TWO REASONS WHY EVERY RESTAURANT WEBSITE SHOULD HAVE FACEBOOK PIXEL INSTALLED...IMMEDIATELY

Mike O’Kelly, CEO – The O’Kelly Consulting Group

Ever wonder why almost any time you leave a website after online shopping you get an onslaught of advertisements for the same product? Maybe you were looking for a new pair of running shoes, and then voila, the same pair magically appears on your Facebook newsfeed?

So how do Facebook and Instagram know you are in the market for a new pair of running shoes? For ads displayed across Facebook's advertising channels, Facebook Pixel is the answer.

What is the Facebook Pixel?

Facebook Pixel is a piece of code you embed on the backend of a website that tracks the visitors to the site; it collects data along with the actions or "events" they take on the website. 

Having Facebook Pixel's code installed on a website is not only an essential step in leveraging an effective digital marketing strategy for an e-commerce business. But when used correctly, restaurants can also reap the many benefits from the code's installation.

Below are the top two reasons we recommend installing Facebook Pixel on a restaurant's website—immediately!

Reason 1: Retargeted Marketing

What is retargeting or remarketing? Retargeting involves targeting customers with online advertisements who have already viewed a page on a website or demonstrated an interest in something on a website. 

For a restaurant, the main goal of a website is to convert the site's traffic into actual reservations (butts in the seats!). Retargeting offers a means of re-engaging customers who might have been browsing the site but did not follow through with making a reservation. You can choose to get granular with your remarketing campaigns, by showing people an ad based on the exact web pages they visited. 

For example, imagine someone is looking to host a large birthday party inside a private dining room at a restaurant. They visited the private dining page and viewed the photos of the private room, but did not complete the online form requesting pricing and information. You can target an advertisement to them spotlighting the private event space along with a link to an online form, where they can request more information on the private area. Retargeting advertisements are a great way to increase lead generation for restaurants.

Facebook Pixel works in tandem with Facebook's Business Manager advertising platform. When set up correctly, website visitors start to see the ads while browsing Facebook and Instagram, or while browsing other websites in Facebook's audience network. 

Ads keep the restaurant top-of-mind, and they remind potential customers of the unique experience the restaurant has to offer. Then brings them back to the site when they're ready to make a reservation or fill out a lead form.

Reason #2: Detailed targeting with Custom & LookAlike Audiences

Facebook Ads allow many ways to target ads to different audiences. A simple way is to target core audiences (using information that people share in their profiles and the behaviors they exhibit online). 

For example, a Thai restaurant may want to target advertisements to people who live within a 10-mile radius of the restaurant, and who also like Asian cuisine.

Another way is to target custom audiences. Restaurants that have an existing email list of their current customers can create a custom audience by uploading the list into Facebooks Ads Manager. Facebook will then match the email addresses to their customers’ Facebook user profiles. Now they will be able only to target ads to the current database of customers. Another example of a custom audience would be segmenting all users who visited a website in the past seven days/30days/90days, etc. 

Finally, you are able to target lookalike audiences. These audiences are created using Facebook's sophisticated modeling algorithms that identify people who share similarities, including likes, interests, online behaviors, and characteristics of current customers and audiences. 

An example scenario would be to create a lookalike audience of all users who made a reservation on the restaurant's website over the past 90 days—then target advertisements to that lookalike audience. This method leverages Facebook's modeling algorithms to help find new customers for the restaurant who have a significantly higher probability of making a reservation on the website after seeing an advertisement.

Does it work? On average, restaurant clients of the O'Kelly Consulting Group have seen a 550% increase in first-time diners and repeat visitors using both custom and lookalike audiences. But to do this, you will need the Facebook Pixel active on your site

Important Note:

We've always advised our clients, that even if they do not plan to advertise on Facebook in the near future, it's still imperative to have Facebook Pixel installed on their website.

Facebook Pixel is not retroactive and will only start tracking visitors once installed correctly. Every day that goes by without Facebook Pixel installed, valuable data is lost that is highly useful for future marketing campaigns.

Need help installing a Facebook Pixel on your website? Contact The O’Kelly Consulting Group for more information on how our team can get you setup.

Final notes:

Potential customers are using social media in their everyday lives. They connect with friends and family, share their experiences, and shop and browse for engaging brands and businesses online. In fact, Facebook's 2019 Restaurant Trends and Insights Report states that "86% of millennials try a new restaurant after seeing food-related content online."

77 percent of consumers in the U.S. have a social media profile, and over 3 billion people will be using social media in 2020 - that’s almost half of our planet’s population. What does this mean? Social media will continue to have more influence on where people decide to dine than ever before. Restaurants that are not taking advantage of all digital marketing trends will be left behind.

Do you or a business you work for need help with digital or social media marketing? Hit the button below to schedule a free social media consultation with our team.