would have thought it be so difficult to find out how to add analytics to your Facebook page!We wanted to find a way of monitoring how many people visit our clients Facebook pages, how long they are there and where our clients visitors are coming from.
Facebook Insights shows some demographical information, and some of it is even useful (we are sure they will be updating this soon) however, the information is limited to info about the interactions of the fans. We researched into more analytical solutions to this and found out that the Google Analytics can be added which provides a far more comprehensive data.
Adding Google Analytics to your Facebook fan page can be done easily but requires some special steps? we will assume you have admin access to the page you are adding the Google analytics too.
You will need to use a programme such as the FBGAT (Facebook Google Analytics Tracker - see link in step 1) a free and open sourced programme (an app you will find on Facebook) you will need to install this to the Facebook page in order to be able to get Google Analytics working.
With the use of this programme and a few special steps we are now able to track visitor statistics, traffic sources, visitor countries, and keyword searches for both the clients website and Facebook pages through our Google Analytics.
We encountered a few problems and issues on the way, but found an easier and simpler way in the end. We have marked the steps below to show you how easy, but effective this tool really is!
Before you begin: you must install the FBML to your page (application on Facebook) to make this work.
Step 1: Get a Google Account
If you already have a Google Analytics account, create a new website profile to separately track visits to your Facebook page. Google will then display your tracking code. The tracking code generally looks like this: UA-1231234-5.
Step 2: Get Tracking Images
The way to work around the Facebook JavaScript limitation is to generate custom images. FBGAT is a free tool that will generate your custom image code to track visits on each of your Facebook fan pages (sounds tech"y really easy to do).
After clicking the "Generate Code" button, you"ll get a code, which you"ll need, to copy in full. You"ll have to generate a separate code for each fan page you want to track and place it as shown in step 3 below.
Note: If you have multiple pages powered by FBML, you can do this for each page.
Step 3: Add the code to Facebook
Place the code generated as shown within your Facebook page using an app like Static FBML. Programs like Static FBML allow you to add HTML to your pages.
Google Analytics will track all visits to those pages. Give Google 24 hours for results to show.
And that's it! Google analytical information about your Facebook page within your Google analytics!
How handy!
For more information on Social Media marketing contact Rathbone Digital.
