practice could also set up ad sequences with other integrated tools, which would show specific ads depending on the last user interaction. For example, if a user watches over 50% of a video’s total length, they will see a new ad. “These strategies … ultimately lead to eyecare practices increasing the number of new and returning patient bookings,” he says.
THE REWARDS
Launching a new ad program while integrating the Pixel into their website boosted Eyepic’s patient bookings, says Arreste. “We learned from initial results and optimized our buyer personas and strategies to reach a cost-per-patient lead of $3. Our efforts increased daily bookings by 40%.”
Do It Yourself: Enhance Your Digital Marketing with Meta Pixel
- GET STARTED. On Meta’s website you’ll find a guide explaining what Pixel does and how to set it up: facebook.com/business/tools/meta-pixel.
- GET SERIOUS. Marketing isn’t just about software. Strategies like defining patient personas and mapping customer journeys are needed if you want to boost conversion rate and ROI, says Arreste.
- RULE CHECK. Be mindful of what your state’s data protection and disclosure laws have to say about any ad retargeting activities you conduct.
- BENCHMARKS. Your KPIs should include digital goals such as return on ad spend (ROAS), cost-per-leads (CPL), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA), says Arreste.
- UP YOUR GAME. Arreste advises practices to train in all aspects of digital marketing including the Pixel, A/B testing, creative design, marketing analytics, lifecycle marketing and strategic planning.