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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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Why should a company rebrand?

Why should a company rebrand?

by | Jun 16, 2021 | Branding, Digital Design, Graphic Design, Logo Design, small business, social media, Web design

There are many reasons why a company should rebrand. One of the obvious ones would be to remain current. Design trends change all the time, so does technology. By rebranding and keeping your brand fresh, it is a way of showing your customers and potential customers that you are evolving and innovative.

Take a look at the original logo from Twitter. Had Twitter kept this logo, it would have been almost impossible to view on a small screen, not to mention how ugly it was!

Companies are always on the lookout for new customers and a rebrand can help with this. People take notice of a brand refresh and together with promoting new parts of your business rebranding can really offer a much-needed push to new audiences. 

A rebrand can differentiate you from your competitors. You are seen as innovative and ahead of the game, which helps you stand out from the competition. 

It can also reflect your growth as a business. As you add new services or products to your business, this can be reflected in a fresh new brand. 

The most important result of a rebrand is its effect on sales and profitability. By reaching new clients and standing out from the crowd, by looking innovative and on trend, all these aspects will attract new customers and increase sales. 

See left another example of a brand that has consistently rebranded and evolved over the years.

If you would like to speak to us about designing a new brand or rebranding your business, drop us a line on hello@satsumasocial.com

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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A Guide to Instagram Guides

A Guide to Instagram Guides

by | Dec 3, 2020 | Digital Marketing, Facebook Ads Strategist, Instagram, Instagram Guides, Online Marketing, small business, social media

November 2020 has seen this function eventually rolled out to the masses, but how can it help get more eyes on your posts?

What are Instagram Guides

Essentially, Instagram Guides allows you to make content in long form. Instead of sharing one post, a guide lets you puts multiple posts in the same guide. It enables consumers to navigate their way to long form content without having to go off Instagram to a third party site.

Here is how you set one up:

There are three types of guides to choose from:

Places: use to build a travel guide on a city/country

Products: use to recommend products you sell or products that other brand sell (you need to be following the brands page to see their posts). You can go further once you select the product and choose from ‘Your Posts’ and ‘From Shop’

Posts: use to group posts together either ones from your account or ones that you have saved. 

Once you have done this, click next at the top left. You can add a title and you have the option to change the cover photo and then share to the Guides section of you Instagram profile. All your Instagram guides will be held here. You can also add a few stickers and share this to you story or copy the link and share it somewhere else.

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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