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How to use Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns to drive more sales

How to use Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns to drive more sales

by | Jan 17, 2023 | Advantage+ Shopping, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads Strategist, Meta, Online Marketing, small business, social media

How to use Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns to drive more sales

If you are looking for a new way to reach and engage customers through Meta ads, have you had a chance to explore Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns?

These were launched last August and like with any new Meta feature that they roll out, we at Satsuma Digital like to TEST, TEST, TEST, to see first whether they work and also plan the best way to include them in our existing clients’ ad strategies.

Meta defines them as:

‘AI-based campaigns that leverage machine learning to help you reach valuable audiences with less setup time and greater efficiency.’

The idea with Advantage+ shopping campaigns is that you can make the most of your ad budget and minimize your workload. With the power of Meta’s machine-learning technology behind it, all you have to do is select a campaign duration and add in creative assets and Meta takes care of the rest. The campaigns work through machine learning and automated processes and can create up to 150 ad creative combinations in one go.

Sounds like a no-brainer doesn’t it?

 

This is what we think….

 

Reasons to use Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

  • Automation is at the heart of Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, giving advertisers and business owners more capacity to focus on alternative tasks.

  • By leveraging AI for optimization improvements within Meta, it’s possible to yield higher results than ever before.

Drawbacks to running Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

  • As an ad manager who has always controlled all aspects of the ad campaign, it can be hard to just let go and trust Meta to do a good job!

  • There are also so many restrictions when you run this type of campaign, as you won’t be able to conduct audience research etc and target interests, although you are able to pull in custom audiences.

  • You are also not able to choose where your ads are seen, Meta takes care of that.

  • Meta limits the amount of Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns to 8 per account, which depending on your budget can be quite restrictive.

Our results

We have used these campaigns in a few of our clients’ accounts and we have seen good, (but sometimes unpredictable), results. It’s likely that the accounts with a seasoned pixel and more targeted history see extra success, as they provide Meta with much better insights into their ideal customer.

Our Top Tips

  • Don’t just set one up and leave it! They can be used at the top of the sales funnel or retargeting or a blend of both, so ensure that you have a strategy set up so you can utilise Meta’s AI effectively for your business.

  • This type of campaign should be used as an additional campaign to your existing ones to get the best results. This will amplify your overall success.

If you would like to have a chat with me about running Google or Facebook ads for your business, book a meeting in my diary or email me at hello@Satsuma-Digital.com

 

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ECommerce: Top Tips for a successful Christmas season

ECommerce: Top Tips for a successful Christmas season

by | Sep 8, 2021 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Google, Google Ads, Online Marketing, Pay Per Click, PPC, small business, social media

The season is almost upon us, particularly if you run an eCommerce website. 

Not a lot of people know but I ran an eCommerce site for 11 years, until 2018, so I remember the stress of it all. I recall getting orders in August for Christmas! Realistically though, mid-October is when the sales start to ramp up. The biggest weekend is the Black Friday through to Cyber Monday, (26th-29th November 2021), and then it’s just head down, have no life to speak of until a few days before Christmas Day, when you cannot guarantee Christmas delivery anymore. Phew!

I remember those months well and am quite happy I do not have to deal with the stress anymore but on the same token, when you look back in January and look at how much you have sold, it makes it all worthwhile!

One important lesson I did learn from those 11 years was that if you were not prepared for the season, it could easily pass you by.

So, when it comes to setting up your ad campaigns, whether they be Google ads or Facebook & Instagram ads, here are my top 7 tips to help you make the most of the season and look back in January proud at what you have achieved. 

1. Become your customer

Place an order on your website, on mobile and on desktop. How easy was it? Did it work fast enough? Was everything clear? Were there too many hoops to jump through that would put a potential customer off. All sales should be able to be completed from adding to basket to completing the checkout process in a few clicks.

Is your refund & shipping policy displayed clearly on the website? Are there customer reviews showing on the site? Make it as easy as possible for the user to trust your business.

2. Allocate your budget now

How much are you placing where? What is your revenue goal? Set you KPIs. Be aware the costs of advertising rise in this period due to competition, consider this in your plans.

3. Create a promotional calendar

According to Google one third of festive weekend purchases were driven specifically by promotion. Synch up your social media posts and emails with your promotional calendar so that there is correlation across all the channels.

4. Make sure you know your customer

This is integral when you are running Facebook/Instagram campaigns. Knowing your customer leads to lower advertising costs!

5. Facebook

With Facebook test as much copy as your budget will allow and keep a close eye on it. Switch off ads that are not working, feed in new copy all the time.

6. Google

With Google, keep an eye on those negative keywords, you do not want to be paying for irrelevant clicks!

7. Check your accounts daily

Whichever channel you use, whether it be Google ads or Facebook/Instagram ads, keep checking the accounts daily. Cap costs to ensure that you are not overspending and be prepared to change direction if the stats are telling you to do so. Don’t be over emotional with your brand and push a category because you ‘think’ that’s what your customers want. Read the stats, understand them, and adapt your campaign accordingly.

Good Luck!!

I have been running Google, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns for my clients since 2019. If you need any help with your campaigns, contact me and we can set up a meeting.

Natasha Fitzpatrick

Google Ads & Paid Social Strategist

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Google ads V Facebook Ads

Google ads V Facebook Ads

by | Mar 25, 2021 | Digital Marketing, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads Strategist, Google, Google Ads, Online Marketing, Pay Per Click, PPC, social media

You know you have to advertise but you are not sure where to allocate your budget. In this blog, we are going to attempt to differentiate between the two platforms and what they offer so you can make the right decision for your business.

Both platforms excel in what they offer, and both totally dominate the market when it comes to online advertising. They can work very effectively together just by the nature of how they work to find new business. 

Google Ads

Google ads, commonly known as PPC, Pay Per Click, is exactly as it says, you pay as the user clicks on your ad. Google is the world’s largest search engine and there are more than 5 billion Google searches a day!

The two most common forms of Google ads are:

  1. Search – The user types what they are looking for e.g. ‘builder North London’ and the first 4 listings that appear are ads. As a company, you enter an auction against other companies who have added these keywords into their campaign. This is a highly effective form of advertising as the intent from the user is already there.
  1. Shopping – this is for eCommerce businesses. These listings appear on the right-hand side of the page and show an image, reviews, shipping and price. These a highly effective as the user has already showed high intent by searching for that product.

Google ads is great for eCommerce businesses as you can effectively sell your products online. It’s also great for business targeting a local area as you can target your ads to only show in certain geographical areas. There are other forms of advertising on Google, such as display, video and Google ads retargeting. Together these can ensure that all parts of your sales funnel are catered for, from top of funnel brand awareness down to the bottom of funnel, sales and leads. 

Facebook Ads

Facebook works in a completely different away. Primarily it is a social network, so users are not on there to search for a product or service. Any advertising on there is considered interruption marketing, where your feed is interrupted with ads. This does not mean you should ignore Facebook in your marketing strategy though.

Facebook has 2.5 billion active users. Facebook also knows a lot about their users. They know what they like, what they engage with, what area they live in, age, gender, what shops they like etc…the list goes on and on. And on that basis, advertisers can use that information to target their ads. For example, you may follow the clothes shop Zara on Facebook. Zara will definitely be able to retarget you with ads, but also other similar companies with the same user demographic will also be able to target you with ads. 

Facebook’s retargeting options are fantastic but also their ability to find and target a similar audience to your existing audience is also a really effective feature that they offer. You can advertise to a completely new audience that has similar likes as your seed audience, so  you get your ads seen by totally new potential customers who are more likely to buy off you. 

So which one is better? Google ads or Facebook ads? 

Well that totally depends on your company objectives. Both work well separately and can be highly effective working hand-in-hand. 

If I was a newbie starting out though I would stick to the following rules

  • If your objective is sales or leads – both Google ads and Facebook ads can cover both these very effectively.
  • If you want to sell products directly, use shopping ads on Google
  • If your objective is to build your social following, Facebook is your channel.

I hope this helps you make your final decision. If you would like help setting up and running your ad campaigns, that’s what we offer here at Satsuma Social. Please drop us a line and we can go through your business objectives and how best to achieve them. We offer full management across both channels.

By Natasha Fitzpatrick

Natasha is a Digital Marketing Specialist & Founder of Satsuma Social. She specialises helping growing business increase sales and generate leads.

Find out how Natasha can help your business.

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iOS 14 and its impact on Facebook advertisers

iOS 14 and its impact on Facebook advertisers

by | Feb 2, 2021 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Facebook, Facebook Ads, small business, social media

We have all heard about the Apple’s new iOS 14 updates which are being rolled out in January – but is it all doom and gloom for Facebook advertisers?

The short answer is we don’t know. Until the update is completely rolled out, we will not know exactly how it affect our campaigns. What we do know though is this is that iOS 14 will enable users to control how apps and websites track users – downside for users is, if they stop these apps and websites from tracking them, they will still get advertised to, but just with irrelevant products, which is more annoying!

To add to this, the ad attribution window is decreasing to 7 days and the number of events  you can get data from are limited to 8. 

What can you do?

If you are running ads for your business, here is what we suggest you do for the time being until it is fully rolled out

  • Enable the Conversions API and turn on Advanced Matching – Conversion API essentially allows your website to send data directly to Facebook without involving the user’s browser. 
  • Update your privacy policy to include the use of hashed data
  • Verify your domain with Facebook – this will allow you track up to 8 events

When this fully rolled out and we see how this effects campaigns, we will back with a more in-depth analysis.

By Natasha Fitzpatrick

Natasha is a Paid Social Strategist & Founder of Satsuma Social. She specialises helping growing business increase sales and generate leads.

Find out how Natasha can help your business 

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6 reasons why a small eCommerce business should run Facebook ads

6 reasons why a small eCommerce business should run Facebook ads

by | Oct 9, 2020 | eCommerce, Facebook, Facebook Ads, small business, social media

Running a small business is tough at the best of times. Throw in a pandemic and a recession and the pressures to succeed just mount. So, when it comes to allocating marketing budget, the margins are not there to fail and a scattergun approach is just not an option.

Facebook & Instagram ads, managed well, have always been a cost-effective way to get new business. I have highlighted some of the reasons below. As we get into the busiest selling season of the year, it would be worth setting aside a portion of your marketing budget run these ads.

Here are 6 reasons why you should be running Facebook ads:

1. Your audience is on Facebook
With over 2.7 billion monthly active users as of the 2nd quarter of 2020, (37million of these in the UK), Facebook is undoubtably the biggest and busiest network in the world.  Your customers are on there. While they swipe up, your business can appear in front of them but specifically targeted at your ideal client through audience targeting. (point 3)

2. Facebook ads are cheap
Facebook ads work out cheaper than many other social advertising as long as you are managing them right. Once Facebook gets to know who your ideal audience is, your ads can become even cheaper as Facebook finds it easier to find your ideal client using the knowledge they have gathered so far.

3. Targeting is laser focused
One of the unique selling points of Facebook ads is that you can laser focus your targeting so only the people who are your ideal client will see your ads. You can narrow the audience down by gender, age, geography and a host of many other interest-based options, ensuring that your ads are seem by the people who are most likely to buy your product.

4. You can create retargeting funnels to increase sales
You can create retargeting funnels so you can retarget previous engagers of your ads with further ads to push them over the line and buy from you. This is highly effective is increasing those sales!

5. You can convert a highly effective audience into a new highly effective audience
If you have managed to create a highly effective audience that buys off you, then you can create a ‘Lookalike’ audience on Facebook. Facebook will match the original audience with a whole new audience of people that are similar to your seed audience who you can then start advertising to.

6. Valuable analytics
Facebook offers in depth analytics and tracking so that you can analyse what has worked, what has not worked, so that you can then tweak or push certain creative, audiences etc. This limits budget wastage and ensures that you are spending your money wisely.

By Natasha Fitzpatrick

Natasha is Facebook Ads Strategist specialising in helping businesses increase sales and generate leads.

Find out how Natasha can help your business 

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A checklist to ensure that your website is ready to run Facebook ads

A checklist to ensure that your website is ready to run Facebook ads

by | Feb 13, 2020 | Facebook, Facebook Ads, social media, Web design

Before you start to run ads to your website, use this checklist to ensure that your website is ready otherwise you will waste your money!

1. Check the speed of your website. How quickly does your page load? Are some images slowing it down? Go to Pingdom and check your website speed for free. If a user clicks on your ad and the page takes longer than usual to load, the user will give up, but you would have paid Facebook for that click.

2. Have a look at your website, ask some colleagues and friends to help you. What is the customer experience like? Does everything work like it should? Is the branding all correct, are you using the same fonts throughout the site?

3. If you are an ecommerce site, do you have enough trust proof on the site e.g. an SSL secure logo, Paypal verified etc. This again instils confidence that you are a reputable site and they are protected if anything goes wrong with their order.

4. Do you have testimonials on there from past clients / shoppers? This gives the user confidence that other customers have had a great experience.

So you have checked all of the above and you are ready to start running ads. Now use this checklist below to ensure that the experience for the user is a good one.

1. Have you added the correct URL in the ad? If you want it to direct to a particular part of your website, ensure that the correct URL is in the ad.

2. Is the landing page clear? Does the information on the page correlate with the information on the ad? Facebook will check this and penalise ads if the landing page copy is not congruent with the ad copy. So you will end up spending more money to reach the same people.

3. Is there a clear call to action on the page? Have you made it clear for the user to perform the action that you want them to do? E.g. pay for something, give their email address etc

If you simply do not have the money or the time to update your website, there are other options.

1. If you just need some data from you user, i.e. email address, name, you can use the ‘Lead Generation’ option when you set up your ad. This does not divert to your website, but rather to a form that you can set up in Facebook.

2. Another option is to create a standalone landing page. These are highly recommended, as there is no way for the consumer to browse off them. The only option on there would be your call to action, e.g. sign up to a free webinar for your course etc. A high converting landing page can be complicated to set up and needs to have approximately 50 checkpoints signed off for us to approve it for our clients.

By Natasha Fitzpatrick

Natasha is Facebook Ads Strategist specialising in helping businesses increase sales and generate leads.

Find out how Natasha can help your business 

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