I talk a lot about Facebook and the seemingly infinite uses it has for those looking to up their recruitment marketing strategy. The Facebook Pixel is no different from my other endorsements—in fact, it might be the best tools that Facebook offers.
One of our clients is all in on Facebook advertising as part of their recruitment marketing strategy. In fact, the ads I manage for them are so wide, the account has fallen into Facebook’s coveted “support” category (aka, you spend so much money with us, we’re going to be in constant contact with you to make sure you keep spending that money). During one of my chats with our support agent on behalf of the client, the Facebook rep casually said, “I noticed you aren’t really putting your Facebook Pixel to use.”
And they were right. I already knew about the Facebook Pixel, and so we implemented one (I’ll get to that in a minute) but it seemed like a daunting task to figure out how to use it effectively. I’m here to tell you it’s not, and you’re crazy to not be using it.
What is a Facebook Pixel?
At its most basic definition, the Facebook Pixel is a code that allows you to track, collect, and retarget website audiences through Facebook’s advertising platform.
For novice Facebook ad users, let’s break that definition down a bit by looking at the process of how a Pixel works.
Collecting website audiences: Within Facebook’s ad manager, you are able to create your Pixel. When you do so, you are given a unique HTML tracking code that you can place in the header HTML of your careers site, ATS, or any other site related to your employer brand that you may want to capture audiences from. Be aware, you must have backend access or know the web developer who has access that can place the code into the header.
Now you’ve got your Pixel installed, check whether it’s correctly working by using Facebook’s handy web browser add-on, or by going back into your Facebook ad manager’s Pixel page and seeing if the URLs now listed there have numbers next to them—those numbers indicate the number of Facebook users who have visited the URLs where your Pixel is installed.
And that’s pretty much where I hit a dead end with using Pixels before getting a thorough how-to from my Facebook rep.
Retargeting those audiences: While it’s great to know those users are there on your site and being captured by the Pixel’s tracking capabilities, it doesn’t mean much if you don’t do anything with those users. This is where the retargeting comes in.
Through the same Pixels page where your URLs and how many visitors they’ve amassed are listed is an option to create audiences. Facebook gives you the option to create audiences of anyone who visits your sites, anyone who visits specific pages, anyone who visits some pages but not others, as well as a few other more specific options. Additionally, you can create “lookalike” audiences—an group of Facebook users who are similar to those your Pixel has collected. You can then create ads that target these custom audiences.
How You Can Maximize Facebook Pixels for Recruitment Marketing Strategies
With a world of possibilities at your fingertips, here are just a few audience structures you can create from your Pixel to target, and they types of Facebook ads you can show to these audiences to increase applications:
- Candidates who have visited your careers site, but not your ATS—they obviously have an interest in your employer brand, so show them positions you currently have open, linking them to the job posting within your ATS
- Candidates who have searched your ATS, but never made it to an application page’s URL—these candidates expressed interest in a job opening but something stopped them; show them ads that emphasize the ease of applying to your jobs
- Candidates who have began an application, but never made it to the application completion page URL—there are many reasons a candidate might fall off here, but a way to bring any candidate like this type back is reminding them of your incredible culture; provide this candidate audience ads that go to your careers site stories
And that’s just a few ways you can use custom audiences from your Pixels to your advantage. Go even further by easily creating lookalike audiences. Because Facebook pulls in those who are similar to your Pixel audiences but haven’t actually been to your sites, you’re more likely to capture passive candidates this way. Concerned about their effectiveness? With our first trials of lookalike audiences, our cost per click on ads has gone down anywhere from 50-90%.
Facebook isn’t just a behemoth digital networking site, teeming with candidates; it’s also a partner that provides incredibly useful tools for recruitment marketers like you.
If you’re interested in learning more about creating/using Facebook Pixels and custom audiences, check out their help center here; and if you want the human touch for your social advertising recruiting needs, hit our team at Kinetix up—we’re just a Facebook message away!