As brands and marketers continue to grow their presence on Facebook through Facebook Pages, ‘fan acquisition’ becomes as important as ongoing engagement / marketing.

Like traditional traffic acquisition, there are various methods – some organic and viral; other through paid programs. A powerful trend on Facebook is, obviously, the movement of Facebook Advertisements from destination sites to Facebook Pages. Facebook clearly has recognized this with the addition of the “Become a Fan” button.

And brands recognize that acquiring fans is both difficult – but valuable considering the ability to engage with consumers on an ongoing basis…. leading to incentivized Facebook Fan Ads. Below is a great example from Papa Johns who offers a free medium cheese pizza in exchange for becoming a fan.

In reality, this is a unique coupon code for Facebook Fans… which, assuming that the economics work out for Papa Johns, is very smart because it allows them to directly track the ‘redemption rates’ of the Facebook offer – effectively understanding the direct commercial value of their advertising campaign. Meanwhile, there is downstream value in the growth of Facebook fans, the ability to interact with them, future coupons / promotions, and so forth.

The campaign worked. Papa Johns is the third biggest gainer in Facebook Pages – nearly doubling their fan base and driving 250,000 new fans in a 48 hour period.

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