Paid Facebook and Instagram Social Media Strategies for the SMB

Creatives Meet Business

Hi there folks!

Creatives Meet Business is an event and podcast series based out of Austin, Texas for creatives of ALL disciplines to get from zero to one in thinking of themselves as business owners (in the creative sector). We recorded the content for this podcast at our live event in June.

This episode features Alejandra Cos, a Strategic Account Manager with Facebook. Her episode on "Paid Strategies for the SMB" goes into Facebook's algorithm for serving ads and what you can do to best position your ads for success. The discussion ranges from the type of content that performs best on Facebook to what does best on Instagram to bids and budgets and custom lists and lookalike audiences to relevance scores and so so much in between. This episode will knock your socks off (unless you're already sock-less).

:15 to 3:30 - Introduction

• This episode pairs nicely with "Storytelling and Social Media with Ryan Johnston" - go back and listen to it if you haven't heard it yet.
• Overview of what's to come from Alex
• Facebook resources:
  • Power Editor (don't use it with Safari!)
  • Facebook for Business (FAQs)
  • Facebook Blueprint (training videos for advertising on Facebook)
• Awesome resources for designing creative:
  • "15 Great Resources to Create Quick and Beautiful Images for Social" - blog post from Hootsuite
  • Canva (full service image creator)
  • BeFunky (full service image creator)
  • Creative Market (design assets)
  • Unsplash (free stock photos)

3:36 to 5:10 - Why Facebook?

• Targeting - people-based marketing as opposed to cookies
• High intense signals used to run ads

5:12 to 6:27 - Difference between the social media platforms, what to advertise where

• Facebook - stories from friends, family, loved ones
• People scroll through things that they value in life, the best way to stand out as an ad is to blend into timelines / scroll
• Instagram - a platform where people go to get inspired (not necessarily by friends)
• Sometimes the platforms aren't used for the same purpose, be mindful of this when creating your ad creative

6:30 to 8:06 - Understanding your objective

• Know your business objective and match it with what's available on Facebook
• Like campaign example - if you choose this as your objective, Facebook will use its algorithm to find people who like
• Conversion campaign example - if you choose this as your objective, Facebook will use its algorithm to find people who take action (complete a lead form, sign up for an event, sign up for a newsletter)

8:07 to 9:13 - Know what audience you're wanting to reach

• Requires testing!
• Create a lookalike audience from uploaded customer email lists

9:15 to 10:08 - Creating Creative!

• Most of the real estate is the image
• You have a second or so to capture someone's attention as they scroll, the image has the most stopping motion
• Ensure a good timeline experience

10:08 to 12:05 - The Good, The Bad and The Delivery (of Ads)

• X'ing out an ad affects how the ad is delivered (delivery slows and loses the auction more and more)
• Captivating Ads win more auctions
• Relevance Score (1 to 10) - how these work. A 6 or above is recommended

12:06 to 13:15 - Testing!

• Look at signals from reporting & metrics and make your campaigns even more relevant
• A/B Test - Test with one variable, otherwise it's hard to track which variable contributed to the better performance
• One example of testing is to keep the content the same but add multiple images and see how each image performs separately

13:16 to 15:05 - What About When Your Ad Isn't Performing...?

• Tips to combating under-delivery - your budget wasn't reached in ad delivery
  • Review your bid - amount you're willing to pay for the desired action
    • Keep within your budget, but its recommended to pay toward the higher end of the funnel for the bid
  • Budget - how much the campaign will spend per day or in its lifetime
• Facebook auction process
• Be mindful about audience overlap - don't compete against yourself for an audience

15:06 to 16:20 - Frequency

• If you like a page, you can see 3 ads tops per day
• If you don't like a page, the maximum you can see is 2 ads per day
• Audience overlap example with frequency

16:26 to 19:11 - Closing Time (Tools and Helpful Bits)

• Facebook Business (FAQ that includes pretty much anything you could imagine)
• Link to FAQ about my inquiry about which creative serves best for Facebook or Instagram
• Link to event on 8/16 (Taxes & Accounting)
• Announcing... the launch of the CMB advice column! Go to the comment section of the website and send us your questions!

If you like what you hear, share the podcast with your friends, like and comment. To stay in the loop - follow us on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to the newsletter.

Stay tuned for next week, we'll be posting another episode featuring one of the pros from the Social Media edition.

Thanks!

Ashland, Creatives Meet Business