Posts

Facebook Ads Mistakes Blog

With over 2.6 billion monthly active users and a sophisticated algorithm that understands intent and behavior, there is no doubt that Facebook is an excellent platform for advertising.

By placing an ad on the platform, your chances of reaching your target audience skyrocket. This is why it’s no surprise that businesses, big and small, continue to devote substantial marketing budget to Facebook ads.

Facebook advertising requires a bit of a learning curve. Many of us tend to make a lot of mistakes, especially when we’re starting out. Understanding some of the most common Facebook ads mistakes will help you get more bang for your advertising buck.

Here are 6 common Facebook ads mistakes that are destroying your campaign.

Choosing the wrong objective

If you’re running ads and you don’t know what an objective is, then that would be big problem. In this case, you’re probably just boosting the post (we can talk about that in a separate blog post).

Choosing the right objective is vital to the success of your advertising campaign. Facebook has 11 objects, and each of them helps get you closer to your goals.

Basically, you’re telling Facebook what you expect to gain for this specific campaign. Let’s say you want to make your video viral, then an engagement campaign would be a great option. If you want to generate leads, then choose lead generation as your objective. If you’re running an e-commerce business and you’re looking to get more purchases, then choose conversion as your objective.

Choosing the wrong objective will not only give you unfavorable results, you’ll also be wasting money.

Poor targeting

There are billions of people on Facebook. Showing your ads to all of them doesn’t make sense. That’s why it’s important that you know who your target audience is before you start creating a campaign.

Targeting is a vital element when creating an ads campaign. Try to be as detailed as possible with your targeting. Narrow down your audience by targeting by gender, age ranges, geographic areas, and interests. The more specific you can get with your targeting, the better results you’ll see.

Forgetting about Facebook Pixel

Pixel provides a way to track interactions that are happening with your ad. By installing it on your website, it would be easier for you to track your visitor’s behaviors and gather data.

From the data you have collected, you can learn how your audience engages with you off of the Facebook platform. It also provides a way to measure your ads effectiveness in driving results.

Without Pixel, how else are you going to prove that what you are doing to drive opportunity to your business is working?

Sticking to one type of media

The primary goal of creating ads is to get people to take notice and take action. But since most people aren’t on Facebook to shop or checkout ads, it can be extremely difficult to get people to do that.

It takes an intriguing, creative, and a compelling ad copy to capture the attention of your audience. Video ads are one of the most powerful ways to capture the attention of your audience. But if you’re using videos on all your FB ads campaign, it can start to feel a bit stale after a while.

Consider using a variety of media – videos, photos, animated photos etc. Also, create a variety of ad copies and test them out. This way, you can determine which one resonates best with your audience and provides the best results for your business.

Impatience

Like any other digital marketing campaign, it takes time to create and optimize a Facebook ads campaign. Your Facebook Pixel is smart, but you need to give it time to learn and gather data.

The problem is that some people get impatient, thinking that they are losing money but still not getting results.

For instance, if your Pixel is fresh and you set your campaign objective to conversion, Facebook may not even know what a “purchasing” customer will look like, especially when you’ve never had any sales before. You’ll have to wait until you’ve gathered enough data before making any decisions on your ads like pausing or tweaking them.

Don’t think of it as an expense. Rather, think of it as an investment. Remember, you’re paying Facebook for the data.

Set it and forget it mindset

This is one of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen over the years. While it’s important to be patient and allow Facebook to do the work, it’s also important to check your ad campaign once in a while.

If you leave the ad campaign as is after it went live, there’s a good chance that the results will diminish over time. Why? It’s because of ad fatigue.

Let’s say you’ve been running the same ad for a month and you didn’t make any changes since it went live. Chances are the same people will be seeing the same ad over and over again. Not only will people find it annoying, you’re also losing money in the process. Read the data and make the necessary changes to get better results.

Running a remarketing campaign can be an effective way to re-engage potential customers who may have shown interest in your product or service, but did not convert during their initial visit.

Final thoughts

It’s important to be aware of the six common Facebook Ads mistakes so that you can avoid them and have a successful campaign. A good way to start is by understanding your target audience, setting clear goals and objectives, and creating high-quality ads.

All the tips mentioned above will help ensure your campaigns are successful and are getting the results you desire.

6 Common Facebook Ads Mistakes That Are Destroying Your Campaigns

6 Common Facebook Ads Mistakes That Are Destroying Your Campaigns6 Common Facebook Ads Mistakes That Are Destroying Your Campaigns

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time T

Today, I want to talk about five different things you can be doing right now with all this extra time we have on our hands.

Most of us are working from our home offices and trying to move our businesses from an offline to an online service, and that could be a little difficult. We’ve talked a little bit about different things that you can do to help make that transition a little bit easier. And today I just want to give you five more things that you, guys, can be doing at this time to stay top of mind with your patients and keep your marketing going.

Blogs

So, the first thing is the blogs. Usually, blogging is something that gets put on the back burner because we’re so busy. We don’t have the time to sit down and write blogs. Maybe we’re not natural writers, it’s not something we really enjoy doing. And I understand that I am not a natural writer. It’s hard for me to sit down and write a 3000-word blog post. One really cool tool that we have discovered, and we use all the time, is called Scribie. And I’ll put the link below.

This is great because it allows you to do a video recording, just like this, and you can send in the audio file or the video file to Scribie, and they do a transcription of that file. This is a great way because now that video that you did acts as two benefits. You have the video for YouTube, but then you have the content for your blog that’s going to help with your SEOs, so it’s serving dual purposes.

Now, the other thing, if you have an audio file or an audio recording on your phone or different device, then you are able to upload that MP4 file to Scribie as well.

We use Zoom to record the videos, and then we upload the audio file because, with Zoom, it provides you both the video and audio, so that’s perfect. And so I think MP4 is video and MP3 is the audio. So, if you’re just doing an audio recording on your phone, just then upload that MP3 file into Scribie, and it will transcribe your blog. And for fairly reasonable.

Most blog posts are under that $10 mark to transcribe, and then you need to edit them, make sure your grammar is correct, and then you can put them into your blog post and format them with your header tags and your images. This saves a lot of time. This is something that we’ve really been able to focus on, is doing one to two video blogs per week and really making sure that we’re working on that content strategy. That’s number one.

Telehealth

Number two is really considering implementing telehealth. We have recently done a blog on telehealth, and what it is, and how to implement it, but now this is becoming a little bit more of a normal thing. Y

Now that your patients can’t see you face-to-face in your office, telehealth is a great way for them to see you face-to-face via video, whether that is through Zoom or a different tool used for the health care industries. So, really thinking of how can you implement telehealth into your practice to be able to see your patients, continue the business, and make sure that you’re giving them that peace of mind.

Videos

I know you probably are so tired of us saying “videos, videos, videos,” but really right now, your audience, your patients, they’re turning to social media more now than ever, and it’s important that they see your face.

As their health care practitioner in whatever field that is, it’s important that they see you, that they hear you. That gives them peace of mind that things are going to be okay. And I’m not saying that every video you do needs to be around the topics of COVID-19 or whatever is going on, but I would just educate them. Maybe if you’re working with kids, you can do some different cooking, some different recipes that they can try. Since the kids are home, you can give some study tips, maybe some art tips, nutrition tips, things that your audience can find valuable. And that you get creative with your videos.

If your staff is working from home, maybe do a weekly behind the scenes, like “Hey, this is Nurse Becky and this is her dog, Sam,” or whatever it may be. Get creative with your videos, and really allow this time of vulnerability to be there for your patients. You can ask for videos from them, too. Have a contest of the most creative art project or recipe concoction, whatever that may be.

If you’re working with elders, maybe you’re putting out crossword puzzles or word searches, things to keep them active. And that’s where I feel videos are great. They’re building that relationship on a much deeper level.

Ads

People may be wanting to cut costs right now because of that uncertainty, which we understand. One thing that you do not want to cut right now is your marketing.

It’s so important to make sure that you have your Facebook ads running, you have your Google ads running. And maybe you cut back that budget a little bit, but you still are doing business as normal. And especially if you are starting to implement telehealth, that maybe something that you really want to put a little bit of ad spend behind to promote because now you’re able to reach more people and help even more people, rather than just the people in your demographic area or geographical area.

Facebook ad campaigns, you want to make sure you leave them on, that you’re re-marketing people. And that’s something that we can help you with. If you’re confused about how to get that setup or how that works for your practice, we’re more than happy to help you with that, but make sure you have your ads running.

Patient check-ins

Lastly, take this time and do some patient check-ins. Go through your charts. If you haven’t seen anyone in a while, or you have a client that may be a higher risk or you are worried about, just do a simple check-in. Maybe even handwritten notes. I know that sometimes it takes a little bit of extra time even if you put together a newsletter, and you had your patients the newsletter just updating them.

I think it’s really important to build relationships and community right now, and make sure that you are again staying top of mind because that’s what your patients need right now. And so just doing that patient check-in, whether it’s individual… And you may have thousands of patients, so checking in with each of them won’t work. But if you can do a newsletter, where it is individualized to them, and you could say “Go do a video,” but just letting them know that you’re thinking of them and that you’re here for them, and maybe giving them some tips that you can help them, you again maybe introducing the telehealth series and letting them know that that’s an option.

Final thoughts

So, think of your target market and how you can utilize this time in a different way to focus on your marketing and being able to reach more people.  We may have extra time on our hands and most of us are, like I said, working from home.

So If you need help with any of these things, we would love to schedule a consultation with you, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com, click on FREE consultation, and we will talk to you soon.

 

 

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

boosted posts vs. facebook ads

Scratching your head about whether to ‘boost’ a post on Facebook or to utilize the power of Facebook ads?  Boosting a post is sometimes ‘simple’ but not always the best answer to get to the folks that really matter to your brand!  Remember, Facebook is not a spray and pray proposition. Getting into the newsfeeds is getting harder and harder for ranking capability.  Soooo…get ready to dig into your pocketbook, whether boosting or using Facebook ads.

Boosting a post on Facebook, let’s face it, is easy-peasy, as opposed to going behind the scenes and utilizing the awesome tools on Facebook Manager. All you have to do is hit the ‘boost post’ button and off you go, right?  WRONG. Hang on ‘pardner…

In the past, boosting did not have many of the attributes that Facebook Ads Manager had, but now the Boost post button might not be such a bad strategy after all.  You can now actually re-target and optimize your boosts to actually drive traffic for developing your brand followers!  

There are some key factors that come into play when boosting your posts.  You must consider:

  1. What is the goal for the boost?
  2. DO NOT boost a post that does not benefit you, such as a resource post that does not lead back to your website, as an example.
  3. Again, boosting is not a ‘spray and pray’ proposition.  Make sure that you are targeting your demographic for the post.
  4. It’s all about the Facebook Pixel!!!!  In order to get the best traction, make sure that you have installed the Facebook Pixel (it’s FREE) on your website so you can get your tracking enabled.

So why is Facebook Manager a greater preference for ads?  Let’s be frank, candid and honest…Facebook Ads Manager does have a learning curve…no doubt…but it does have the ability for in-depth targeting, which is a HUGE coup! AND AND AND…if you are an organizational freak, the only way to keep completely organized with your ad spend is to create campaigns within Facebook Ads Manager.  You don’t have that ability with boosting posts.

For example, if you want to stay organized on Ads Manager for ‘campaigns,’ you can organize your campaigns strategically:

  • App installs
  • Engagement
  • Brand Awareness
  • Reach
  • Traffic
  • Video Views
  • LeadGen
  • Messages
  • Conversions
  • Product Catalog Sales
  • Store Visits

If you are merely ‘boosting’ a post, you do not have the ability to categorize your ‘boosted posts’ into strategic campaigns on Facebook to examine analytics per campaign goals.

So, to wrap it up quick and easy…boosted posts will help you develop a fan base and reach, and ads can actually help you transition your brand’s presence into tangible brand outcomes!

Stay tuned for more info…lots to share!

reasons-why-your-facebook-ads-arent-convertingFacebook ads are one of the most popular options among small business owners who are new to online marketing. After all, Facebook is one of the biggest social networking channels available, with about 1.6 billion active users.

Believing that Facebook would help them reach their target audience, business owners would spend hours optimizing their Facebook ads and spend a sizeable budget for their ads. However, many of them end up getting frustrated because they’re not getting the results they hoped for.

Are your Facebook ads producing mediocre results? Take a closer look at your Facebook ad campaign to make sure you’re not falling prey to these mistakes.

Poor ad copy

When creating an ad, your goal is to convince people to perform the action you want them to do or to buy your product. Don’t expect your ad to perform if it is confusing, badly written or if it includes wrong spelling and bad grammar. Make it a habit to review you content before publishing it.

Your target audience is not properly defined

In order to get results, you need to target a specific group of people who’ll be interested to see your ad. Next time you run a Facebook ad, make sure you set the location and demographic like age and gender. This way, you can be sure that you’re putting ads in front of prospective customers who will be clicking your ads, and not wasting your money on people who might care.

No call-to-action

There are a few reasons why people may not be converting. One of them is due to the lack of call-to-action in your ad copy. Make sure you include a clear call-to-action so that people are directed to click on your link.

Your offer lacks value

With countless companies pushing ads across multiple channels, the digital marketing landscape has been saturated. As a result, users learn to scroll through ads that do not offer enough value to them. Most users will only click through the ad is worth their time to do so.

To get more clicks on your ad, you need to get to know your target audience and determine what they value. You have to offer something that would make them think it’s worth their time. A free e-book, a superior product, knowledge, a great sale or entertainment will make them want to click your ad.

facebookadsThere are 890 million people signing in on Facebook every single day. Given that number, it is safe to assume that your potential customers are a part of this massive community.

Facebook ads have enormous potential to drive traffic and grow your business. But how do you get people to click on your ad and get them to buy your products? Here are a few tips.

Define your goals

You first need to define your goals before you spend a single cent on Facebook ad. What are you hoping to accomplish? Do you want more fan engagement? More Facebook likes? More website visits? More sales? The type of ad you should use depends on what you want to achieve.

Choose images that stand out

If you’re planning to promote a post, be sure to use powerful images. Remember, your ad photo is the first thing people are going to see. These photos can make your ad be more eye-catching.

According to studies, ads that use pictures of people do really well. Take a look at the ads, and you’ll notice that most of them use pictures of people. Why? It’s because people likes people. If you want to promote your products, you might want to use a photo of a person using your product.

Include a call to action

An ad with high quality content and powerful photos is great, but without a call-to-action, people might not understand what’s in it for them or don’t not know what to do next. As a result, your ad fails. Adding a call-to-action encourages people to take your desired action. Plus, they won’t waste time figuring out what to do next.

Ad placement

When it comes to where your Facebook ads will appear, you have 3 options: right column, mobile and news feed. Instead of going for all news feed ads or just choosing right column ads, why not test the different placement ads? This allows you to determine which one performs better.

fcebook ads

Increasing Facebook likes can be a tricky process. With the algorithm changes, Facebook page engagement decreased over time; thus, making it difficult for business owners and marketers to reach their fans.

Since Facebook is one of the biggest and most popular social networks, you should be looking for ways to increase the number of people who like your page. Advertising using Facebook ads is one of them.

Facebook ads are the easiest and most effective ways to increase your likes. If you don’t already have some good Facebook ads strategies, you better get started.

Ability to reach smartphone users

Facebook has about 1.20 billion active mobile users as of December 2014. That’s a lot of people, and the number of users is increasing over time. Because of that, mobile should be your priority. By advertising on Facebook, you’ll be able to reach your audience right at the palm of their hands.

Enhanced audience targeting

There are billions of people on Facebook. That said, you need to make sure that you use at least the most basic of targeting when you set up any ad on Facebook. Otherwise, you’ll end up advertising to the wrong people and waste money in the end.

Facebook advertising allows you to target a specific group of people based on their age, gender, geographical location, interests and more. This gives you the chance to be more precise in your audience targeting. Think about your ideal customer and what they’re interested in. Decide who you want to reach before creating an ad.

Heightened audience engagement

Before, you only needed to come up with great content and wait until you get all the likes you deserve, but all that has changed over the years. Now, you have to promote your content to ensure that your existing and potential customers see it in their newsfeeds.

Your primary goal is to capture the attention of your target audience and get them to engage with your posts. In addition to ads, you need to make sure that your content are interesting because users only see posts from pages they engage with. Build trust with your followers and get them to share, like or comment on your posts.

 

Facebook has more than 1 billion users from all over the world and majority of which log in on a daily basis and spends a few hours on the network. So, if you are a business owner who is planning to advertise on Facebook, this could be advantageous since everyone is there. You just have to tweak your strategy a bit in order to start seeing great results.

In this article, we’ll give you a few tips on how to maximize your Facebook ads. Follow these guidelines and you’ll be rewarded with a higher conversion rate.

Use the newsfeeds

Nowadays, majority of Facebook users are accessing their accounts through their mobile devices or tablets. This has a great impact on the part of the advertisers as mobile users are unable to see the right hand column. So, it is important to divert some of your advertising on the newsfeeds.

In a study which was conducted by SocialCode, they revealed that Facebook mobile ads earn up to 2.5 times more compared to desktop-only ads.

Custom Audiences

Most advertisers have one simple goal – to sell more. In this case, it would be better to focus on people who are already leads, like the ones who are included on your email list.

With the introduction of the “custom audience feature”, you are now given the option to upload your email list on Facebook. This is especially helpful as you can easily choose them as a custom audience when targeting a certain group of people.

Stick to the 20% rule

Facebook has made a revision on their guidelines regarding ads that appear in the news feeds. Now, all ad images that appear in the news feeds can have a text overlay. However, advertisers should take note that the text should not take up more than 20% of the ad image.

Make sure that you adhere to this rule so you won’t get penalized.

 

  1. Facebook is one of the most popular websites on the Internet. With approximately 250 million unique visitors each month, Facebook is the 2nd-most visited website on the Internet (behind Google). All those eyeballs mean plenty of exposure for your ads.
  2. Facebook offers targeted advertising. Facebook allows advertisers to target a specific group of people based on age, personal interests and more. Facebook can even comb through user profiles to place your ads only on pages that mention a specific keyword.
  3. You can increase customer loyalty through a Facebook fan page. Countless businesses have created Facebook fan pages that users can join. These pages allow your business to interact directly with your customers so that you can build loyalty and brand image.
  4. Offer special promotions through your Facebook fan page. Your fan page can also be used as a platform to promote new products or ad campaigns. Updates on new product launches keep your customers more informed and up-to-date on what products or services you offer.
  5. Facebook ads are more flexible than Google AdWords. Compared to Google AdWords, Facebook offers additional character length for ad descriptions. The ability to create image-based ads also adds flexibility.
  6. Facebook users offer heightened audience engagement. Facebook users visit the website not only to consume information, but also to create it. This results in a higher retention rate that improves ad visibility.
  7. Facebook facilitates multiple ad views. Your ad has a better chance of getting noticed or having a positive effect when seen multiple times. A high number of Facebook users visit the site several times a day.
  8. Choose between PPC and CPM pay structures. Facebook allows advertisers to purchase ad space on a click-based or impression-based fee structure. This allows you to tailor your ad campaign based on budget and other preferences.
  9. Advertising on Facebook can be inexpensive. Thanks to the targeted nature of Facebook advertising, your online campaign can reach your target market for a fairly affordable price. Range of packages for impression-based campaigns is also fairly large, allowing you to reach as many users as your budget allows.
  10. Ability to reach smart-phone users. Facebook is accessed via smart phones worldwide every single day. This fact means advertisers not only have the ability to reach computer and laptop users, but people out in the world as well.