How can using a Facebook pixel help your art gallery marketing?

It has long been proven that a marketing message is more effective with repetition on multiple channels.  That is exactly what the Facebook pixel can do for your gallery business.  I have mentioned using the Facebook pixel many times in the past. Here I want to get more specific about how and why using this powerful pixel can benefit your art gallery’s sales and marketing efforts.

Has a collector ever told you they remember seeing an upcoming gallery event, but then completely forgot about it until it was too late?  Do you sell artworks directly on your website and get frustrated by a high rate of abandoned shopping carts?  Remarketing, using Facebook pixel code, is one strategy that could help.

Don’t let the idea of “code” give you a panic attack. It can be a little intimidating, especially if you are new to Facebook advertising.  Not to worry.  You are about to see you can overcome those tech fears and enjoy the power the pixel code can offer your gallery business.

What’s a Facebook Pixel?

A Facebook pixel is a piece Java code that is created for every Facebook user account.  It tracks people who visit your gallery website, so you can remarket to them on Facebook. The whole world has a Facebook account, right?

You pull this code off of your Facebook ad manager.  Then paste it in the header tag on your art gallery’s website.  It is completely free and only takes a few minutes since we are just talking a simple cut and paste action here.  There is a plugin that makes it even easier if your gallery uses WordPress.  You can also assign certain events or conversion methods you want to track, such as filling out an inquiry form, visiting a specific page, watching a video, adding art to an online shopping cart, etc.  Doing this allow you to be even more targeted with your ads and therefore increasing their relevancy to the viewer.

Here are Facebooks instructions on how put the code in your header tag and test that it is working.

Once placed in your header tag, this amazing piece of code starts collecting data by remembering the people who viewed your website and even which pages they visited.  If you are not planning a Facebook ad campaign at the moment, still install the code so it can begin collecting data. It takes time for the system to build a history.  By installing it soon rather than later, the data will be there when you are ready for it.

Why should you care?

There are four important reasons to use this code.

1. Helps you build custom audiences for remarketing to warm leads.
2. Improves optimization of ad conversions.
3. Lowers costs of advertising while delivering more relevant ads.
4. Enables better ROI tracking by attributing conversations back to your ads.

Let’s imagine you are trying to promote an artist talk event that is connected to an important show in the gallery. You create a Facebook ad that will retarget everyone who has been to your website in the past month or viewed a specific artist page over a longer a period of time. The maximum Facebook allows is 180 days. Your ad could have a gorgeous image and say something as simple as, “Meet artist Jane Doe, Saturday, May 25th!” The ad will link to the event page where they can RSVP to attend.  When people RSVP, that is a conversion that you can monitor to see how effective your ad is resonating with your audience. You can then make necessary optimization changes as a result of how well the ad is performing.

This strategy enables you to remarket to people you know are already interested in that artist or your gallery as a whole. Remarketing your important messages with Facebook’s pixel code allows you to increase both the reach and frequency of your message.  In this case, the artist talk event.

How a Pixel Can Benefit your Art Gallery’s Sales and Marketing?

You may be thinking you don’t need to remarket to an audience because your artist talk is posted on your gallery’s Facebook page and you sent the event details out in your newsletter.  You must remember however, that those who visited your website may not follow your gallery page on Facebook.  Those that do, are less likely to be seeing your event post in their feed due to the recent algorithm changes that favor posts from friends and family over brand pages.  Those same people may also not be on your email list.

Running an ad that uses a pixel code to create a targeted audience allows your gallery to reach more potential warm lead buyers, more frequently.  Along with multiple independent market research studies, Facebook themselves have conducted a study that shows frequency increases results.  The bottom line is using a pixel code on your website is an effective way to increase art sales, attendance at gallery events and promote your artist’s careers.

If you sell directly on your website, your Facebook pixel can also help you retarget ads to people who have added art to a web shopping cart, but did not check out.  You have probably seen this strategy many times.  Amazon is the king of remarketing.  Have you ever shopped for an item on Amazon, but didn’t pull the trigger on the purchase?  Next time you are on Facebook, there that items is, calling to you like a sirens song. Your art gallery can do the same thing as part of your online sales strategy using the pixel code.   You may also experiment with using the pixel as part of an exhibition’s pre-sell efforts or to boost sales in slow seasons.

To the Point

Adding a Facebook pixel to your social media strategy is certainly worth implementing as marketing and advertising budgets become more precious.  The ability to target warm leads is smarter use of that budget.  Visibility of organic marketing on social media as dwindled significantly. Sigh…. While social media is absolutely a great marketing tool, it is clear you gotta pay to play.

I would caution you to be clear about your goals for your ads and understand the process and targeting metrics before placing the responsibility into a young gallery assistant or intern who may not fully understand the goals and how to best achieve them.  You must provide leadership as a gallery owner or director responsible for the gallery’s and artist’s success.

 

Are you already using a pixel code to remarket to your gallery prospects?  How well has it worked for your business?  Post a comment and let me know. 

Did this article add fuel to your gallery business?