SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

2023

4 BOOKS IN 1

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BEGINNERS, INSTAGRAM MARKETING TO BECOME AN INFLUENCER, FACEBOOK ADVERTISING, GOOGLE ADWORDS (Analytics, SEO, AND ADS FOR YOUR BUSINESS)

JEREMY PREACE

Book1 - Social media marketing for beginners

A simple guide to using social media for your business (Instagram, Facebook, Google, and more). Learn the strategy to become an influencer and increase your income.

Book2 - Instagram marketing

A beginner’s guide for the Instagram influencer. How to use advertising and discover the secrets for your business using the best marketing strategy in social media.

Book3 - Facebook advertising

Guide for business to increase your sales in 10 steps and become influencer. Use Facebook ads, groups and live broadcast for your business strategy in social media marketing.

Book4 - Google AdWords

A beginners guide to learn how google works. Use Google analytics, SEO and ADS with AdWords for your business. Dominate social media marketing, become an influencer.

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Table of Contents

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR BEGINNERS

Description

Introduction

Chapter 1: Importance of Social Media Marketing

Chapter 2: Creating the Sales Funnel

Chapter 3: Benefits of Social Media for Local Businesses

Chapter 4: Tools and Plugins

Chapter 5: Instagram Marketing

Chapter 6: Twitter Marketing

Chapter 7: Facebook Marketing

Chapter 8: Reddit And Facebook Ads Strategy

Chapter 9: Snapchat

Chapter 10: Google Platform

Chapter 11: LinkedIn

Chapter 12: Pinterest

Conclusion

INSTAGRAM MARKETING

Description

Introduction

Chapter 1: How to Use Instagram for Marketing

Chapter 2: Getting Started on Instagram

Chapter 3: Creating A Branded Account

Chapter 4: The Effective Instagram Marketing Strategy

Chapter 5: The Importance of Influencers

Chapter 6: How to Search for An Influencer

Chapter 7: The 5 Unwritten Rules of Instagram

Chapter 8: Hacks for Taking Good Photos

Chapter 9: Instagram Automation

Chapter 10: Taking Advantage of Instagram Ads

Chapter 11: Retargeting Customers on Instagram

Chapter 12: Use Location (Geotag)

Chapter 13: Organize Contests and Giveaways

Chapter 14: The 14 Secrets to Engaging Your Audience

Chapter 15: Understanding Analytics

Conclusion

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING

Description

Introduction

Chapter 1: Everything about Facebook Pages

Chapter 2: Facebook Insights

Chapter 3: Branding

Chapter 4: Strategies for Search Engine Optimization

Chapter 5: Facebook Advertising

Chapter 6: Marketing is a two-way street

Chapter 7: Pre-selling your audience

Chapter 8: Sales Funnel

Chapter 9: Improve, Test, Grow, and Monetize

Chapter 10: Analyzing and Retargeting

Chapter 11: Scheduling

Chapter 12: Maximizing Organic Reach on Facebook

Chapter 13: Focus on Cost Per Action (CPA)

Chapter 14: Using the Pixel to improve Ad Targeting

Chapter 15: Common mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Conclusion

GOOGLE ADWORDS

Description

Introduction

Chapter 1: Choosing Keywords

Chapter 2: Local SEO Begins at Home

Chapter 3: PPC vs. SEO

Chapter 4: Website Content that is Keyword Specific

Chapter 5: Google Quality Score

Chapter 6: Creating Compelling Ads

Chapter 7: Optimizing for Conversions

Chapter 8: Tips for your Content Marketing Strategy

Chapter 9: Search Campaigns Ad Group Settings & structure

Chapter 10: Facebook and paid advertising

Chapter 11: YouTube

Chapter 12: Converting Your Followers

Chapter 13: Making Your Landing Page Effective

Chapter 14: How to Optimize Your AdWords Campaign

Conclusion

Social media marketing for beginners

SIMPLE GUIDE TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS (INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE AND MORE). LEARN THE STRATEGY TO BECOME AN INFLUENCER AND INCREASE YOUR INCOME

JEREMY PREACE

D escription

Social media has radically changed how businesses interact with the people who are their customers and potential customers. For this reason, having a sophisticated social media marketing program is essential for your company's success. There are a ton of benefits to making sure that your social media strategy is integrated with your traditional marketing initiatives. To that end, it is imperative to hire someone who has the expertise in this area to run it right. Like traditional sales, there is never a second chance to make a first impression, so if your company stumbles out of the gate on Twitter, there is a massive cohort of people on social media who will not let you forget it. Having a calculated plan and goals set is the cornerstone to success, so make sure that you are working towards your goals in a methodical fashion as outlined here. 

Setting goals is vital to the success of your company and having tools to measure those goals is also essential. When it comes to goals, these goals should be all about making a profit while at the same time being attainable for employees. Goals should require some work – if something is too easy, employees will check out and they will also check out if an objective is too hard. The way to measure goals is with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These metrics let a business know if they are hitting the mark or swinging and missing. 

Many businesses have used social networking sites to market what they have to offer. Social media is another advertising avenue that interests businesses, although many either do not believe in it or do not know how to use social networking to its full potential. They may consider it unnecessary or even ineffective. A short Tweet or a Pinterest link that costs zero dollars to create cannot possibly be more effective than a million-dollar TV ad campaign, and that is where less social media-savvy marketers are wrong.

If you are not yet using social media to promote your business and market your products, then you are definitely missing out on a lot of things.

This guide will focus on the following:

Importance of Social Media Marketing

Creating the Sales Funnel

Benefits of Social Media for Local Businesses

Tools and Plugins

Instagram Marketing

Twitter Marketing

Facebook Marketing

Reddit And Facebook Ads Strategy

Snapchat

Google Platform

LinkedIn

Pinterest… AND MORE!!!

Introduction

With the large number of businesses that are already using social media marketing, it is quite likely that you are also motivated to walk in the same direction. Maybe you have noticed that this form of internet marketing is helping businesses grow within a short period of time. Having said this, you can’t deny your excitement. You want to jump in right away and create your business’ social media marketing strategy. However, before getting into too much detail, it is imperative to clearly understand what social media marketing is. It is also vital that you know the benefits that this form of marketing will have on your business. With the help of this information, you will be motivated to establish your business’ social presence without hesitation.

Defining Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a type of internet marketing whereby social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are used to promote a business’s products and services. The use of these varying platforms helps a business to enhance its brand awareness through the content that will be shared. 

Marketing campaigns created on social media often focus on a number of things. First, they aim to create an online presence on varying platforms that suit a particular business. Secondly, the content created should be shareable by interested parties. Content is key to winning over potential customers on the internet. Businesses, therefore, have to place a major emphasis on coming up with unique and interesting content. And third, customer feedback is an essential factor in online marketing campaigns.

When browsing through the internet, you may have noticed websites with social buttons directing you to various social platforms. Brands that we depend on for their products and services have an online presence.

This is how social media marketing helps businesses to increase their brand awareness out there. It’s all about marketing products and services over the internet.

Chapter 1: Importance of Social Media Marketing

Before using social media marketing, you might want to find out the value that it will add to your business. Undeniably, you already know that marketing your brand on these platforms will help boost your brand awareness. However, your company has even more to gain. About 93% of business people using social media to market their brands claim that it helps in increasing their business exposure. 71% of them argue that it helps in developing loyal fans. To guarantee that you are not confused about social media marketing and the value it adds to your business, the following are convincing reasons why you should engage in social media marketing.

Increase Demand

A major boost you will gain through the use of social media marketing is that it will help increase demand for your products and services. This stems from the fact that there are many people who use social media networks. On Facebook alone, for example, there are more than 2 billion monthly active users. With the wide audience reach that these platforms provide; it is safe to assume that it increases the demand for products and services.

The way in which social media networks present your brand out there is regarded as the creation of brand awareness. As a business owner, you stand a greater chance of allowing your brand to be noticed by many people. Accordingly, this has an impact on the demand that you will be getting for your product or service.

The help of social media engagement that you will be taking advantage of will provide you the opportunity of interacting with potential clients in the market. They will garner deeper insight into your product’s use and its benefits. The brand recognition you will get will have a positive impact on its demand.

In line with the idea of increasing demand for your goods or services, you should know that customers are always searching for solutions to their problems. Most of them can’t clearly explain what their problems are. This is where your marketing efforts come in. With the right form of marketing, you will help your audience realize that your product/service is what they have been looking for.

Your marketing creativity will be required to convince customers that your product is better than other similar products in the market. Customers tend to purchase things from brands that they have tried before. This means that it might be challenging to win them over. Your social media marketing strategies will have a profound impact on the response that you will get from your audience.

To ensure that you spark interest in your audience, the following are creative social media marketing techniques that you should implement.

Product Scarcity

Many brands will want to give you the impression that their stock is limited and therefore, you should use their product before their offer ends. On many occasions, this is a strategy that will create the fear of missing out in most potential clients. As such, most of them will rush to buy your products or share information about your brand. By creating a sense of urgency in your marketing campaign, you encourage interest among your audience. Ultimately, there will be a potential increase in demand for your product/service.

Information Scarcity

Another great idea to stimulate interest around your product on social media is by sharing just enough info that your audience requires. We have seen this as customers. Oftentimes, when manufacturers are about to launch new smartphones to the market, they will create hype around their products by releasing scarce information. This creates suspense around the product and people will be anxious to purchase the product right after its launch. 

The same case applies to movies and series that we often watch. Before the release of these films or shows, people are usually given a sneak preview of what they should expect. This keeps people engaged and waiting for the release of such products. So, it is always a brilliant idea to understand what your audience requires and tip them off on how your brand will meet their demand. Eventually, there is a high possibility that the demand for your product will increase.

Leveraging User-Generated Content

A good number of people will be motivated to stick to a particular brand because their friends are using it. Frankly, this is how most people shop over the internet. They only turn to products or services which have been proven and tested to be reliable. Bearing this in mind, it is worth exploiting the advantage that social media marketing offers with regard to leveraging user-generated content. This means that you could post content showing what other users are saying about your brand.

You could post images, videos, or just text detailing reviews on your product on social media. The benefit gained here is that you can easily convince your audience that your product is worth trying. What’s more, this is an inexpensive form of social media marketing.

Paying Attention to the Biggest Problem

Social media marketing can also boost the demand for your product/service if you pay attention to what your customers consider as their biggest problem. This is a common marketing technique used on YouTube to gain attention. In product videos, you will come across marketers explaining to you some of the common problems that people have either when using particular products or when trying to solve their everyday issues. Their promotional message is then followed by catchy phrases that show they can offer you a solution to what you are looking for. Does this sound familiar to you? This is a social media marketing strategy that often works to boost the demand for a product.

Working with Influencers

Influencer marketing is a powerful marketing trend that has made headlines over the past few years. More and more businesses are coming to the realization that influencer marketing is indeed powerful and worth harnessing. What is influencer marketing? This is a digital marketing technique where brands use renowned people to influence others to use their products . In essence, an influencer will help sway other people to rely on your brand as their ideal choice.

Working with influencers on your social media marketing campaign can make a huge difference to your marketing efforts. Influencers have a large following. Choosing the right people who are most apposite to your brand is imperative. For instance, a famous sports fan with a huge Twitter following could help you reach people who are likely to be interested in sportswear. The best part is that influencers are highly influential. Thus, there is a good chance that the demand for your product will increase.

Social Selling

When businesses use social media networks to identify new prospects and interact with their clients by sharing valuable information about their brands, they are engaging in social selling. It is through this form of interaction that businesses end up developing meaningful relationships with their customers while luring new clients their way. The effect of this is that prospects and customers will likely opt for your business or brand each time they want to purchase something that you offer.

It is also worth noting that social selling doesn’t entail nagging people with promotional messages. In the digital world, this is referred to as “spam”. This doesn’t count as social selling since you are bothering people with messages that they don’t want to receive. Social selling is centered around listening to what people are saying and joining in on the conversation. When engaging in social media marketing, you should never forget the “social” aspect of it. People are using these social communities for a good reason. As such, you ought to understand how to interact with these individuals without coming off as too salesy. 

There are various reasons why your business should take advantage of social selling.

Building Better Relationships

With the social tools that you will be using to listen to people’s conversations over social platforms, your sales personnel can easily identify what people are saying about your business, your rivals, and the industry as a whole. With this information on hand, they can formulate ideal strategies for reaching out with meaningful information. This means that you will be providing people with what they need while at the same time gaining insights about your industry.

Better yet, you will develop strong networks with the right people who can help you boost your engagement with relevant audiences. Through this, your business instigates trust and a good business image in the minds of your audience.

Most People Practice Social Buying

Did you know that about 48% of Americans have at one point interacted with brands on social media? Buying products and services over the internet is a common thing in today’s digitized environment. Some individuals will opt to shop over the internet because of convenience. Others prefer shopping online due to the competitive prices offered by online companies. Before people shop online, they engage with brands on their social pages. This is a purchase process that most people will not fail to consider. Besides asking questions about the product/service, people also look to know more about a brand or company.

There are instances where shoppers are discouraged from buying a specific product because of the poor communication they experience online. This leads to missed sales. The mere fact that most people are actively engaged in social buying means that your business should also practice social selling. Accordingly, your sales team should always be available to respond to prospects and customers. They should build a good rapport with the audience by knowing how best to connect with them.

Your Rivals are Using Social Selling

Your business should also consider engaging in social selling simply because your rivals are already using it. There are over 60 million businesses who have a Facebook business page. Additionally, approximately 4 million businesses actively promote their brands on Facebook . Such statistics prove the fact that you will only gain competitive edge over your rivals in the market if you practice social selling.

Now that you understand how social media marketing can help your business through social selling, it is vital to learn a thing or two about social selling practices that can help you stand out.

Engage Actively

Newbies in the world of social media marketing will be tempted to automate things in the hopes of saving time. Indeed, there are various automation tools that can be used for your marketing campaign. For instance, you can easily automate responses and your posts. However, this is not an ideal way of engaging with your prospects or customers.

Social media is all about being social. Therefore, people expect active engagement from you. This involves listening attentively and joining social groups which are relevant to your brand.

●        Provide Value

To get the most out of social selling, you have to provide quality. People will want to follow your brand if they find value in what you post. Take note of the fact that they don’t just expect product-related posts. Businesses that have many followers share engaging content which keep their audience entertained. This is the line of thinking that you should adopt when thinking about content. Additionally, time will be another crucial factor that you should mull over. Your prospects will find no value in your posts if they can’t access them. This makes it important to post at the right time.

●         Listen Strategically

When marketing your products and services on social media, you will gain access to information from your audience. Judging from what they will be sharing, you can get an idea of what they want. Understanding the tastes and preferences of your audience will help you serve them better. In this case, your social selling aspects will improve since you will be providing your customers with nothing but the best products and services.

SEO

Besides helping you engage productively in social selling and increasing demand for your products and services, social media marketing will also boost your SEO efforts. SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. SEO centers around making necessary changes to your website or social media account to ensure that you are highly ranked on search engines such as Google and Bing. Optimizing your social media will ensure that you improve your brand’s visibility on social media.  

By regularly posting on social media, it will have an impact on your brand’s awareness levels. The more you post, the more likely people will know about your company and the products/services you offer. 

Social media marketing can also help your business to build an audience. Frankly, owning the best product in the market doesn’t count in today’s competitive environment. This is because if you fail to market your brand, no one will notice it. People will simply go for rival products as they are more visible on social media.

To become the best product in the market, you must be proactive. This means reaching out to as many people as you can. So, where are these people who might be interested in what you offer? Social media.

Facebook is ranked among the leading platforms with over 2 billion monthly active users. Twitter has approximately 1.3 billion users. Unquestionably, with the high number of people on these social pages, it can be a great way of reaching out to people to build an audience. 

Social shares that you get from the varying social profiles that you have will also influence your search engine rankings. Have you ever wondered why there are certain companies or brands which are ranked better when you query a search on Google? If many people are aware of your brand’s existence and its perceived importance, there is a likelihood that you will receive good rankings based on Google’s algorithm. In fact, if you turn out to be the best in the market, rest assured that your brand’s logo will feature on the right-hand side of the search results.

Still, it should also be noted that social media platforms are more than just social pages. Today, people have turned to these pages as search engines. Instead of querying Bing or Google, they use social platforms such as Facebook to search for information. Therefore, your search engine optimization will depend on how well you market your brand on social networks.

Chapter 2: Creating the Sales Funnel

Facebook Ads are powerful tools, but they are just that, a tool. If you want to reach success through your marketing endeavors, you’re going to need more than just a tool. You’re going to need a process that takes customers from hesitation to purchasing in only a few steps. In other words, you’re going to need a sales funnel.

A sales funnel a process that is designed to capture a potential customer’s interests and then move them downwards, towards the final process of purchasing. A funnel is made up of several different phases; some of them happen automatically, whereas other phases require action from the customer.

The Sales Funnel Phases:

There are four phases of the sales funnel: awareness, education, decision, conversion. Each one of these steps requires special care and focus, especially if you want to get them down to that final step.

The Awareness Phase:

The awareness phase happens almost instantly. A customer is unaware of your product, and then when you introduce it, they become aware. Either they see an ad in passing, they came across one of your social media posts, or they end up on your website. Regardless of how they come across information about your company or product, the end result is all the same: they now know you exist.

The awareness phase can be rather quick, especially if you aren’t careful. Someone can become aware of your product and then for some reason, lose interest. Perhaps they didn’t care for the name or claims of the product. Maybe they aren’t part of the target demographic or maybe your ad just didn’t catch their eye. 

The good news is that awareness can be built up over time. A consumer might become only vaguely aware of your product at first, but after a few more advertisements, social media posts or word of mouth endorsements, they may end up becoming aware enough to move onto the next step.

The Education Phase:

Once a customer has become aware enough of the product to become interested in it, they will begin to move into the education phase. This is where they spend the time to learn about the product and how it will provide value to their life. They will perhaps read about it on your website, look for product reviews, analyze the data and then move onto the third phase.

You must be prepared to educate the consumer as much as possible. You should do everything in your power to make your website easy to navigate, full of useful information and user-friendly so that they don’t struggle to access that information. Your job is to help the customer come to the conclusion that the product would be perfect for them.

In the online world of business, most customers are quite discerning. They will spend a great deal of time doing the research to determine whether a product is worth it or not. Why? Because for the most part, consumers are rather savvy. They want the best deal possible for the lowest price possible. Your job is to find ways to speed up the research process and create a rapport with them so that they look at you as credible.

One of the most effective ways to aid customers in the education phase is to have a review system in place. Reviews are considered to be one of the most trusted ways for a consumer to make a decision. The first thing most consumers look at is the review or star rating of a product. If the ratings are high, then they know that they are making a good purchase and it will put them at ease. Most importantly, if the reviews are especially good, it will generate excitement in the consumer which may lead them to make a purchasing decision.

The Decision Phase:

After a customer has evaluated the product and educated themselves enough on it, they will enter the decision phase. This is the most crucial phase because it is the moment where they decide to make the purchase, decline to buy anything or just say to themselves “not yet.”

If a customer decides that they want to make the purchase, they will immediately go into the final phase and begin converting. This, of course, is the ideal situation. You’ll want to have worked hard enough in the first two phases to where the decision to make the purchase is easy and quick for the consumer. After some time and energy, they’ll say to themselves “I want this!” and will go for it. 

While you may have a few direct conversions, the bulk of the people who move through your funnel are going to decline to make the purchase. Their decision will be a solid “no.” The only problem here is that we don’t know the reason why they said no. There are a wide variety of factors that could lead to a consumer declining to make the purchase.

The first and most immediate reason is financial. Not everyone has the money to make the purchase at the exact moment that they have evaluated their product. This can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that you haven't lost them quite yet, a curse because it can pose a problem in getting them to remember your product later on when they have the money to make the purchase.

Others reasons for declining might include being distracted from making the purchase, losing interest in the product, deciding to wait for a sale or wanting to buy it, but some other factor such as high shipping discouraged them from making the sale.

These reasons can all cut into your bottom line, but they don’t quite signal that the customer is completely lost yet. This is why you should always make a point to run retargeting ads on people who have visited your site but haven’t made a purchase. Just because someone doesn’t make the purchase right then and there doesn’t necessarily mean they never will. By using retargeting methods, such as the Facebook pixel, you will be able to get your product back in front of them at a later date. If something in their life has changed, or if they had simply gotten distracted and clicked away before buying, you can give them a reminder. 

If they interact with your ad, perhaps in the hopes of getting some kind of bargain you are offering, then all hope is not lost! They will most likely convert at some point, if not today, someday in the future.

However, if they don’t engage with your retargeting ad, then you will most likely have lost them. They have chosen to exit the funnel, simply because they have decided to decline to make the purchase at all. The truth about marketing is that while you can get a product in front of a person, you simply cannot force them to make the purchase. As the old adage goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” No amount of clever copywriting, salesmanship or flashy tactics can force a person to pull the trigger on the purchase. If they have decided against making the purchase because they don’t like or want the product, there is little you can do to persuade them otherwise.

The Conversion Phase:

The final phase of the sales funnels the most exciting one: the conversion phase! This is where the customer takes all of the actions necessary to convert to the behavior that you want them to engage in. Most commonly, this would be them making a purchase, signing up for your email list, subscribing to your Patreon, etc. 

The conversion phase should be quick and effortless. If you give the customer too much time to think things over or make the conversion process too convoluted, they may end up abandoning ship before they make the purchase. Some customers might get too frustrated to even work with you again, especially if you suddenly spring hidden charges on them or change the nature of the deal once they almost finished checking out.

The number of steps required to convert should be monitored very closely. Try to get your customer from the start to the finish line in a few steps as possible. Remove every barrier possible so that they can cross through that line and make the purchase as quickly as possible. This is a win-win situation for the both of you, they get a product or service they want, and you get a conversion!

Using Facebook To Make a Sales Funnel

Facebook and Facebook advertising provides you with all of the things you need to create your own sales funnel process. If you want to make a sales funnel that has a high conversion rate, then there are some principles that you need to embrace. Let’s take a look at each of these principles in detail.

Principle One: Conversion is the last step, not the first

Let’s face it, anyone who is marketing something wants to see the conversion. Regardless of what that conversation is, be it a sale or signup, we all want to see the conversion rate surge to the highest point possible. And since we’re looking for conversions, we tend to judge the effectiveness of our sales funnels and marketing efforts based on the amount of conversion we get with initial ad runs.

However, if you look at the shape of the sales funnel, conversion is the last step, not the first. If you want to get a high conversion rate, then you’re going to have laid down the groundwork. This means you’ll need to focus on building awareness for your potential customers first. And it means you’ll also need to be spending both advertising and marketing efforts to increase that awareness.

Think of awareness as planting seeds. If a farmer wants to be a successful farmer, they don’t just plant one seed and hope to see that they can get a huge tomato that will feed the entire family. Instead, they plant as many seeds as they are able, spreading them out so that they are able to get a bigger haul during the harvest. A single conversion is excellent, but it’s not the end-all be-all.

Rather, you will want to work to create concrete strategies that not only increase awareness in your target demographic but also brings the awareness levels higher each time they come in contact with those ads. Most people breeze past an advertisement on the first viewing. But the second, third or fourth time? If the ads are doing their job, it will create a higher level of awareness that will move them into the second phase.

As you work to build your funnel, remember that conversions are the harvest. You still need to plant, nurture and tend to your fields until you are able to reap what you have sewn.

Principle Two: Capture Leads

Once you have generated enough awareness to get a consumer to begin engaging with an ad or post on your Facebook page, you should work to capture their information, so that you can market to them later on. The easiest way to do this is through the creation of what is known as a lead magnet. 

A lead magnet is something that convinces a potential lead to give you their email address, in exchange for some kind of free, relevant gift. Capturing the email address of a prospect is extremely important, as it will allow you to work to retain them if they decide against making the conversion right now. 

For those who decline to make the conversion during the third phase of the sales funnel, a quick email reminding them about your product or offering a special deal can be enough to convince them to come back. And for those who plan on converting but will do so at a later date, a few emails here and there will constantly remind them all about your products.

Facebook has powerful tools for lead generation, allowing for you to gain email signups from those who are interested in your products or brand. These first ads are one of the types of ads that you can run from the Facebook Ads Manager. They will allow customers to directly sign up for your mailing list, often in exchange for some kind of product.

Lead magnets are really the secret weapon for capturing these emails. If you want to run a serious ad campaign, then you absolutely need to develop a lead magnet so that you can generate high-quality leads. The second benefit is that you can market directly to interested customers inbox without having to pay a third party for marketing. So ultimately, a lead magnet will save you money in the long run.

What should your lead magnet be? As a rule of thumb, the lead magnet should be a gift that is valuable enough to motivate the prospect to share their email in exchange for it. However, you should also take care to make sure that your lead magnet isn’t valuable enough to generate interest from people outside of your target demographic. If that’s the case, you might end up getting a ton of emails from people who will never convert.

In general, the lead should be something easy to give away and something that costs you very little. Most of the time, a free eBook is one of the best types of lead magnets. As long as the eBook contains valuable information that the consumer can use, it will most likely convert. If you’re primarily selling physical products, then discount codes, free shipping or other such products that help motivate the consumer to make the purchase are a good idea.

Regardless of what you choose the lead magnet to be, it simply has to be attractive. Once you have figured out the right kind of bait to use, all you need to do is spend time advertising for it. Over time, you’ll find that you’ll generate quite a bit of email through this. The best part is that these emails are composed primarily of warm or hot leads, leads that have interacted with you enough to prove that they take action. From there, you can start your own campaign, emailing your prospects and leading them further along your sales funnel. 

Principle Three: Facebook is not the end step

Facebook is great. As a social media platform, there are so many different features and options that they offer; you’d be crazy not to use them. However, Facebook is not the end step for the conversion process. The features and tools that Facebook offers are great for you to make initial contact with customers. But once you have made contact, you’ll want to move them further along the funnel, and part of that movement involves moving them away from Facebook and towards your own websites.

Why? Simply put, Facebook only offers you a small fraction of the customer's attention. They still have their messenger bugging them, notifications, recommendations, and a feed that will steal hours from them if they aren’t careful. You don’t have their full attention when they’re on Facebook. As part of your awareness funnel, you will want to work to develop a method that will move them away from Facebook to a website where you have the ability to command their full attention.

Generally, these websites are referred to as landing pages. A landing page is a dedicated webpage designed simply to focus on one and only one thing: the product, service or brand you are selling. A landing page is designed to take customers through all four steps of the sales funnel, from start to finish.

The landing page creates awareness, provides education, aids in the decision-making process and has a strong call to action that will move visitors quickly towards the conversion step. Make no mistake; if you want to be successful in creating an effective sales funnel, you’re going to need to develop landing pages for the products that you are going to sell.

Once you’ve made the landing page, start directing traffic towards those pages through Facebook ads. Remember, you want to isolate the attention of your potential customers. By keeping your customers on Facebook the entire time, you risk them growing distracted. Don’t use ads to redirect them to other spots on Facebook; use ads to get them to visit your landing page!

Principle Four: Monitor Performance

The sales funnel is not a one and done scenario. You don’t just set one up and then watch as the dollar bills flow in. You must constantly be working to adjust the funnel to improve its performance. This requires close attention to how your customers are moving through the funnel. 

How do we monitor customer activity? Through a series of different types of analytic software. Your Facebook pixel will provide Facebooks’ analytics with a lot of information, data that you can sift through to determine the overall behavior of your site visitors. You’ll be able to see how many are visiting, what they are clicking or interacting with and how many are actually converting. This data, when combined with the metrics provided by Facebook Ad campaigns, will give you a general idea of the performance of sales funnel as a whole. But that is not the only type of data that you want to be monitoring.

The second type of data you’ll need to pay attention to is the bounce rate of the website itself. If a customer visits a single page on your website and then leaves afterward, that is known as a “bounce.” In general, you want to have as low a bounce rate as possible. You will want to have your visitors look at multiple pages so that they can increase their awareness of your products.

You are using a website analytics platform, such as Google Analytics a great way to keep an eye on the bounce rate of your website. Google Analytics can monitor traffic from any source, report on where that traffic is coming from and can provide you with vital data, such as the bounce rate of your website, how long the average visit is, etc. These details are necessary for you to know. If you see that you have a high bounce rate, you can begin working to improve your website so that it draws the customer to click on more pages.

Another valuable tool in your monitoring toolkit is what is known as a heatmap. A heatmap is a type of software that monitors where people are clicking and moving their mouse around the most on a site. These clicks and actions will end up creating a map of cool, warm, and hot areas on your website, giving you an impression of exactly what on your site is capturing their attention. This is important for understanding how consumers are educating themselves on your products. If certain areas are dead cold, you can revise them until they begin generating more interest from the traffic that you are generating.

Cart abandonment tools are necessary if you want to attempt to recapture the attention of those who placed something in their cart and then decided to exit. These tools detect when a cart has been abandoned, determines if you have the email of the person who left and if an email is on the register, will send a reminder about their cart being full. You can even customize these abandonment tools to send special discounts or offers that could motivate the abandoner to return and make the purchase.

These tools are necessary if you want to be able to fine-tune your sales funnel. All funnels start out one way: untested. Over time, you will be able to get a picture of how well your funnel is performing. Low performance means that you see very few conversions or worse, that conversions simply cost you too much. High performance means that you are able to generate a significant number of conversions while keeping costs low and stable.

Chapter 3: Benefits of Social Media for Local Businesses

New Customers Are Waiting for You

One of the benefits of social media is that just about everyone (relatively speaking) is using some type of social platform or even multiple platforms. It has become a way for people to share and comment on just about anything with their friends about anything. There are swarms of new customers waiting on your business. They will talk about it especially if they had a good experience with your products and services.

Customers or potential customers will also speak negatively about your business if they have a bad experience as well. As a local business owner, you must have a plan in place for complaints also. Many of the larger businesses like to engage and take care of customer issues on places like Twitter because of the convenience and ease of the platform.

Build and Engage with Potential Customers

I can’t express enough about the importance of building your audience first. Consumers won’t buy much if at all when they are not getting your attention. There are many ways of doing this such as sharing great content about your products or by asking questions.

“Great content” may throw some of you off a bit but its simple and here’s an example: Let’s say that you have a bakery business in your town or city and you have an Instagram page. You already have 1000 plus followers of the page so a fair amount of people will see your posts organically. Instead of always posting about your “Jelly Donuts are 50 cents” on any given morning, its more appropriate to give value by sharing information on “why” the Jelly Donuts are a part of your list of products. You could also discuss the history of the Jelly Donut and how it came about as an example. When users comment on your posts, be sure to respond and answer their questions if needed. Your customers or potential customers love to be engaged and valued so always build trust with them as often as possible.

Show Up in the Search Results

When you set up social profiles, some may show in the search results (search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo). This is important because you want to be sure that you select the proper title or username when setting up your profile. Start noticing in the URL bar (box that shows “http://www.......com”) the name of the user typically after the “….com/social-username.” If you set up a social profile page such as “BEST DONUTS IN YOUR CITY” and someone searches “BEST DONUTS IN YOUR CITY,” chances are that your profile may appear in the search results among the very first choices for those keywords. This is a great way of getting organic traffic to your social media profile with a little ingenuity on your part.

Mobile Can Be Confusing but Beneficial with Social Media

Some business owners can easily be confused to what exactly mobile marketing consists of because they are told and pitched heavily on mobile apps. I am here to tell you or shall I scream to you: “YOU DO NOT NEED A MOBILE APP AS A LOCAL BUSINESS!”

At least 99% of you don’t. I’m not going to explain too heavily on why you don’t need it but answer this question, “Who in your local area will know that you have an app and for what purpose will it serve customers that your other mobile optimized properties (website & social media sites) can’t?” Or “How often will someone in your area open a mobile app to receive immediate value from your business that they couldn’t do on any of your other available platforms on a repetitive basis?”

Local businesses are searched heavily on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even Instagram (in which I go over in more detail later) with mobile devices. The thing to remember is that your social media profiles within these platforms along with a few other important things must be set up properly to enable geo or location features within those mobile platforms.

A local business can also benefit from many other features from a mobile platform that can very easily integrate with social media such as email marketing, text messaging, QR codes, mobile optimized social campaigns (contests, surveys & games) and mobile coupons. The true benefit of mobile is that all of these benefits can be tracked for performance so that a business can see all the available data to make conscious decisions overall.

The benefits can seem endless when mobile is implemented properly with current traditional methods combined with social media. Mobile cannot be ignored any longer so position your local business now and don’t wait to benefit from it. You can be the exception amongst your competitors in your local area if you become a first mover and learn how valuable mobile is as an addition to your entire social media marketing strategy.

Chapter 4: Tools and Plugins  

Social media is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies. It allows you to expand your business, increase your brand visibility, and generate leads without having to pay for it. Although it might be a bit difficult to engage in social media marketing, there are various hacks that make it simpler. One of these hacks is leveraging the power of automation. There are many tools that have made social media marketing a breeze. Let’s check some of them: 

Buffer 

This tool helps marketers schedule posts. Thus, you don’t have to be straining all the time as you update your social media channels. Posting on social media can be incredibly time-consuming, but with an application that helps you post on autopilot, you can line up many posts and let the application perform the execution. Another advantage of Buffer is that you can follow up on the performance of posts. It gives insight into how well or how badly a post was received. This empowers you to carry out your assignment into determining what’s working for your audience and coming even with more targeted content.  

Sprout social 

This tool was created to help marketing teams achieve their goals. When you are operating as a team is quite different than when you are operating solo. As a team, the demand on resources is huge, and there has to be a uniform manner of executing actions. Sprout Social is an all-in-one marketing application that helps managers have an easy time tracking their progress. Featuring multi-level access, the senior management can delegate tasks, and the junior members have access into the platform to carry out the tasks. This tool also helps marketers understand their demographics and be able to target their audience well.  

MeetEdgar 

This application helps you publish old content. Publishing your old content doesn’t automatically indicate that you are lazy. In fact, there are a number of compelling reasons as to why you may want to repost your old content: 

Outdated information: the trends in some markets advance at a fast pace. What was hot yesterday isn’t hot today. Potential customers might find a post you wrote ages ago through Google and consider your post lacking. Thus, there’s a need to look at your post over again, maybe make some minor (or major) adjustments, and then republish your post. This will surely bring more eyes to your content. 

Your article is not on page one of Google: sadly, for the content that is ranked on page two and onwards, it can be very hard to receive love from search engines. The competition is brutal. And customers are in haste, so they don’t have the time to click into page two when presumably everything they needed is right on page one. By republishing your old content, you stand a chance of receiving more likes and shares and thus boosting your search engine rank. 

You want your new audience to see it: your following has grown since you published that post, and it is a very informative post, so why not thrust it into the faces of your new followers?  

Hootsuite 

Hootsuite is a powerful yet affordable social media application for scheduling posts across various social media networks. This tool also provides important metrics for analyzing the performance of your marketing. Hootsuite is built to accommodate the needs of a solopreneur that targets a small audience as well as the big companies that communicate to big audiences. The application also offers third-party integrations that boost its efficiency. 

IFTTT 

“If This Then That,” this free tool is extremely resourceful in pushing your brand message across many social media platforms. It operates by creating various recipes, which are basically actions that the application performs at the appointed time. For instance, if you want to automate the sharing of your Instagram posts on Twitter, you can create a recipe for that. In some instances, you may want to even share posts by other people, such as key industry players, and the application will do that for you on autopilot. This tool might be free, but it might need some getting used to in order to execute the various functions effortlessly. 

Social Oomph 

This application helps marketers to populate their bulk content and achieve a clear insight into the analytics. For instance, you can bulk-upload blogs on the application for them to be shared on certain intervals across various social networks. This will obviously attract an audience and promote lead generation. The application frees up your time as you don’t have to be practically updating your social media channels every other time. Although this application might seem like a breeze to use, it is actually quite a little complicated, but with extensive use, you will get to learn all the tricks, and maximize your ROI. 

BuzzSumo 

This is another powerful social media marketing tool that equips marketers with new ideas for content generation and targeting strategies. You can use this tool to find a breakdown of content related to various keywords as well as the influencers sharing that content. Marketers understand the secret of high ROIs is researching thoroughly before you do anything. These are some of the benefits of researching your keywords: 

Engaging your audience: you want to ensure that your audience is engaged with your content to boost the conversion rate. 

Trends: it is important to be aware of trends so that you can also take advantage of them and make hay while the sun shines.  

Saving time: you don’t want to waste time creating content whose keywords aren’t popular, but content that will definitely bring targeted traffic. 

Feedly 

This application helps marketers source their content. You can discover content from the internet that aligns with your needs and desires and string it together as your ideal reading material. When you have such content wealth, you’d hardly run out of subjects to write about. If you don’t have enough time to perform research, you can always turn to aggregated content to acquire the insight. It also helps you identify sources for relevant information that you would have never known about if you were looking manually. Feedly pulls together content from different corners of the web and lightens the burden for marketers in terms of content ideas. 

Oktopost 

This social media tool is critical for not only scheduling your posts but also measuring key analytics and managing large social media teams. The following are some of the benefits of using Oktopost: 

Track real performance insights: most tools only supply vague information about leads, but Oktopost goes a step further to provide deep insight. For instance, you can be able to tell the number of customers converted per each post, as well as key details such as their location and contact. 

Improved data management: the application provides clear analytics, and also solves the problem of lost data by automatically creating a unique URL and shortening the link. 

Lead nurturing: the application promotes lead scoring and lead nurturing. It allows marketers to gain insight into key data concerning their leads throughout the stages leading up to conversion. 

Real ROI: the tool enables marketers to put a real figure to the inbound leads sourced from your social media marketing efforts. 

Tagboard 

Marketers understand the importance of being aware of “what’s happening” out there. Tagboard is a great social listening tool. All you have got to do is put a keyword or hashtag, and the application will show you the discussions on various social networks centered on that keyword. Marketers use this application to monitor trends and brand mentions, but it is also a great tool for coming up with new ideas. But you have to be careful not to copy paste other peoples’ content. You should just gain inspiration from the content that you find through this tool and then join the conversation using your own content.  

Followerwonk 

Twitter is a great marketing platform, and every major brand has a Twitter account. This platform promotes brevity and wit. It also segments users so that you can employ a style of communication that your followers identify most with. The Followerwonk application will help you grow your Twitter audience organically at no cost. Some of the benefits of using Followerwonk include:  

Finding targeted users: there are a number of metrics to help you zero in on the exact audience that you are looking for. Instead of attracting just any type of audience, you end up with a laser-targeted audience that is definitely interested in your brand. 

Comparing users: the application also helps you to compare users and understand their various social graphs.  

Analytics: this tool also helps marketers gain insight into how Twitter users interact with their content as well as their conversion rate.

Everypost 

This software pulls contents from various multimedia channels and then makes it easy to curate content. This tool is especially helpful if you run a content-demanding website where your readers are hungry for content. Using this content discovery and aggregating tool, you can pull all the relevant content, which will help you increase your brand visibility and boost your lead generation. But a marketer shouldn’t use this tool exclusively as it would water down your voice. At the end of the day, your customers are interested in your brand because of your personal touch, so you must always devote time to craft content that appeals to your customers.  

Bitly 

This application helps in link shortening. Some advantages of shortening links include: 

Making the post look better: long URLs appear clumsy, but shortened URLs make the content seem presentable and have been shown to increase the click-through rate. 

They can be customized: by adding customizations; you can improve the brand image and send out the message that you wanted to.  

Monitor performance: many URL shortening services provide even performance monitoring services. This means they help marketers understand how many customers clicked on their links and converted into leads.  

Traffic insights: it is one thing to measure the amount of traffic that your site receives, but it is an entirely different thing to measure the quality of your traffic and the behavior of your audience.  

Cuts on marketing expense: if you are sending out SMS, the more characters you use, the more you have to pay, but short links help save money, and over time you save a substantial figure from going down the drain.  

SEO: short links have an SEO edge over long and clumsy links. 

Tailwind 

This application helps Pinterest marketers increase the visibility of their brand and score more leads. It helps you to pin across multiple boards, bulk upload, and schedule posts. Some of the benefits of Tailwind include: 

Scheduling: the importance of scheduling is that it helps you reach people in different time zones at the appropriate time. For instance, if you live in the US, and you want to target people in Russia, live posting isn’t the best idea as you’d miss out on taking advantage of peak traffic hours.  

Analytics: the app helps you understand various important metrics about your audience such as the pin with the best performance, the boards with the best performance, and follower count. You get a weekly report showing important metrics such as total pins, repins, and followers.  

Outsourcing: this tool allows you to work with other people. Thus, you can get your virtual assistant to help with your Pinterest marketing.  

CrowdBooster 

This tool is critical as it helps marketers not merely attract an audience, but a laser-targeted audience that is likely to convert. The application provides real-time data analytics and helps marketers understand the needs of the audience coming onto their website.

Chapter 5: Instagram Marketing  

Instagram has rapidly grown into one of the most powerful marketing platforms for small businesses, offering some of the best features available for creating organic marketing posts for your audience. If you want to grow your brand and create a strong presence online, Instagram is a wonderful way to go as it offers you access to more than 2 billion people each month (data as of October 2022).

As you may already know, Instagram was purchased by Facebook back in 2012 and has since been improved upon by Facebook’s developers to become an excellent sister site to Facebook itself. This means that the platform features incredible top of the line marketing and business features, as well as excellent integration with Facebook’s interface. Through these features and the integration, you can create an intricate customer experience that is unlike anything we have ever seen in the past.

Marketing on Instagram

Using these features as a part of your 2023 marketing strategy is a great opportunity for you to grow your Instagram, reach a larger audience, and make more money from your Instagram page. Before you can really do that, though, you need to organize them and set them up in the right way so that they flow together and create a streamlined experience on your page. 

With your marketing goal in mind for Instagram, pause and consider what the best possible experience would be for your audience that would help them reach your goal. For example, if you want more people to land on your website, what would be the best way for you to get them there? Or, if you want more people to buy from you directly through Instagram, how could you set that up, so it is an easy and enjoyable experience? Consider what features could be used to get your customers to that goal, and then identify how those features would need to be used in order for them to get there. Before you begin to take any action customizing these features, make sure that you have chosen the most effective and direct method for marketing your business. Although there are likely many ways that you can get your customers toward your goal, you want to make sure that you are using one that does not waste their time or cause them to take unnecessary steps. In other words, the days of watching a 5-minute video, and then a 15-minute video, and then buying a small item before being sold on a big item are gone. People want to get to the point as quickly as possible, and the more that you can support them in this goal as you market your business, especially on social media, the more likely you are going to earn sales in your business. Ideally, your process of landing on your page to purchasing your product or service should be less than three steps, as this keeps it short, sweet, and to the point. It also gives you plenty of time to sell people on your products and services before they get to the point of purchasing so that they have a strong reason for why they should purchase by the time they land on your sales page. 

After you have identified the best 2 or 3 features to use to help you get your customers to your goal point of either landing on your website or purchasing from you, you can begin to customize your Instagram features. At this point, using Instagram will become much easier because you are not attempting to master all of the features, but instead you are only mastering 2 or 3. 

To help you get started with each feature, I am going to outline how you can use them with 2023 marketing standards right away. This way, you are not only using these well-known features but also leveraging them in a next-level manner that will help you grow your business rapidly.

Instagram Stories and Story Highlights

Instagram stories and highlights are nothing new on Instagram, but how they are being used has changed completely. In the past, stories were simply used to share behind-the-scenes snapshots of upcoming products or offerings for people to have an opportunity to feel like they were getting an exclusive first-time look at what was going on in your business. This method really became popular when Kylie Jenner sold out of Kylie Lip Kits within minutes of her product going live due to this very marketing strategy that she had used. It is no secret: Instagram stories has the capacity to really offer you the opportunity to build suspense and support your customers with feeling like an exclusive part of your business. That being said, these days the strategy that you use needs to be more transparent, honest, and catchy if you are going to leverage stories effectively. Since this feature is not necessarily new, you want to make sure that you are staying ahead of trend in the latest way that it is being used to help people feel connected with your company.

The best way for you to use your Instagram stories to help you stay ahead of the curve with marketing in 2023 is by using your stories as if they are a small television series. Stories only stick around for 24 hours, unless they are saved to a highlight, which means that you can use them to share “programming” throughout the week with your audience. By that I mean, you want to see each day’s post as being somewhat like an “episode” of a show, and as you upload them you want to remain consistent, as well as enticing. 

A great example of how you could view your story feed in this way is shown in the following example: let’s say that you are running an Etsy store and you are using Instagram to market your products so that people will purchase them. To help you market through stories, you could consider having “What I’m Making Monday” where you share what you are working on that week. Then, you might also have “Technique Tuesday” where you share what techniques you are using to make those products that week. You can create a customized theme for each day of the week to help show your audience what you are doing and to make them feel as though they are a part of the experience. This way, rather than having your story filled with random pictures and videos from throughout the week, you create something that is consistent and memorable. Now, your audience is going to know what to expect from you and, if they watch your stories regularly, they are going to be able to follow your process and develop a deeper sense of connection with you, your brand, and your products. 

When you create these “episodes,” a great way to leverage your marketing is to use hashtags that are relevant to what you are doing in each episode in your stories. For example, if you are going to go with a “What I’m Making Monday” type episode, you might use a popular hashtag like “#makeitmonday” on your story feed. This way, people who are browsing the hashtag are going to see your story and will find your feed organically. 

When you are making your mini-episodes, be certain that the way you are designing each photograph or video is well-branded and enjoyable to watch. For example, do not just throw up a mediocre video or picture of you working your business and expect it to gain traction. Instead, think about how you can design pictures and videos that are going to help entice your viewers to pay attention and actually interact with you and your brand. For example, you could place your phone on a tripod and video you are working on your latest project and then edit it in a simple editing app on your phone before uploading it to your story feed. These 15-30 second clips of you working can be made in much higher quality then, and they will be more interesting and enjoyable for your audience to watch. You can also use Instagram’s built-in features to customize your story by doing things like adding stickers, polls, questions, or even location information or other information to your posts to make them more interactive and enjoyable. The more that you focus on making each story update a work of art, the more people are going to want to pay attention to it. 

When it comes to making highlights of your stories, you can take your favorite clips of each of your daily episodes and upload them into your highlights. For example, say for #makeitmonday you take your favorite 1-2 clips each Monday and upload them into your #makeitmonday highlight reel. This way, people who are new to your page can catch a glimpse of your highlights from the past, which helps them build a connection with your brand while feeling like they are getting exclusive insight into the best moments of your past.

IGTV

Instagram TV, or IGTV, works much like stories. In a way, it works like a built-in YouTube experience, offering you your very own channel to feature your videos on. 

When you are using IGTV as a part of your marketing strategy, the best way is to treat it like stories, except with longevity. Create videos that are 1-10 minutes long in a way that makes them interesting and enticing, and that follow some form of consistency. You might even tie your IGTV in together with your stories marketing strategy by creating longer episodes on your IGTV and sharing the highlight reel of those in your story feed. Then, you can share the highlight reel of your story feed into your page’s actual highlights. Then, you could share highlights of you making said item in your story feed, and then the highlights of that story feed into your highlight reel on your page. This way, your audience can see as much or as little of the process as they desire, allowing them to decide how they want to consume your content. 

Since IGTV does require more time and effort to make, and consistency is key, it is ideal that you only pick one or two days per week that you are going to upload a fuller video onto your profile. Attempting to upload a new video every single day can get overwhelming quickly and may not be sustainable which can lead to you not being as consistent as you need to be to have success with your videos. Starting modest and working your way up is a much better opportunity for you to grow your channel effectively. 

In order to really leverage your IGTV channel as a marketing strategy, make sure that you are making videos that build interest in your products or services. For example, showing you using or creating one of your products and then guiding your followers to look at your page or your website where they can find the final product for sale is a great way to use this as a marketing feature that earns you sales. Always make sure that you market your actual products or services in your videos so that when people watch them, they are watching for a reason, and that reason is one that earns you money. Since people are already curious enough to watch the video, they are also going to be curious enough to view your products and services and potentially purchase them. Use that curiosity to your advantage in marketing to boost your sales, rather than wasting it by having them lose interest after your video leaves them with nothing to follow up on. 

Customizable Buttons

After you convert your profile to a business profile on Instagram, you are going to have the opportunity to add one customizable button to your page. This button is important as it offers your audience a quick way to take action with your business, ideally leading to a booking or a sale. Instagram will offer you buttons including “Reserve,” “Book,” “Email,” or “Shop Now.” You want to choose the button that is most relevant to your business model and then follow Instagram’s built-in step by step process to configure that button for your business. This way, when people land on your page and find that they are interested with your business, they can immediately take action and do something about it, which will result in you increasing your sales. 

Monetizing Your Instagram Page

Once all of your marketing features are in place, you are going to have a strong funnel on Instagram that will lead your audience through the sales process so that they can book or buy with you. That being said, there are still a few additional ways that you can improve the monetization features on your Instagram page so that you can earn more from your profile. 

The primary and possibly most important step in monetizing your Instagram page is knowing how to make proper posts that actually pique people’s interests and leave them wanting to learn more. In 2023, people are not only scrolling their own feeds but also discovery feeds a lot more, which means that you are going to be one in many posts that they are scrolling. You need to make a post that is worthy of them stopping, tapping onto your picture, and then viewing your profile to learn more about your business. Otherwise, people are just going to keep scrolling by and will never actually discover you. 

This means that you really need to set yourself apart from the crowd.  

At this point, nearly every marketing gimmick that could possibly be used has already been used on Instagram. Viewers have seen the generic messages, stock images, and fake excitement done to the point of it becoming incredibly annoying, and they don’t want to see it anymore. They also do not want to see low quality images with captions that sound like the person does not really care about learning how to use social media, because this type of behavior dates all the way back to the early-to-mid 2000s. In other words, it is extremely outdated.

Instead, what people want to see is something that is high quality, interesting, and soul-capturing. They want to feel like you have spoken to them from your heart and that everything about you and your brand is a work of art. Your products, images, and everything you write should all be a part of your artistic process as you cultivate your social media profile and share content with your audience. This does not mean that you need to be some form of professional artist in order to really sell yourself on Instagram, but it does mean that you are willing to take down the mask and show parts of your real self to your audience. Even if you are just reselling items you purchased from wholesalers, creating this type of authentic connection is crucial in connecting with your audience and making sales through your business. 

When you choose products to sell to people, make sure you choose ones that fill the need while also looking good. Believe it or not, people actually care about that type of thing, even if what they are purchasing is something that is not typically purchased based on its aesthetic. Pick products that are in attractive colors and that are made with sleek style that is easy on the eyes so that when people see images, they are immediately interested in what it does. 

Then, make sure that you photograph the product well, too. Generic photographs, ones with plain backgrounds and nothing else in the picture, and other “cold” looking images do not perform well on Instagram. Instead, you want to take pictures that have attractive backgrounds that help the product stand out, with the right lighting, and at angles that give the best view of the product. A great way to set yourself apart in 2023 is to look up basic photography skills or tips that can help you take higher quality images, and then really place an emphasis on learning how to do better photography. Even if you are only going to be using your camera phone, you can still use these techniques to take better pictures. Practice taking photographs of your products and really get to know what works and what doesn’t, and do not be afraid to try several different shots to make sure that you find the right one. None of your photographs should be rushed, as this can lead to them being low quality and missing the mark on gaining you more attention on Instagram. 

Finally, when you are sharing your pictures make sure that the captions resonate with your audience. Some audiences are better with long captions whereas others are better with short, so test out using both lengths with your audience and see how they respond. Use the lengths of captions that resonate best with your audience so that you know that they are reading through everything you write, rather than it just landing on deaf ears. Then, once you have the right length for your audience, make sure that you are sharing something from your heart that really sells your product. For example, rather than saying “Check out these modern earrings I made today! I really think you should head over to my website and see if a pair suits your needs!” you could say “I was inspired to make these modern earrings after a visit to my favorite coffee shop today, and wow am I ever proud of how they turned out! What do you think? Hit the link in my bio if you want to claim them!” This gives a more personal, soulful explanation of why they were made and why you are proud of them, and really gives your audience a valid reason to go ahead and make a purchase on your products or services.  

Chapter 6: Twitter Marketing

You can use Twitter as a very powerful marketing tool to help direct more traffic to your business website, promote your business’ activities and events, monitor economic activity and share your expertise. By inserting a link in your tweets, you drive people to your business website and promote any coupons or special offers, inform them of interesting developments on your product or service and provide them with access to very interesting and quality content. Fans may even re-tweet the things you share on Twitter if they find your content to be very good and unique, it multiplies or leverages the amount of traffic that can be directed to your business website and as such, you gain access to more marketing leads. You can gently and enthusiastically request that people take the time to retweet content they enjoyed, thus generating a higher amount of interest in your company and what you have to say, or, more precisely, what you have to tweet.

By using the “Connect” tab on your Twitter account, you can monitor your product or service’s activities on Twitter. You can also do this by signing up for updates that are sent via email. Lastly, you can use software to get a closer look at all of your product or service’s Twitter activities.

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to market a product or service. And testimonials are one of those ways that your business can be promoted by word of mouth. A very good way of collecting good testimonials for your product or service is by using Twitter's “Favorites” feature. Such testimonials are significant social proof for your product or service and can help enhance the image of your product or service, making it more popular.  People are inherently social creatures, and if something is popular and well liked, they usually want to try it out as well. The more clients you have that favorite your business, the more positive reviews you will effectively hold. That will raise your reputation in the eyes of any social media consumer.

Using this feature is as easy as 1-2-3. You just hover over any tweet in your stream and then a list of options will appear, from which you can click “Favorite”. Your product or services get more social proof as the number of favorite tweets contained in your tab increases. It's well worth favoring tweets your followers and potential customers share as well, particularly any that support or reference your business or similar things in any way. It shows clients that you are listening and interacting with them, and it makes them feel special.

One way you can promote or market your business’ promotional activities – like campaigns, webinars or events – is by tweeting about it and inserting a link that will direct people to your event’s sign-up page. Oh, it's best that you come up with a very nice hashtag for your activity first before you even tweet about it. Including diverse and descriptive hashtags will ensure your tweets are present in a number of different categories and increase their visibility. Inappropriate use of or simply lacking hashtags will lead to your tweets not getting much attention, and using them well is an easy, quick, and free method of directing more potential clients to your business.

You can help make your brand a preferred or leading one by tweeting useful resources and tips regularly. As you do this, it’s best to tweet a good amount of both your original or owned resources and those of other people’s. Apart from establishing your product or service leadership, it can also project an image that’s humble and open. This makes you appear personable- almost human, yet also knowledgeable. A source that people can trust and depend upon is a resource they'll happily utilize.

When using Twitter, keep in mind that there are a number of tools and programs that you can use to maximize the time you spend and to ensure you gain the greatest number of followers. Many of these work by making it easier for you to find people and companies to follow- and it helps you to notice when someone you once took an interest in becomes inactive so that you can unfollow. It's worth noting, of course, that many of your clients will use these tools as well, so strive to ensure your own activity does not fall too low, lest you disappoint them.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations is a very important part of any effective marketing campaign, traditional or modern (i.e., social media).  One way to do this is by introducing your business and your products and services to those who can spread word about them far and wide – the media.  Because many media people such as bloggers, reporters and journalists are also on Twitter, it only makes sense to use this micro-blogging site for effective public relations or PR.

One way to do this is by first following or subscribing to blogs that are most popular or well known in our particular industry or niche.  From there, you can glean ideas as to which influential or beneficial Twitter authors or personalities to follow.  You can also follow well-known journalists who cover your industry or niche and to tweet about their published works and get their opinions on industry or niche-related topics, which can help you get on their good side. Once you do, you can tweet them about your products or services, taking care not to “sell” them.  Establishing such professionally personal relationships with influencers can go a long way in promoting your brands. In many cases, it will cost you nothing, and having powerful and influential friends like these effectively results in free advertising for you. Favorite and retweet what they say, get to know their thoughts and opinions on things, and your business will flourish as their endorsement will excite new potential customers into converting.

Chapter 7: Facebook Marketing

Why it makes sense

Of course, we're not saying all 1 billion+ users are your actual prospects or potential customers. Many of the active Facebook members will be far from the market you are seeking. But what such the statistics imply is that in terms of exposure, there’s no better place on the Internet for marketing than Facebook. But this is just the tip of the so-called social media marketing iceberg. Let's take a look at other reasons why marketing on Facebook makes so much sense.

Segments

Here’s a very interesting piece of useful information: Facebook keeps a vast database on just about everything and anything related to its users. Favorite things, location, age, likes, interests and more... check! So, what's the point?

There are two ways to advertise your products and services on Facebook:  free and paid.  The information available in Facebook's database is particularly useful for paid advertising. Why is that so?

Traditional advertising like radio, TV or print ads uses a shotgun approach – i.e., mass advertising where you simply hope there’s enough of your target audience to watch, hear or read your advertisement.  But with Facebook, you have the ability to target specific market for your paid advertisements.

For example, your business is an Italian restaurant located in Nebraska. Further, yours is a rather eccentric one that plans to cater specifically to people who love Italian food and who worship the late David Bowie. You can advertise your restaurant on Facebook and filter your advertisements to target users who live in Nebraska, who love David Bowie and worship Italian food.  But considering Nebraska’s quite a large area, you can further narrow down your target audience to those living in Norfolk!

Another example – say you’re a freelance author who specializes in personal finance.  You can market your e-books on Facebook using paid advertisements to target people between the ages of 20 to 30 years who are interested in learning how to invest for their future.  If you’re rather chauvinistic and would like to limit it to male audiences, you can instruct Facebook to show your advertisements to men only. It’s that specific, which is not even remotely possible with traditional media. By targeting the exact demographic you are looking for, all the way down to interests and location, you are securing the best possible odds of increasing your sales exponentially and enabling your business to develop in ways once impossible. 

Cost Management

You can easily limit your advertising spending when conducting Facebook marketing campaigns. This is because you can control not just the maximum amount you're willing to spend for such campaigns but also how long such campaigns will last and how much of your budget to spend every day.

For example, you only have a maximum budget of $30 for a 30-day Facebook marketing ad campaign. Facebook will automatically limit your spending to $1 per day over the next 30 days to keep you within your budget. As such, you don't have to worry about runaway spending. This enables you to start with advertising within your reach, no matter where your business is financially and expand your marketing campaigns when and if you have the ability and desire without having to stress about the money invested in it.

Facebook is not born to sell

If you want to maximize your market reach as well as Facebook's features, you'll need to understand some of the best Facebook marketing practices. While these aren't necessarily hard and fast rules, following these practices can significantly improve your product or service’s ability to engage customers on Facebook.

If you go out and study the Facebook pages of many of the world's most popular brands, one glaring thing you’ll notice is that they hardly ever sell directly to followers nor do they preach to them. Instead, they engage.

It also happens that people are a lot more intelligent these days such that they can immediately smell if you're just trying to sell to them or if you're sincerely and genuinely engaging them. Always keep in mind that Facebook is a social network first and foremost, and it’s not sales and marketing network. People want friendliness, respect, and inclusion- they are on Facebook to socialize and to have fun, not to repeatedly listen to and ultimately reject ill-advised sales pitches. Engage them, involve them, and they will reward you for it. Give them a generic advertisement and watch your prospects fizzle. The choice here is clear.

Imagine a town square and you live in that area. Imagine further that your house features a front porch where you enjoy watching people pass and cultivate many beautiful plants. There days when you’re enjoying watching people pass by and drinking from a pitcher of cold lemonade that some of those people notice your front porch’s beautiful plants and approach you to ask how you keep them looking beautiful.

You offer them seats on your porch and give them glasses of cold lemonade while explaining the general principles for keeping your plants beautiful and healthy. Some of those people become so interested in plant cultivation because of your sharing that they’d be willing to spend money just to have a day with you and learn the finer details of how you grow and keep plants beautiful. You take them up on their offer and spend the next day teaching them how you do it.

In that example, did you observe any explicit or direct attempts to sell anything on your porch? How about any implicit attempts to promote a horticulture seminar? That's right, none! And in a nutshell, that's how you do Facebook marketing. Any selling is done only within the framework of relationships and personal connections.

As I always say, it's about engagement. A very good way for you to engage people on Facebook is by posting helpful tips or links to articles that they’ll like and share as well as by asking relevant questions. When your posts focus on your audience, their needs, and their interests, you develop relationships, which is the single biggest reason for the existence of social media. People want to view you, more or less, as another of their friends. It pays to talk to them accordingly. Helpful tips on things they might want or need is great, upselling them things is not. Focus on your customer's happiness over your own success, and you'll wind up fulfilling both goals. And as the preceding porch story has shown, sales can just be a result of such relationships.

Another great way to engage your prospects and customers on Facebook is by consistently posting unique and quality content every day. Although it may seem quite cumbersome to do it at such frequency because of very busy schedules, posting such content less frequently increases the risk of your target audience missing some of your important posts because over time, they tend to follow and like more and more Facebook pages. And these “new” likes and follows will compete for their social media attention and engagement. When they miss more of your posts and see more of others’, their interest in yours starts to dwindle and in others to increase – and there goes your prospects and sales leads. If you are short on time, keep in mind that such posts don't have to be long. Aim to make them eye catching and interesting. Try to include content that stands out amongst a sea of other posts, no matter how daunting that may seem. Keep in mind the interests of your target audience- your posts certainly won't sway everyone on Facebook, but they don't have to for you to succeed. Catch and hold the attention of the customers you want with attentive engagement and quality posts, and you'll have loyal clients for as long as you maintain your activity.

Several studies recommend posting 3 to 5 times daily on Facebook for optimal engagement with prospects and customers.  However, each and every situation is different and as such, I recommend that sensible and strategic experimentation to see which will work best for your business. Make a goal that works for you, be it once a day or ten times daily. Just aim to be consistent and post regularly to keep people looking forward to seeing what you have to say.

Lastly, you should keep your posts fun and interesting. 

Remember, a big chunk of successful engagement is having fun so keep your posts helpful, interesting, and light as much as possible. No one wants to be overwhelmed with heavy, difficult content in their free time. Informative entertainment, ideally with pictures, videos, or other visually compelling additions makes for an ideal goal that will catch and hold the attention of your target market, leading to eventual conversions.

The Facebook Ads Manager 

We have talked a lot about using Facebook ads, but you may not know where to start. Or, you’re already using them, and you want to have a primer on your ads manager before your ads are run. In this chapter you’ll be educated on everything you need to know when it comes to using Facebook Ads Manager.

Setting Up a Facebook Ads Manager Account

Before you can begin to advertise on Facebook, you’ll have to set up the Ad’s Manager account. First, you need to log into your Facebook and choose the drop-down menu that is found on the upper right-hand side of your page so that you can choose the create ads option.  Ads Manager will create an account for you from there, and then send you through the steps you need to follow in order to run your first campaign. 

Another option is for you to close out this screen by choosing the close button found on the lower left-hand side. Now you can click on the main menu at the top left-hand side so that you can reveal and move through the various tools you’ll have access to. 

Explore Your Main Menu

Now that you have opened up your main menu, you can see all of the options that you have access to (which will be explained below). After you get used to using Ads Manager, you’ll see a new section that is titled, "frequently used." This is where all of the tools that you commonly use will be listed, so you don’t have to go through and search for your beloved tools. 

Frequently used: You know what this section is, and we just touched on it above. However, if there is a tool that you use a lot, but is not listed here, click on the, “all tools” button at the bottom of your screen so you can see all of your tools. 

Plan: This section is going to hold every tool you need to use in order to learn about the various aspects of your audience. This will enable you to come up with creative ideas for your ads. 

Audience insights: With this tool, you’ll learn about the various audiences that are on Facebook. For example, you’re wanting to figure out some advertising ideas, therefore, you’re going to ask Facebook for the data as to who is connected to your page.  Once you do this, you’ll see a couple of different tabs that hold all of the information about those that are on your business page. 

The first choice is your demographics page. This is going to show you the gender and age ranges of all the people that like your page. Depending on the dominant gender or age for your page, you may want to run ads that are aimed more towards them. You can even break your demographic down so that you can see how educated your member base is, what they do for a living, and their relationship status.

Now, when you move on to click the page likes tab, you can see more information that is going to help you in creating an ad that is targeted towards your demographic’s interests. What you may not know is that inside of each ad campaign, you’ll have the option to create separate ads that can target your audience based on the other pages that they like.

Click through all of the tabs and learn more about the clients that have liked your business page. You can likewise utilize this data so as to analyze your audience based on specific interests.

Creative hub: In the plan section there is a tool that is known as a creative hub, and it’s a wonderful tool that allows you to create an ad mockup in order to share it with your team, as well as get fresh ideas.

Create and manage: In this section you’ll find an assortment of tools that will be used when creating your ad, as well as managing your campaigns. 

Ads manager: Here you can run your campaigns as well as analyze the data from them. You’re also going to be able to get customized reports, download the live data to be shared with your team, and even get Facebook pixel.

Power editor: This is a strong advertising program that will give you the ability to create ad campaigns. This instrument will provide you with some more advanced options that can be used when starting any advertisement. 

Page posts: Here you’ll be able to view all of the posts to your page and how people have been engaging with what you’re posting. You’ll have the ability to see the scheduled posts, the posts that have been published, and any ad posts. You’ll also be able to view how each of your posts were received and the amount of people that viewed them. This tool should be used in order to check on your posts that have been published in order to see what is popular. That way, you can boost the post and get more engagement. 

App ads helper: This program is helpful for any app developers to drive even more traffic to their ads. 

Automated rules: Here you can define the parameters of your ad campaigns. You’re going to find this tool extremely valuable since you’ll have the ability to automate your alerts, and even take the actions necessary once certain parameters are met. So, if you need to take an ad down before it reaches $200 dollars, you’re going to be able to. You’re also going to see an estimated budget for each day based on the type of ad that you want to run.

Measure and report: You’ll want to analyze how your ad is doing, which is why you’ll use the measure and report section. In this section of your ad manager, you’ll have the option of creating custom conversions in an effort to track how your advertisement is performing and if it’s succeeding. 

Ads reporting: This tool will allow you to create a new ad for any ad that is being run or has run. In order to see an ad that you ran before, you’ll be required to use the date selection tool so you can narrow your ads down to that specific ad. When you review your ads with ad reporting, you’ll have the knowledge to create a better ad later on.  You’ll find that this tool is especially helpful when you have to compare multiple campaigns in order to see how they are performing based on the primary performance metrics that are vital to you.

Custom conversions: Even though Facebook Pixel is going to automatically track the standard actions that people perform when visiting your website, Facebook Pixel offers a customer conversion that is going to track the specific action that you want.  For every ad account, you’re going to be able to create up to 40 custom conversions at one time. Whenever you hit the maximum, delete what you’re no longer using and move on to creating new ones. In order to create new ones, you’ll click on, “create a new custom conversion” and then fill out the necessary information. Make sure that you’re selecting a specific URL in order to effectively track conversions. 

Tip: Once you have created a custom conversion, you’ll need to refresh your page so that Pixel can fire up and allow Facebook to know that there is a custom conversion active.

Analytics: The analytics tool will help you in analyzing any data from Facebook Pixel, as well as your pages. After you have begun to create ads and are fluently working with Pixel, this tool will be invaluable. 

Assets: in this section, you’ll have the ability to quickly and easily access any key assets that have been used in building your ads which includes your audiences that have been saved when you do ad targeting or any images that have been used before. 

Audiences: While you’re always able to choose an audience when you create an ad, this tool will allow you to create an audience you can use later on.

Facebook allows you to create 3 different types of audiences. Custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and saved audiences. The audience type you choose is going to be based on the objective of your ad. Once you have selected your type of audience, Facebook is going to guide you through your different options. 

Pixels: Pixel is a vital asset for you when you’re using a social media marketer. By clicking on the Pixel option, you can either install the Pixel or you can see data points that show where the Pixel fires on every page you have it installed. You’ll be able to analyze the Pixel data so that you can create targeted ads. 

Offline events: There will be important events you need to pay attention to off of Facebook. So, with offline events, you’ll have a tool that is going to track those that see the ads about offline events so that you’re able to feel more confident about these ads. Even though you’re going to be able to track every conversion (and you’re going to find that it’s difficult to do this), you’ll be able to create a more effective ad so that your campaign can be effective.

Product catalogs: This is going to be the perfect tool for any business that has an ecommerce website. Ultimately, you’re going to see details from potential customers from your catalog depending on what interactions have been completed with your company. These catalog features can be utilized so as to make a product catalog through Facebook prompts. Once you have your catalog up, you’re going to realize that it’s a powerful diagnostic tool that is going to help you to be more effective when marketing your products. 

Videos: The video option is going to allow you to see any video posted on your page. This is also going to be a helpful tool when uploading or managing videos. 

Settings: Finally, this is where all of the information for your account will be stored and where you can update any information that you need to update. 

Understanding the Tabs

Whenever you click on the ad manager option, you’ll be opening up the Ad Manager tool. In this interface you’ll see four different tabs that will hold an assortment of data to support you when evaluating ads.

Account overview: Here you’re going to be able to glance at all of the ads you currently have out on Facebook. You’re also going to be allowed to filter through your campaigns depending on if they are active or not.

Campaigns, ads tabs, ad sets: Before you can run an ad, you have to set aside the effort to make sense of what should be run and how well you think it’s going to be run. What is going to be the click rate for your ad based on passed click rates? What is going to be your cost per conversion? All of these will be metrics you need to know in order to be successful. 

You’ll be able to analyze all of your ads in this tab. Click on the tab that shows the groupings and click on the group you want to analyze before you move on to use the performance breakdown columns. When you click on the performance column, you’re going to notice that there are a few different options that you can use when it comes to viewing specific aspects of your campaign. All that has to be done is for you to choose the option you need to find, so as to see the related measurements. 

There is additional data that you can examine in the breakdown segment where you can view exactly which day the conversions happened, or what device people were on when they clicked on your ad. You’ll have the option to customize these columns so that you can create unique reports that can be shared with your team, or examine so that you can discover what is pushing you closer to success. In order to save these customized reports, click on the save report button and provide your report with a name.

Creating a Facebook Ad with Ads Manager

Any time that you go to create a campaign, your ad will need to move through 3 steps. 

Select the “create ad” button which is located at the top right of your ads manager so you can begin to make an advertisement. This is going to open up the campaign level so you’re able to choose the objective of your ad.

From here you’ll move on to the, “ad set stage” which is going to allow you to effectively define who is in your audience. If you have already saved an audience, you’ll choose that audience here. 

The last step in this process is to create your ad. Whenever you click on the Facebook page or even Instagram account, you’ll then choose how you need your promotion to be shown. Once you have done that, you’re going to review your ad, and place your order so that your campaign can get started.

In the end, Facebook Ads Manager will be the best place for you to create all of your ad campaigns. The analytics that you’re able to access in the Ad Manager is going to enable you to tailor your ads to meet your specific business needs. However, having a vast targeted audience is going to help you to keep the costs of your ads low.

Facebook Page

Facebook bases all its interaction on two things — profiles and pages. A profile basically introduces a person, whereas a page introduces a company or business. A profile is created for an individual looking to represent himself or herself on Facebook, whereas a page is created by an individual to represent his or her company or business. The same individual can create an individual profile for himself, as well as a page for his or her company. 

A profile can add friends (others using Facebook and will appear in the list of friends). These can be friends, family members, and acquaintances of the person. The page, on the other hand, can have likes and followers. Likes refer to the number of people who like the particular page, and in turn, the company in question. These can be known or unknown people, as it is impossible to know who has liked a page.

A profile's activity generally shows up in the news feed, as compared to a page's feed. A person has to visit a page in order to know what is happening on the page's feed.

There is also the option to create a group on Facebook. A group basically is a place where like-minded people can collaborate. A person can create a closed or a public group, depending on the creator's preference, and invite others to join in. But it is not possible for a business to own a group and becomes important for one to create a page for it. A business profile can partake in a group, if necessary. We’ll talk about groups in detail later on in the book.

The very first step is to create a page. To do this, log onto Facebook.com and click on the ‘create a page' button at the bottom. It will be easy if you already have a Facebook account, as you can easily create a page by signing into your existing account.  Or, you can enter Facebook.com/pages and create a page. Next, you have to understand the different terms and conditions listed.

Once done, you can enter the name of the page. Remember to take your time — don’t rush the decision. It is best to consult with friends and family before coming up with a name for the page. Facebook allows just one change of name once the page has been created. 

Then, you can identify the type of business you own. You will have to choose one of the following options.

●        Local business or place 

●        Company, Organization or Institution 

●        Brand or Product 

●        Artist, Band or Public Figure 

●        Entertainment (promotion)

●        Cause or Community 

Once you choose the appropriate option, you can fill in the ‘About’ info details before adding your website's address. When you’re finished, Facebook will give you your unique URL for your page. 

Next, you can choose the preferred page audience, and if you have content for people above 18 years of age, then you have to specify it to your audience.  If you are not yet ready with your page, go to the settings and edit the page visibility, choosing "unpublish page" to continue editing the page without being disturbed. 

Here are the different page elements you can choose: 

Settings

Page visibility — Here, you can choose who can view your page. If you are keen on making it a private page, then you can modify the settings and make it a closed group.  

Posting visibility — Here, you can choose who can post on your page. Sometimes, it's important to limit the posts so you don’t end up with a page consisting of a million posts.

Targeting and privacy for posts — This is to capture a particular audience. It is important to gear the posts to a certain audience, so you send the message across to the right people. 

Messages — The messages that your page can receive. If you are taking orders from people through your Facebook profile, then you can create filters to keep the spam at bay.  

Tagging ability — People who can tag your page. 

Country restrictions — People from specific countries that can view your page. Sometimes it’s best to limit the page to only those countries where your business operates, so you don't receive spam.

Age restrictions — People of specific age groups can view your page.

Page moderation — This allows you to prevent certain words from appearing on your page, thereby staving off spamming. 

Profanity filter — This is to prevent people from using profane words. 

Comment Ranking — This highlights the comments with the highest number of likes or comments.

Delete a page — You can delete a page if you don’t like it and start from scratch. 

Category — Pick a category for your company; this is quite important as people will find it easy to look for you.  

Name — The name of your company. 

Start information — The details of when your company started. 

Short description — A short description of your company. 

Long description — A detailed description of what your company is all about. 

Company overview — A brief overview of your company such as the location, history, legal structure, management, etc. 

Mission — Your company's goal and your overall approach to realize those goals.

When founded — The date when your company was founded. 

Awards — Any awards have come your company's way. 

Phone number — Your company's phone number.

Website — Your company's website. 

Once you fill in the above details, your page will be ready to roll!

Here is a look at the Facebook page standards: 

Profile Picture

The specifications for your profile picture are:

●        The picture must be square.

●        It must be at least 180x180 pixels.

●        It should display at 160x160 pixels on a computer.

●        It should display at 140x140 pixels on smartphones.

●        It should be 50x50 pixels on feature phones.

●        You must leave a space around, so the picture does not go all the way to the edge.

●        It is best for companies and businesses to use the company logo.

Cover photo

For the cover picture:

●        It is recommended to use an 851x315 pixels, RGB, JPG picture that is less than 100 kb.

●        You can use the graph provided by Facebook to crop the image to the right size. It is best to use a picture that is easy on the eyes and not too overwhelming. 

Calls to Actions

●        Remember that it is extremely important for you to guide your audience and tell them what to do on your page. Many people assume that people by themselves understand whatever they are supposed to do on a page; however, it pays to give them a clear instruction.  

●        It is best to create a "call to action" button that will allow your audience to take appropriate action. You must also expressly mention it in words to drive home the message. 

Facebook Posts

Here are the specifications for Facebook posts:

●        The news feed images should be 472x394 pixels and have an actual ratio of 236x197 pixels, and the image should be 504x504. 

If you need help with this specification then here are some tools that you can use to edit the picture, including Picmonkey.com and Canva.com. 

Posting to page

●        You can post unique links to your page by adding them to the page.

●        You can choose a picture and post it on the page. 

●        You can schedule your posts to publish at regular intervals. 

●        You can edit the picture by hitting the edit button, and you will have a glimpse of how others are seeing it. 

●        If you do edit it, you can copy the new link and paste it in the box. 

●        It is best to check all your work before posting it to avoid having to delete it later.

●        It is convenient to post multiple pictures at once. 

●        You can add a short description to each post. 

●        You can easily tag people in your pictures.

●        You can use the # to look for someone who has been tagged. 

●        You can also tag posts the same way and look for them using the #.

Additional things to do on Pages

●        When you upload a picture or a video, you have the option of adding your location. But it will pay to exercise a little precaution and post location only if necessary.

●        The video you wish to upload should be of a certain size. You can check the limitation of the video before uploading it.

●        You will be notified once your photos and videos have been uploaded. 

●        Remember, videos will not automatically upload the audio, and you must add it separately.

●        For the event milestones tab, you can check the drop-down options and choose the options that suit your requirements.

●        You can use the milestones option to read about the company, its various posts and the different people who can post on it.

●        You can control the various tabs by clicking the "manage tabs" option and edit them to your liking.

●        One important point to note while posting on a company page is to log out as the admin and log into your personal profile before making a comment. If you have hired someone to manage the page, they can be instructed to reply through the account or create another one.

●        Remember, it is extremely important to share your business page on your personal timeline as it helps with capturing a bigger audience. After all, the main motivation behind creating a page is to gather as big a crowd as possible, so it is important to advertise it extensively to be noticed by as many people as possible.

●        Remember that your page is synonymous with your company, and vice versa. You have to maintain a professional tone while posting on the page and instruct any other employees to do the same.

Chapter 8: Reddit And Facebook Ads Strategy

Reddit is a site which more about news and data. It resembles an online networking release board. The name Reddit landed from the expression “I read it on Reddit”.

You would need to utilize this media stage for substance promoting or item advertising like other internet-based life stages like Twitter, Facebook and so forth.

Reddit is a gathering for exchanges and news and redditors detest coordinate showcasing. In any case, according to records in the year 2017 Reddit had 550 million months to month guests consistently with 240 million interesting clients. Interestingly, Reddit users appear to not like “spammy” marketing, but with this easy step by step guide you can take advantage and use Reddit for your business marketing.

Reddit is used by millions in the United States alone and without a doubt would has a colossal number of people coming together to view information. This is a comparable stage to Quora however on a bigger scale. Clients will upvote your substance or announcement and that is the manner by which you can produce more leads.

These are a couple of promoting tips to use on Reddit:

Redditors detest Spam Type Marketing

The reason is direct, Redditors are not on Reddit to purchase our item and we are endeavoring to move them an item. The greater part of the guests on Reddit are for a senseless theme or genuine dialogs. They upvote for the substance they feel is valid and downvote things they don't care for.

Like I referenced Reddit has a million clients there will be some crowd who might be glad to find out about your item and would need to get them you simply need to keep a watch on them. Don’t let the naysayers hold you back from taking advantage of what Reddit has to offer, be patient and sit tight for the correct group of onlookers.

With all the holding up you additionally got the opportunity to do it right and your intended interest group will love you. Individuals visit Reddit to get supportive data and for excitement.

You generally got the chance to remember these two things while making your substance. So, encourage individuals and engage them to pick up consideration. Attempt to construct this sort of substance and you will consequently pull in the crowd. This will draw the gathering of people and you can produce leads. So, make your Reddit record and begin your promoting.

Pick Subreddits admirably

Reddit is isolated into a great many areas made by its clients called as subreddits. There are subreddits for anything you, even things like having a brew in the shower. Amusing stuff and engaging subreddits have a large number of supporters.

Finding subreddit is hard in light of the fact that there are such huge numbers of to choose from. You can check the sidebars for more related subreddits.

Use Software to Your Advantage

There are applications you can use to your advantage for Reddit clients and monitoring subreddits.

LaterForReddit is a really awesome tool, it allows you to search Reddit and subreddits. You can find readers and attract them using this trick.

Get it here:

https://laterforreddit.com/

Use Your Account to Your Advantage

You have made your record and you promote and distribute content for your advertising clients can see that on your profile. Set your own record and utilize it to upvote and remark on substance then Redditors will think of you as certified.

Make legit inquiries

Reddit lives on straightforwardness. Trustworthiness is the best arrangement. Reddit is the place individuals come to ask and answer questions. It is an extraordinary stage to do as such on the grounds that clients will answer genuinely. Your inquiry ought to have an incredible portion of trustworthiness.

You will achieve two things with this:

You can learn significant data about your client base.

You will construct mark mindfulness.

Make legitimate inquiries about your image or item. You will get an extraordinary reaction from the potential customer. Legitimate inquiries won't simply pull in remarks and sentiments however potential customers.

Take part in discussion

You are not a big name that you simply remark on something and simply abandon you to need to participate in the discussion and answer to the remarks.

Individuals who need to fabricate their business for a considerable length of time and have a huge number of devotees have the use to do as such. Celebs likewise don't overlook their celebs totally. Rude awakening Redditors detest it the most to be overlooked.

In the event that you make any inquiry remain around and thank individuals for their reactions. Try not to try and consider dismissing individuals on Reddit. Consider all the more giving arrangements, sharing assets and making inquiries. It's clear to pull in consideration you have to react to the remarks.

Make it fun

The second reason individuals visit Reddit is diversion. Individuals need to engage themselves and subsequently to search for alternatives on Reddit. On the off chance that you can give this stimulation, you win Reddit and alongside that, you have mark mindfulness. You can fabricate client steadfastness and intensify your image's picture.

Make engaging, fun and drawing in substance. Take the case of Ikea. They utilized Reddit for publicizing in a clever and engaging way.

Amid the valentines, they promoted their furniture store by saying free dens for infants brought into the world following nine months. This include worked and it got 1000 remarks.

Make your very own interesting and consideration looking for notice. Your objective ought to be amusement and not entirely ad.

Reddit likes fun and engaging advertising. What's more, on the off chance that you think you are not exceptionally engaging you can utilize the ask me anything (AMA) choice.

Advance offers in the privilege subreddits

Explicit isn't acknowledged, yet that does not mean you do any advertising. You need to do it right. They abhor obtrusive regardless.

Redditors approve of a post saying “here is a blog to help with this” or “This will enable you” Be that as it may; conspicuous stuff like 'purchase this item' is a major no. You should mind posting offers in light of the fact that an incredible offer can create a great deal of activity.

Pick the subreddits important to the class of item you are publicizing. This is the manner by which you can pull in the correct gathering of people. Redditors wouldn't fret offers yet they do mind in the event that you make them feel like you need their cash.

You have to interface with the redditors and construct an association with them before you move them an item.

Know your groups

Reddit is a huge network with a huge number of things posted each day. Posting at key occasions and seek after the correct gathering of people to see it. Subsequently, it is profoundly fundamental to overseeing desires for your crowd.

As I referenced above tolerance is the key and you will know who your gathering of people is the thing that do they anticipate. Subsequent to knowing your group of onlookers, you can produce content appropriately. Your substance ought to be significant, genuine, unique and positive.

Conclusion

I might want to propose that focusing on the correct group of onlookers and promoting with the ideal blend of excitement and polls you can take huge preferred standpoint of a huger stage like Reddit. Make your record and market yourself on such an extensive stage.

Try not to succumb to the old methodology of expanding the markdown rate and transferring a superior picture since it won't take a shot at this stage. The best way to win on this stage is making genuine inquiries, participating in discussions and building associations with your customers.

Give stimulation and advance convincing offers and arrangements in the privilege subreddit to produce movement. Begin your Reddit discussions and showcasing now.

Chapter 9: Snapchat

Among the new online life stage alternatives, one of the quickest developing is Snapchat, so advertisers consequently accept they should take their bit of that possibly worthwhile pie.

Snap, Inc., is Snapchat's parent organization, and holds a current market valuation of around $25 billion. While chipping away at profiting by this may appear to be an easy decision, this internet-based life stage isn't ideal for each brand.

Snapchat reports aggressive client commitment contrasted with other internet-based life stages. A great many people check online life applications consistently, in some cases a few times each day. Clients check Snapchat multiple times every day by and large, and over 2.5 billion snaps make a trip through the system to in excess of 150 million clients consistently. Indeed, over 45% of every one of the 18-to 55-year-olds in the United States utilize Snapchat. In the event that you need to take advantage of this possibly tremendous achieve, you should painstakingly think about how to use Snapchat viably for your image.

Is Your Brand Compatible with Snapchat?

Snapchat enables clients to send photographs and brief recordings to their companions and devotees on the application. Clients can tweak their pictures with emoticon symbols, content, and drawing instruments. Some influencers on Snapchat boost their gathering of people individuals to draw in with them by just discharging Snaps temporarily.

Snaps are likewise transient – when a client sees a Snap picture or video, they just have a couple of moments with it before it's gone until the end of time. Clients can take screen captures of Snaps, yet the window for doing as such is constrained.

Contingent upon the kind of business you run, this could be a ground-breaking type of commitment for your gathering of people. In any case, Snapchat clients drift on the more youthful side, so except if you can catch the enthusiasm of this statistic, it may not be worth your time. Advertisers confront colossal strain to drive their brands' internet-based life commitment with their groups of onlookers, and it's fundamental not to sit around idly where your endeavors demonstrate unproductive.

Gauge the Return on Investment

Each showcasing attempt ought to take a stab at a positive rate of return (ROI). Put just, in case you're not procuring more than what you put resources into a crusade methodology, that system isn't practical and most likely won't stay suitable for long. Snapchat is costly for publicists on account of the potential for high commitment levels.

Most customary publicizing models for Snapchat utilize an expense for every impression show. Basically, you pay for each time clients see your substance. Lamentably for advertisers keen on Snapchat, the stage isn't well disposed for little or developing organizations.

You could tailor your Snapchat promoting utilizing a remarkable geofilter for the most savvy results. As the name proposes, a geofilter focuses on your substance to an explicit area. This can be viable for neighborhood organizations who need to contact more individuals in their general vicinity. Snapchat will consider the span of the territory you need to target and the evaluated activity volume amid an offered period to decide the expense.

Pick Your Audience

Generally, Snapchat just fills in as an advertising stage for business-to-client associations. In the event that you work in a business-to-business task, you in all probability won't discover enough expert nearness on Snapchat to legitimize putting resources into a showcasing effort. Snapchat is an immediate line to the end client. In the event that you need to develop leads straightforwardly from your buyer base, you may discover them on Snapchat.

Likewise think about what sort of merchandise and enterprises your organization offers. Do your optimal client types incline toward the more youthful side? Over 70% of Snapchat clients are more youthful than 34, so on the off chance that you take into account a more established market, you most likely won't see positive outcomes. On the off chance that your clients are youthful and acknowledge interactive media content, consider approaches to send them profitable substance in photograph or video organize.

In the event that you can think about a few potential outcomes, it might be an ideal opportunity to begin Snapchatting. Over 90% of battles that utilization Snapchat report deals increases subsequent to promoting on the stage.

How Does Snapchat compare with Various Social Media Strategies

A standout amongst other apparatuses for advertisers on Snapchat is the capacity to transfer connections for your crowd. These connections touch base to clients in a simple to-explore arrange. Clients just swipe up to see the substance. Snapchat reports that its swipe-up rate accomplishes multiple times more positive outcomes than normal navigate rates on other promoting channels.

Utilizing Snapchat connections, you can send your group of onlookers educational articles, email select ins, video content, solicitations to introduce your image's applications, connections to your site and other web-based social networking profiles, and significantly more.

In the event that clients are occupied with your image, they'll likely set aside the opportunity to swipe up through your connections and see what you bring to the table. On the off chance that you tailor your Snapchat battle to catching the consideration of a more youthful customer base, you could conceivably expand your image mindfulness.

Campaigning with Snapchat

Each business has an interesting identity, and your promoting endeavors on a fun-focused stage like Snapchat should feature your human side. Consider the accompanying when concocting better approaches to connect with your group of onlookers:

Talk one-on-one with clients. You may get messages, questions, or reactions about your advertising materials from clients. Consider this input important and try to react to whatever number client commitment as could be expected under the circumstances. Current buyers love to feel esteemed, so indicate them you care by setting aside the opportunity to exclusively address their worries and react to their remarks.

Insider looks. Demonstrate your group of onlookers what goes ahead off camera at your organization. In the event that you create merchandise, consider completing a stroll through of your generation office to demonstrate your clients how you make your items. You could likewise have cheerful substance demonstrating your representatives making the most of their time at work and featuring a portion of the things that makes your organization special.

Work with influencers. Online networking influencers have enormous reach, so search for Snapchat identities with sizeable followings who create content identified with your image. When you find a couple of competitors, approach them with cross-limited time thoughts and check whether you can profit by access to their substantial groups of onlookers.

Keep in contact. More youthful individuals are commonly present on world occasions. Data ventures rapidly, and youngsters regard organizations that can deliver something profitable that resounds with the occasions. Try not to race to post content about the most recent patterns and occasions, be that as it may. Numerous organizations have experienced grievous kickback their clients over heartless or ineffectively coordinated substance discharges via web-based networking media, so utilize prudence when choosing what to transfer.

Don't get Lazy

Another imperative certainty to hold up under as a main priority (at any rate until further notice) is that numerous advertisers still can't seem to understand the potential Snapchat has as a showcasing resource. Your rivals might not have considered promoting on Snapchat because of the staggering impact Facebook and Twitter have had throughout the years. Numerous experts have expelled it as a straightforward photograph sharing application for young people.

Snapchat is definitely in excess of a period executioner for young people. Innumerable brands have had achievement advertising on the stage. While the expectation to absorb information and section cost may appear to be steep at first, examine the stage to perceive what potential it has for your image. In the event that you can tailor a publicizing model to your financial plan and objectives, you simply need to create Snapchat-accommodating substance to begin receiving the benefits.

Chapter 10: Google Platform

Google Can Help Your Local Business with Search Results.

Google is a very, powerful company online as we all know. Their search engine along with the local division Google My Business (in conjunction with Google Local for users) can help your local business in a major way. Have you ever noticed that when you are searching for anything locally using their search engine that many options in a row with reviews are seen quickly? There are many positives and as you can tell Google loves its own products and they are easily accessible as part of its search algorithm. Quite naturally their products get high priority and visibility in their own search results. Many local businesses thrive because of Google’s search results.

Brief Intro to Google My Business

“Big brother” Google has it all and is very effective for many local businesses around the world. Google My Business is a very good and effective tool for local businesses that can target local customers by using search and reviews all in one. You must take full advantage of this platform!

Did you know over 25% of all Google searches are intended for local products and services with over 40% going to all mobile searches? Local businesses have a very high visibility in the Google search algorithm. Ninety seven (97%) of all consumers search online for local businesses. Why wouldn’t you want increased exposure online for your local business by using the Google My Business?

Three Important Factors for Local Searches with Google

The Google search algorithm takes precedent on local searches in your area (i.e. “Local” Donut Shop or Brake Shop, etc.). The results are almost always near the top to middle of the search page for the highest visibility.

Google has set up their local search for consumers to find local businesses without too many distractions. Your page will only compete with others and no other websites, etc.

Google My Business is a must for any local business because of the listings that will occur in the search engine but more so it’s a place where your customers can leave reviews about your products and services. The reviews hold a fair amount of weight within the algorithm so be sure that you are encouraging your customers to leave positive feedback.

Chapter 11: LinkedIn

Often treated as the more officious and decorous social media step-child, LinkedIn remained staggeringly untapped for long. Until recently, people did not wise up to its marketing and promotional benefits. From a mere job and resume site, it has now become a powerful platform for forging professional connections and networks.

With over 830 million users, the business networking giant is slated to grow at a monumental pace in coming years.

It is a professional networking media all right. However, that’s exactly why it is such a solid and dependable marketing platform. If you know the little-known tricks and pro tips, there’s nothing stopping you from creating a strong brand using LinkedIn. Here’s everything you want to know about this social media superpower.

Customize Your Profile URL

Instead of having a profile URL with a zillion numbers on it, customize it by going to the profile URL option located in the right-hand corner. Your public profile will appear saner and more professional such as http: www.linkedin.com/JohnSmith.

Add a Background Personal Profile Photo

LinkedIn finally opened itself up to the cover photo social media phenomenon. This adds a bit more persona and character to your profile. Ensure you pick a profile that’s in tandem with the professional social media tone of LinkedIn.

Add a background profile photo by clicking on Profile >Edit Profile(LinkedIn’s upper navigation bar)>Add a Background Photo. You can modify an existing background photo by clicking on it and selecting the Edit Background option.

Your cover photo, according to LinkedIn specifications, must be a PNG, GIF or JPG file only (under 8 MG). The ideal resolution is 1400 x 425 pixels.

Add the LinkedIn Badge

Another unique and professionally befitting feature that LinkedIn has is the Profile Badge. Expand your professional connections by displaying this badge (there are many options to pick from) on your blog or website. It links directly to your LinkedIn profile.

Display Work Samples

Well, people are searching you on LinkedIn because they want to see your professional work before associating with you.

Not many know that LinkedIn offers the feature of adding tons of media including videos, graphics, documents, and presentations under the Experience, Summary and Education sections of your profile. Use them to showcase your brilliance.

Add projects and portfolios. Try to add a variety of samples to give potential clients a glimpse of your versatility.

Recommend People

LinkedIn focuses heavily of building business networks and recommending people professionally.

When you recommend people, you find them returning the favor by treating your brand more positively. You not just feel good about endorsing a worthy product and service, but you also attract goodwill for your own brand, lasting professional partnerships, and greater participation.

Join Groups

Groups are one of the best ways to draw traffic to your profile. Join as many relevant groups as you can and contribute regularly. Active participation is key when it comes to being a seamless part of a thriving professional community.

Share interesting and industry-relevant content, initiate thought-provoking discussions, and contribute to existing conversations. This establishes the credibility of your brand, while giving you access to a whole new world of professional connections.

Lasting client-brand relationships and brand promotion is what you should aim for while creating formidable groups.

However, don’t sell yourself too hard. Focus instead on selling your brilliance and knowledge by creating and sharing top notch content.

When people become a part of specific groups, it shows up on their profile, thus triggering the curiosity of their connections.

Additionally, group members can view each other’s profiles without actually being connected.

The best way to reach out to potential customers and associates via LinkedIn is by joining as many groups as possible.

When two people are part of one group, the need to be a first degree connection (direct connection of a person rather than the connection of a connection) is eliminated for having a direct conversation.

If you’ve been on LinkedIn for a month and a member of the group for a minimum of 4 days, LinkedIn lets you send 15 one-on-one messages free to all group members for every group you are a part of.

Getting Endorsed for Your Skills

Not every connection is going to endorse your skills, of course. However, since it is easy to endorse someone (simply click on + next to the skill on a profile); connections endorse each other’s skills as goodwill gestures.

Ensure your profile is complete and you’ve listed all skills to make it easier for your connections to endorse them. This definitely boosts your brand’s authenticity and credibility.

You can delete endorsements that are inaccurate or plain bizarre. Fire eating, anyone?

Use LinkedIn’s Pulse Publishing Platform Optimally

LinkedIn’s Pulse publishing platform gives you a brilliant opportunity to showcase your skills by generating authoritative and useful content and sharing it with your connections.

Updating your LinkedIn blog with regular, valuable, and information-rich content can give you great influencer leverage and present yourself as an industry authority, thus boosting your brand credibility. Keep content relevant to your industry, detailed and analytical, and multi-perspective.

You can also syndicate content from your corporate blog to LinkedIn Pulse, thus drawing a larger audience to your blog.

To publish an article, select Publish a Post. You can also go to Pulse from the Interests option on the main navigation toolbar.

Select Publish a Post once you are done by clicking the top right corner button on the page.

Make Your Profile More Accessible

When you visit other profiles, allow them to be able to see your profile, too. Go to Settings and click on your profile image. Click Manage > Profile > Privacy Controls >SelectWhat Others See When You’ve Viewed Their Profile. Check the Your Name and Headline feature.

Open Profile for More Connections

This means you can touch base one-on-one with only those customers who are in the same groups as you.

However, there’s a way through which you can send other users messages without being a first degree connection. It is called the Open Profile option, and is only available to premium account members.

If you opt for the Open Profile Network, any user (irrespective of their LinkedIn membership or degree of connection) is available to you for one-on-one messaging.

Send an Open Profile Message by clicking on Send an InMail.

You can also hover around the top section of the user’s profile section and choose Select an InMail. Premium account holders can simply select Send (user’s name) and the messaging button.

Check out Who’s Checking You Out

Just like you want the users of profiles you visit to know about you, you also want to access profiles of users who visit your profile. With the Who’s Viewed Your Profile option, accessible within the main navigation in the Profile dropdown, you can view all users who’ve visited your profile.

Also, LinkedIn has gone a step further and made it even more comprehensive by including a feature where you can actually view how your profile stacks up against your connections’ profile views. This opens up a whole new list of potential clients and business associates.

Optimize Your Profile for Search Engines

Optimize your profile by including key search terms and words that are normally used to describe your profession. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to be found while people search for those terms on search engines.

Include keywords in multiple profile sections, including the profile headline and summary.

LinkedIn allows you to add links to websites within your profile. A neat little tip is to retain links to your other social media pages but change the link text (the clickable words that take visitors to another page) to include more impactful keywords and phrases related to your business.

For instance, your Twitter profile link can read as C++Coder Twitter Profile. This captures the gist of your profile and makes it more optimized for search engines.

Use the Advanced Search Option

LinkedIn’s Advanced Search option offers a much more focused search experience. For example, maybe you want to know if you are connected to someone who is employed by a specific organization. You simply need to mention the company name and then use the relationships filter for checking if you have any connections with the specific user.

Cross-Promote by Sharing LinkedIn Updates on Twitter

Though you can’t automatically publish your tweets on LinkedIn, the reverse can be achieved with startling results by adding your Twitter profile to LinkedIn. If you want your Twitter followers to be able to access your LinkedIn updates, syndicate update posts by choosing the Public + Twitter feature under the Share With dropdown option within the update composer.

Email LinkedIn Groups

Can LinkedIn groups be used to generate leads? Yes, of course. One of the biggest advantages of managing a group is that you can send out messages to each group member (a maximum of once per week). These messages are sent as LinkedIn announcements straight into the inboxes of members, if they enable the ‘messages from groups’ from their settings.

If you build a thriving group that is packed with insightful discussions, you are tapping into a robust group of targeted customers and associates. You can generate plenty of leads by directing group users to your LinkedIn profile and ultimately to your blog or other social media pages.

Maintain top notch group etiquette by keeping discussions professional and relevant. Rather than focusing on promoting your product, focus on adding more value within the topic so other users can benefit from it.

Once they see you contributing meaningfully to the group, they will automatically take greater interest in your profile, and they will automatically be more receptive to your messages.

Add Weight to Your Profile

If you are a fairly new networker or blog owner or business founder, and don’t know how to add more weight to your profile, think again! There’s plenty that you can put in there to pack more panache into your profile.

It can be anything from knowledge of foreign languages to special volunteer experience to any special projects you’ve worked on. Since you can add media to your profile too, how about an interesting introductory video that demonstrates your skills?

To add media to your file, Click Edit Profile and select the square icon under Summary and Educations sections. Click to upload media files.

Chapter 12: Pinterest

Pinterest can be one of the more overlooked social media platforms. For the most part, Pinterest ranks lower than the top social media companies when it comes to monthly active users. This can often lead it to be seen as growing increasingly irrelevant, especially by those who are just starting out in the social media marketing world. However, while it is true that Pinterest is a smaller platform, Pinterest has an advantage that the other social media platforms don’t. Pinterest users primarily use the platform to plan out what they want to purchase in advance.

This has tremendous implications. The first and foremost is that consumers don’t actively avoid sales pitches or images meant to promote products.

Since Pinterest is primarily a consumer platform, you will have greater levels of opportunity to share and sell your products. People who visit Pinterest are open minded, often looking to the site for opportunities to embark on new projects, look for new products and otherwise improve their own lives. They are searching for recipes, ideas, decorations, and projects that will occupy their time.

When a Pinterest user finds a post that they like, they will pin it to their collection, known as their board. Boards are often separated by users into different types, depending on the overall purpose the user has for that board. For example, decoration pins could be pinned the board labelled “New House.” This board may also include housing designs, furniture and other types of posts that would be thematically appropriate to setting up a new house. Once they have pinned a post, they will be able to revisit it whenever they like. Furthermore, people can see each other’s board and draw inspiration from them.

This creates a highly concentrated network of individuals who are most likely to make purchasing decisions. While they might not necessarily convert immediately, the act of adding a pin to the board will serve as a reminder that specific products or ideas exist. This can be extremely valuable for your brand, especially if one of your products is pinned to a board. That essentially serves as a reminder to potential customers that your product exists. This increases the chances of conversion.

Pinterest is an exceptional platform when it comes to business to consumer relations. You can promote your own brands, create interesting and engaging pins and even create your own boards for consumers to follow along. Let’s take a look at each of the features that Pinterest offers to business owners .

Pins

In Pinterest, a post is referred to as a pin. A pin is either a photo or a video that you upload. Unlike other social media sites, when you click on the pin itself, you will be taken to a link of the original picture’s website. So, this is a great way to help direct people to your website organically. If a user sees a pin and wants to know more about it, they’ll have the link take them to the direct source.

As a business user, you’re going to be primarily relying on creating your own original pins in order to distribute over Pinterest. Pins have descriptors that you can write. When writing in these descriptions, it’s important to include accurate and relevant keywords, writing them out as hashtags so that others can find your content.

Boards

Pins go on boards. A board is a thematic collection of pins, created by users. You’ll most likely want to create your own boards, varying them based on different themes and ideas that are relevant to your business. Remember, other Pinterest users will be able to find your boards, so make sure that they are relevant to your target demographics interests.

Advertising

One of the bigger challenges in Pinterest is discovery. There are a lot of pins constantly being put up and it can be easy for your pins to get lost in the shuffle. Organic searches only go so far. If you want to ensure that your pins are actually seen by users, you’re going to want to take advantage of Pinterest’s advertising engine.

The primary method of using Pinterest for advertising is creating what’s known as Promoted Pins. A promoted pin is just the same as a regular pin, except that it will be displayed in front of relevant users. Just like any other advertising engine, the target can be highly specific, and you will be able to increase your reach than if you were just to use organic marketing.

In order to create promoted pins or videos, you’ll need to create a Pinterest for Business account, or just simply switch over your regular Pinterest account to a business account. This is free and can be done quickly.

Once you have a Pinterest for Business account, you’ll not only be able to create campaigns to run promoted pins, you’ll also be able to evaluate the metrics that Pinterest provides. Pinterest keeps track of how many people click on your pins, which pins get the most views and other such important metrics. You’ll need these when it comes to evaluating the efficiency of the pins you are posting.

Who is Pinterest Best For?

Pinterest is best for business that are looking to increase their brand authority, sell products to consumers and generate awareness. The majority of Pinterest users are women, who are also the primary decision makers when it comes to consumer decisions for a household. A significantly smaller userbase of men exist and use Pinterest on a daily or monthly basis. So, if you are looking to sell products that skew towards women or is geared directly at women, Pinterest is one of the best possible platforms you can use.

Pinterest Categories

While Pinterest has a wide array of categories and users can create pins about whatever topic they like, some categories are considered to be the primary drivers behind Pinterest. If you have a business that is relevant or adjacent to these categories, you will have a significantly easier time entering the Pinterest market. However, if you find that your products fall outside of these categories, you might not see as promising results. This doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to find success in using Pinterest, it’s just that you won’t know the degrees of success until you try it out. Let’s look at the top 8 categories in Pinterest.

Travel

Travel is the unabashed king of Pinterest. Pinterest enables those with a wanderlust to find great deals, learn about different and interesting places in the world and live vicariously through other travelers. In fact, according to Pinterest, a traveler is more likely to use Pinterest to make travel plans and decisions than a typical travel agency.

Health and Wellness

Fitness, living a healthy lifestyle and food recipes are extremely popular on Pinterest. Continues the modern trend of individuals continually seeking to live healthier and more productive lives. With health and wellness being such a large category, those who have health products to sell or fitness routines to share on their blogs are getting quite a bit of attention.

Hobbies and Interests

Pinterest users who are interested in hobbies are primarily focused on arts and crafts. Things such as painting, pottery and gardening are extremely popular categories. People often look to Pinterest in the hopes of getting inspiration for the next hobby to pursue and as such, there are plenty of opportunities to advertise in specific hobby niches.

Celebrations

Weddings and birthdays have a large number of elements to them, from decorations, to ideas, to cakes. Pinterest users often look for inspiration and instructions on how to make the most out of their special occasions, using Pinterest sources to find recipes for these celebrations.

Food

While health and wellness may contain a large number of recipes, food as a standalone category comes in 5 th place for most popular. People are always on the hunt for all sorts of recipes to use, ranging from a hybrid paleo-vegan diet known as Pegan, to simple bread baking tips. 

Home Projects

Another extremely popular category for Pinterest is Do It Yourself projects, mostly pertaining to home and garden. People are looking for either inspiration to create new looks for their homes or are searching for practical, step by step advice on how to create specific types of furniture.

Men’s Style

While men might not make up a large percentage of Pinterest, they do, however, still make purchasing decisions, especially when it comes to personal style. Men’s style comes in at 7 th most popular category, which indicates a trend of more and more men coming to look at style as something to be concerned with.

Women’s Style

Coming after men’s style, women are still using Pinterest to look for new clothes and style ideas. One area that is trending in this category is sustainable fashion, as more and more consumers are becoming conscious of the toll that certain types of fashion products can have on the environment.

Creating Pins That Capture Interest

When it comes to using Pinterest, your primary goal, like any other social media site, is to have people look at and interact with your posts. Doing so, on this platform, however, requires that you have a keen understanding of what users are searching for when they are using Pinterest.

Pinterest users are looking for actionable ideas. They are either searching for inspirational posts that will help get their creative juices flowing, concrete ideas that they can replicate or a mix of the two. While Facebook and Instagram users tend to be looking for all sorts of content, primarily for the purpose of entertainment, Pinterest users want to have something to do at the end of the day.

This should shape your overall approach to creating Pins for the platform. You don’t simply just want to throw up a few clever pictures or infographics and call it a day. Rather, what you want to do is create pins that are actionable in some way. Instructional, guides, how-to and demonstrations are all great ways to catch the attention of users. More importantly, they are great ways to help move the user from Pinterest to your own websites.

The nature of Pinterest means that users don’t worry about moving to the source site. Since clicking on the picture will take them to a specific link, they will be expecting to learn more about your ideas or projects presented to them. In fact, if you have information that they find valuable enough, they will be eager to see what else you have on your website.

So, if you want to successfully use Pinterest, you’re going to have to focus on crafting Pins that will draw in attention. Let’s look at a few qualities that good Pins have.

Unique

Original content is always welcome by just about any platform, but especially so with Pinterest. Why? Because when you create unique content, you have the ability to brand it with your specific brand colors and logo. Branding is extremely important when it comes to using Pinterest. While you still want to adhere to the basic rules of posting things that provide value to others, you do want Pinterest users to associate your helpfulness with your brand.

A strong, visual brand in a primarily visual platform like Pinterest means that users will be able to quickly identify your pins. This will be invaluable when it comes to promoting your products later on.

However, the only way that you can attach your brand identity to a visual post is for that post to be original content. You can’t attach your brand identity to some else’s content, or else that would be considered stealing. And of course, stealing someone’s content is a terrible way to promote your brand.

Usefulness

While other social media platforms often rely a mix between educational and entertaining posts, Pinterest users aren’t necessarily looking to be entertained. Often, the act of browsing boards, searching for interesting ideas and being inspired is a form of entertainment. In general, rather than seek to create content that is entertaining, it’s better to work on providing useful content that either inspires or educates. Those two categories alone are what primarily makes up the bulk of Pinterest and it is what users are looking for when they visit the platform. Remember, Pinterest is a website of action and activity.

High Quality

Pinterest is a visual medium, above all else. While there is certainly room to write well in the descriptions, for the most part, a viewer is going to make a judgement based on the picture they are seeing. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that your pins use high quality images that are beautiful and enjoyable to look at. On top of that, you’ll also want to make sure that the text on the images are easy on the eyes and readable. There have been many a pin ruined by the fact that the text was far too tiny for most people to read.

Trending

Part of getting a pin noticed is learning how to pay attention to what is trending in the Pinterest world. The cyclical nature of holidays means that most of the time, you will have easy to predict topics coming up. Creating content that is relevant to whatever is trending at the time will get your pin to show up more often. This might be a little time consuming, especially if you’re creating original content for whatever is trending, but it can be very rewarding, especially if you don’t have the money for paid advertising.

Schedule

One of the good news about Pinterest is the fact that their posting schedule is significantly more open to multiple posts than other platforms. In fact, it is recommended that you post upwards to ten times a day on Pinterest! That can be quite a large number of posts, especially if you don’t have a lot of original content written up. But don’t worry too much, it would be good to spend a good solid few weeks of developing content that you can use for Pinterest and then schedule your posts out to upload a few per day. You don’t want to outpace the stockpile of content that you have aggregated, so make sure you time it out so that you have a buffer. Then, while your schedule posts are uploading themselves over the next few weeks, you can use that time to develop and aggregate more content to use for Pinterest.

Writing Good Descriptions

While images are the one thing that will get users interested in a post, you may have more to say about the subject. The description is a key area for a pin for multiple reasons. First and foremost, the description sections are where the keywords will go. You need keywords if you want your posts to be found through Pinterest’s search engine.

The best way to incorporate keywords is organically writing them as part of the description. Avoid keyword stuffing or trying to repeat certain keywords plenty of times throughout the description. For the most part, search engines will ignore or even punish pins that have too many keywords strung together. A lot of times, keyword stuffing simply looks like a bot created the pin and as such, may end up unlisted. Instead, you’ll want to incorporate the keywords organically and then, once you’ve finished writing the description, you can add the hashtags at the bottom.

A good description doesn’t need to be any specific length. If you have a lot of information, feel free to add as much as you are able to with the character limit of 500 characters. If you feel that you don’t need that much information, only include the relevant keywords so that you are still able to show up in the search engines.

Be Inspiring

It’s important to remember that while the people who are using Pinterest are far more open and willing to make purchasing decisions, that isn’t the only reason they are there. Most of them are searching for the things that inspire them, that help them come alive. Your goal as a Pinterest marketer should be to help your followers and potential customers to achieve their goals and desires. Just because Pinterest has a higher degree of people who are looking to buy things doesn’t mean they only want to be sold to. Avoid being too salesy and self-focused. Stick to the rule that dictates the majority of your posts should be about providing value for the consumer. The more a Pinterest user comes to enjoy and trust the content that you create, the more natural of a relationship they will have with your brand. When it comes to finally making the purchase decision, if you have built up a good rapport and played your cards right, the customer will most likely remember you as the better choice.

Keep an Eye on Competition

Chances are, if you’re using Pinterest, your competitors are as well. You should take some time to look at how your competition is creating posts, how frequently, what the types of posts they are making, etc. and evaluate the effectiveness. Are their posts being pinned a lot? Do you see a lot of their work on different boards? There’s nothing wrong with paying attention to your competition and taking notes on their strategies.

The best practice for this is to simply look at the top five companies that are in the same field or adjacent to you. Look at how successful they are in their marketing strategies and find out ways that you can adopt their methods. By learning through observation, you’ll be able to take already successful strategies and improve your own Pinterest game. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t take their content or plagiarize them in any way, but the fact is, your competition is an extremely valuable resource. Don’t neglect to keep an eye on them! 

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Conclusion

After everything has been said and done, there is still one question that you need to answer:

What is the ultimate measure of success for your social media campaigns?

Some would say it is the increase in your brand’s awareness. The instant that more people know about you compared to a few months ago, then your social media campaign is a success.

Others would say it is the increase in web traffic. Granted, all the strategies that you have read in this book have been designed to funnel and consolidate all traffic coming from your social media pages to your main web pages.

And then there are others who would claim that it is the increase in engagement in your content. This could hold some truth, as an increase in activity on your social media pages is a telltale sign that there is considerable interest in your brand. And where interest lies, profit will soon follow.

Then there are people who say that it is in the discovery of new segments in the market. This is a sign that your products and services can actually be made to fulfill needs that you haven’t thought of before. And, of course, knowing that other demographics like your brand is a sign that your range of influence in the field of social media has expanded.

The truth, however, is that all of these metrics are all telling that your marketing campaigns are working. However, there is one other factor that trumps them all: conversion. 

Conversion begins when a person becomes so interested that they visit your channels and are convinced by what you are offering. This interest is then followed by a willingness to visit your sales page or your physical business.

Once there, they will then be convinced enough to start a transaction with your business and part with their hard-earned money in return for what you are offering.

If they find value in what you are offering and would want to consume more of it, then and only then can you declare that all your marketing campaigns have been effective.

Sure, marketing in a field that is as dynamic and fickle as social media has its ups and downs. Even the best-laid plans that you have designed can be derailed by a single misfire.

However, the beauty with marketing is that there is always room for improvement. If you do fail, there is that chance to learn from where you messed up and start all over again.

The risk of stepping out of your comfort zone in the hopes of offering something that people will find value in does reap some rewards. And you will know that your efforts did pay off when your brand’s name alone is enough to convince people to start doing business with you.

I would like to thank you and congratulate you for finishing this book!

I hope all that you learned here will help you in making your business stand out from your competition in the world of social media.

The next step here is to actually implement whatever strategies you have thought of and measure your success.

Instagram marketing

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE FOR INSTRAGRAM INFLUENCER. HOW TO USE ADVERTIsiNG AND DISCOVER THE SECRETS FOR YOUR BUSINESS USING THE BEST MARKETING STRATEGY IN SOCIAL MEDIA

JEREMY PREACE

Description

Presently you will enter the universe of Instagram! How phenomenal would it be to get your things and brand seen by more people, grow a strong number of customers who really relate to your picture, and get paid? Instagram is your most logical option on the off chance that you truly need to make six figures with your business.

Since Instagram has in excess of 750 multi month to month individuals (This beats Twitter!), various brands are finding ways to deal with participate with the Instagram site and increase with contributed customers who hold returning for extra ventures.

However, it's not just the numbers you should consider. It's the overall public using Instagram.

Instagrammers are purchasers. Various investigations have appear over the most recent five years alone that Instagram's system has developed in buying power by clients, and it will just develop more.

When you set up pictures and pictures in Instagram and have a decent eye for what clients like, you can pitch deals to them with no hard exertion on your part. You make an intrigue dissimilar to no other; they generally state words usually can't do a picture justice, so make the most of your pictures.

Clients head to Instagram and other online life locales for various reasons, what we need to concentrate on is buying power. So, the exercise of the story is this: Instagram helps convert uninvolved clients into beyond any doubt customers.

In the event that you're new to the Instagram world, no burdens. All that you need to know to exhibit your picture on Instagram is verified here. Additionally, in case you aren't a fledgling, I have all that you have to know directly here in this part, too, take a gander at it as a boost with some new tips for you.

This guide will focus on the following:

How to Use Instagram for Marketing

Getting Started on Instagram

Creating A Branded Account

The Importance of Influencers

How to Search for An Influencer

Unwritten Rules of Instagram

Instagram Automation

Taking Advantage of Instagram Ads

Generate Buzz Through Slow Reveals

Retargeting Customers on Instagram

Use Location (Geotag)

Organize Contests and Giveaways

Secrets to Engaging Your Audience When Marketing on Instagram

Understanding Analytics… AND MORE!!!

Introduction

There are 1.074 billion active users on Instagram each month (nearly 12.8 percent of the world's population - eMarketer ). Its popularity with the population internationally means that there are many people using it at any given time. This makes it a great avenue for marketing. Think about it; millions of users, all brought together by the social network, all potential clients for your business. What’s better is that you can engage them in the app, and market your product or service to a large audience. You could reach unimaginable heights with your business on Instagram.

Did you know that you can also make money from Instagram? 

You do not even have to be a professional marketer with papers to prove it. With a substantial following and the right moves, you could be on your way to making good money with Instagram marketing. Affiliate marketing needs some effort and knowledge of how to get the best out of it. Whether you are a business owner or affiliate marketer, there is something for each of you here. Let’s look at the strategies you should put in place as well as tips on how to improve your skill. 

How to Make Money on Instagram

If you are a frequent user of Instagram, then you should think of monetizing your account. Earn some cash while doing what you like to do. Here are a few tips to have you on your way to making money.

Grow your following

The very first step you need to take to start making money on Instagram is to grow your following. It is a requirement of the trade, and the more you have the better for you. Your following is what you sell to the people you want to pay you. They need to know that they can have a large audience to show their product to, and this is where you come in.

To increase your following, there are a few things you will need to ensure that you;

Have great quality content

This means the images and videos you post need to be of excellent quality. They should be relevant to the field you are interested in. For instance, if you are in the field of sports, then have sports-related content that is educative, entertaining and visually attractive. People tend to follow accounts with interesting posts, with the aim of seeing more of them so this should be your goal; to attract and keep people’s interests.

Make use of shout-outs from other accounts

If you have used Instagram before, then you have seen people getting shout-outs from other users’ accounts. That ‘Follow my friend’s account’ message under a user’s post is popular. 

To get the most out of this, find a relevant user who has a good following. You may have friends or acquaintances that you can ask to give you a shout out and send some of their followers your way, especially on a post that is in your field.

Other than acquaintances, you can also find popular Instagram personalities that give shout outs frequently. Approach them to share your content and mention your username. People who view this content may take interest in your profile and visit it for more posts, possibly even following you to keep updated if they like it.

In case you have no acquaintances with a high following, you can always pay to get shout outs. To do this, you will need to identify a high-ranking influencer, preferably one who has very many followers and high engagement levels, preferably in your niche or at least closely related, for best results. Next, you will approach the user to endorse your page by mentioning your username and asking his or her followers to check out your account.

Be Consistent

To gain more followers, while you ask for shout outs and create excellent quality content, you need to be consistent with your posts. This means posting frequently and maintaining the quality of your posts throughout. 

Posting once and then never going back for a month or two is no way to gain followers. On the contrary, they will ‘un-follow’ you if you do not show them what made them follow you in the first place.

Use Hashtags

Using relevant hashtags makes you more discoverable, giving more people a chance to follow you. Hashtags put you on the map. When users search for hashtags, they should be able to find your posts. This requires you to have well-tailored hashtags that are easy to find, and more likely to be searched for. 

Find Brands to Partner with

Once you have a substantial following, you can now start looking for brands that will work with you. Remember the money needs to come from somewhere. These brands are what will pay to make use of your audience or your posts.

How many followers do you need? You might ask, well the more the merrier.

To start with, try to get at least 5000 followers. Already have more than 5000 followers? If your followers are in the hundreds of thousands or close to a million, then you probably do not need to find brands to partner with as they must have already approached you.

Where to look

You may have several brands in mind that you would like to partner with. You may approach them with your proposal and maybe they will agree to work with you. Keep in mind that larger brands may require a more influential Instagram user. But there are so many brands that would be willing to work with you.

If you have no idea where to start, we have great news for you. You can always join influencer networks. These tend to act as intermediaries and can link you up with potential brands. You as the influencer with a solid following will relate to brands that need such influencers as yourself. These platforms for you to network in include; Tribe, Buzzweb, and Influence.co among others. They all offer different networking opportunities for you. 

Some are good for you if you have a few thousand followers like Tribe. There you just look for brands to work with, create posts for the brand and submit them. If they approve of it, you will get paid quickly. For more than 5000 followers, try out Buzzweb where you can join many campaigns at once and get paid for all of them.

Depending on the network you join, you may get one that calculates potential monthly earning for you depending on your followers. Other networks have brands that pay according to how much traffic your content drives, the people who like and comment or share. 

Ways of earning Revenue

There are different paths you can take with earning money on Instagram. You can either earn directly or indirectly. Direct earning is from selling photos you post, or getting payments for tagging companies, posting their products or posts on their page for your audience to see.

The direct ways are simple where you get money for your audience’s attention, or for photos that generated a lot of interaction on your profile. It is a quick way of earning money. Indirect ways of earning from Instagram include driving traffic to the product of the specified brand, or a website, after which you get paid for traffic driven. 

You can also earn from Instagram through affiliate marketing. With this, you can use the account to drive traffic to your website. Alternatively, you also have the option of using the account as a page to advertise on. Therefore, you can post advertisements there for the audience to see, and any interested parties would come forward and ask for information on your comment section or through private messaging (DM – Direct Message).

To drive traffic to a website, you can have a link to your account. Instagram allows a user to add a link on their bio section. 

So, if you have a blog, for example, you can ask the viewers on your Instagram page to click on the link on your bio and get access to content on the site it links to.

Other than on your bio, you can add your link on posts, where you place it together with a caption. This is a great way to drive traffic to a website, and generally to advertise a brand and earn money for it.

Finally, you can have images that are relevant to different niches. There are hundreds of stock image sites where you can sell the images you have. Search for such sites on Google and you will find them. To get images that you can sell, you will need to be very creative. 

You also need to look for popular niches to base your images on for a higher chance of having your images bought.

Chapter 1: How to Use Instagram for Marketing

Instagram’s popularity makes it a great platform for marketing. It has a large user base and its rates of engagement are quite high. This creates a great environment for marketing purposes. 

Instagram can be quite complicated for a business owner. Where do you start?  How do you start to engage your audience? And most importantly, how do you translate that into sales?

There are ways that you can use the app to market your business and grow your brand. We have put together strategies that you may use to connect with the viewers and to ensure that you reach the target market through Instagram.

Maximize the use of hashtags

Hashtags happen to be a crucial factor for Instagram marketing success. They tend to put you on the map to people outside of your followers. 

When a user searches for something that is within your field, you want them to be exposed to your posts.

General hashtags

These are easy to find. They are the ones a user is most likely to look for and are sure to drive users to your posts. You can have popular hashtags that have been used a lot like #family, #tbt which will drive a lot of traffic to your account. 

While adding these, ensure they are related to your posts, but general enough for easy finding.

Content hashtags

To get more targeted traffic, you can have hashtags that although they are less frequently used, will attract people who want something specific. These are more content-specific and less popular. 

They should describe what you offer, so one gets exactly what they wanted when they searched that hashtag. They are more likely to convert into sales.

Brand hashtags

You can also use hashtags to promote your brand by using your company name or a slogan that you associate with your brand. This will put you in the minds of other users. 

If you get people to use the slogan, you can gain good marketing from other users, and make your brand stronger.

You can also use hashtags designed to bring more followers specifically like #follow. These hashtags can be used together, you can have several hashtags in a single post and they will all attract different users. 

Since there is no limit on the number of hashtags to use, mix them up, using several of them to get more people seeing your page. However, be careful not to look too tacky or desperate by overdoing the hashtags.

Build and be involved in an Instagram Community

Every business owner knows the importance of good customer relationships, and that they are the key to the success of a business. Similarly, you need to nurture good relationships with Instagram users to keep them engaged.

To create a relationship with the users, you can follow them, like and comment on their posts. They may feel the need to reciprocate and follow back. When users leave comments on your posts, reply to the comments to keep the conversation flowing.

Start conversations such as by asking questions or using humor. Make the users feel like they are your friend. An example would be posting an image with the question “What are you having for breakfast this morning,” As a way to spark conversation beyond you selling your product or service.

Post more about what your company has been up to. If you had an event, post photos of the event, maybe even have some employees’ photos on there to make the account more human. 

If users feel they can relate to you, they may be more skewed towards using your brand and telling people about it. Make them feel like they are part of the community.

Use Sponsored Ads

Sponsored Ads are those posts that appear in your newsfeed advertising something. Such posts are very advantageous for you, so they can be shown to users who are not following you. 

If the user fits your target audience, you can show your ad on their newsfeed. 

More and more businesses are using sponsored ads to get a larger reach for their marketing campaigns. You will be required to part with some of your cash to have a sponsored ad, but you can set an ad budget to keep from using too much money.

Have interesting content that is tailored to the target audience depending on their demographics. If there is a specific post that did extremely well in terms of user engagement, then why not use it on your sponsored ad?

Depending on the audience, you can have different content for the sponsored ads, all running at the same time. This will cater to more people. You can also have photos, videos, Instagram stories or carousel on your sponsored ad, as you please.

Keep Track of your Metrics

The performance of your Instagram determines your next steps. It also tells you how successful different moves are and where there is room for improvements. The metrics that you need to keep track of include:

Follower Growth

You need to keep adding followers. If your followers are not increasing, then that might point to a problem. The total number of followers may not be as important as how many new followers you have gotten over a specific period. Having low follower growth rate tells you to change your strategy to increase followers, so keep track of this.

Engagement rate

Are the users engaging with you? Are the likes and comments increasing or not? You should be more precise by looking at the level of engagement brought by different posts. You may get a pattern and find posts that people seem to favor over others and have more similar content to post.

Click through rate of URLs

You can tell how many people are clicking on the link on your bio. If the number is extremely low, then it might be time to change your tactics and find better ways to bring traffic to click on that link.

Such metrics keep you on your toes. You get to know which strategies are working and which are not. You also understand your audience and what they like, all of which are required to be more effective on Instagram.

Chapter 2: Getting Started on Instagram

Now that you know all the reasons why Instagram is a great marketing tool, the next step is to start using Instagram. 

Perhaps you have an Instagram profile for personal use. Now, it’s time for you to use it for business–for marketing your products or services and to increase your brand’s online presence. 

In this section, you will learn the simple steps you can follow to start using Instagram. 

Download the App

Unlike Facebook, Instagram is primarily a mobile app and you need to download and install it on your mobile device. You can access the web version only once you’ve set up your account. 

It’s incredibly important to know that most of your activity will take place within the mobile app. 

Choose a Username

You can sign up for Instagram with your email address or even your personal Facebook account.  Next, it will prompt you to choose a username. 

Ideally, select a recognizable username easily associated with your company or brand name. 

Your username is how people can find you on Instagram and it will be displayed publicly. When you set up a business profile on Instagram, you can either enter the full name of the business or the abbreviated version to make it easy for others to find you through the search function on Instagram. 

Your Profile

Fill out the bio for your business when you create your profile on Instagram. There is a text limitation on the bio, so be concise and clear in your description about the brand and what you offer. 

In case your area of business is confined to a specific location, then don’t hesitate to add that state, city or town. 

It’s important to add your website’s URL to your bio so the audience knows where they can get more information about your company. 

Upload a Profile Picture

Instagram is a visual platform. Add a photo easily recognizable for your potential customers as much as for the people who already know your business. 

The best option is to use your business logo as the profile picture. A logo helps people to easily recognize your brand and it makes it easy for them to distinguish your profile from all the other similarly named profiles. You can update the profile picture from your mobile device. You can even draw pictures from your Facebook and Twitter account or you can upload it directly from your device. If you don’t want to do either, then you can always take a new photo with the app. 

The First Post

Once you set up your profile, the next step is to go ahead and post your first photo online.

If you decide to upload a picture, it is likely that you need to crop and resize the picture to the desired size. You also have different options to enhance the photo like adding filters and borders. Once you are happy with the photo edits, upload it. Make sure you tag people (if applicable) and add your current location to it. 

Tell Other Users

You can use any of your existing social media channels to let others know that your business is now on a new platform: Instagram. 

If you don’t do this, then people will continue to be oblivious of your presence on Instagram. Tell your existing customers that they can view your communications on Instagram. 

If you have an email list, then don’t forget to send them a notification and also prompt them to follow your Instagram handle. 

If you want to increase your online visibility and presence, let others know that you are on Instagram. 

Follow Others

Search for your clients and start following them. 

For instance, if you have decided to open up a food joint, follow certain food bloggers, influencers and critics who are present on Instagram. 

When you follow others, it prompts them to explore your profile. Apart from this, you can also search for other people and businesses on Instagram by using their hashtags. Following other handles on Instagram is a great way to start networking and it might also give you some inspiration. 

Post More Pictures

Now that you know the basics, have successfully set up your account and have started to follow people and businesses, it is time to start building your presence on Instagram. 

You can only do this by engaging with your followers on Instagram. Upload pictures regularly and respond to tags by others. 

Avoid going for a long time without posting a new photo since your account will lose attractiveness.

Once you follow all these steps, you can start using Instagram easily. Take some time and do a little research to make sure that you are posting the right pictures for a specific niche. It can be quite self-damaging if you don’t post photos that match your niche.

Tips For Beginners

Once you get started on Instagram, you need to know some simple dos and don’ts that will help you use this platform effectively. 

Do not forget that you want to grow your business by using marketing tactics and therefore, it is important to understand what exactly you are required to do. 

In this section, you will learn about certain simple tips that will help a beginner to get the most out of Instagram as a platform for marketing.

Use Hashtags

You might have seen a lot of Instagram users using different hashtags. 

Using hashtags is a good means to increase your reach on Instagram, increase engagement with existing followers and also attract new followers. If you use hashtags tactlessly, like some people do it, by bloating up their captions with hashtags that might or might not be relevant to the topic of the photo, that’s bad. 

When you use hashtags, make sure you use only a few hashtags and only use those keywords or captions that are relevant to your post.   

Intersecting Photos and Videos

If you are using Instagram for marketing purposes, you need to be keen on providing value to your followers. 

You can do this by evoking feelings or emotions with pictures and videos you post. Posts that trigger happiness, humor, nostalgia, love or any other positive feeling will go a long way in engaging your audience. Whenever you post anything on Instagram, make sure you use high-quality images and videos with bright colors. 

Don’t Go Overboard with the Filters

Instagram offers a wide range of filters you can apply to photos to enhance and edit the way they look. 

Filters can be quite tempting, but there is a limit to the number of filters you decide to use. Be wise and limit the use of filters. Keep the color and contrast normal in your photos. That said, please avoid overdoing it. 

You can avoid using filters if you use a HD camera. Always remember that people like photos that look natural.

Post Often and Make it Interesting  

If you want to keep your followers interested and engaged, create new content on a regular basis. That does not mean that you need to post 10 photos in a day. 

If you want to post frequently and post new content, then you can post on every alternate day. It isn’t just about posting, it is also about making sure that the posts are interesting. You need to be able to retain your existing followers and obtain new followers. If you don’t post interesting content, then your followers will lose interest. 

Interact with Your Followers

Instagram is a social networking platform, so the best way to network on this platform, as with any other social networking sites, is to interact with your followers. 

You must never ignore those followers who regularly like and comment on your posts. If you want to interact with them, make sure that you reply to their comments. 

You can also take their feedback and make them feel valued. A simple way to do this is to reply to their comments. Even better, you can view their account and like and comment on a couple of their posts. 

Do not Purchase Followers

It is always better to have organic followers instead of those you purchase. In order to boost the online presence of a brand or a business, people tend to buy followers. 

It’s quite similar to the manner in which you can boost a post on Facebook. Even if you can obtain a lot of followers cheaply, it isn’t the best marketing strategy to follow. 

The issue with buying Instagram followers is that they are all fake and aren’t active. It means that they are not real people and you cannot engage with them. It will look quite awkward and bizarre to see an account with 20K followers but no comments or likes on any of the photos and videos. Instead, formulate a plan to obtain followers organically. 

Latest Instagram Trends

Instagram continually keeps coming up with new updates, so it is important that you are always on the lookout for new things the moment they are introduced. 

Using hashtags and shout-outs is quite good, but they will become outdated. Pay attention to the latest trends, even more so if you want to use Instagram for marketing. Don’t let yourself get left behind and avoid the risk of losing valuable followers because you are unaware of the latest trends. 

Instagram Direct  

You need to concentrate on the content you post and your frequency, but you must not forget to contact some of your followers directly. You might wonder why you need to do this when public posts get to most of your followers? 

Target some of your followers by directly messaging them with the intended photo or video. When you do this, it will make your followers feel quite valuable and cherished. It also helps build a good relationship with them. 

Instagram direct is the best way to get in touch with a specific group of users without broadcasting the content to everyone. 

Don’t Forget to Use the Explore Tab

The explore tab on Instagram will help you find new content. 

It essentially allows you to explore all the popular videos and photos. In fact, only the most trending and popular videos and photos get featured in this segment. This segment is customized according to the photos and videos that people you follow like and comment on. 

It will help you find new users to follow and you can also engage with new users by checking this tab occasionally. It will also help you understand the kind of content that appeals to others and you can use this information while you design your marketing strategy.

With these tips, you can start to make the most of marketing on Instagram. You will learn more about marketing on Instagram in the coming chapters. 

Chapter 3: Creating A Branded Account

Navigating the Instagram platform requires you to set up an account and begin building that account first. In this chapter, we are going to explore how you can set up an Instagram account and begin navigating the platform as a brand so that you can get started reaping in the benefits of Instagram. If you already have an account, you should still pay attention to this chapter as you will gain plenty of important information on how to navigate your business account and set it up so that you can run a powerful and memorable brand. 

Getting Started on Instagram

Creating your Instagram account is best done on a mobile device, as Instagram has been optimized for mobile usage. While you can still create your account on the desktop version of the platform, it may not be as easy as it can be and sometimes be more challenging to navigate and there are fewer features available on the desktop version of Instagram. So, to get started, you will want to go into the application feature on your cell phone and download Instagram from your app store. Once the app has been downloaded, you can launch it and follow the on-screen process for creating your account, which will include inputting either your email or phone number and then choosing a password. Once you have done that, the next page will require you to choose a username for your account. 

Choosing Your Handle

The Instagram handle that you choose needs to be clear and easy to remember; otherwise, your audience may not be able to find you again once they leave your account. As well, you want to make sure that the moment people see your username, they can make some form of clear connection between who you are and what your company does; otherwise, they may not be tempted to click onto your profile page. 

In general, most brands will simply use their company names for their handles, as this makes it easy for you to be found on Instagram. For example, Nike, Adidas, Walmart, and Nordstrom all use their brand names for their usernames on social media platforms, as this makes it straightforward for them to be located. If you are a personal brand, you may need to change the way you approach your social media to ensure that you can be located and recognized by those around the internet. Generally, personal brands will continue to follow the same rule of thumb as other brands will by using their names as their usernames. For example, Kendall Jenner’s username is simply @kendalljenner, making it easier for her to be discovered online. There are, however, some exceptions to this rule of thumb when you are creating a personal brand online. For example, if you are someone who has a long, challenging name or one that has complex spelling, using it for your username will likely result in you not being located online. In this case, you can use a nickname for your username and then use that same nickname everywhere online, or you can use an easier spelling of your name. For example, Nicki Minaj’s real name is Onika Tanya Maraj, but this would be difficult to remember and spell; therefore, she personally branded herself as Nicki Minaj. This makes it easier for her fans to locate her online, and anywhere else where they may seek her out, which makes her personal brand both memorable and simple to locate. 

When you are making your username, refrain from using odd spelling, usernames that are similar to what has already been used online, or different characters or numbers in your username. Unless your character or number is a part of your brand name, attempting to make your username unique by adding these characters will instead just make it more challenging for you to be located. Remember, this is how people are going to look you up, and this is the name that people are going to remember you by. If you want to have people easily able to recall you and locate you, you need to create both a username and a brand that people will remember. 

After you have created your username, you will be taken to the main screen where you can begin navigating the application. Here, you continue to fill out a few more parts of your profile before you begin interacting with anyone on the platform. You do not want to be putting in work to connect with your target audience if your profile is still not developed enough for people to identify you to ensure that no connection is a missed connection. 

Crafting the Perfect Bio

Once you have created your username, the next piece of copy that you are going to need to write is your bio. On Instagram, your bio can be up to 150 characters in length and can include links to other profiles and hashtags that may be relevant to your brand. Your bio gives you the opportunity to let people know who you are and what you are about, though you can also use it to leverage sales and market your business through your profile. Using your bio wisely is the best way to ensure that you can use it to increase your memorability, as well as the amount of interaction that people will have in following you and supporting your brand. 

When it comes to writing a bio that will actually help you make sales, there are three things that you need to focus on: catchiness, informative, and promotional. You want your bio to be catchy enough that people are interested in actually reading it, informative so that people can get a feel for who you are and what your company is about, and promotional so that people are more likely to click on the link that you can provide for them. 

Typically, complete sentences are frowned upon in bios unless you are using a single short sentence, so refrain from using anything too excessive or wordy. In most bios, rather than using sentences, people simply share lists of their interests or what their brand is all about. Writing your bio properly is essential, so be sure to take the time to identify what is actually going to work for you and your brand. The best way to get a good feel for what will work for your unique brand is to go to the pages of other brands in your niche and read through their bios so that you can see what works and what does not. Take a look at the bios of those who are succeeding versus the bios of those who have not yet accumulated a large following and see if you can notice any trends or differences that seem to set the two apart. You want to be emulating successful brands, of course, so attempt to recreate trends that they are using in their bios through your own bio, but more authentically so that it resonates with your brand and your unique target audience. 

In addition to writing your bio, you are also going to want to share the link to your website so that people can see more about who you are and have the opportunity to shop online if you have an online storefront. If you have many links that you would like to share with people, consider using a service like Link Tree, which allows you to create a professional, personally branded landing page that has buttons to the various websites you want to direct your audience to. If you are marketing multiple things on your account, such as a freebie offer, your signature offer, and the opportunity to follow you elsewhere online, these different links can make it easier for you to direct your audience around to your services or other accounts. Regardless of how you choose to structure your link, make sure that you do provide one so that people can click to it and get a deeper feel for who you are and what you have to offer. 

The following are great bios that can be used for your brand. Of course, you will need to adapt your bio to suit your unique brand or niche, but these will give you a great starting point to get a feel for what works and what sells when it comes to bios: 

 A gourmet cheese company: “Gourmet Cheese. The Right Wine. A Great Party. Need We Say More? #linkinthebio” 

 A fashion blogger: “23 // Fashion // NYC // Lattes and Lipstick. Shop my outfits at the link below!”

 A life coach: “Chasing goals, living big, enjoying life. Live your best life – check out the link below!” 

 A jewelry company: “Diamonds for every occasion. #Linkinthebio” 

A local limo company: “Ride in style for less – Vancouver/Calgary/Toronto. Book at the link below.” 

Uploading Your Profile Picture  

Your profile is going to require a picture as well, which will provide your audience with the opportunity to visually see who you are and begin to make the connection between your name and your image. When it comes to making branded accounts, you have two options with your profile picture: upload an image of your logo, or upload an image of yourself. Which you choose will depend on what type of company you are running and which image you want people to remember. 

For most companies, the logo will suffice as this is the easiest way to begin building brand recognition through your business. As people come to associate your logo and username with each other, they will also come to recognize your logo and identify it anywhere else where they may spot it. This can be huge for brand recognition, which is why if you are running a company, your logo is the only thing that your profile picture should be. Make sure that you upload a high-resolution image and that it fits perfectly in the profile image circle so that your logo can be seen. If it is blurry or hard to understand, people may simply skip over it because they are unsure as to what it is that they are looking at. 

If you are branding yourself, you may prefer to use an image of your face rather than an image of your logo as personal brands typically seek to inspire brand recognition through facial recognition. Make sure that you use a clear photo that accurately reflects your brand so that it makes sense with the overall image that you are attempting to create. For example, if you are a travel blogger, use an image of you with a great outdoor backdrop that will help people make the connection. If you are a real estate agent, have an image of you smiling in front of a home or a blank wall so that you have the emphasis on yourself and your influence as a salesperson. Do not use selfies, poor quality images, or images that seem out of place in this space as this can result in people feeling confused around your brand, which can lead to fewer followers, and therefore, fewer sales. You should be leveraging every single aspect of your page to create one uniform image that accurately reflects your brand image. 

Make sure that you never leave your profile image empty, as people will not trust or interact with companies that have not yet uploaded profile images. Refrain from interacting with anyone until this has been done, as most people who see profiles without images will assume that these profiles are either scammers or not yet interesting enough to pay attention to. The profiles with attractive, clean, high-quality profile images that look enticing are the ones that end up getting followers, so wait until you have filled this in before engaging with people’s content or following anyone. 

Important Instagram Settings

Instagram is optimal for businesses, which is why so many micro-brands are using it to

connect with their audiences. On Instagram, there are a variety of important settings that you should adjust to ensure that your profile is ready to support a growing brand, because this way, you can get the most out of the platform. There are four things that you need to do when you launch a branded account that should be done right away: switching to a business account (so that you can run paid advertisements,) adjusting your privacy settings, turning on two-factor authentication, and adjusting story shares. 

Switching to a Business Account

Switching your account to a business account is simple. You do so by going into the settings for your account, which can be located at the three lines in the top right corner of the homepage. From there, go to the “Account” option and tap “Switch to Business Account”. If you do not already have one, Instagram will help you quickly set up a Facebook page which your Instagram business account will be linked to. This step is necessary, even if you do not plan on using a Facebook page, as it allows you to engage in certain exclusive business activities on Instagram, such as tagging products in your photographs, running paid promotions, and setting an address or location for your business on Instagram if you have one. 

Once you have switched to having a business account, Instagram will also give you access to important analytical information. This information will ensure that you can track your success through monitoring the success of posts, monitoring your follower growth, and even get a clear outline as to who your demographic is and whether or not you are effectively reaching the right people through the platform. This makes the business features on Instagram even more valuable. While a business account is not necessary for running a business on Instagram, if you desire to get any traction and really build your business account on Instagram, you will want to have access to all of the business exclusive features that they offer. 

Adjusting Privacy Settings

On Instagram, certain privacy settings can be used to limit who can see your account and what can be seen or done on your account. You are going to want to go in and make sure that any privacy settings which may be turned “on” are turned “off” to ensure that your privacy settings are hiding no part of your account. Make sure that people can comment on and share your posts, follow you, and message you back through your stories so that people can engage with your profile in as many different ways as possible. Keeping your account private in any way can lead to people not being able to engage with you, which can reduce people’s desire to follow you because one of the main reasons why people are on social media is to build relationships with others. You need to be available for the relationship building process!

Two-Factor Authentication  

Two-factor authentication is necessary for anyone who wants to run a business online as it ensures that people cannot hack your account and block you out of it. Two-factor authentication will require you to approve of all new logins either through your phone number or e-mail address, which means that if anyone attempts to log into your account remotely so that they can hack you, they will not be able to get in without your code. You can enable two-factor authentication by going back into your settings menu, tapping “Privacy and Security” and then tapping “Two-factor authentication”. There, you will be walked through the process of verifying either your phone number or an email address that can be used to make your account more secure. 

If you do ever receive a request to log in and you have not attempted to log in on a new browser, it is important that you immediately change your password on Instagram. If you have received the code, this is proof that someone has identified what your password is and has successfully logged into your account. Of course, they will be stuck in the login process since they do not have your verification code to complete the two-factor authentication login, but this still means that your account has been compromised. By changing your password, you can ensure that no one can somehow hack into your account and begin compromising your business through Instagram. 

Chapter 4: The Effective Instagram Marketing Strategy

The impressive Instagram statistics make it a ready market to be explored. Since the platform was launched, over 40 billion images have been shared by over 400 million daily active users. That is an average of 80 million photos daily. That is how powerful this photo sharing social media site is. 

You can tap into the opportunity for business growth and expansion offered by the platform if you have the right marketing strategy. If the site can have such a significant growth in just a couple of years, it can help your brand achieve a similar growth rate when paired with an appropriate marketing strategy.

If you are a good marketer, that’s fine. You already have the experience to market your product online. That will be a big plus for you. On the other hand, if you don’t have marketing skills, you can still take advantage of Instagram too.

Since your brand success cannot be achieved by just publishing high-quality and attractive images alone, these simple tips will be useful in honing your marketing skills so that you can come up with effective ways to sell your brand to millions of Instagramers all over the globe. 

Determine your objectives

The success of your marketing strategy depends on having a pre-defined objective you want to achieve with the marketing strategy. Whether you are a new entrant into the world of Instagram or an experienced user, consider some factors when creating your Instagram marketing strategy. These factors include: 

What advantages does Instagram have over other platforms: This is an important question you need to ask yourself. This stems from the fact that there are many social media platforms to choose from. There is Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and several others to choose from. Understanding the advantages that Instagram has over the other platforms will deepen your appreciation for the site.

Who makes up your target audience: You don’t want to create an Instagram account just for promoting your brand to some undefined audience. That won’t work well to advance your cause. It is important to understand your product and your target audience. That will help you decide the best way to attend to your marketing strategies and what will appeal to your audience. If you don’t identify this beforehand, you may end up wasting your time and resources.

Who are the most active sections of your Instagram audience: In addition to knowing who your audience is, it is equally important to know the sections of your Instagram audience that is the most active. The knowledge will help you when directing your posts and other marketing strategies towards them. That is one of the most effective ways to get the desired engagement of your audience. 

How can you combine the power of Instagram with the benefits of other social media platforms to achieve much success: This question is necessary because Instagram is not the only social media platform for social marketing. Understanding how to harness the opportunities offered by other sites will make it easy to combine the features and the opportunities offered by those sites to easily build up your business.

Each of these questions highlights an important factor that you shouldn’t overlook when creating your marketing strategy. You must understand how you stand to benefit from the platform and your target audience. Without that knowledge, you may be directing your arrows blindly, and without much benefit. 

By leveraging visual sharing, the trademark of the platform, you can focus on showcasing your brand culture, your employees, your products, or services. You can easily expand your reach by taking advantage of its mobile app so that you can quickly give your followers the opportunity to engage meaningfully with your posts and have a healthy interaction with your brand. 

Depending on your goals, you can focus your Instagram strategies on some of these objectives: 

To gradually increase your brand awareness: From your headquarters, you can grow your brand to an enviable level with Instagram. If you feed your audience good images, they will become “addicted” to your brand and that will lead to increased awareness of your brand.

To showcase your company culture: Each brand has its own culture. You can post images of your company while celebrating your culture. If there are other cultures that are promoted within your company, always remember to post pictures of such events whenever necessary.

To showcase your staff: It is not unusual to see companies update images of their employees at work. Sometimes, it may be during a special moment for the employees, such as an award ceremony, a promotional campaign, or for whatever the case may be.

To recruit new employees or talents: Placing vacancy adverts can also be done with the right image. When you place the advert, there are chances that prospective employees will see the advert and turn in their applications. The range of reach when trying to recruit employees via Instagram depends on your follower base.

To serve as a medium of increased customer engagement: This is the primary goal of setting up an account. Whether you want to showcase your staff, showcase your company culture, or whatever purpose you want to use it for, the main objective is to lead to increased engagement that can be measured through increased followers.

Using it as an avenue for showcasing your products or services: Uploading images of your products or services will achieve the goal of showcasing them to millions of Instagram users.

Enhancement of your event experiences: During special events, you have a good chance of enhancing your event experiences by uploading pictures taken during the events. When the comments and likes start pouring in, it will add to the experience you had during the event.

Share your brand news to the Instagram community for increased exposure: The more information about your brand you post on your Instagram account, the more exposure you will get through sharing and others that will positively impact your exposure.

To connect with notable Instagram influencers: You can connect with Instagram users with millions of followers, and have them become Instagram influencers themselves. This too will lead to increased exposure and engagement.

Increase your sales through third-party apps: There are tons of third-party apps you can use to boost your sales. With your Instagram account, you can have access to these apps.

You may be wondering why you have to go through this process. The answer is simple: they will serve as your guide when strategizing so as to identify the best approach that will give you the best result. You need the best approach in order to succeed on a platform with millions of brands fighting for people’s attention. 

Develop a feasible content strategy

The whole existence of your Instagram and its success depends on content. Some powerful B2B companies and B2C businesses have become very skilled in using Instagram to meet their needs. For instance, the B2B companies use Instagram extensively for team recruitment and showcasing their company culture. In a similar vein, the B2C companies give their products an edge over other products by making them stand out by exploring some powerful features of Instagram. 

What is the right approach for you? Only you can determine that. Nevertheless, it is the approach that will give your brand more publicity, more user engagement, and it will give you increases in its total value to your audience. 

Consider the most important factors when developing your content strategy: your objectives and target audience. Factoring in those will be valuable when developing a strategy to give your audience attractive content consistently along with a view to sustaining their interest in your brand. 

Create content themes

It is not sufficient to develop a content strategy and leave it unattended. No, you must do more than that. It is an indisputable fact that you have an avalanche of content from your products, culture, services, and team members that you can utilize at any time. You can use the availability of this content to create amazing strategies. 

Your efforts won’t be productive if you can’t brainstorm on how to get the best subject for your content. Come up with great ideas for each piece of content and see the impact that it has on your brand. Think about the best subject for your images that can have the best results for your business. Find effective ideas that will turn your videos into amazing content that your audience will fall in love with. Your options are limitless. But you have to be creative if you don’t want to run out of ideas. 

Think deeply about your business and the right content themes that will be useful in achieving your goals quickly. Think outside of the box and come up with something unique that can wield a powerful influence on your audience.

For instance, while some companies channel their power towards showcasing their brands by promoting their services or products, some use their Instagram pages as the platform for creating amazing tableaux with the potential for influencing their audience. In the middle of the tableaux stands their product, as the celebrated and undisputed hero. That’s the way they could connect with their followers.

How far your content go depends on how much valuable and influential content themes you can create. 

Determine your content type

It is true that you have tons of content types to choose from. Each one of them contributes in one way or the other to your Instagram page growth because they play complementary roles to each other. 

However, you can better channel your efforts to get more result from your contents and reduce the amount of time you spend promoting your contents by using a simple rule: identify the content type that gives you the best result. 

In recent years, the creative users of this platform have found an impressive way of extending the functionality of Instagram beyond the conventional photo-sharing ability it was originally designed for. It is no longer a big deal to see users post everything you can think of: animated GIFs, videos, or images. Why? They publish what gives them the best results for their efforts. There’s no penalty for that.

Once your goal is to make your Instagram page unique and valuable enough to give your audience something to crave for, you can do better than follow the norm by posting images alone. Look critically at your contents and study them to identify which of them will contribute more to your success. You should always remember that you are not posting to impress yourself. You are doing so to impress your audience and leave a lasting impression with them. What works well for them should top your scale of preference when choosing the right content to use. That is the best way you can have the best audience engagement, not the other way around. 

If your research convinces you that publishing videos will give you a better feedback than other content types, don’t hesitate to focus your attention on getting high-quality and attractive videos more than you will for images. Make videos a greater part of your strategy than anything else. That will boost your follower base. 

Well, it is safe to make the assumption that you are not gifted in the area of video-making. Or perhaps you lack the resources such as skills, time, or the convenience to create a good video yourself. You are not alone. Not everyone is endowed with the ability to create amazing videos. Nevertheless, you can still get hold of valuable videos for your increasing audience. 

The Internet has made outsourcing jobs very easy. You can hire professional video editors to put finishing touches to your videos. Their professional inputs will upgrade your video from a regular video to an amazing one with irresistible appeal. You shouldn’t overlook this fact because the competition on Instagram is stiff and can be overwhelming. To stand out, you need something unique. You need the best quality to convince your audience to pledge their allegiance to you. 

Potential followers need to be convinced of your ability to deliver beyond the ordinary before they can jump on board your followership. So, you have to give in your best. You must spend some bucks if that is absolutely necessary to have the best content possible. 

Although Instagram can boast of a personal app that will enhance your skills, the Internet is also the warehouse of supplementary third-party apps that can aid your creativity when creating your posts. I have dedicated a chapter to the discussion of the top apps that will boost your Instagram efforts. 

Alternatively, you can limit your use of video to some special promotions or campaigns if you still have some content ideas you can make do with until you are able to handle it.

Interact with your audience

Interaction is one of the most important key factors if you want to maintain a healthy relationship with the people on social media. This is particularly important on Instagram if you want your relationship with your followers to blossom. 

To keep its relationship with its followers intact, a non-profit book company for teenagers in Texas devised an effective interactive session with their audience: a Q and A. 

By conducting a question and answer session, their followers found the company informative and ready to answer their questions. Such interactions made the teens feel valued by the company, and always looking forward to the next interactive session.

Build anticipation

Building anticipation for your product is a critical part in a successful marketing campaign. Give your followers the privilege of being the first to know about a product that will soon hit the market. If you are expanding your services, it is part of your job to build anticipation if you notify them before going public with the information. 

Creating teaser photos is another way to build anticipation and satisfy your followers’ curiosity about your new office openings, new releases, new stores, or new products. 

When you offer them this type of review in advance, it makes your followers have a special feeling of importance towards you. The sense of appreciation will make them become dedicated and loyal to your brand, always coming back for more information about your product that can’t be found elsewhere.

That puts another responsibility on you: determine your frequency of posting in advance before you start posting. Develop a posting calendar that will support your conclusion so that posting your content themes will be done regularly and efficiently. That will give you no room for committing avoidable blunders. Instead, it will aid your consistency to the benefit of your audience. 

This necessity arises from the lack of a scheduling function in Instagram, although it is possible with some other social media sites. More so, Instagram creates no room for third-party APIs to take that role. In a nutshell, Instagram has no resources to help you with scheduling. So, the responsibility of scheduling posts in advance lies directly on you. You have to manually do it. There are no two ways about it.

Without the necessary tools, it is possible to prepare your content in advance and manually schedule how you want them to be posted. Create a calendar that will serve as a reminder of when a post should be published. That will guide you against random postings with little impact. 

That said, give flexibility and a little bit of freedom so that you can influence your posting schedule. You may have a fixed schedule but don’t make it so rigid that nothing can alter it. That will inevitably go wrong. Sometimes, your best posting ideas may come spontaneously. How do you handle that? Discard it because you don’t want it to alter your calendar? That decision won’t be wise. Be flexible enough to give better ideas space without turning a blind eye to them. During some special occasions with your brand, or when celebrating a milestone in your company, posting the images simultaneously as the event is in progress will give you the advantage of real-time engagement. Be flexible enough to identify such opportunities. That will serve you better than sticking to a rigid schedule providing poor results. 

Chapter 5: The Importance of Influencers

More and more businesses are into influencer marketing these days, and if the top brands are into it, so should you. Before we jump into the details of influencer marketing, let’s first define what the term for you to get a better understanding.

Also known as influence marketing, influencer marketing is a form of marketing wherein the focus is on an individual known as an “influencer.” It identifies individuals who have a certain level of influence over people, particularly potential customers, and devices marketing techniques around such individuals.

Today, three of the top influencers on Instagram are Huda Kattan of Huda Beauty, video editing guru Zach king, and fitness star and Venezuelan model Michelle Lewin. We’re only talking about Instagram influencers here. Outside of Instagram, the highest-paid influencers today include DanTDM, Selena Gomez, and of course, who hasn’t heard of Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian?

Reading these names alone should give you an idea how crucial of a factor influencers are in social media marketing, or Instagram marketing, for that matter. But at the same time, you may also be wondering how the heck you’re going to partner with such big names. Now, you don’t necessarily have to reach out to these celebrities to succeed with influencer marketing, although who wouldn’t want to, right?

Nevertheless, the key to real influencer marketing success is not how famous the influencer is, but more on how “right” they are for your brand. That said, here are a few things you should consider when looking for an influencer to partner with.

Establish Your Reason for Your Need of An Influencer

We’ve seen over a million sponsored posts on Instagram in 2018, which gives us an idea how massive the selling potential of influencer marketing is. That doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that you could go ahead and select a few influencers here and there and expect to succeed. If there’s one crucial thing you need to do first before even considering investing in influencer marketing, it’s establishing the “why” behind the “what.” 

Why does your business need influencers? What outcome do you wish to see? Which metrics are you going to use to measure your campaign’s success? Unless you are able to ask these questions first and answer them, you will be taking your chances with influencer marketing, which is not ideal, especially if you’re only starting. On the contrary, launching your campaign with a specific goal in mind will keep you focused. It will also ensure that you stay true to your brand, stick to your budget, and be faithful to your timeline.

Decide Between a Macro- and a Micro-Influencer

Every business doing Instagram marketing would love to see themselves partnering with a social influencer who has millions of followers. That’s not always possible, though, especially if you’re on a tight budget. The good news is that you opt for a micro-influencer and still succeed. If you can’t afford a macro-influencer at the moment, you can start with a one who has 10,000 followers or less.

You’ll be surprised to learn that most micro-influencers with 1,000-10,000 followers can deliver more than double than many macro-influencers can. That’s because of the level of loyalty of their followers. That means they have a following that’s more targeted and attentive. And partnering with such kind of influencers is better than working with a popular influencer with followers who are not as loyal and engaged. On the other hand, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, a macro-influencer may get the job done better. Again, it’s all about what your goal is.

Consider Genuine Engagement

Different factors that come into play when you talk about success in influencer marketing. Demographics, follower size, timing -- all these things play a role in determining why a campaign fails or succeeds. There is one metric, however, that is just as critical as these, but is often neglected. It’s engagement. And not just any form of engagement, but authentic engagement.

It may seem obvious that an influencer with millions of followers has a far better reach than one with several thousands in his or her fanbase. However, you have to understand that popularity is not always equal to success when it comes to influencer marketing. This is where quality becomes more important than quantity. When looking for the right influencer to collaborate with, don’t just go for the number of followers a person has, but the level of authentic engagement that individual has with his or her following. This is the metric that will give you results and one that you should never ignore.

A good way to know whether an influencer is good with authentic engagement is by studying the influencer’s posts, particularly the comments section. A good influencer knows not only how to spark a conversation with followers but to keep that conversation going. As you go through the comments section, you can check at the same time whether the people engaging with the posts are ones you would consider potential followers or customers.

Seek To Establish a Meaningful Working Relationship

We can’t stress it enough that Instagram marketing is all about building and developing meaningful relationships, not only with your followers, but also with people you are working with. Among those people are influencers. You’d want to aim for a long-term relationship when finding an influencer. Most influencers today would agree to that, too. The more an influencer trusts you, the more he or she will go the extra mile to make sure people are drawn to your brand.

Chapter 6: How to Search for An Influencer

Now, here comes the more practical part. The following are practical ways you can search for the right influencer who can promote your brand on Instagram.

Look from Your Own Following

This might work more effectively if you already have a social presence and if your target are micro-influencers. It’s actually easy to find an influencer if you already have your own following in social media. To identify micro-influencers, all you have to do is look from among your followers individuals who have 1,000 to 10,000 followers, not only on Instagram but Twitter, as well.

Once you’ve identified these people, you can narrow down your search by focusing on those who post stuff that are related to your brand or business. If you are into interior design, for instance, look for those influencers near your location who usually post about home improvement. The moment you have found that perfect person, approach that person and offer that influencer a gift he or she would appreciate, particularly one that your business actually offers. In exchange, ask that person to post something about your brand on Instagram.

Pros:

The major advantage of this approach is that since the influencer you picked is one who actually knows your brand, you will need very little effort to teach that person about what your business is all about. That would also mean posts from that person would be more natural, considering that he or she is already familiar with your business.

Cons:

One drawback of this approach in looking for influencers is that while you might find several influencers from your own following, you might have a hard time finding one related to your brand. Also, by focusing on your own sphere of influence alone, you might miss more authoritative and prominent influencers.

Consider Specialized Third-Party Tools

A lot of social media management tools are available at your disposal. Some of these, such as FollowerWonk and BuzzSumo, lets you search for influencers related to your brand. While there are a good number of these tools which are free, most require that you sign up for a paid version in order to get the most out of the tool.

Pros:

Using third-party Influencer marketing tools is no doubt one of the quickest and most effective ways of finding the right influencer for your business. These tools also offer options that let you find and sort both macro- and micro-influencers.

Cons:

We all know how free versions of tools like these have limited features. Sooner or later, you will have to decide to purchase a paid version in order to get the most out of the tool. In addition, influencers you’ll find using such tools are less likely to be already familiar with your brand. This would mean that you’ll need to spend some time educating and training the influencer about your business.

Reach Out to Bloggers

Bloggers are a very popular option for many businesses. You will find a lot of niche bloggers to be potential micro-influencers. A simple Google search will help you find the right person, especially if your business is limited to a particular region. If you have a local food business, for instance, you can use keywords like ‘food bloggers in Utah’. Google will give you a list of relevant blog sites. 

Your next step would be to contact your prospects. Ideally, however, you’d want to establish rapport with the blogger first, and one way to do that is to find ways to connect or interact with them. Commenting on their posts, liking and sharing their content, and sending them emails to compliment them are just a few ways you do that. Once you find the right person, you can invite that blogger to visit your place and try out your services in exchange for a review.

Pros:

Niche bloggers work perfectly for local businesses, since they are able to reach more targeted audience.

Cons:

Looking for the right blogger can be a time-consuming process. There’s also a huge chance you won’t find a relevant blogger in your area or region.

Don’t Forget the Hashtag

Doing hashtag researches is one of the most basic ways of finding social media influencers. You can start on Instagram, but Twitter is also an excellent place to do a hashtag research. Even a simple Google hashtag search should work, although there are differences in the process. For Instagram, the best way to do a hashtag research by first choosing a specific keyword that’s relevant to your brand. Avoid using general keywords like #shoes, #fashion, or #food. Instead, be specific and try something like #intermittentfasting, #naturephotography, or #shoespa.

The search results will show you images from different users, the top being those from both macro-influencers or from big business similar to yours. If you want to start with micro-influencers, scroll your way down and look for users who have a following of 1,000 to 10,000. Create a list of potential influencers, and once you feel you have found the right one, contact that person and invite them to partner with you.

Pros:

There’s a better chance to find a relevant influencer who’d be willing to partner with you. Most of these influencers are also more likely to post about your brand in exchange for complimentary product samples.

Cons:

While it’s not impossible to find an influencer through this method, the process might take more time and effort than you think. At the same time, there are many chances you will overlook a lot of significant influencers simply by failing to use the right hashtags.

Connect With Influencers in Offline Events

The internet is not the only place you can search for and find an influencer. Influencers are usually invited to take part in local events, usually as speakers for seminars and workshops. It’s good to be up to date on the latest local social media events near your area and take the opportunity to meet influencers in person. 

Chapter 7: The 5 Unwritten Rules of Instagram

Getting on Instagram and going big right off the bat means knowing how to play “large” on Instagram like an experienced pro, even if you do not yet have the experience of someone who has been on the platform for a long time. Over time, you will discover tricks and techniques of your own, but to help you get started, here is a list of five unwritten rules of Instagram to help you start out strong. If you begin by using these strategies from day one, you can feel confident that your Instagram will grow rapidly and effectively.  

Post at the Right Time

On Instagram, your audience will tend to hang out on the platform at different times throughout the day and week. Learning how to track your best posting times and post within these peak hours will ensure that your photographs get maximum engagement so that you can begin growing your account rapidly. With Instagram, the algorithm favors posts that are being interacted with quickly and genuinely, so the more likes and comments that you can accumulate early on, the better.  

You can track the right posting times for yourself and your audience through Instagram’s business analytics or through third-party applications like PLANN or Iconosquare, which both have intelligent and highly accurate schedules for you to plan your posts with. These platforms track your engagement and let you know when your profile tends to get the most views, likes, and comments through your new posts. Although third-party apps will cost money to gain access to this information, it can help you rapidly grow your platform through having access to the right information to help you do so. 

In addition to using the right posting times, make sure that you are using the right hashtag sequences which will ensure that you actually have the opportunity to get seen. While you will learn more about hashtags later, it is important that you understand right away that your hashtags are your key opportunity for getting seen on Instagram. To put it simply: images without hashtags will have no access to new, untapped audience members which means that anytime you post without using hashtags, you are leaving money on the table with your Instagram account.  

Exercise Selfie Control

The trend on Instagram used to be to load your page up with selfies and have people liking your images, and while this behavior is still perfectly okay for simple sharing accounts, they are not ideal for brands or businesses who are looking to grow their platform in 2023. While selfies can (and should) be used to grow your page, you should refrain from having every post, or even every other post featuring you in a selfie. Instead, use selfies sparingly and place emphasis on uploading other photos of interest to help you increase your reach in 2023.  

If you do love to share selfies and they do in some way relate to your brand, consider using your selfies more consistently in your story feed and less frequently in your actual newsfeed. This way, you can still share on-brand selfie images that can help you increase traction, but they do not dominate your feed and make you appear unprofessional or juvenile on the platform. These days, people prefer to see more thoughtful images that look similar to those that would be taken by professional photographers. Even if you do not have a professional photographer readily available to photograph you, consider getting someone else to snap your photos, or using a tripod and a selfie timer to get better quality images that do not feature an elongated view of your right bicep.  

Despite selfies not being ideal, people do still like to see other humans in the images that they are looking at, as this creates a more personal touch in your photographs. So, while you want to refrain from overdoing it on the selfies, you do want to ensure that there are still humans in your photographs so that your profile can attract more attention from your target audience.  

Be Original

The longer social media dominates the online space the more people are looking for authentic connections with original brands and companies. Simply put: people do not want to feel like they are following an overly strategized advertisement account that lacks personality or originality. Your target audience is following you on Instagram because they want to feel connected to you, not because they want to be advertised to 24/7. If you are going to make a strong connection with your audience, you need to find a way to be original, create a unique image for your company, and stand out from the rest of the people who are targeting your audience.  

If you are running a professional company, such as a law firm or a dentist office, finding a way to be original may be challenging as you want to ensure that you are authentically engaging without taking away from your professional expert appeal. Still, there are ways that you can generate an authentic image without tarnishing your professionalism or scaring away your audience for fear of them following you solely to be advertised to. A great way to find out unique ways to share your originality in your niche industry is to look up your competitors online and see what they are doing. Typically, the ones who are dominating the space have a very unique and original approach, and you can learn a thing or two from these individuals. 

Of course, once you are done with your search, you need to find ways that you can incorporate the tips, ideas, and inspiration that you have accumulated through your search into your own original image. After all, directly copying others is a clear lack of originality, not an increase of it. Your followers will recognize that and will fail to engage with your brand if you do not find a way to boost your originality and stay authentic on the platform.  

Avoid Over Editing

Instagram leaves many striving to look professionally polished and well put together, and for a good reason — everyone else on the platform looks really incredible! When you edit your photographs properly, you can really make yourself pop against the rest of the photographs being shared, which means that you can get seen by even more people. As your target audience sifts through their favorite hashtags and discovery pages, chances are, they will be clicking a more attractive photograph over one that seems sloppy or out of place.  

That being said, you need to be cautious about how much you are editing your photographs and what they look like in the end. If you edit your photograph too much, it will begin to look unnatural and even strange, which can result in fewer people paying attention to your page or taking you seriously. If you want to be taken seriously and increase your page engagement, you need to edit your photos tastefully and in a way that helps them stand out because they look good, not because they look strange from being overdone. 

A great way to edit your photos and create a natural appeal while still having that professionally polished look to them is to use two apps on your phone: Lightroom CC and FaceTune Lite. Both of these applications are free and allow you to create professional, high-quality Instagram photographs in less than two minutes. Start by uploading your preferred image into Lightroom CC, going to the “light” setting, and then tapping “auto”. The application will then automatically adjust settings such as the color hues, saturation, white balance, and black balance, and other settings to ensure that your photograph looks professionally edited. Next, if you want to, you can upload the image into Face Tune and soften the appearance of the skin of anyone in the image, as well as conceal any blemishes or perform any other minor adjustments to produce a high-quality appeal. Once again, this is where you really need to foster the belief that less is more. If you are whitening someone’s teeth, for example, do not go too far: no one’s teeth are incredibly white, so editing anyone’s teeth to appear excessively white will make the picture look unnatural and uncomfortable. Make sure that every edit you make appears natural, even if it is meant to make the individual look like a professionally photographed model!  

Favor Comments over Likes

The latest version of the Instagram algorithm prefers genuine engagement over passive engagement. Passive engagement, like “likes”, is valuable, but it does not stand out in the algorithm to the point that Instagram believes that you genuinely want to continue engaging with the said person. So, if you “like” someone’s picture, you still may not see very much of their content in your native newsfeed unless you like many of their pictures or comment on their pictures. The key here is that if you are seeing more of them in your feed, the chances are that they are seeing more of you in their feed as well, which means that you are more likely to be seen and engaged with by your own audience too.  

When you are scrolling hashtags to locate new followers or conduct market research or to simply engage with your target audience, do your best to leave comments on everything along the way. That being said, do not leave ungenuine comments that are generic, and do not say the same thing on multiple photographs. In this day and age, there are programs called “bots” and most people will refuse to engage back with anyone whom they believe is a bot for fear of being spammed or scammed by others.  

Furthermore, genuine comments stand out and often earn back engagement, which further increases your ability to get seen by that individual. For that person, they see you as authentic and are more likely to check you out and follow you on the platform. For Instagram’s algorithm, the back-and-forth commenting suggests that you are sharing a genuine engagement and encourages Instagram’s algorithm to show you higher in each other’s feeds so that you can see each other’s content more. As a brand or small business, this is exactly what you want happening so that you can stay relevant with your followers and increase your chances of being located and remembered by them.  

Chapter 8: Hacks for Taking Good Photos  

If you couldn’t get this until now, Instagram is a great place to market your business. The photo sharing platform has all the right tools for promoting your brand. However, since the majority of the posts on this platform are photos, how can you stand out among the tough competition out there? 

The answer to this is by using good photos for your posts. Making your photos attractive and of the best quality gives you the edge you need to help boost your page. 

It is true that your photos must be top-notch but the question is how can you take great photos that will be of the best quality? 

Here are some tips that will help you take the best photos: 

1. Plan ahead  

Planning ahead before taking the picture is a good way to start the process of taking good photos. You are advised to think about your brand and what you really want to offer your audience. Advanced planning gives you a good idea about what you want to do. That will give you a blueprint to work with. 

2. Don’t be obsessed with people’s thoughts  

When you are through with your plan, take the time to find you what you really like. Your thoughts shouldn’t be focused primarily on what the Instagram community wants from you, or the type of photo is the most popular amongst the members of the community. If you give heed to these thoughts, you will defeat your goal of getting the best picture before you even took out the camera. 

3. Use natural sources of light  

One of the most important factors you must consider is lighting. It is the key to the overall beauty of your photos. Note that even the best photo-editing app with the most complex filter can never make a good job of a poorly-lit photo. Using natural sources of light will give your photos the right illumination. If you must take any photo outdoors, you should consider doing so early in the morning, late in the afternoon, or overcast days. These periods are when you can get the best shots. 

4. Use your eyes before your camera  

Your eyes still remain an important and efficient tool for taking good photos. It is customary to see people taking a couple of pictures, comparing them, and then making their choice. Instead of towing that path and wasting time taking tens of shots before settling for the best, use your eyes before using the camera. 

This requires that you look at the object critically, frame the picture with your eyes, and observe the object for some time. This may give you a new perspective for looking at the object so that you can get the best shot after taking a few pictures. 

5. Use the grid feature  

It is good to bring your composition in when attempting to take a picture. Whenever you want to take a picture, you can make the best job of it by turning on the grid. You can watch the elements overlapping through your viewfinder or on the screen until you get the perfect conditions for shooting. That will enhance the beauty of your photo. 

6. Use the point of interest  

A common feature of all good photos is the presence of a point of interest. It may be someone in the foreground or a great landscape with sharp lines that focuses the viewer’s eyes. Great photos are known for having more than one point of interest without them overlapping and creating a sense of clutter. Try to let your photo reveal a little information about the place or person. Let it tell a story about the point of interest. 

7. Watch out for moments  

Another way to make your photo great is by letting your pictures have great moments. Let the moments be about the subjects or subject you want to shoot. Look for some natural moments such as extreme, peak, settled, or emotional moments. Either of these moments will make the picture interesting. 

If there are unwanted pieces of information, stay away from them. The unwanted information may detract from the great moment and impact the picture negatively. You can only be pardoned if the unwanted information contributes to the overall beauty of the image. 

Your goal is to have a clean image, free of unwanted clutter, that draws the attention of the viewers directly to the story you want to tell. 

8. Strong shapes, colors, and lines are good  

One of the qualities of a good Instagram image is strong colors and well-defined lines. The photo should contain some elements that will loom large in your camera’s frame so that it can easily draw the attention of the viewers. Through personal training and regular practice, you will develop the skills for conveying some emotions with your pictures. 

9. Use third-party apps  

There are tons of third-party apps that you can use to make your pictures stand out. These apps come in different forms and for a wide variety of functions. You can explore the functionalities of these apps to add to the overall beauty of your images. 

An app that is good for simulating a slow shutter to some moving objects, such as blurry water, can create a long-exposure effect. The effect will be more pronounced on waterfalls or incredibly large bodies of water. That will give you the perfect condition to show high contrast between the sharp, still surroundings and the water. 

10. Use light from strange sources  

If you compare your phone camera with traditional cameras, you will see a clear distinction. The lens of the phone camera has a different way of absorbing light than the camera. That makes it possible for the phone camera to see light from some strange places such as behind the object or above it. 

If you move the object around without taking your eyes off it through your phone camera, you will see the object as it transforms until you can see the rays of light on your lens. The light will have a powerful impact on the image. This is the moment you are waiting for. Take your shot right here. 

11. Leverage the burst mode  

When taking a picture, you may see the need to make a moment stand still without losing its detail. If you want to do that, shoot in daylight or in a well-lit space so that you can use a fast shutter speed. 

Ensure that you tap the screen to make it possible to lock focus on the object manually. You can also make the exposure perfect by using the slide bar before taking the shot. With burst mode, you have a perfect tool that will be useful when choosing the most appropriate moment for the picture. 

12. Shoot from a wide variety of angles  

You can try to take your pictures from viewpoints that look quite unusual. If you consider a view to be normal, it can actually look awesome if you shoot it from a different perspective than through the perspective you see. 

Consider shooting from as many angles as possible to make your pictures more appealing. You can try the right-down or up-high position and see the impact it has on your image. 

13. Use props  

You should consider using different objects, and observe their impact on the story you are trying to tell. By taking your environment and the background of the object into consideration, you can do a good job of making your photo look great by making the scene come alive. 

14. Use a bad weather to your advantage  

While some people curl up at the idea of having to deal with bad weather while shooting, you can use the bad weather to your advantage. Whenever there is fog, snow, or rain you should go out there and find a way to make the best use of that weather to shoot a unique picture. An experienced photographer once suggested that you should use bad weather to make good photographs. 

15. Use the puddles after the rain  

After a rainfall, go out there and take awesome photos. The puddles will give you reflections that you can utilize to contribute beauty to your pictures. That background will be great for taking interesting pictures and you shouldn’t hesitate to use them. 

16. Consider using white space  

White space is fun to use. They add uniqueness and beauty to your picture. Take a look at some masterpieces like the latest catalog of J.Crew, or an outstandingly beautiful home. What common feature do they have? Both of these use tons of white space. 

You can imitate them and bring such an impression to your picture so that you can make your Instagram feed neat and clutter free. How you feel about those pictures when you see them mirrors the way others will feel when viewing your Instagram feed when it has enough white space. 

The best way to have a good shot with white space is to look for white backgrounds when shooting. If you want to photograph a person, you can shoot in front of a white wall to have that effect on your picture. 

If you want to shoot an object, a white window sill or a piece of foam board should be used for photographing the object in order to add the white space effect. 

Some font apps also have such feature. You can try WordSwag and use it to put an impressive quote on your photo to give it that white space effect. That will give your feed some breathing room. 

17. Take advantage of the portrait mode  

Instagram has a new portrait mode that you can take advantage of. You can use it to lay emphasis on the length of a particular scene. You can also use it to tell a detailed story that just isn’t possible with a square crop. 

18. Add more elements  

Adding more elements to your scale will make your photo look great. Adding scale to your image can be done by simply including a person in the image’s frame. You can try different poses within the same scene to find the best one that will add to the beauty of your image. 

19. Layers are handy  

Using layers for your images makes it possible to convey a perfect message to the viewer. The goal is to let the viewers share the same point of view with you. Using these will give your audience a good view of your brand because they see your brand exactly the way you want them to see it. 

20. Use patches of light  

You can find patches of light in different places. The street lamp and the rays of sunlight are perfect sources for these patches of light. During a photography session, find them and use them to enhance your skills. 

An important attribute of using patches of light emanating from the sun is that the patches will always give you a variety of backgrounds to use. Make use of that to give your audience a perfect picture. 

21. Use the dusk to your advantage  

Even when the sun is going down you can still stay out to take beautiful pictures. Although we have limited vision when the sun goes down, modern cameras have better ability to pick up light than humans. 

This is a good way to give your audience something beautiful. By leveraging the unusual power of the camera to capture the captivating moments of a sunset, you can give your audience something truly amazing. 

22. Move as physically possible to your subject  

You can get more than you bargain for if you can move closer to your object as much as possible. Whether you want to shoot animals or people, it is advisable that you get close to them. That creates the right emotion and intimacy in your work. Your audience will appreciate the output and the sense of intimacy associated with the picture. Move closer to the object and use the widest focal length you can. That will bring the object into perspective, and will fill the frame of the photo. The result is a subject that is popped out so much that this cannot be achieved without the lens. 

If you are an iPhone user, Moment has a good wide-angle lens that will give you the best results. On the other hand, DSLR users may find the 16-35 mm lens very useful. 

23. Use your phone’s accessories  

When considering taking a good shot, a lens attachment can make all the difference in improving your photo. If you want to add some character to the photo, consider using a wide-angle lens. 

24. Your edits should be simple  

The availability of different editing tools has turned some people into editing freaks. While some people keep their edits simple, some have a tendency over edit their shots. Experience has shown that over-edited photos can lose its appeal. Therefore, when using filters to give your photos the best look, resist the urge to overdo it. 

Whichever editing tool you use, be moderate. Don’t push a photo too far from its real natural state. Users won’t find it attractive that way. However, subtle tweaks are cool and will help the image to maintain its natural look. 

A study by the social media scientist at HubSpot, Dan Zarella, revealed that photos that don’t have too much color saturation in them get more likes than the others that are over-edited. What else did the stats say? Such images can get almost 600% likes more than other posts. 

25. Always aim for quality  

You can up your game on Instagram by curating your feed and making sharing a better part of your activities as opposed to posting. The implication here is that you should be selective about lighting and composition. That will give you tons of high-quality images to choose from to share with your audience. 

26. Make practice a way of life  

You can’t get it right at your first attempt. You need tons of hours of regular practice sessions to master the art of taking beautiful pictures. If you have the time to make regular practices, you will gradually know your tools and the best ways to take amazing shots. 

Always be ready to get a good shot whenever an interesting scene, location, moment, or light pops up. Cultivate the habit of doing a good job composing good photos. You can also take a couple of frames of the same object to get the best results while you also pay close attention to the editing. 

The results will be sharp, clean photos that will wow you with natural colors and appealing tones. 

The hours of practice sessions will be fully rewarding as the appreciation for your posts increase, and as more followers join your base. 

Chapter 9: Instagram Automation  

After you have mastered the strategies in this book, you can start thinking about automating your Instagram account. This can either add massive value to your business or brand on Instagram or ruin all the hard work that you have done up to this point.

There are dozens of software programs out there that plug into your Instagram account and automate your liking of Instagram user’s posts, following and unfollowing Instagram users along with commenting. You program this software to engage with real Instagram accounts and it can dramatically increase your follower base along with drive a ton of traffic to the link in your bio, all on autopilot.

Virtually all the large Instagram Influencers use software like this. However, when you automate your Instagram account, you increase your chances of being banned temporarily or permanently by Instagram. You want to keep your follow and unfollow activity under 800 per day, and no more than 40 follows and/or unfollows per hour. You will want to keep your likes under 1,100 per day, and no more than 60 per hour. Automating commenting can be a bit tricky. Try to only use emojis and do not comment more than 110 times a day, and no more than 15 times an hour.

Always proceed on the side of caution when automating your Instagram account. Violating the amount of actions (likes, comments, follows and unfollows) that Instagram allows its users to engage in per hour is a surefire way to get banned before you get started.

All Instagram accounts are under extra scrutiny when they are first opened. (Automating DMs falls into this category as well) This doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t use automation software on your Instagram account within the first few days you open a new page. It simply means you need to tiptoe into the water.

You want to start off slow when you begin automating your Instagram account (300 likes per day, 500 follows and/or unfollows per day, do not use automated commenting at the beginning) and gradually build up your levels of automation. You would be well-advised to read Instagram’s ‘Terms of Service’ regularly since they are constantly changing how many activities (likes, comments, follows and unfollows) accounts are allowed to engage in per hour. Also, if you are participating in engagement groups (like and comment groups) make sure automating your comments is turned off.

Automation software can be a game-changer. It can dramatically help you grow your follower base by thousands of real Instagram users on autopilot. However, like anything in life where there is a reward, there is always a risk.

There are currently several software and applications for Instagram automation such as Kicksta, Inflact, Upleap, Jarvee, Instavast, Instazood, Instamber, Hashtagsforlikes, Insta.io, Gramto, and so on.

Noteworthy is Jarvee, an extraordinary automation tool that will allow you to follow, post, like, stop following, delete posts, reply to comments and direct messages, and conduct research on users and hashtags. You can also use it for other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube. Jarvee is a Windows-based tool and has fast learning by taking advantage of training tutorials.

Chapter 10: Taking Advantage of Instagram Ads

Instagram gets over one billion visitors each month. In addition to this, the numbers of engagement for this application is way more than Twitter and Facebook combined. This means you are losing out big time if you are not taking advantage of what the app has to offer.

This is the reason why this chapter will be teaching you how Instagram advertising works, and all the vital information regarding Instagram ads, so you can get your content across to the individuals on Instagram who matter to you. But first, we will be looking into what Instagram ad is.

Instagram Ads – What Is It?

Limited ad services were first introduced by Instagram when Facebook took over ownership in 2013. However, it only began to provide advertising access to various sizes of businesses and brands in 2015. These brands soon realized that Instagram was of enormous benefit for businesses.

Also, because Instagram is incorporated with Facebook Ads Manager, brands can take advantage of the enormous resources of user data Facebook offers, to advertise right to the audience they desire.

If you prefer numbers to understand how beneficial Instagram ads can be, below are a few statistics;

Seventy-five percent of the Instagram users perform an action via Instagram ads like heading to a site or buying a product.

Thirty-five percent of adults in America utilize Instagram ("22+ Instagram Statistics That Matter to Marketers in 2022", 2022).

In essence, if you are not taking advantage of Instagram ads, you are depriving yourself of a considerable amount of possible revenue.

What Is the Cost of Instagram Ads?

Depending on your ad objectives, the cost may be unique to you. This is because all ads differ. However, for Instagram ads, the typical CPC (cost-per-click) is about $0.70 – $0.80. This figure was obtained from an evaluation of over $300million spent on ads. ("Instagram Ad Costs: The Complete Updated Resource for 2018", 2018)

Note that this is just like an estimate. You may end up spending more or less depending on numerous factors like the time of the year ads are set-up. 

Creating Ads on Instagram  

Now that you understand the basics, we will be taking a look at how to create ads. For this, we will be learning to do it using the Facebook Ad Manager, which is a prevalent method because it is easy to use. It also offers you the capacity to personalize your ad more than you would if you were using the application itself. Below are the steps that can help you create your ad.

Head to the Ad Manager via Facebook 

Presuming you already have a Facebook account, and you are logged in, all you need to do is follow this link to get to the Facebook ad manager. 

There is no precise Instagram Ad manager. You oversee Instagram ads via the Facebook Ads UI. 

Determine Your Marketing Goals 

Here, you need to pick a campaign goal. The great news is that the goals are clearly stated. If you are after additional traffic, select the traffic goal. If you want more engagement, choose the engagement goal, and so on.

However, there are only a few goals you can work with using Instagram ads, which include; 

Traffic 

Brand awareness 

Video Views 

Engagement: which works for just post engagement 

Conversions 

Reach

App Installs 

Determine your Target Audience  

After determining your objective, you have to target the right audience, so your ad gets to the appropriate individuals. This is where Instagram ads flourish since you will be utilizing the demographic knowledge Facebook offers to get to the right individuals.

If you are using it for the first time, below are the targeting options you have at your disposal, which you can narrow down to reach a specific audience. For example, if you want to target men in Chicago, between the ages of 18- 25, who have an interest in sporting equipment, you will have the capacity to do that.

The targeting actions include:

Location : lets you target a city, state, country, or zip code and ignore specific areas. 

Gender : Pick between all genders, or only men and vice versa

Age : Lets you target different age ranges 

Demographics : You can access this under Detailed Targeting. It also has numerous sub-categories to pick from. 

Languages : Facebook suggests that you leave this place blank unless the language you want to target is not typical in the area you are aiming to target. 

Behaviors : This is also an option you will find under Detailed Targeting. It also provides you with numerous categories to check out. It could either be anniversaries, purchasing behaviors, job roles, and a host of other options.

Interests : Still another option you will have access to under Detailed Targeting which offers numerous sub-categories to delve into. If you are in search of individuals who have an interest in horror movies, or beverages, you get these options and many more. 

Custom Audience : With this option, you will be able to upload your contact list and target leads or clients who you aim to upsell. 

Lookalike Audience : Here, Instagram gives you the chance to locate audiences who share lots of similarities to your other audiences. 

Connections : Here, you can target individuals connected to your app, page, or event.

After configuring your audience, Facebook also offers you a guide to how broad or specific your audience is. It is vital you take note of this because you want to choose a point where your audience is not too broad since it is not adequately targeted, but you don't want it to be too narrow either, since you may be unable to reach that many individuals.

Determine your Placements

The next step after targeting the demographic of your choice is to select your placement. This is vital if your campaign objectives are to show the ads on Instagram alone. If you decide to forgo this step, Facebook will let your ads show up on the two platforms.  

This can be a positive thing, but if you have created content for Instagram, specifically, you need to pick the option "Edit Placements." From this point, you can choose Instagram as your placement, and if you would prefer the ads to show up on the stories or feed area of the platform. You also have the option of letting it show up on both.

Determine your Ad Schedule and Budget 

If you understand how budgets work via AdWords, Facebook, and other platforms for running an ad, you may not have many issues with this step. If you have not, then it is not so much of a problem either, even though you may not understand how to put your lifetime or daily budget in place while running an Instagram campaign for the first time, you learn on the go. What's more, you also can pause or stop your ad at any point, if you believe your budget is not being apportioned the right way.

So, which should you go with? A daily or lifetime budget? This is solely dependent on you, but if you decide to go with a daily budget, it ensures your budget does not get exhausted fast. In contrast, a lifetime budget gives you the capacity for scheduling your ad delivery. Both options do the work they should, so it is a matter of choice.

If you are utilizing a lifetime budget, this can be an essential way of optimizing your budget.

Develop Your Instagram Ad

Here comes the moment you need to create your ad. Here, the set-up may seem different based on the objective you decide to go with.

There are six ad formats which Instagram provides you with. From the options provided, two show up on Instagram stories, while the other four show up on your Instagram feed. The latter is the option many marketers and advertisers take advantage of. 

The options available include:

Image Feed Ads

Image Story Ads

Video Feed Ads

Video Story Ads

Carousel Feed Ads

Canvas Story ads

Every one of these ad formats is incorporated into the Stories and Feeds of the users which offer a non-distracting experience for users. Instagram also provides you a range of call-to-actions which can aid you in attaining more leads. We will be taking a look at each of them below:

Image Feed Ads

This is the most common ad format, and if you frequently use Instagram, there is a huge possibility that you may have come across it while perusing your feed. These ads consist of a single image which shows up when your target audience is going through their feed. The great thing about this ad is that if you do them properly, they will look like any other feed instead of ads.

Some of the specifications for this ad include: 

Type of file: Jpeg or PNG

Max size of the file: 30MB

Number of Hashtags: Maximum of 30 

Length of Text: 2,200 max. However, for the best delivery, Instagram suggests you stay below 90 characters.  

Image Story Ads

This is similar to the Image feed ads, but they show up on the Instagram Stories of your target. 

The specifications include: 

9:16 recommended image ratio and no less than 600 pixels’ image width. 

Video Feed Ads

You can give your ad more life using a video. If you create a video of high quality, then it is possible to promote it via your Instagram feed. Instagram offers support for various video files, but it is suggested that you use: square pixels, progressive scan, fixed frame rate, H.264 compression, and a 128kbps+ stereo AAC audio compression. 

However, if you do have a video which fails to meet these requirements, numerous apps can aid you in altering your video.

Some of the specifications for video feed ads include: 

video resolution: No less than 1080 x 1080 pixels’ 

Max length of video: 60 seconds 

125 characters’ text length recommended 

Number of Hashtags: Maximum of 30 

Video Story Ads

Stories are also great locations for running ads. This is because lots of users often expect to see videos here so it may not come as a surprise to see ads. The specifications for these ads are listed below: 

Video Resolution: No less than 1080 x 1920 pixels 

Video Length: Maximum 120 seconds, the first 15 seconds will be played automatically, then the viewer must press "Continue Watching" to view the complete video

Carousel Feed Ads

Depending on how you use it, this format of ads can be quite fun. It lets you display a group of images users can scroll through instead of just one image. This kind of ad is ideal for brands that are very visual like those in the clothing industry, travel industry, food industry, and vehicle industry, among others.

You can use this to show your audience the faces behind your organization. The carousel feed ads let you include as much as ten images in one ad, all with a link to each product. Also, you have the option of adding a video to this form of ad.

The specifications for this ad include: 

Type of file: JPG or PNG

Number of Hashtags: Maximum of 30 

Length of Text: 2,200 max. However, for the best delivery, Instagram suggests you stay below 90 characters.   

Length of Video: Maximum of 60 seconds

Canvas Story Ads

Finally, the most recent inclusion to the ad formats, Canvas ads. With these ads, you can create a VR experience in your story. They only function on mobile devices and give you complete control of customization options. However, you need some technical knowledge. These ads can work alongside video, image, and carousel.

The specifications for this format are: 

Minimum width of the image: 400 pixels

Max Height of Image: 150 pixels 

Determining the Best Ad Format to Use on Instagram

Having understood the formats, you can choose from; you need to determine the best format for your needs.

You need to be deliberate about your ad format, and the question below can help you make a choice:

What Is Your Objective? 

Your desired social media objective is the foundation for all the conclusions you make when it has to do with an ad campaign. It will aid you in determining what you should focus on and what you should not.  Any ad you choose has to align with your objectives, always remember that.

Tips for Advertising on Instagram

Now that you understand the technical aspects of ad creation, below are a few things to note when developing an ad that will ensure engagement;

Know Your Audience

When you have an in-depth knowledge of your audience, you will be able to create messaging that they can connect with.

Before you begin to run any ads, you must have an intimate and in-depth knowledge of your audience.

Ask yourself: 

What solution does your service or product provide to them?

What are their wants and needs?

What are their issues and how can I solve them?

Do not forget their values and goals as you put your ads in place. 

Utilize Texts Properly

Instagram does not let you use too many texts, but it does not have to be a negative thing. However, this means you need to offer the best value within the supported text character. While using your texts, ensure you are considering the personas of your audience.

Put engaging and appealing CTAs in place that will encourage your audience to perform any action you require. 

Take Advantage of Hashtags 

Many individuals tend to forget just how powerful hashtags can be. But if you learn to use them the right way, you will have an indispensable tool in your hands. 

Including hashtags in Instagram posts enhances engagement by an average of 12.6 percent, which can make a whole lot of difference to your campaign. And if you take advantage of a branded hashtag, it can enhance awareness and engagement.

You have the capacity of utilizing as much as 30 hashtags on a single post. But don’t get carried away; focus on the quality as opposed to the quantity. 

Engage

You can group the interaction you have with social media users into two classes: 

Reactive Interaction: when you provide responses to mentions, direct messages, and comments on social media.

Proactive Interaction: When you make the first contact with other users by engaging them. This can be very beneficial if you want to enhance the awareness around specific product launches or campaigns.

Ensure you do a bit of both as people engage and respond to your ads. It will help in developing your brand and ensure they understand you are not just another robotic organization. 

Stay Consistent 

Are you aware that more than 50 percent of the leading brands utilize a similar filter for each of their posts? The reason for this is simple: Consistency can aid in strengthening the image of your brand. 

Every component of your brand should embody who you are as an organization. The tone, message, and visuals are all vital.

Regularly Switch Things Up 

When you create a good ad, which seems to be doing so well and bringing you lots of engagement and traffic, it is easy to get attached. However, a great ad can only last for so long and may die down if you keep rinsing and repeating. 

Change your ads as frequently as possible, so your audience doesn't get fed up with them. In addition to this, it will also help you understand the ads that offer you the best results. Try using various formats, captions, and audiences.

Measure Ad Performance 

Using the Facebook Ads Manager, you can check out how your Instagram ads are performing. If you are using third party tools like Hootsuite Ads, you will be provided with a more comprehensive set of data that lets you view the best performing ads and those that are not working –and why they aren't.

In any strategy, monitoring performance and altering course when needed is very vital. But you also need to regularly check your Instagram analytics for a range of reasons which include: 

It can help you put in place realistic objectives and goals for every new campaign. 

It can help you monitor your competitors 

Try Out Your Ad Copy  

You need to try out various ad visuals and copy in a single campaign as it will also help things remain fresh. 

Chapter 11: Retargeting Customers on Instagram

Finding out that your potential customers are getting out of your purchase channel is something that most marketers consider infuriating when they are not at fault. There are lots of interruptions on the internet: a customer might get on your page, select a couple of products for purchase and might end up not buying just because they were distracted by something.

The good news is, with the use of retargeting it is possible to get users to complete the actions they started on your page. This chapter is focused on letting you know what retargeting is all about and how it can be taken advantage of to make marketing more efficient.

What is Retargeting?

In today's digital space, retargeting is a tried and trusted way to convert leads. It is also known as remarketing. It is focused on giving extra attention to older leads - potential clients who visited your page, clicked on an ad or selected certain items and put them in their shopping cart, and allows you to get in touch with them to transform these leads into consumers.

These ads have the structure of reminders. Retargeting is aimed at helping marketers have sales from various audiences and leads that are already in existence. With retargeting, there is a huge possibility of increasing your clientele, and making more sales, as well as increasing profits. The reason for this is just about 2% of basic web traffic ends up being converted initially. If you focus your energy into retargeting consistently on various social media platforms, there is a lot you will be able to achieve. Learn why retargeting is so essential below.

What Should You Retarget?

Several people are not so comfortable with retargeting because it involves tracking down visitors. This can cause worries regarding privacy because, at some point in time, a lot of people have been put off by unending ads for something that a search was carried out for at an online store a while ago.

If you go about it the way you should, retargeting will not disturb anybody. With an authentic and strategic approach and tone, it is possible to give your audience amazing services by cementing the existence of your brand into their minds. Ultimately, one trusted and effective way to let viewers come in contact with ads that are relevant and which have their interest and past behavior at the center, is through retargeting.

While compelling people to finish up a purchase, retargeting can help you find out which people who visited your pricing pages. This way, you can offer ads that meet their interests and needs directly. Users now expect remarketing because the existence of social media platforms have made them aware that interest-target ads exist.

Although lots of tracking mechanisms, as well as cookies, have been in existence for a fairly long while, Facebook's pixel has made them accessible. By incorporating Facebook pixel to your website, you can grow audiences through monitoring views of a particular page and taking part in conversion tracking.

Lots of brands on Instagram have yet to take full advantage of remarketing. Due to this, remarketing on Instagram can help you locate fresh users with ease. Also, by integrating Instagram and Facebook ads, you can make use of remarketing ads quickly and easily. This results in good conversion levels, which ultimately helps you have a wider reach as well as an increase in profits. At this point, you are aware of the importance of remarketing. So, it is time to learn the steps that are involved in remarketing.

Steps for Retargeting on Instagram

There are quite a number of ways the average Instagram user can attempt to retarget on Instagram. However, not all these ways have a reputation for being accurate in helping with retargeting. So, if you want to be successful in retargeting on Instagram, take the following steps:

Get Facebook Pixel Installed

The first step to take when you want to use retargeting on Instagram is to install Facebook pixel on your website. With pixel, retargeting can be done more easily. It helps you keep a record of visitors to your site. It offers good data, and in this way, your list of users will keep increasing. This list will be made up of people who have some understanding of your product. If installing Facebook pixel is not something you can do, give the code to a website developer and let them help you out.

Make use of the FB Pixel Helper, a plugin tool meant for Google Chrome to confirm that your site has the right integration with pixel.

Build the Audience You Intend Retargeting

The next thing you should do is come up with a customer audience. Customer audience are people who you will be sending your ads to. Facebook makes it possible for you to select website traffic as those to forward ads to. This way, you can attract users that visited your website via the custom audience pixel that you installed. It also makes them view your ads again.

To grow your selected audience of individuals who visited your site in the last couple of days, visit your Facebook ad manager, choose tools, then select audiences, create an audience and then, choose website customization. After this, pick your customization. When creating your audience, for best results, select those that were on your website in the last six months.

Come Up with Your Ad Campaign

This step should only be taken when people visit your website if your pixel is to increase. Look at it from this point of view: everyone who has a Facebook account and visits your website gets kept in a lodge. Once the lodge is full, go ahead and develop your ad and focus on all those that have been kept in that guest house.

The time required for this to happen is dependent on how much traffic comes to your website. As soon as you have the right amount of people in your audience, the word "ready" will appear alongside a green dot.

Once those you have in your “retargeting audience” get to a presentable amount, you can go on and come up with your ad campaign. To get this done, build an Instagram ad campaign by adhering to the steps spoken about in

Develop a Retargeting Ad Set

This is the point where you fix your campaign’s ad set level. To get started, come up with a schedule as well as a budget you want for the ad. The next thing is to choose the custom audience you made in the second step and put up the placement of the ad as Instagram.  The next thing to do is to ensure that you have people in your audience. Do this by ensuring your potential check reach is over 20.

When working with the regular ad manager, make sure you choose just Instagram and deselect all other options if it will be used for placement.

Come Up with a Retargeting Ad

At this point, you can go ahead and develop an ad that your audience can see physically.  Always bear in mind that there are people who have been on your site and have an idea about what you do are grouped as "warm traffic." This is one reason you have to be creative with your ads.

Select the right Facebook and Instagram accounts and make the destination a part of it. The next thing to do is build an attractive ad that will entice your “warm traffic” back to your website to perform any actions you want them to. Are you interested in a retargeting alternative that is more direct? If yes, give Instagram dynamic ads a try.

Make Use of Instagram Dynamic Ads for Retargeting and Targeting

In 2016, Instagram dynamic ads were launched. It helps in the advertisement of your products. It does this by making your audience come in contact with ads which are made up of products they once showed some interest in. This is regardless of the fact that they did not buy the first go around. The product which gets shown to them might have similarities with what they showed interest in or what they already bought elsewhere in the past.

On Facebook alone, there have been over 2 billion unique products and items uploaded. With the availability of dynamic ads, you can put relevant products in front of people who visited your site both from Facebook and Instagram. This is the right technique if you are interested in a straightforward method. Just by making users have a view of the products they were interested in, you can retarget them.

If your retargeting strategy is poor, potential clients can find it annoying. This happens when they keep stumbling on ads from sites they are not interested in.

But Instagram is designed in a way that your brand can be able to link with audiences in ways that are visual and not intrusive. Certain retargeting campaigns are created the right way, and viewers do not think of them as ads, but rather, see them as vital reminders that link them up to a desired purchase. Airbnb's retargeting campaign is an example of this.

Regardless of the involved platform, as far as marketing on social media is concerned, the way to go is to make use of testing and repetition. It does not matter if there are no plans to develop an absolute campaign by your brand, you can still use Facebook pixel in getting the pieces of information you need to target the right audience. If there is a time to retarget, that time is now. Because of the presence of Facebook pixel and its ability to function on both Instagram and Facebook, retargeting is now the easiest it has ever been. With effective retargeting you can be certain people who visit your page will buy your product.

Chapter 12: Use Location (Geotag)

A great and a very effective way to reach more people and increase your local awareness is by adding a geotag to your posts. If you want to have more reach and impressions, using the location tag will help you get discovered. And the best thing about it is that it is extremely helpful for brands, but it can be also used by personal profiles, interested in branding themselves or building a client list.

There are two ways to geotag a photo - by tagging the location to your post or by adding it to your Instagram story. The difference between these two is that Instagram stories disappear, so you have limited time to show your account under the certain geotag, but they can draw bigger interest in your profile (considering the limited time they are up for). On posts, you will have to be consistent, in order to see progress and you might not even get to the “Top Posts” section of the selected geotag if you’ve tagged a very crowded area.

As a brand

Tagging your location can give your business just the boost it needs. First, it will help you reach more people and there is a very high chance that some of them are going to be in your target group. If you have a physical facility where you offer products or any type of services, it can help you increase the number of customers and sales. If you have an address and people are using your geotag, you can see what kind of people are using your services and visiting your place. This will give you insights better than anything because you want to target and optimize your business and online presence for the specific type of people who are interested in your product/services.

But one thing for sure - with geotag, more people will find out about your business. And today, almost every brand has a Social Media account with their details and contact information which will give you extra credibility.

As a personal profile

Branding yourself can be hard, but using the geotag makes easier. If you tag your location often, your profile will get exposure from other people living / visiting the area. Some might follow, some might not. With time, you will surely increase your followers and people will start recognizing you on Instagram and maybe in the real life. This can open a lot of opportunities for you. For example, if you are a freelance writer, you might get contacted by an agency, interested in your work or someone who needs your services – a new client. It might set you for something else - collaboration with local brands. And this is where the money will come from. Why?

On one hand, there are a lot of new brands entering the market every year. New brands need a lot of exposure. If they are selling locally, there is a very high chance for them to contact a person with followers from the area where their main customers are coming from. But if you don’t want to wait and you know that your followers came from the geotag that you are constantly using, you can be the one approaching brands in your area.

Chapter 13: Organize Contests and Giveaways

Running a contest or a good giveaway can do wonderful stuff to your account, no matter the industry you are in. You can reach thousands of people for free, increase your followers, multiply your engagement, at the cost of giving a reward to only one of your participants.

It is a nice and easy trick that can be used by both, business and personal accounts to grow their followers faster, but not all of the Instagram marketers use it. In fact, only 2% of them use this approach on a regular basis.

How to organize a contest/giveaway?

There are many different contests that you can run and all of them will return both, followers and engagement. So, the first step for you is to determine the prize for the winner and how suitable is it for your target group? Once you know the answer to this question, you will need to pick the type of contest that you want to run:

- Engagement Contests . It can be like or comment contests or maybe a combination of both. They are extremely easy to host because the requirements are easy and pretty straight forward - double tap or comment the picture and you are in. These contests are excellent for your engagement rate and the chances of appearing on the Explore page are very big.

- Creative Contests. If you are running an Instagram account, based on displaying your art, then running a creative contest can be a good fit for you. It can be photography, art, makeup, selfies, challenge contests, where your followers are required to do a specific thing and use your branded hashtag to enter with their own content. Creative contests are great for getting a branded hashtag more popular and get your account some more visibility and awareness.

With giveaways, you can attract extra traffic to your website. For example, creating a post with the caption: “To enter - click the link in our bio” will encourage people to visit your website and sign for what you are offering. That way, you can get a potential follower and increased engagement on the post itself, plus extra traffic and a lead! So valuable!

When you have a clear idea about the product and the type of giveaway/contest you are about to run, it is time set the requirements, that every participant should follow. The easier you make the requirements; the more people will join your giveaway. It can be a group of people, that your followers are supposed to follow (also called loop giveaway) or a special hashtag that they might need to use, whatever it is, make it mandatory to hit YOUR follow button. This will guarantee you to get a solid number of followers, especially if you are offering a desirable product.

Note: If you have already built an audience, you can reach out to a brand that can supply you with the products you are about to give away. And if you ask yourself why would a brand take interest in giving away one of their products, know that:

It is a win-win for both sides. You will be able to throw a free giveaway and the brand will get even more exposure and followers coming from your side, but also from theirs (as they would most likely promote the contest/giveaway themselves).

The next thing you need to take care of is to set how long will the contest/giveaway last for. And this is a very crucial step that you cannot skip. If you want to get credibility and show to the group of followers (new and old), that your account is trustworthy, you should say when you are going to announce the lucky participant. Keep in mind, that your followers are not in the same time zone, so make sure that you add an extra clarification on the time.

The very last two steps are to make a set of hashtags that you will be using plus the design of the contest.

Hashtags

A combination of three types of hashtags must be used in your giveaway post to get to your target group:

Your industry hashtags - you are a business about hats, then feel free to use at least 5 hashtags that will bring the right target to your post - the hat lovers.

Giveaway hashtags - community hashtags such as #giveaway and #contest can be very helpful, as there is a big number of people, who would like to win what you have to offer.

Branded hashtag - whether you have them as a requirement or not, using a branded hashtag as part of your giveaway post is definitely a must.

Design

The design of your post is the very first thing that your followers will notice. So, you want to make it catchy, using bright color image and easy to read with a text announcing the giveaway. This is how you can make sure that while people are scrolling through their feed, they will for sure stop and look at your post.

During the giveaway it is essential to remind your followers to participate. That does not mean that you have to post about it every day, but you can add it to your story, highlights, create a countdown post such as “Only three days left to Join and Win….” .

Once the giveaway is over, you can draw the winner, using a third-party software (Instagram won’t penalize you for doing that). The best advice that I can give you is to do it live, especially if you are a new brand. Doing it in front of other people will prove that you are a stable brand with a good intention. This will lower the chance of accounts unfollowing you, once the contest is over.

Who is the real winner?

If you have to pay from your own money to make the giveaway or give your products to get more visibility and followers, let me tell you this: In the end of the day, you are the real winner! Thousands of brands are paying a crazy amount of money to their Social Media experts to attract the right people (target group) to their brand. While you are the one using only one of your products to:

Attract more of your target group

Increase your followers

Get “FREE” (the cost of one product) exposure

A chance to get featured on the Explore page which is equal to even more discovery.

Plus, you might even get an increase in the sales

The best giveaways that I have seen from smaller brands (5k - 30k followers) are the one encouraging people to tag at least two of their friends and the type where people upload their content under a branded hashtag. But Instagram is a platform that won’t hold you down and limit you, so as long as you are on good terms with their policy, you can be as creative as you want, and the result will be the one to determine how good the giveaway/contest turned out to be.

Chapter 14: The 14 Secrets to Engaging Your Audience

While getting enough audience is a good indication of having a selling marketing platform on Instagram, engaging the audience is the key according to the Instagram algorithm. Recent reports on secrets to engaging your audience suggest that having followers of 5000 could prove profitable than just pilling 20000 followers without much engagement. A lot of followers become dummy without engagement and getting the best from followers as a marketing strategy lies solely on how engaging they are. Because of this disparity but crucial aspect of audience engagement, this section has been developed to take you through some clandestine ways of engaging your audience on Instagram. These are salient ways that create feedback-engagement with your audience. The tips given here are from the practical example of top Instagram influencers. Before going further, it is pertinent to give a short definition of audience engagement on Instagram. This is the process of getting your followers interactive. It is the process of receiving likes and comments on each of your post from your audience. To monitor the engagement of your audience, consider the following factors:

Comments

With these, you will be able to notice the feelings of your audience about your posts. They are a very impressive way to judge whether your followers are interactive/engaging. When you have good comments, there is a great sign people are expecting your contents. Of course, there are ranges of comments. Everyone can like a post, but when you are receiving enough comments different from such as ‘Awesome’ or ‘Great’ but something more creative, you have a great audience engagement. With good comments, your marketing platform is encouraging as you can easily track what people feel about your product and thus you will know the areas of likes and dislikes. 

Followers  

The number of your followers is a great yardstick to how people are engaging with your post. This type of yardstick is actually faulty as there is a different meaning to why people follow you. One can’t solely rely on a number of followers as a shred of evidence in audience engagement for marketing. But followers influenced by your contents is a good indication of good audience engagement.

Likes

Actually, this is a good indication of people’s acceptance of your contents. It is an obvious reason that could be rested upon as great audience engagement while marketing on Instagram. This is a good yardstick for you to judge.

Reposting and Shares

If you have a good number of followers ready to share your posts to their respective followers, it is a great indication of audience engagement on your contents. When your posts receive more reposts and shares, there is encouragement on how people have received your marketing strategy. 

The above yardsticks given are all indication of audience engagement on your posts. They are things to look for when analyzing audience engagement and how to improve them. For a huge business with lots of followers, interacting with followers might pose some challenges. This is because there are lots of people to attend to manually. Therefore, there is a good necessity of knowing the secrets to engage with your audience while marketing on Instagram. You might not have gathered enough followers but replying every comment might have posed challenges as well. So, below are some great secrets to increasing and engaging your audience while marketing on Instagram. The secrets are:

Taking advantage of Hashtag  

A good hashtag guarantees an impressive engagement with your followers on Instagram. The importance of using hashtags can’t be overemphasized. With the hashtag, you are sure your posts will get to the right audience and those solely within your niche. You use a hashtag to specify your posts on Instagram, and thus only those ready to engage with your contents are only receivers of the contents. The hashtag can as well be used to ask for the opinions, tagging of friends, asking your audience to take action, etc. on Instagram.

Posting creative contents  

For a good turnout of your audience engagement, be creative with your posts. Don’t just post like other social media platforms, make meaning out of each of your posts. Meaningful posts will surely give your followers the opportunity to interact with your posts. They will be triggered by the creativity therein. While doing your marketing on Instagram, try to be meaningful with your contents that people can relate with on Instagram. The photos you are posting must be designed to catch the attention of the audience. Likewise, let the contents that will be posted on Instagram be a typical reflection of your brand and product. With this in place, the engagement of you is assured as people now gain interest in your posts and your label.

Revolve your posts around audience interests

The number of posts you have should be controlled. Many audiences get bored with too many posts –even meaningful contents could be meaningless. But when your post is strategic, you create a kind of suspense in your followers which make them long for you. In fact, when they miss your post, they will search for you just to engage with the trend of the post. Posting just one video a day is enough for someone with a vision to increase the engagement of your audience on contents. The type of audience will surely influence when and how to post in order to get the best result of your posts. Make every moment count.

Leverage on Instagram stories  

This is an interesting part of engaging your audience with your stories. Telling stories on Instagram has proven to be one of the most effective ways to engage your audience in the marketing means. In early research on Instagram, people averagely spend like twenty-eight minutes using or viewing videos. Here lies your strength, create a short video of your products and post them for engagement. Make sure you are telling a story with each of your posts. They must be arranged in a chronological order to reflect the kind of story and brand you have. Many of your followers find it interesting to follow posts that are telling story brain-engaging stories. Don’t waste this opportunity; leverage on the importance of this. It is marketing made easy; audience engagement is the true secret of marketing. Give your audience nice behind the scenes and practical usage of your product videos.

Using appropriate filter

Instagram has been designed with lots of filters to be added to your posts. They are not created for fun but rather to be used. It is all about getting the attention of any of your audience, so use the right filter for your post before posting them. That Instagram operates through visuals is a fact, if only you leverage on this while posting contents on Instagram. If you have captivating contents while marketing, your audience will be able to engage with your posts adequately through design. To get much of your audience’s engagement, use a good filter that is appealing to eyes.

Use themes of Feeds

While lots of people know and use Instagram photo filters, many don’t know nor use feed themes. This is what can create a kind of uniqueness in your posts. Because of little people’s attention drawn to it, you have an opportunity there to use it as an instrument to engage your audience. Instagram visual is there to capture the attention of your audience. It is never a crime leveraging on it. With just a white and black feeds themes found on your account, many people will be lured to engage with your post. While many will be wondering how come you have white and black feeds, many want to know how and why you are doing it –remember it is to wow them all.

Create familiarity with Geotags

Very many people like to connect and engage with people around them, those they can reach. This is the work of geo-tags: showing your location or location of your brand and business. Make sure you add geographical location tags to your posts so that people around you could be aware of your posts. With good geo-tags, many of your followers will engage with each other. Some might even hang out outside Instagram. Lots of people relate to what they know, use this as an opportunity to spur more engagement of your audience.

Posting within the right timing

In addition to the times, the days are given as well. Posting in the right timing of your audience will increase the engagement of them to your content and post. When you have an audience of High school students, consider the times they are likely to come online and post on their feeds. Note that Instagram refreshes itself after some minutes in which the recent posts only are seen at the top of the feeds. You use social media publisher like Sprout to denote the times of your audience as well. Your engagement will be quick once your timing is correct. 

Highlight stories on your profile

The feature of highlight, though transient, can be used to detain anyone that view your profile. The highlights have 24 hours life span, though they can be renewed. These features are great to entice lots of followers to your profile and chiefly engage them. They are a practical way to engage your audience on Instagram.

Posts with CTAs on them

Wondering what CTAs are? Fewer worries, it means Call To Actions. This is a point where you solicit for the response of your followers. With a good CTA, many of your followers will engage with your contents. In fact, you can make your CTA a giveaway which will intensify the audience engagement. Perhaps you don’t have any giveaway, asking the opinions and questions of your followers will also put them to actions. This most times creates immediate responses from your audience. It is really an effective way of engaging the audience on Instagram.

Creating contests

That people comment and reply to posts with incentives is a fact. Therefore, to get an optimum engagement of your audience, try to create tangible contests. Your giveaway might be a discount on your products, especially if it is a necessity for daily living. You could as well encourage your followers to tag their friends to benefit from this reward. The result or effect of actions such as this is drastic on your account as the post could even get out of the reach you have sent it. Anything can stand as giveaway contest provided the fight is worth fighting among the followers.

Establishing conversations with comments on your post

Replying to comments on your posts could as well boost the engagement of your audience in marketing on Instagram. One of the practical ways of getting audience interactions on your post is by establishing a kind of conversation. This conversation could be turned to chain talks whereby on a single talk, lots of replies from followers will spring up. If it gets too serious, you could be a hashtag creator and then your account is on the verge of reaching a good number of the populace –invariably your product and brand. With this continuous interaction, stable growth of audience is sure.

Engaging people with the same account  

While following those top Instagram influencers, consider causing a huge conversation on their posts. With this, you could refer to your post with hashtags and their followers will check it out and then the conversation begins. Don’t just follow them, create a kind of connection between your account and their account too. This is a great way to engage your audience, don’t forget to include necessary hashtags.

Measurement and Optimization of Campaigns

You will need to track the growth of your engagements at this point. This is to detect the areas with problems and strengths in your campaigns. Measure the engagement rate of your followers through the Instagram Engagement Calculator. With this, you will detect the behavior of your audience thereby creating a suitable post for them. 

In conclusion, make sure you follow these steps but not by hook and line. Take those working for you and apply them for the best results. Repeating these steps is where the strength lies. While interacting at whatsoever stage, make sure there is no sense of spam or negative feelings. Even when people drop bad comments, reply with a colorful mood. With all these, many will consider your account as being responsible.

Chapter 15: Understanding Analytics

Analytics are the most powerful tools at your disposal. These numbers dictate everything about you - from your potential to partner with brands, to your action plan during content strategy planning. Understanding analytics means digging deep into the world of marketing and getting involved in the nitty-gritty of it all. This is the only place where those with degrees have the advantage. Getting involved with analytics is part of their training, and they are very good at doing so.

Not having a degree does not take away your ability to become masterful on the subject, however. Anybody is capable of anything, especially when they have the tools to do so. I am going to go over some ways now that analytics can help shape your plans and activities.

•  Posting Schedule: Targeting times of the day can be a pain. It is, however, absolutely necessary. You need to know when your followers are active so you hit as many as possible. Using the times provided by your analytics, you can easily pinpoint the best times to post content and schedule posts accordingly. This is why scheduling is important - even if you are awake or away from your phone, the show keeps moving on.

•  Advertisements: Making sure your money is spent wisely could be the most important thing when you are starting out, whether as a business or as an aspiring influencer. Your analytics determine every aspect of the advertisement, whether it be location or demographic.

•  Content Creation: Great analytics means you should make more of that style of post. You can check the analytics on individual posts, and Instagram’s analytic suite also shows you which ones have the highest reach and are the best performing. This allows you to move in the right direction according to what your followers interact with the most.

•  Contest Guidelines: Depending on who your audience is, you want to tailor contest guidelines to them. Different demographics are willing to put different amounts of time into entering a campaign of any kind. There is a lot that analytics help determine in regard to your campaigns.

There is far more than that, but I will not dilly-dally on the small details. There is far more to talk about than just those!

You need to know where to access those analytics too. However, this is where I can tell you more about that specific feature, so you really start to get a handle on the different aspects of what these platforms provide.

The main three I love are Hootsuite, Phlanx, and the in-house Instagram analytics suite.

I will provide the reasons below.

•  Hootsuite : If I did not say it before, I will say it again; Hootsuite is the master of all things social media. The reason that it is used so widely is the absolute control it gives you over every aspect of your Instagram account. You have the full suite of every analytic you could ever want, and all the data points to match. This gives you a lot of power in making sure you are planning posts and curating content accordingly.

This is one of the best ways to do it, since it can also run ads on Facebook and other websites at the same time. In fact, it can even run Google Ads for you. It is just a powerhouse of marketing prowess!

•  Phlanx : This is also a great place to pull overall analytic reports from. For some of the features, such as the engagement rate calculators, you do not even need an account. It allows you up to three free searches a day. This is enough to pull your engagement report every day. It helps you to keep track of it.

It is simple at the most basic level. However, everybody needs to start somewhere. For those of you who cannot pay for a full service analytics program, this is a great place to start. It will not give you everything you need. But, when used in conjunction with the next item on this list, it is powerful indeed.

•  Instagram Analytics Suite : Yes, the in-house analytics made it into the list. I have found their numbers to be pretty well rounded in terms of usability. They give you a great idea of what posts are performing well, which ones are flopping, when your fans are online, etc. It even gives you full analytics to your stories, which is a huge plus.

These will serve you well. After all, I would not talk about them so in-depth if they were not truly the best tools for the job. You can teach yourself all about analytics just by studying them and checking them daily. Getting a feel for the rhythm and what your account looks like in terms of analytics is important. 

So, about your engagement rate. This analytic is especially important for aspiring influencers, and less so for businesses. Influencers need to know how well they are doing in terms of their fanbase. This determines when you should launch merch, or even a website, or do anything in terms of promoting yourself. It can also tell you when a good time to start up a contest would be.

Engagement rates will also determine when you should feel comfortable reaching out to companies or brands in terms of sponsorship deals, or even giveaways you may run together. Remember, they have those analytics and they will absolutely use them.

There are a few different ways you can increase your engagement rate. I will set some out below.

•  Engage with other similar accounts . You need to engage every day. I cannot stress this point enough. The only way to get people to interact with you is to interact with them. It is a group effort and you need to constantly be in contact with other accounts to be successful.

This is especially true for influencers and brands. Make sure you have notifications on for their accounts, following the 10% rule for your allotted amount of followed accounts. Making sure that at least half of those accounts are influencers and brands is a great way to see them in your feed and be able to interact on a daily basis.

Also, make sure you flip through people’s stories and interact with them. Answer polls, questions, quizzes, and whatever else they might have up.

•  Use strategic hashtags. You need to make sure that you are using hashtags to the best of your ability.

Check the posts of successful accounts and see what they are using for their hashtags. Combined with this, look to see how many people are following the tag and make sure to do the half-and-half trick. To refresh you, make sure half the tags have a following of less than 100k. The other half are fair game for any number and should be more “generic” in nature.

•  Put effort into your captions. Longer captions engage your audience. It makes them read more about you and become more involved in your life. You should really put effort into your captions by using tools that allow you to add spacing into them. You can even find online tools which will allow you to make text bold or italicized. The internet is truly a wonderful place!

•  Add a QOTD to your posts . To get people talking to you, make sure to add a Question of the Day to your posts. This is a call to action where you are compelling people to answer your question. Make sure most of them are pretty simple; most people are going to want to give a one-word answer.

For example, asking if they prefer one thing to another is a good strategy. Or, ask them what their favorite song is. Anything goes!

•  Use all the features in your story . You have an array of different tools you can use here. There are lots of cool stickers, effects, engagement boosting tools, and more. You can even put music in your story! Posting up polls, quizzes, and more get people interacting on your story… and perhaps clicking over to your profile if they are intrigued.

Boosting your engagement goes beyond even these strategies, however. A lot of it is integrated into the other things you are doing on your Instagram account. Much like the analytics driving everything, engagement is a result of those analytics and should be nurtured even beyond this.

•  You need to figure out when the best times to post for you are. Looking at your analytics on Instagram, you can easily see when people are awake and using Instagram actively. These are the times when you need to schedule things to post for you. If you are posting when they are asleep, they are not going to see what you are posting. It will not be relevant or show up in their feed. The algorithm on Instagram is constantly changing and understanding analytics has never been more important as a result.

Posting should be done when people are most awake, which will vary during the week. If you are going to be posting three times a week, make sure that you schedule your posts for the busiest times during the three busiest days. These days will most likely remain fairly constant, and most people find that it is the weekend where activity shoots up. For this reason, I generally suggest posting something on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. This gives you a full range of days with a different pull. Making a themed QOTD or story post alongside it will also boost engagement.

Furthermore, understanding your audience becomes crucial. Knowing their patterns of activity is great, but you need to know more. There are definitely better analytics out there if you are using another program to keep track of them. Knowing who your audience is allows you to better cater to them. There is a huge difference between a teenage girl, for example, and a mother of three. Understanding these differences and the habits of your audience allows you to market directly to them. This is beyond necessary if you hope to see profit on your investments.

Again, three posts per day is the maximum you should be posting. This may be impossible for you, depending on how much content you have backed up and how much time you can put into cultivating or curating more of it. This is why featuring other accounts’ posts can be useful, too, since this is content curation rather than content creation.

I will explain these two terms below:

•  Content Creation: Whenever you create something to be posted to your Instagram account, this is content creation. It is your personal work that you have made to post onto your account. It is entirely yours.

•  Content Curation: This is the act of taking content from other creators, posting it on your platform, and fully crediting them. This means tagging them in the photo, as well as talking about them in the description. It is a great way to say “Hey, this is really cool and I love it”. Most people do not mind having posts featured so long as they are tagged and fully credited. Hootsuite has a feature that will cultivate things automatically for your convenience.

Now that you understand the two, more and more of this will make sense. Learning industry terms is important for making people understand that you are literate in the art of social media. Professionalism goes a long way in cultivating a strong public image with close networking ties.

Now that we have all of the above out of the way, I think we should talk about the elephant in the room. We are all too aware that you can purchase followers. This is something that many businesses or accounts do in order to boost their follower count and gain more legitimacy. As people are learning about it, they are also learning what constitutes a “fake” follower, and how to see an account filled with them.

Some of the signs that an account is fake are as follows:

•  A dead giveaway is that they are following thousands of accounts. This is especially true if they are inactive and almost nobody is following them back.

•  Their usernames are garbled nonsense. Normally, people put at least some thought into their usernames. Numbers and letters, or strange spellings, are also a sign that an account is fake.

•  They have few posts, and the ones up are nonsense. Having the same photo over and over again, or very few posts that have no caption, shows they are most likely a fake account

There is a way to stop them, however. When you find fake accounts, report them immediately as spam. Make sure that you check who is following you as much as you can and report fake followers as you find them. Fake accounts also screw up your engagement rates. Beware of them!

Besides fake followers, there is also automation at work. Most people do not realize that these are such a hot commodity, but the truth is that a lot of people use them. However, it is important to note that they are very much against the Terms of Service for Instagram. If you are found to be using one, you can say good-bye to your account.

There are a few other dangers you can associate with automation too. Being “shadow banned” is a real threat. Essentially, the Instagram algorithm will see that you are making a ton of comments at once. It will flag you as a potential spam account and you will be banned from commenting on or liking other posts - even your own! This is obviously something you want to avoid.

On that note, do not copy and paste comments onto a bunch of photos. This is so disingenuous and really makes you look awful if people catch onto it. Remember, real growth is slow at first and you have to build a great public image to have real success.

Automating programs work pretty easily. They will go through and do the following things:

•  Follow accounts for you

•  Leave comments on photos

•  Like as many posts as you set them to

These are all great features, right? Wrong. The only thing an Automator is going to do is get you banned from Instagram. Although some people use them, I never suggest this route. The chance of getting caught is too great, even if it is small. It also removes your ability to comment sincerely on other people’s posts. That is the way you want to go about it.

The benefits of automators are as follows:

•  Reach a bunch of accounts at once.

•  Interaction with other accounts skyrockets.

•  You can gain followers more quickly.

The dangers, however? They far outweigh these benefits:

•  You could very well get banned. Violating the ToS of any website is a bad look. This puts you in danger of losing everything you have been working for. For influencers and businesses, this is simply not worth the risk. You need to make sure that real growth is happening, but a fake boost will only hurt you in the long run. The money maker is your connection to and influence on your fans. You need to make a genuine effort in connecting with them.

•  Even if you do not get banned, you may face a temporary block. Being shadow banned enough times is enough to get you permanently banned. Also, it disables your ability to interact for at least an hour or so. This is a huge blow to your ability to get scheduled posts up and keep updated on what is happening.

•  The comments are not genuine and might make people angry. Some people even go as far as to block accounts which are leaving obviously automated comments on their posts. People absolutely hate it - it is selfish, and really quite rude.

I think that I need not say more on this topic. Obviously, using an automator is just all around a bad idea. I do not suggest it. In fact, I suggest that you steer clear of them as a whole.

I am going to take you through a regular day and what you should do during it. This will help you get a better idea of how to schedule everything and what you need to do to keep yourself moving along the right track.

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Conclusion  

I hope that through reading this book, you are now feeling more confident in establishing a powerful Instagram marketing strategy that you can use to approach Instagram in 2023. From generating high-quality content to getting that content in front of your audience and learning how to increase your engagement, there are many strategies required in growing your Instagram account. That being said, once you learn how the process works, using Instagram will seem effortless, and your growth will continue to maximize over time. The initial learning stages are the most challenging, but once you hit your stride, it becomes much easier to grow on Instagram or any other platform that you may use to grow your business online.

Remember: as you build your account, always seek to create sales funnels that you can use to drive people from your profile to your website so that they can begin learning about your products and services. Although they may not purchase from you the first time they land on your page, the more they find themselves landing on your website, the more likely they will be to purchase something from your company. Plus, this is a great way to get new followers over to your website so that you can start building recognition and interest with new followers as well. 

After you have completed reading this book, your best course of action is to ensure that your account is branded, start creating an attractive image on your account, and then start building your following using the strategies proposed in this very book! Once you have laid out the foundation, you simply need to remain consistent to create your growth. 

Facebook ADVERTISING

GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS TO INCREASE YOUR SALES IN 10 STEPS AND BECOME INFLUENCER. USE FACEBOOK ADS, GROUPS AND LIVE BROADCAST FOR YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

JEREMY PREACE

Description

Almost around a decade ago, television and print were considered to be the main modes of marketing and getting the message across to the consumer. With the advent of Facebook marketing in recent years, the competitive landscape has majorly changed. Companies now use Facebook as the main mode of communication between them and the consumer due to the many advantages that it offers to them. 

This change has mainly happened due to the rise of social media usage and the effect that it has on consumers. People use Facebook excessively in the modern age, more so to connect with other people. However, as the usage of Facebook has increased tremendously, marketers have noticed that it allows them to reach consumers in a much better way – a way that is more engaging than conventional media. Facebook marketing not only allows marketers to get their messages across effectively but also allows them to form personalized connections with consumers. People share a lot of their experiences with a specific product or service on Facebook, which eventually does not only stay restricted to them but reaches a much larger and wider audience by the use of the social networks of those very people. People also share a lot of reviews, advice, warnings, and tips on social media that marketers can use to their advantage. This gives other people a lot of validation before choosing to buy a product or service. With conventional media, this was not really possible. 

In addition to that, it is also of importance to note that it is much easier to reach a target audience through Facebook than it is to make a mark through conventional mediums. Statistics show that on an everyday basis, almost 684,478 pieces of content are shared on Facebook. This is a huge amount of data if you look at it closely. With this much amount of data circulating the internet every single day, marketers can make use of this, and they are absolutely doing so in the modern era. With a lot of filtering out of information and customization being available on Facebook, consumers also trust Facebook advertising way more than they trust other mediums. On Facebook, advertising does not only happen through the companies or company representatives but also through opinion leaders and other customers. Word of mouth is known to be a very strong and trusted medium of marketing and Facebook marketing does a very good job of generating word of mouth. 

This guide will focus on the following:

Everything about Facebook Pages

Marketing is a two-way street

Pre-selling your audience

Sales Funnel

Improve, Test, Grow, and Monetize

Analyzing and Retargeting

Scheduling

Maximizing Organic Reach on Facebook

Using the Pixel to improve Ad Targeting

Common mistakes and How to Avoid Them

… AND MORE!!!

Facebook marketing can help a business achieve its goals by targeting the right people and by making efforts to market in the right kind of way. By making use of all that this book has to offer, you will be able to market effectively using Facebook. 

Introduction

The positive effects of Facebook marketing aren’t just restricted to that. By making use of Facebook, consumers are able to reduce the amount of risk that is attached to buying a certain product or service. This adds to their convenience. When people can research a product to a great extent with just the click of a button in the comfort of their homes, their satisfaction level with the product is much higher when purchased, and their purchase experience is a rather fulfilling one then. Consumers feel highly empowered when they can search for all of the information not just by reading up about what the company has to say about their product but also by looking at other people’s experiences with the product. This adds to their level of satisfaction and makes their purchase experience a whole lot better. This luxury was not available when traditional media was used. With the use of traditional media, people could only know what the company wanted them to know and couldn’t go beyond that point at all. The social media platform is like a community that consumers are now using to their benefit in order to maximize their purchase benefit and in order to help people of the same likes. 

Another critical aspect of Facebook marketing is that it has become very easy for marketers to communicate with their customers one on one and get their feedback on the services they’re offering. With this, they are much better able to provide better services and can ensure that consumers are getting exactly what they want. With the ever-increasing use of Facebook, marketers also have to be very careful with the kind of services that they are offering. One bad experience of a single consumer can be so detrimental to their reputation, and they are very aware of this fact. It can cost them a lot, which is why they have to make sure that they do not get complacent at any time. If one customer is not satisfied, he can share that with his entire network of people who will be validated by the opinion of that one person due to the fact that he is on their social network, and his experience can mean a lot to them. It can save them from what they might have otherwise had to face.

In addition to all of that has been said above, Facebook has a lot of tools that can help with managing all the content that managers would want to look over. These tools are really easy to use and provide a whole lot of added convenience. 

Facebook Ads Manager is a great marketing tool that Facebook has. This tool can help managers create ad campaigns, manage a lot of ads at one time and also evaluate the performance of these ads. You can be as creative as you want with this tool, and you can create your ads just the way you want. You are also able to alter the settings that pertain to the target audience, the budget, and the placement of your ads. It is extremely important to see how well your ads are performing. Only then can you see the benefit that your investment is getting you. So, if you’re looking to manage your ads in the best possible way, then this is the best tool that you can use. A step-by-step guide on how Facebook Ads Manager can be set up and used is also given in this book make it convenient for those who are looking to use it. 

Mass posting is also a great feature of Facebook. It allows you to be able to post to a lot of different groups all at once, saving you a whole lot of effort that you would otherwise have had to put in. You don’t separately have to go and post in all of these different groups. Your job is done simply by mass posting. You can do this best by making use of the Postcron App. The step-by-step procedure that you can follow for this one is also explained in detail in this book. 

The next is Facebook Pixel. This is a tool that helps you track visitors on your site so that targeting them then becomes much easier. This feature drops a cookie that can track visitors on your website so that you are able to advertise to them later. This is also known as retargeting. This tool can help get in-depth insights about the target market and can also greatly help you focus your advertising efforts. The three main functions of this tool are custom audiences from your website, custom conversions, and custom and standard events. 

Another really important and helpful tool is Facebook Business Manager. This can help you manage everything really well. It can help you manage all of your ad accounts and can help you put everything in one place. You can use a lot of additional resources when advertising and can also track all of your efforts by being able to see a detailed report of everything related to your ads ad your content. A step-by-step guide of this tool is also provided so that you can really get to know about how this works in the best of ways. 

Did you know that you can advertise on Facebook without spending a dime?  The social aspect of the platform makes sharing information fast and easy. With a few clicks one of your posts can be shared by your customers, exposing it to their friends and potentially bringing them to your page and making them customers. Every time a post of yours is shared it has the potential to be shared again and again. In this way it's easy to get your customers to advertise for you with little effort on your part and even less on theirs. If seriously expanding your reach is one of your goals you may find this approach limited in the end, but that doesn't mean you should disregard it entirely. Think of it as but another tool in your arsenal to be used in conjunction with other methods.

Most Facebook users, when they share or like a post, don't put much thought into what they're doing. They know that they're sharing content that they enjoy and in doing so are showing their support for it, either directly or indirectly, and that users on their friends list will see it. They're reproducing the original content free of charge on behalf of the original poster, though users rarely see it that way. This changes with blatant adverts or businesses, however. In the digital age we've become so aware of the barrage of ads we're hit with each day that users will feel less inclined to share content that is little more than an advertisement for goods or services. That's why you offer incentives: reward customers who help spread the word.

It's not as uncommon as you think. The easiest way to accomplish this is to offer something in a post—say a lower price on a product or service or a giveaway—through a contest. Everyone who likes your page and shares said post within a certain time frame will be entered into a contest to win whatever you're offering. Interested users will follow the instructions and share the post, showing it their feeds. Assuming some of their friends have similar interests, they may continue the cycle. Since part of the step requires them to like your page, they'll now become customers and receive your future posts in their feeds. Once the time frame ends make good on your offer and announce the winner on your page. You'll get a notification for every like you receive and each time a user shares your original post from your page, giving you a solid measure of how effective your post was. 

These sorts of promotions are proven to work, but you'll want to avoid doing them too often. If you do, you'll risk coming across as desperate or a spammer.

At the end of the day small businesses live and die on reviews. Most people know this but a gentle reminder to your customers doesn't hurt. A review, either on Facebook or elsewhere online, gives customers a platform to share their feelings on your business.

Depending on your category you choose for your page customers have the option to leave reviews directly on your Facebook page. A summary of all your reviews will be displayed on your main page and specific reviews can be inspected by anyone who visits said page. This is useful because it's immediate and doesn't force the user to leave Facebook to find information, keeping retention rates high. You'll also have the ability to respond to reviews on the page. This plays in your favor with negative reviews because you can apologize to the customer and offer to help. You can't win every negative review over but it will show anyone reading it that you're at least interested in improving the experience for your customers.

Keep in mind, though, what you're asking for. First and for most you want your customers to share an honest opinion, and you might not like what you get. You have to be able to handle criticism well; responding harshly to negative reviews will tear down any professional appearance you have and can ultimately sink your efforts.

Reviews have a long life because you can use them in future promotional efforts. Though their initial purpose is to inform the reader how your current customers view your business you can later quote them as a means of proving your success down the road.

Chapter 1: Everything about Facebook Pages  

Facebook pages can be created with many different intentions and goals in mind. There is no set purpose for all pages on Facebook, their ultimate end goal is determined by the creator. Generally, users tend to like or ‘engage’ with Facebook pages that portray content, messages or ideals that they share. They like and follow these pages because they are searching for ‘value’, which may come in the form of regular updates on a topic, social events, discounts, funny memes, creative pictures… These are the main categories of Facebook pages you are likely to come across:

Small, local business or shop: your local grocery

Large Corporation, company or institution: ExxonMobil, Ferrari, Starbucks…

A product or brand page: Apple MacBook Pro page, Nike Airmax page, a new coffee flavor…

Public figure: artist, athlete, politician, activist…

Entertainment: local cinema, local theatre

Cause or community: helping refugees, donating charity towards the homeless…

How can a page help grow your vision

The purpose of this book is to help you grow a Facebook page, reach millions of likes and skyrocket user engagement. Once you establish a strong social media presence the images, videos, stories, posts you share can have a great impact:

Personalize your brand amongst all the competition

You can generate traffic towards your website, product page, affiliation pages (generate revenue)

Educate your following and raise awareness

Promote a movement, activity and interactions amongst your members

This is what will build brand loyalty and customer dedication. You are not aiming for high page visits, but a high engagement. 

How to set up a Facebook Page

The following sections will cover how to select, develop and launch a Facebook page that reflects your social media goals. Inside Facebook, select the ‘create a page’ command to begin this process.

Selecting page category

The first action towards the creation of a new Facebook page is the selection of a page category, shown below. Although all pages appear similar to one another, each possesses individual features and traits that you can promote to the public. 

Page Basic Information

After selecting a page type, a creation wizard will appear and you will be asked to provide a set of information regarding the new page. Each page category requires a different set of information, specifically relevant to the category. After creation, you can change the page category information as often as you like without constraints. Beware that if you change the page category from “local business” page, any reviews you currently possess will be lost. Shown below is the set-up information required by every page category during setup.

Detailed Page Information

After adding the minimum requirements above, your page can go live on Facebook. However, the creation wizard will ask for additional details about your page; these provide more information to the page visitors and help you gain more exposure. Let’s use the “Local Business or Place” page category as an example, this is some of the extra information you can provide:

In addition to the information above you have the ability to customize the URL address of your page, add a detailed page description, provide tags that identify your page for greater visibility when searched, and more. At this point you must also provide a page profile picture and you will be asked whether you wish to add this page to your favourites and—if there are any page duplicates for your business—you will have the opportunity to claim those pages also. Finally, Facebook will ask for a preferred audience; this provides specified demographics characteristics for your target audience. In order to publish your page, you will have to certify that you possess the right and authority to represent the chosen business. At this stage, your page will be live on Facebook!

Customizing your page

In the following sections the guide will dive into the process of customizing what is–for now—a mostly empty Facebook page. The main features and commands available in your Facebook page are also explained. 

Introducing your new page

Although your page is now live and visible on Facebook, it has an empty and bleak appearance. Before you start working on the appearance of the page and introduce some eye-catching graphics, it is important that you verify the information you entered is corrected; you will also be able to update any information in the future in case you choose to do so. 

While on your page, you can click on the ‘about’ tab to verify/update the following information relating to your business:

Address

Contact information

Operating Hours

Price Range

Link to Website URL

And more

Add Cover photo & Display photo (profile picture)

Now, is time to add some color and creative touch to your page by adding the cover and display photo. The display photo is a small, squared picture of size 180x180 pixels. This photo will always be displayed in each of your posts and therefore will be inextricably linked to your page. Make sure it is something catchy creative and unique to your page, which can be easily recognized. A logo is typically used for these photos, if you don’t have a logo, you can hire a graphic designer to create a simple logo for 5$ on Fiverr.com. 

The cover photo should be something creative, unique and colorful. It should represent the message, character and style of your page. Make sure it is a photo that adds depth to your page, the dimensions are 851x315 pixels. Again, you can hire graphic designers of Fiverr.com to design a high-quality, catchy cover photo that matches the style/direction of your Facebook page.

Look at Apple’s Facebook page, the display photo is the logo and the background picture is a high-quality representation of their newest most successful product. 

Adding ‘Call-to-Action’ buttons

Call-to-action buttons are the “Buy Now”, “Book Now”, “Contact Us” buttons you see on a the top of some Facebook pages. These buttons are very powerful in redirecting visitors towards a very specific purpose or website. These may include buying a product, booking tickets for an event or contacting a restaurant for a takeout order. The buttons work across desktop, iPhone and android users alike. There are a number of call-to-action buttons at your availability: BOOK NOW

CALL NOW

CONTACT US

SEND MESSAGE

USE APP

PLAY GAME

SHOP NOW

SIGN UP

WATCH VIDEO

The image below shows how these buttons are selected and added to your page.

Explore the page ‘Settings’

The settings tab is where you can view and modify most information relevant to your page, for instance the privacy mode of your page. You can choose user/admin roles, select page members who are not allowed to post in your page to prevent spam. Other settings you can modify here include: who can find your page, who can comment on your posts, who can tag on photos, who can privately message you (the page owner), and whether there are age or country restrictions to viewers of your page. 

Chapter 2: Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a tool Facebook provides in order to help you track the performance and metrics of your Facebook Business page. Naturally, as a business owner or internet marketer it is essential that you are aware of how effective your Facebook marketing is. Therefore, you need to have an intimate understanding of the unique quirks and eccentricities of the Insights page.

One feature that you will want to dig your teeth into is the export feature.  The export button should appear in the top right section of the insights page, and it will allow you to download all the data relating to your Facebook page as an excel page or as a .csv file. It is always wise to keep a copy of your data stored in a secondary location but having an excel or .csv file will make it easier to run third-party software on your data sets if you have specific further analysis in mind.

Before you download this data, Facebook will also give you the choice of whether you want to see 'Page level data' or 'Post level data'. These are what the terms might suggest, page level data information about your Facebook Business page and post level data about information regarding the performance of your Facebook posts.

Finally, Facebook Insights will also allow you to designate a time period to slice your data range from.

Insights Metrics

At the top of the Facebook Insights overview page, you should be presented with three critical metrics relating to your overall performance: 'Total Likes', 'Total Engagement' and 'Total Reach'. All three of these values should also be alongside a small graph and a small arrow indicator with a percentage value, informing you of recent increases or decreases of these values.

Total likes are self-explanatory and Total engagement tracks engagement activities such as likes, but also comments, shares and post clicks.

Finally, total reach tells you the number of unique individuals who have seen any content associated with your page within the last week.

The total likes and total reach values are accessible to anyone who visits your Facebook business page. Facebook provides these data so users can have a quick cursory glance at a place and gather the popularity and interest in said page.

Page Insights

The first thing you will see on the Facebook insights section is a table designed to give you a more thorough understanding of the performance of each of your posts, shown in a table. Bear in mind you will need at least 30 fans of your page as well as a few posts in order for Facebook Insights to provide you with any data.

Regarding the table itself, in the first column, the date of each post will be presented, alongside a provisional title made up from the first few words in that post. The third column will show the type of post and the fourth column will show the reach of each of these posts. The last two columns show the amount of engagement as well as a button to boost a post.

Page Insights allows you to perform business-specific content optimization.

Nonetheless, all these instructions refer to trends rather than strict rules; it may be the case that text heavy posts, for some peculiar reason, are more effective than image-based posts for your business. Above and beyond breaking convention, you may also be able to determine specific patterns about your post content in order to garner what is being received the best by your targeted audience.

Furthermore, Page Insights also allows you to calculate whether your Facebook marketing strategy is being effective. Depending upon your business, you may want to achieve a high reach or alternatively a high engagement with a lower number of users (or another viable goal).

Pages to Watch

Facebook Insights provides Pages to Watch section below the Insights it provides on your most recent posts. All marketers keep a watchful eye on their competitors, so Facebook simply formalized the process with the pages to watch section.

This is more than just a mere shortlist of your competitors, as it also tracks their metrics too, presenting their total page likes, the percentage up or down from last week, the number of posts they made this week and their engagement this week too. You have to manually add what competitors you wish to track, although Facebook will help by providing relevant suggestions.

As a final parting note on the Pages to Watch, be aware that not all the pages you track need to be viewed as aggressive competitors. It can be mutually beneficial to share, like and contribute to the engagement of similar businesses as this can result to more attention to your business, especially if you target similar, but distinct audiences. Nonetheless, be wise and don't promote other business over your own, especially if they are encroaching over your own customer base.

Insights Sub-Sections

Currently, Facebook Insights is separated into six distinct tabs; an overview section then a breakdown of your likes, reach, visits, posts, videos and people.

The likes, reach and visits tab will present data from the last week (or a calendar section of your choice) in a graphical format. This is useful if you find yourself needing a visual interpretation of your data to summarize overall trends, but these tabs will not provide you with any new information.

The posts section, however, provides several useful functions. Firstly, it shows you more of your former posts in a format identical to how the overview section presents posts you've made. Unlike the overview section, the post tab will allow you to browse through all the posts you've ever made, rather than just the last five.

This is more useful for trend observation, but it also gives you the opportunity to present and boost posts that are topical. For example, boosting posts you've made last year about Christmas may once again become relevant once again during the winter months.

The post section also provides a small breakdown of reach and engagement of your posts by post type (photo, status or link). Additionally, there will be a graph demonstrating what time during the day your fans are most active on Facebook. This can obviously help you schedule posts more effectively, but bear in mind that you may have potential fans that do not post during those hours that you have not yet reached.

Finally, the post section also allows you to see the top posts from pages that you watch. As always, observe, take inspiration and improve upon the successful formulas your peers are using.

The video section will provide you with three metrics (total views, 30 second views and top videos) about the videos you have posted through Facebook and display this information graphically. If you keep an eye on the performance of your posts in general, you will probably be aware of the performance of video based posts. Nonetheless, if you produce a large amount of video content or appreciate visual representations of data, this section is still useful.

Lastly there is the People tab. This will provide you with a breakdown of where your fans are located, their predominant language, as well as their gender and age range. Use this information to garner whether your audience targeting is both successful, or whether you should actually be capitalizing on audiences that seem to appreciate your current content.

Chapter 3: Branding

A brand is a business and a business is a brand, whether or not you realize it.

From your perspective this may not be the case. We've come to recognize brands as being individual names associated with products: Dove is a brand of soap; Hoover is a brand of vacuum. This perception of brands is common but simplistic, leaving out the most important part of what a brand is: the brand is how customers see a product or business. In this sense it's more than a name or logo: it's the tone of your advertisements and communications. 

Because Facebook allows for direction communication between you and your customers, you need to be very aware of how you come across and how you're seen. The impression you make is a huge part of your brand. Every piece of content you make contributes to or detracts from your brand. What you put into your content and the tone of your communication becomes the face of your company. You'll likely have a preferred image in mind, and while it's possible to work towards that it's impossible to ensure that all your customers will accept or see it. 

Anyone with administrator status on your page can control what is on the page, meaning they can delete posts on the page regardless of who posted them (to a certain extant—you can't remove reviews left with the built-in review functionality without changing categories and eliminating the feature entirely). If you make a post the falls flat or proves controversial somehow, it's not a bad idea to remove it. However, the true intent of controlling information flow is to ensure that customers are posting to the right sections. For example, if a customer posts personal information that would be better suited for a direct message, or if you have a separate means of contact of customer service inquiries, you'd be fine to remove that content from your public feed. In such instances you should contact the customer and let them know why you removed the post and direct them to the correct place. 

However, there's also the chance that a customer will post problematic content to your feed. You'll want to react to this as soon as you can to protect your brand.

Let's be honest: we don't always act politely when we're online. Even when our names are attached to what we do and our identities easily discerned, there's something about interacting through a screen that make some of us feel detached from what we're doing. Thus, we act in intentionally damaging ways. 

Facebook users are no exception to this, and businesses of all sizes get their fair share of abuse from users, sometimes for no reason at all. In many instances users will take personal offense to issues they're having with the product or company and immediately escalate the situation with abusive and foul language. Others just want to be troublemakers and seek to get reactions out of others for their own enjoyment. Regardless, any of this happening on your business pages can have a negative impact on your brand. You'll want to handle such situations quickly to ensure you and your customers are protected from such behaviors. Individual posts (or entire conversations) are easily removed. Repeat offenders may need to be blocked entirely. 

In regard to direct communication, you'll still want to maintain a professional tone to reflect well on your brand. Outside of creating content you'll want to respond to posts your customers make to show that you care about their input. That being the case, one of the hardest things to do is learning how to accept criticism. By communicating with your customers, you're opening yourself up to anything they post. Again, content that's outright abusive is fine to remove; any sensible person would. However, you may also face criticism if a customer is unhappy with something you've posted or if they're unsatisfied after purchasing a product or service from you. Your first instinct may be to defend yourself or to remove (or ignore) the posts in question. This is a terrible idea. Communicating often is good for brand development and recognition. However, being combative or defensive in response to complaints is poor customer service. Instead, respond courteously. Apologize for any trouble they may have experienced and offer to resolve the issue the best you can. You can't please all the people all the time, but you may be surprised at how far good manners go towards changing someone's mood. What's more, if they complaint is in your public feed, your response will be public, too. Anyone reading it will see how you handle customer service.

To summarize, branding is more than what you do, what you sell and the content of your advertisements. Your brand is the public perception of you. To wield the most control over this you'll need to maintain a polite, professional tone in all of your content, including conversations with customers. Always be aware of this when crafting content and if you're consistent you'll develop a strong brand.

Chapter 4: Strategies for Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a tactic used to boost the visibility of your website by labeling it with the important keywords in your business page that are popular with search engines. Search engine optimization will result in increased online traffic, which essentially leads to greater exposure of your site and, ultimately, to more sales. Sites that have a lot of high-quality content (i.e., text densely populated with specific keywords) can rank high without using any special techniques. However, it can take a very long time for a website to rise to prime positioning at the top of search results. SEO is how you reach that coveted spot for your business page.

Keyword Selection

Keywords are, well, key to optimizing your visibility in the eye of search engines. They consist of specific words that most closely describe the topic of your website or an individual post. You want to tune in to and focus on words that best reflect the identity of your business. For example, a nutritional business may have as its main keyword the term “nutrition,” with secondary keywords of “healthy eating,” “food science,” and “health.” Search engine software will read and analyze your page to discern if its content is rife with repeated keywords. It looks for keywords in critical areas such as the website’s title, headers, metatags, and in the text of a post. It is important to use keywords that fit into your content naturally, without looking as if the keywords were simply forced into the site. If you stuff your text with keywords at random or insert keywords too close together to read naturally, the search engine may arbitrarily decide that you’re trying to trick the system and it’ll refuse to rank your page (clever little search engine!). 

Backlinking

The second component of SEO is backlinking. Let’s imagine that some people are discussing nutrition in an online forum and one of the users provides a link to your website: this is called backlinking. Backlinking is when other websites link to yours, allowing their visitors to also visit your site. Search engine software knows how to detect that as well. When it sees that many websites link back to yours, your backlinking score will be higher and your website is more likely to rank higher in search results. However, the websites linking to your site must also have high-quality content for the search engine to boost your ranking. One technique some website owners try is to swap links with other websites to boost their backlinking score. However, backlinking must be relevant. For example, if a website about race cars backlinks to your website about nutrition, the search engine will know it’s irrelevant and will not let this link boost your page ranking. And talking about a certain brand of gasoline as nutrition for your car doesn’t meet the criteria! Again, this is in place to prevent website owners from trying to game the system. 

If you look hard enough you can discover the techniques some people use to try to scam the search engine optimization system, but trying these techniques is only a waste of time, since most search engines are highly programmed to be able to detect what you’re doing. Trying to trick, cheat, or scam the system is known as black hat SEO and your best bet is to avoid it altogether. Why risk drawing unwanted attention from the search engine algorithms and missing out on attracting many new potential customers? If you’re using these tactics, then it’s probably a sign that customers will think your website isn’t worth visiting in the end anyway. The best strategy is to find a balance of keyword use and backlinking to supplement your engaging use of quality text, photos, videos, games or anything else you can think of that will satisfy both your customers and the search engine software. Adhering to this practice will show your customers that you’re committed to providing them with high-quality content. This will result in their increased participation, which will also catch the all-seeing eye of the search engine.

Since all business pages are available for public view, your information is right there just waiting to be analyzed by major search engines. Although Facebook pages are different from original websites in that you can only build your Facebook business page from a template, as opposed to writing your own code to define it, there are still many ethical ways you can help your Facebook page rank high in results generated by the various search engines.  

Optimizing Your Page Name

Your page name is the first item to address. This is what you want your potential customers to see first. The most important place to put your main keyword is in the first word of your name.

If you are a nutritional expert who provides tips on healthy eating, your optimized page name could be something like “Nutritionist John Smith.” You want your name to convey the idea of what your site will provide. Why is it so important to put your main keyword in the beginning of your name? Think of it this way: if you do an internet search for John Smith nutritionist, the search engine you use will bring you all the results for all entries for “John Smith” first, regardless of who they are or what they do. However, if you type in “nutritionist John Smith,” the search engine is more likely to bring you results relevant to nutritionists named John Smith and that’s what you were looking for to begin with.

Give yourself enough time to come up with a page name that conveys as closely as possible what your website will offer new customers. Although Facebook will let you change your page name a certain number of times, once you’ve chosen your name, stick with it. If you’ve chosen carefully, there should be no need to change it. Because search engines will index everything on the page under the page name, changing this essential piece of information may cost you in search visibility and possible customers. 

Once you’ve chosen your perfect business page name, you will want to sprinkle your main keyword throughout your page, paying particular attention to the company overview section and the “about” area. Optimize your business page’s short description as well; it’s one of the first things your visitors will see.

Optimizing Your Custom URL

When you create a business page on Facebook, you will be given a URL that states your page name, followed by some numbers that are unique to your business. This initial URL is long, unattractive and difficult to remember. However, Facebook will allow you to create a custom URL once your page receives 25 likes. You will want to use this feature to your advantage! You won’t be allowed to change your custom URL once you’ve picked it so choose it wisely. If possible, it should exactly match or at least come close to the URL of your actual website. 

To customize your URL, you will create your “username,” as Facebook calls it. Select this option and type in what you want your custom URL to be. Following the example above, your Facebook page link with a custom URL would look something like this: www.facebook.com/NutritionistJohnSmith. 

Don’t limit yourself to using only one keyword but also don’t make an extensive, exhausting list either. Choose four to five important keywords that your potential customers are most likely to use to find businesses such as yours. For example, a great custom URL could be www.facebook.com/FreeNutritionTips, if part of what you’re offering is free nutrition tips. Keep your custom URL short so that it is memorable, so people are less likely to forget it.

Optimizing Posts

Every time you post a text update, integrate your keywords as best and as naturally as you can, preferably within the first 18 characters. Facebook arbitrarily uses these characters as part of a post’s metatag, so you’ll want to maximize keyword presence here. It can be a challenge to make your status sound as natural as possible while still including the keywords, but the effort will definitely be worth it. As you did with your business page name, try to put the most important keywords as close to the beginning as possible. 

Whenever you upload a picture or a video, you can write a description to accompany it. You’ll want to include your keywords here as well, in the most natural way possible. You’ll also want to add a backlink directly to your company website at the end of each status update, as long as it fits naturally. You can copy and paste the link to your website directly into the status update.

Post, Post, Post!

The next step is to post as much high-quality content as often as you can! If you don’t post to your page, visitors cannot see, like, or share your content, your page will be useless, and your business will suffer. Don’t worry – posting often doesn’t mean that you’ll need to be in front of your computer or mobile device all day. Many companies hire an employee to manage their social media pages. However, even if you can’t hire someone to optimize your posts, you can find automated programs that will do the work for you. I will describe these programs in greater detail a little later. 

Don’t forget to fill in the details about your location when you’re filling in your business page information, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar business. This helps your page rank higher in search engine results when customers type your business in along with a location. Also include your phone number and hours of operation. 

Even if your address is unimportant to sales, you should use the products box to provide targeted keywords. Not only is all of this information crucial for bringing your customers to your business site, but search engines also tend to rank pages with detailed information higher in searches.  

Facebook Notes are an effective, but highly underutilized, tool for search engine optimization. When you post a status under your business page, Facebook will allow you to choose “write a note.” The most important pieces of a note are the title and the announcement that Facebook posts to your page once you publish it (Nutritionist John Smith published a note titled Handy Hacks for Healthy Eating). You can write a note about anything related to your business and of course sprinkle in some keywords in a natural manner if you can. 

More about Backlinking

The more high-quality backlinks your page has, the better your chances are of showing up at the top of search engine results. If your backlinks are of low quality, they will probably not help your ranking. For a backlink to be considered of high quality, it must come from a relevant website that has its own high-quality content and visitors must access it often. The anchor text should ideally match at least one of your keywords, and the link should ideally be included within the content and be located high on the page and not off to the side. It should be as organic as possible. The best possible scenario is when a website decides to link to your page on its own. It’s also ideal if the website backlinking to your page isn’t littered with other backlinks, but the few that it does have are also of high-quality. 

For a backlink to work properly, it must be a clickable hyperlink and not just copied and pasted text. You can insert a hyperlink into regular text. The text that serves as the base for the hyperlink is called anchor text . When you insert a hyperlink into anchor text, the text becomes clickable and will take you to the destination of the link attached to it. 

Although your page will obtain organic backlinks over time, you can attempt to build backlinks yourself by reaching out to other relevant established websites and social media pages. You should think of building backlinks as a form of networking. While exchanging links with other sites will not hurt your ranking, search engines usually assume that the backlink is of high quality, particularly if your site has no backlink to the site that is linking with you. 

Also, it is important to use backlinking sources that are related to your business – otherwise the search engine is likely to mark it as spamming, making it a waste of your time. 

Backlink consistently. If you set up a high number of backlinks within a few days and then stop all activity, the search engines will decide that you’re trying to trick the system. 

Since building backlinks, the right way can take time, there are services available that will build backlinks for you. Take the time to research any service owners before you commit to them.  You will want to be confident that they can provide you with high quality, relevant backlinks. You’ll also want to research the average cost for a backlinking service in your field of interest. Costs will definitely vary. Beware of backlinking services that offer their services at an outrageously low price. As they say, “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. “

The best way to entice a website to organically link back to your page is to provide unique and engaging content that other people will find interesting. Facebook business pages are unique in that you can host contests and write notes or post special content that otherwise wouldn’t be effective on your main website. Take advantage of the features that Facebook business pages offer and use them to give other websites a good reason to backlink to you! 

If your main website has a blog, there is one awesome backlinking strategy you can try: copy each of your blog entries into separate Facebook notes. This is a win-win strategy because you are providing high quality content to your existing visitors and if someone who runs another website thinks your content is interesting or informative and important, there is a higher chance they will backlink to your Facebook note instead of your actual blog. 

Remember, search engines are smart - don’t try to scam the system! 

Chapter 5: Facebook Advertising

Ad campaigns on Facebook are a massive topic that takes years of marketing experience to perfect and understand in every detail. This book will give the readers an overview of why you need Facebook ads, how to set up the two most effective types of ad campaigns: “promote your page” and “boos post”, how to specify a target audience for maximum campaign success and how to use Facebook Analytics to learn & improve future campaigns. I will also show you the tricks to create an advertising campaign with the potential of 5,000 likes for $15.

Overview of Facebook ads

Over the past years Facebook has directed a lot of effort towards building an effective advertising platform. In today’s world, Facebook is seen as the most cost-effective and targeted framework to market a product or a service directly to the end customer. The great marketing success of Facebook is based on 3 key features:

Global Reach

Targeted Advertising

Instantaneous and Detailed Feedback

1 – Global Reach : with Facebook’s 2.91 billion monthly active users, massive marketing campaigns can be launched to a truly global reach. However, one of Facebook’s great unique advantages is its ability to provide small-scale marketing campaigns for all budgets. 

2 – Targeted Advertising : with society’s increasing participation in social media, through every page you like and comment you place, Facebook gains more knowledge on your preferences, interests and activities. This data represents Facebook’s strongest point in advertisement: the ability to target individual customers based on their social media activities. The ads targets can be narrowed down by age, nationality, language, interests, geographical location, and much more

3 – Instantaneous and Detailed Feedback : It has never been this simple and straightforward to analyze the success of a marketing campaign. Perhaps most useful of all, small ad campaigns can be launched to only reach a few thousand people (yes, that is small by Facebook standards). By doing so, different ad strategies can be run in parallel and, using Facebook analytics, the most responsive features of each ad strategy can be isolated before launching a large-scale ad campaign. This quick and inexpensive feedback strategy was not available with older marketing approaches—such as magazine adverts.

Creating Ads

Before you can launch your first campaign, you need to have a verified billing method for your account (required to fund the marketing campaign). Enter the billing information as required in Manage Ads>Settings>Billing. 

Now that your billing information is set, you can proceed to launch your first marketing campaign. To do this, you must select the “Create Ads” menu and navigate through the ad manager menu.

Boosting your post

Boosting your post can be very effective when releasing a particularly captivating and catchy post. This post is supposed to represent everything your page stands for in a positive and flattering manner. This technique is aimed at increasing user engagement , not page likes. However, you will gain likes for the post and if it is captivating enough, you can expect users to start tagging their friends and achieve a wider audience. In short, using this technique although you may gain few page likes, you will increase user engagement provided the audience you target finds your post very appealing. 

To begin, create a first post that is captivating and eye-catching to your target audience as described above. Click the boos post button to begin the ad campaign. When you arrange for a delayed post publication time, the corresponding campaign will also be delayed. 

Create a New Audience

The above marketing campaigns require you to select an audience. For your first campaign you will have to create a new audience, for later campaigns you will be able to select/edit saved audiences or create new ones. 

In this area, you can specify the demographics of the audience you would like to reach. 

Pro Tip: If you are only looking to increase page likes, make sure you select the “Exclude people who like [your page name]”, this prevents advertising your page to those who already like it.

Facebook provides a very helpful graphical representation of the audience details, breadth, characteristics and potential reach. Estimates for daily reach are calculated based on the campaign daily budget allocated (pricing is explained in the later section).

As you refine the audience requirements, the “potential reach” of your ad will change. This number represents the global Facebook users that meet the characteristics of your audience. 

If your potential reach is very large, then you can refine your audience further and ideally target more receptive customers (gauge points at “broad”). If your potential audience is too small for your campaign requirements, then your audience is too refined, and you should proceed to widen your audience (gauge points at “specific”). Ideally, for your first campaigns you should maintain the gauge on the green area. It is worth mentioning that the more refined the audience, the higher the advertising costs. 

Ad placement and pricing

In the next steps you will be required to select ad placement, budget, schedule and format. Facebook will walk you through these menus and most menu options are self-explanatory. However, I would like to point out a few lessons I have learned during past campaigns:

Placement – This option allows you to the location of your ad to the viewers. You can choose between different platforms and locations. I have experienced greatest marketing success when selecting Facebook as a platform and the “Feeds” location (ads will be placed in the news feed section of your target customers). 

Pricing – In this section you must specify budget of your campaign. Make sure you select “Automatic” for the Bid Amount option, as Facebook will always deliver the cheapest bid available. This is preferential to the manual big pricing because, as your post engagement increases, the bid price will decrease also. 

Test campaigns in parallel

When preparing any form of promotional content (radio ads, magazine ads, commercials…), it is common practice to prepare two or three versions, compare one another and pick the most responsive ad. In the past this was difficult to do: unbiased test candidates are gathered, and they are exposed to the promotional content; their response is recorded and assessed.  

Facebook ads make this process immensely faster, easier and more precise. Before launching a very large marketing campaign, you can set up small Facebook ads of 10$ with all your different advertising strategies. Facebook can launch the ads immediately and within the next day UNBIASED, REAL-CUSTOMER responses are available. 

This process is clearly fast and effecting; I ALWAYS recommend testing multiple advertising strategies in parallel over Facebook before launching a large marketing campaign. 

Chapter 6: Marketing is a two-way street

Do yourself a favor and quit ignoring your competition. Yes, you may have stalked the Insights page of your local competitors, but have you acknowledged their presence on your website? This may seem like a tricky subject to maneuver, but it really isn’t. No two businesses are the same, and each has something unique that truly sets them apart. Instead of seeing something another company does well as a threat, play it to your advantage.

Be straight forward and be a follower of your competitor's site. Compliment them on a job well done. Remember that ultimately the people behind your competition have the same interests in the same field as you. For example, there may be two website building companies in the same city. Ordinarily, the owners of both companies would likely be friends because they share common interests. When business is involved, it becomes a rivalry that can sometimes get bitter. Peel back the layers to the part where you had things in common and begin to build a friendship. You both like computers and building websites. Your competitor specializes in websites that have the capability to sell products, while your specialty is blog development for small companies. 

Use your differences to your dual benefit. Connect with the other business owner via social media, or in person the old-fashioned way. Let them know that you will be recommending their business to others if you feel their services would be a better fit. In fact, help promote them on Facebook. Take the opportunity to address client questions online by referring them to the experts, your competition. While this may sound totally backward, taking on projects that are out of your scope and interest can be a waste of time and resources. Using this leverage and getting your competitor to refer more appropriate customers to you is more worthwhile of your time.

It may take time to build these relationships, and it is important to know where to draw the line. Most likely, your competition will be a little hesitant to make friends. The concept of a superior business makes this the more likely reaction. Take time and build relationships both in person and online to create a symbiotic relationship, and gain access to valuable customers and contacts that were once off limits.

If blogging is your business, reaching out to other bloggers is really priceless to the exposure of your blog. Make a point to comment on posts from other bloggers. You all are in search of more attention to your work, so give some attention in order to get some in return. Comment regularly and build a working relationship. In time, you can help advertise a friend’s blog by linking it to your Facebook page. In return, that person could feature a link to your blog or Facebook page in a blog article.

With the inception of social media, we cannot forget the social graces that were once done in person. While it is still crucial to meet with potential customers and business partners face to face, creating the same level of professional courtesy goes a long way. Not only will you end up with more business than you can handle, but your customers and competition will notice how well you play in the sandbox with others. The ability to work well with just about anyone is a priceless skill that everyone appreciates.

Chapter 7: Pre-selling your audience

One of the best things you can do to promote your business online and increase Facebook likes is to give potential customers and followers an idea what to expect when they follow your Facebook page. Many people hesitate to follow a business page because their newsfeed becomes flooded with advertisements and recycled information. For example, a sporting goods store may continuously post sale flyers. Unless that person is buying many products from that store, they will likely think twice about following the page.

A good way to counteract that is to let people know what your page is all about. This can be very simple. In your page’s information bar, be sure to fill out a description. Describe your business and your general mission. Also, let people briefly know how you run your Facebook page. Keep it short and sweet by saying something like, “For sales flyers, coupons and advice on how to stay in shape, like this page.” You can even go as far as to say, “We will not flood your newsfeed with spam,” or something that sounds a little more eloquent.

Also, make sure to keep that promise. Getting a ton of people to follow your Facebook page means nothing if you lose them just as fast. Keep posts to a healthy minimum, and make sure not to exceed anything you have pre-sold your customers on. On average, posting one thing every day is about the threshold for posts. Exceeding that likens the possibility that people will begin scrolling past your posts and unfollowing your page should you be exceptionally annoying.

Keep in mind that Facebook is also looking out for this. Their algorithm is set up to recognize and filter out content from pages that appear to ad-driven. Facebook prides itself on the ability to filter out spam from companies that aggravate users and make them shy away from using the service. People are bombarded with advertisements at every turn, so the people at Facebook try to filter some of that out. 

To avoid being filtered out, don’t flood your page with advertisements, and create unique posts. Even if you are trying to say the same message, change the wording and pictures. Not only will you slip under the Facebook radar, but your followers will also see different content and are more likely to click on it if they think it is something new.

Let people know that your intention is to help them. Customers respond well to businesses that are truly looking out for them instead of the bottom line. Businesses that only promote themselves and how they can benefit their customer, they need to show it. Post links to helpful articles within your scope of practice. For example, the sporting goods store could reference an article about proper hydration during a workout. This really has nothing to do with the products they sell but shows that they have an interest in the well-being of their customers.

Ideally, these posts and articles should be written in-house by a trusted member of the company. However, this isn’t always feasible. Most small companies don’t have the time or the budget to hire someone to write Facebook posts and articles for them exclusively. If anything, it is likely an afterthought, something worked on only after the daily grind is over. If your business has the resources available to write regular posts in house, go right ahead. This can be a very valuable asset. If you lack resources, or simply don’t want to pay for this, procure information from other sites. Periodically, it is okay to post links to popular articles that you think your customers could benefit from. Just make sure you do it right.

First, try to find sources that are local to you, say, a competitor or another company that has similar customer needs and demographics. Promoting another local business will help you build relationships within the community, which will further your reach both online and in person. Don’t just post a link to the website either. Write a simple blurb outlining the article and giving credit to the source. 

Go one step further and make sure the author of the article knows you are using it as a reference for your customers. Make a comment on their Facebook page or email the business to thank them for writing the article and let them know you have referenced it. This will further promote a friendly relationship and will hopefully translate to the promotion of your Facebook page on their social media pages. Networking is key to getting your ten thousand likes.

Chapter 8: Sales Funnel

There are various options available when it comes to Facebook advertising. For instance, you can increase your brand awareness, improve the engagement rate, direct traffic from your Facebook page to a landing website or webpage, and even increase the rate of conversions. The benefits you receive essentially depend on the specific goals you want to achieve. However, Facebook is quite different from AdWords or other conventional PPC platforms. Basically, Facebook is so much more than just buying impressions or clicks. If you use Facebook optimally, you can create an excellent sales funnel.

Before delving into all of it, you must answer a simple question: What is your purpose when you log into your Facebook profile? Are you merely there to check the updates of your friends and to check about the general news or do you log into Facebook to search for products and purchase them? Chances of it being the former are greater than the latter. 

Facebook is more about socializing and networking than buying. Seldom does a Facebook user think about purchasing while going through their Facebook feed. This all means the overall intent of buying displayed by Facebook users is quite low. This may make you wonder, what is the point of using Facebook marketing and ads to grow your business if Facebook users are particularly interested in shopping. 

Well, this might be the case for some brands that end up being rather disappointed with their ROI. They might acquire new followers, increase their engagement, and such but their rate of conversions doesn’t improve. The important thing to remember is that this problem isn’t with Facebook; it instead lies in the approach marketers adopt while using Facebook. Hard selling on Facebook is not a good idea. You must create a good sales funnel if you want to generate positive results from your Facebook marketing and advertising campaign.

Creating a Sales Funnel

Before learning about creating an optimal sales funnel on Facebook, you must learn about the different stages a potential buyer goes through before making a purchase. A buying cycle includes the recognition of an opportunity, discovery of alternatives, comparison of solutions, making a decision, and implementing the solution. If a potential buyer is in the stage of opportunity recognition, it is unlikely that such a person will immediately skip to the purchase stage. However, there will be some customers who will be ready to purchase. That said, a majority of Facebook users don’t intend to make a purchase when they log into their Facebook accounts. This is where you must try to gently coax them to make a purchase. The best way to go about this is by developing a sales funnel. Here are the steps you must follow to create a good sales funnel.

Step one: Creating segmented content

To start with, you must have a couple of different types of content available. It can be in the form of videos, infographics, blog posts, webinars, eBooks, or even slideshows. The specific path you opt for doesn’t matter much as long as you provide content, which is engaging, relevant, and high-quality. You must ensure that whatever you are promoting can be purchased on your website. This comes in handy when you start to retarget your leads to work them further along the sales funnel. You need different forms of content to reach different segments of your target audience.

You cannot depend on a one-size-fits-all approach because different individuals will be at different stages of the buying cycle. Some might not be interested in making an immediate purchase and might be browsing through their options while others might be considering the idea of buying something. Once you have the right content according to the audience you are targeting, they will enter your sales funnel.

Step two: Promoting content to “warm audience”

You must start promoting your content to “warm audience.” It essentially means you must target those users who have been exposed to your content or your brand in some way and have shown some level of interest in the same. This category of users will essentially comprise of your existing Facebook followers and can also include the list of users who have associated with your business or brand in the past. You must pay attention to the level of engagement and determine the type of content which leads to most purchases. Take some time, analyze the different metrics available to you, and make a note of the content that’s doing well.

Step three: Targeting lookalike audiences

A lookalike audience is a term that’s used to describe those users who share similar interests, behaviors, and habits like your existing target audience. You can think of them as a cold audience who can be easily warmed up to your brand and can be converted into potential leads. Therefore, you must ensure your marketing strategies target this section of the audience along with your core audience. If you want to do this, you must open Facebook ads, go to the Audience section of it, and click on the option “Create a Lookalike Audience.” Once you do this, a pop-up will show up on your screen, and you need first to select the source. You can create a custom audience or use the data from a tracking pixel or page. Choose the source that is ideal for you. 

The next step is to select the audience’s location and size, which ranges from anywhere between 1% to 10% of the population in the area, country, or countries you choose. While selecting the audience size, keep in mind that the smaller the percentage, the more similar your lookalike audience will be to your existing audience. Once you select the necessary parameters, the next step is to click on “Create Audience” option. The lookalike audience thus created will be a part of the overall cold audience who need some persuasion to warm up to your brand or business.

Step four: Promoting the best content

Now, you must use the same content and direct it toward your cold audience. The content can be in the form of a textual post, webinar, video, or anything else. If you do this carefully, then you will be able to appeal to your cold audience and can introduce them to your sales funnel, and they will become a part of your warm audience. After doing all this, the cold audience will now become aware of your brand and will have some inclination about making a purchase.

Step five: Remarketing

While advertising on Facebook, it isn’t realistic to expect a lot of people to switch from being your cold audience to being viable leads who are eager to make a purchase. Usually, your cold audience must be exposed to your brand multiple times before they are primed to purchase. So, how can you prime them and get them to move further along the sales funnel? The key to it is remarketing, and Facebook is the best platform for remarketing.

Step six: Using Facebook Pixel

You need to create a Facebook Pixel, add the pixel to your website’s code, and use it to start remarketing and directing visitors back to your website to make a purchase. By using Facebook Pixel, you can start collecting all the important data you need to optimize any existing ads and to develop more effective ads in the future.

Step seven: Using videos

There are various ways in which you can start remarketing. However, while using Facebook, the best idea is to use videos to get your target audience to move along the sales funnel. Since you are dealing with “warm audience” at this point, it is quite likely that they might have been exposed to your content in one form or the other and are even a little interested in it. By using videos, you can help make a connection and encourage them to visit your desired landing page. 

Marketing is all about encouraging your audience to delve a little deeper and get better acquainted with your brand. This is a subtle way of converting your target audience into viable leads without coming across as being pushy.

Step eight: Keep remarketing

You might be quite eager to make some conversions, but don’t expect all your audience to convert. So, what can you do now? Now you need to come up with other ideas to remarket to your audience. Your intention at this point must be to reach out to those who haven’t converted and encourage them to convert by offering them something of value in return. You can offer an informational product that you know will not only be liked by your audience but that they will find useful too. You need to think of different ways in which you can get your audience to convert. Maybe you can offer them a free trial, an eBook, or anything else once they sign up. Offer them an incentive, and you are bound to increase their interest in your brand.

Step nine: Warming up your leads

It is great that you have managed to motivate a portion of your target audience to opt in. If you are using email lists to convert your audience into viable leads, remember that most people don’t open or go through their emails. Maybe you were offering them a free eBook or a free trial, and someone didn’t convert even after going through the informational product you offered them. 

Now is the time to start warming up your leads once again. You can create an ad to explain the benefits of the product you are offering to gently nudge them to make a purchase. You can also include testimonials or anything else that you think will help increase the credibility of your brand. These things help the audience trust your brand and give them the motivation to make the purchase.

Step ten: Time to hard sell

The final step of the Facebook sales funnel is the hard sell. You will need to direct your attention to all those who used your free trial, downloaded the free eBook and so on but never made a purchase. The best way to goad this segment of users to make a purchase is by creating a personalized video ad that includes something along the lines of, “Thank you for checking out (the free content you offer), but for some reason, you did not complete your purchase (mention the product’s name.” Once you do this, it is time to go for the hard sell, and you can do this with the help of a not-so-subtle sales message about why they must make the purchase. By now, all your leads will be quite familiar with your brand and are as warmed up to your brand as they will ever be. It means they are primed, and they are ready to purchase!

Chapter 9: Improve, Test, Grow, and Monetize

Successo, Strategia, Business, Soluzione, Marketing Your content is extremely important when it comes to attracting customers on Facebook. While there are a number of content tips that we have spoken about, you should always focus on creating content that will keep your audience engaged. Here are a few tips that you need to keep in mind when generating content for Facebook marketing.

Mix Up Your Content

Irrespective of what kind of business you are into, you need to make sure that you make new posts and publish content in different formats. Facebook allows you to create ads in different formats and you should use that to your advantage. You can choose to publish a blog post every week that will help customers understand what your business is up to and what has happened in the past. You can even get people to subscribe to your blog post by inserting a call to action at the end. Another way of sharing content is with the help of photos. Rather than downloading images from search engines you need to take live snapshots of your workers as well as customers and post them on your Facebook page. You should even post pictures from events that you have hosted or any of your marketing strategies that you have tried. You should also keep publishing press releases every now and then. Press releases are a professional way of communicating with your customers and informing them about any updates that are coming up. This is also a great way of informing people of any new store openings or a new sale that may be coming up by the end of the month.

Encourage Posts from Your Fans

As the name suggests, you run a fan page and not a business page. This means you will need to give fans the opportunity to voice their opinion. You should not be scared of negative comments because that is going to happen irrespective of whether your fans can post on your page or not. Encourage fans to post success stories on your wall and tell the world how Facebook has made a difference to their life. The success stories will encourage other potential leads to become customers because they know that this content has not been created by the business but it has been created by a live customer. This is like a Facebook review but in the form of a post on a wall.

Use Contest in Moderation

While it is advisable to announce contests every now and then, you should not overdo the contests because it takes away the excitement. Most of the fans will end up following your business page just because you are running contests regularly and not because they are interested in your product.

Create Interesting Content

While you are a professional business and you want to have serious information posted on your fan page, there is no point being serious all the time. You need to inject a bit of humor in your posts because this will help your fan page to stand out and get more followers.

Define your USP

Every business needs to have a unique selling point that will help them stand out from the crowd. You need to make sure that your USP is very different, and you offer something that no one else does. This does not necessarily have to be a product; it can even be a service that you are offering. There are a number of brands that promote their customer service rather than promoting their product. This is because there are millions of products out there but very few brands that offer brilliant customer service. You need to come up with a USP based on what your customers think your strong point is and the feedback that you received. Your USP also depends on your target audience and what you are offering them. For example, your audience could be looking for a product that helps them save on time or a product that is trustworthy. If your brand is offering these value additions to the customer, then you will be able to claim that as your USP.

Your USP can change depending on the kind of business you are in and the target customers that you have. You need to deliver on what you promise and based on that you can claim your selling point. When you know what your USP is, all your communication should focus on this USP and your company vision should also be based around it. Always communicate your USP clearly and make sure that you are providing it in every offering as well. Don't try changing a USP too often because it will take away the identity of the business. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind when you are creating a USP:

make sure you know who your target audience is.

try to note down all the way that your product or service could help people. This will help become a very strong selling point for your business.

compare your selling point with your competitor and see what they are proposing. Make sure that your proposition is unique, and it will help you capture a majority share in the market.

conduct surveys with your potential customers as well as your current customers and see what they feel your USP is.

monitor the current trends and see how your customers are being affected and whether you will be able to provide a solution.

Targeting Current Customers

Most businesses make the mistake of ignoring their current customers and focusing on new leads. This is because business owners feel that if a customer has purchased once from their business, they will always rely on their business in future as well. The fact remains that every business still needs to compete with other businesses for their current customers as well. Brand loyalty is built over a number of years and not just over a couple of purchases. The example of a restaurant or a soft drink is more relevant. If a customer has been going to a restaurant to eat for the past decade along with his family members it would be very difficult for any other restaurant to convince him otherwise. However, if someone had a single meal at a pizza joint, it doesn't mean that the customer will be loyal to the pizza joint. As a business owner you need to make sure that you are looking to improve your brand in order to retain your current customers. While email marketing is very effective in retargeting customers, you also need to make the most of Facebook marketing and get more customers to do repeat business with you.

When you are running a business, you need to make sure that you use Facebook marketing to your advantage and see what the current customers feel about your products or services. You need to make sure that you live up to the expectations of your customers because their brand loyalty and their views are going to be vital in you acquiring new customers. You need to test and see what your customers like and what they are not happy with. If you feel that your product could solve another problem that your customers are facing, you need to communicate with the customer and make them aware of the solution that you are offering.

It is important that your business keeps evolving as time goes by. Let us take the example of a real estate business. If you have sold properties to various customers in the past decade, you need to look at those customers once again and see if they want to move into a bigger apartment or if their current apartment is giving them some problems. The one area where most realtors fail is not following up with their current customers because they feel that they cannot get any more business out of them. However, that is far from the truth. If you have sold a wrong house to a customer, you need to make up for that mistake because word of mouth publicity can put you down in no time. There is no shortage of realtors in the market today and if your potential buyers learn about the way you do business, they will avoid you. You should always look for the benefit of your current customers before you move to generate new leads. This is where Facebook marketing can help you. You can target your current customers by checking how they feel about the last purchase that they made. Try conducting a survey to see if any of your current customers are unhappy and communicate with them if you feel that there is something that you can do better for them.

The Ladder of Engagement

The ladder of engagement has been created to improve engagement between a business and its potential customers. Most business owners are not able to relate to their customers because they are not sure what it takes to encourage more engagement from the customer. This is where a ladder of engagement helps. This ladder encourages you to take one step at a time and this will gradually help build a strong relationship with your customer base.

Start Easy

When you build your Facebook page you need to start slowly and ask your audience to do small tasks for you. These tasks could involve sharing your fan page with their family members, and friends, clicking on your website link or subscribing to your email list. None of these tasks require too much time investment from the customer’s end and they will be more than happy to do it. Once your customers have completed these tasks, they will be ready to perform even bigger tasks for your business.

Collect Key Data

As the engagement level between the customer and the business increases, the collection of data should also increase. You need to collect information such as email ID, name of the customer, location, along with interests. This will help you customize your communication with the customer in future and it will help build on the initial engagement.

Don't Demand Too Much

Let us again take the example of the restaurant. If you want more people to come and become a customer at your restaurant you should not directly ask for it. Instead, you need to put it in the form of suggestions made by your current customers. You are allowed to rope in big name celebrities or local influencers that will help create a positive impact.

Expand the Ladder of Engagement

Once you have reached a level where you are communicating effectively with your customer, you need to make sure that you expand the ladder further. This can be done in the form of asking people to help your business grow in your local area. If you are struggling, you can go ahead and ask local investors to come in and take over a percentage of your business in return for an investment. Since the level of engagement is so high, many people will come forward and it will help your business survive even in an aggressive market.

Tell Stories as Part of Your Facebook Campaign

Storytelling is extremely important, and you will be able to connect to the audience in a better manner. A number of brands tell stories to reach a high level of connection with their customers and you need to do the same as well. There are a number of advantages that storytelling has to offer, and it will help with your marketing efforts tremendously. If you target your Facebook campaigns based on the emotional response of the customer, you will end up reaching a wider audience. People usually connect with a story a lot more than a marketing campaign. There are various kinds of stories that can help your business get its point across. Here is how you can tell the stories effectively.

Focus On the Issues at Hand

As a business owner you always need to look at the trends that are happening and how they are affecting your customers. There are a number of issues that need to be taken care of and this can be done through your Facebook marketing campaign. If you feel that racism is on the rise, then you can create a video celebrating different ethnicities and showing that unity is what prevails. You need to come up with a story that will touch the heart of your audience and they will be compelled to share the story forward. There are a number of big brands that are using storytelling to their advantage, and it is working.

Connect With the Audience

Try and relate with the problems that your customers are facing and put forward your product as a solution to the problems. You will see the biggest cosmetic brands touching on the most sensitive issues that are happening around the world today and telling a story around that. In most cultures color is usually a problem and most big guns will point out that this is wrong. Acceptability in society is something that everyone is entitled to and when you tell a story around such a sensitive issue people that are affected by this will relate to your brand.

Try and Relate with the Problems That the Customer Is Facing

There are different segments of people that face different kinds of problems on a daily basis. Some parents facing issue with their children not respecting them while others face a problem with their children not even visiting them when they are old. Some children face neglect in life while others are harassed in school and college. If you can create awareness as a business owner around these issues, you will be able to get the right message across and create an impact in society. Most people are not even aware of what's happening around them and releasing a short video on the realities of society can be an eye-opener for many people.

Storytelling is very powerful, and you need to make sure that you use it in the right manner. Promoting the wrong stories or giving false information is not going to hold you in good stead. Apart from helping to you grow your business, the story should also make a difference in society and that is what you should be aiming for.

How To Stop People from Scrolling Past Your Post?

Facebook marketing is extremely important, and you need to create the right kind of posts in order to get people's attention. Spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on Facebook advertising will not really be helpful if your ad campaigns are not powerful enough. You should never be satisfied with the number of followers that you have and look to acquire some new followers on a daily basis. The only way this can be done is when your posts are reaching more people. There are various reasons why a post may not be going viral and you need to figure out what can be done in order to attract more attention. Here are a few tips that you can keep in mind in order to create engaging posts on Facebook.

Understand the Platform

Facebook business pages are not very complicated and you need to understand how to use it in order to come across as a professional outfit. Sharing random images or putting up random text on your fan page will get you nowhere. You need to make sure that you understand how the advertisements work and how to create content that will be engaging.

Understanding Your Audience

You should always be aware of what your audience needs when you are posting content online. If your ideal age group is above the age of 40 then there is no point posting information regarding the latest trends in hairstyles. You need to make sure that you’re posting information that will be useful to your audience and not something that may offend them.

Use Pictures Relevant to Your Business

Downloading images from the internet and posting them on your business page is not going to benefit anybody. You need to start posting images that are relevant to your business and unique. If ten businesses use the same image, they will not have an identity of their own and their fans will stop relating to them. Also, if you use an image of another business post then fans may scroll past the post thinking that the post is from that same business and not yours. You need to create an identity for yourself and make sure that you are posting images that are only unique to you.

Ask Question through Your Post

As a business owner you need to realize what will make people stop and look at your post. When people are presented with a question or a riddle they will stop and think about it for a couple of seconds before they scroll past.

Those few seconds are all you need to create an impact and make people click on your post. You need to make sure that you are catching the imagination of your audience in a matter of seconds. Posting generic content without an interesting headline is not going to be beneficial and 99% of your audience will scroll past your post.

Chapter 10: Analyzing and Retargeting

Business Manager is a site that you use for managing assets for advertising including pages, mobile apps, ad accounts, product catalogs, and Instagram accounts. In the Business Manager, you’ll easily access your assets in a single place & grant access to people working along with you. There’re multiple features which are particularly vital in the Business Manager, features which I would discuss in the following section. 

Campaign Planner

The Campaign Planner tool lets you estimate the frequency and reach for the campaign depending on the ad placements, budget, & target audience that you select. After you have created a plan for the campaigns, you might compare the campaigns with one another & share your campaign predictions with the colleagues. 

To share results, you may click on the share button on the screen’s upper-right side. You might share important data via email or shareable link. Also, you can download it in a CSV file form.

When you actually like its results, you could purchase this plan by pressing “Reserve for Purchase”. The plan that you create would be saved automatically. To ensure that your plan is up to date, you need to check the plan status that’s represented in 3 different symbols: red triangle, green circle, and gray circle. Green circle shows it is updated. Gray circle shows it is not updated & red triangle shows there is an error.

Automated Rules

These are created by Facebook to automate most common tasks depending on the data from campaigns, eliminating manual work and automatically applying the rules to ad campaigns. 

Apply Rule: Where you need the rule. You might apply a rule to active campaigns, ads, or ad sets. 

Action: What would happen if a condition is met? The options are turn off, adjust manual bid, adjust budget, or send notification. 

Condition: It triggers an automated rule. You’ll choose from the list of items including daily spend, cost per result, lifetime spends, results, and frequency, among many others. You could then set thresholds to is equal to, greater than, or lesser than, & the number that you want. If a campaign, ad, or ad set reaches the threshold in the chosen time range then the automated rule would complete an action that you have selected. 

Audience insights 

It is a tool which helps you in understanding your audience’s behaviors and interests that enables you to target the ads. This provides an exclusive report on purchase activity, demographics, location, behaviors, lifestyles, language, interests, and Facebook activity. 

Here is how to use the audience insights. 

First, Open Audience insights   

Select an audienc e

You’ll have 3 options: Custom Audience, everyone on Facebook, and people connected to your page. 

Fig: Choose your Audience

Set the parameter s

You should define users whose insights you’ll see. You might select the audience’s interests, country, gender, and age.   

Explore the dat a

You may look at multiple parts of the demographics such as age, lifestyle, gender, household information, relationship status, and job title.

Delivery Insights

These insights, that you might access when seeing ad sets in the Ads Manager, is the tool which shows you issues with the ad’s delivery. Along with this piece of information, you will better diagnose the delivery problems & improve your results. The delivery insights information includes analyses describing reasons for the delivery volatility & ways which you could address the issue. While accessing the delivery insights, you’ll see 3 tabs which contain information regarding the performance of the ad set. 

Activity: It shows you actions that are taken on the particular ad set just like deliveries and updates.

Audience saturation: It occurs if an audience views your ads several times & refuses to give a response to them. 

Auction overlap: The auction overlap happens if you target the overlapping audience that makes you bid against yourself. 

You might access the delivery insights in 2 ways:

A business notification: If the ad set faces some performance shift, then Facebook would send you one notification which you may click to see. This notification would appear on the Ads Manager’s top-right corner. 

Ads Manager: All ad sets with the performance shift have “See Delivery Insights” link.

Creative Hub

It is a site where the advertisers could easily test ad mockups, creates, share, and review. This focuses on mobile ads & explores new ways that advertisers could create attractive and compelling ads that are compressed within the mobile screen.

Here is what you might do with the Creative Hub

You can browse through the ad creatives that are designed by the agencies and brands at the Hub’s gallery which is located under “Get Inspired Tab.”

You can preview mockups in each available ad format on Instagram and Facebook.

You can save mockups.

You can collaborate & exchange your ideas with the team.

You can generate a URL of the mockup for sending to clients and colleagues.

You can check whether the image is according to Facebook’s 20% text rule.

App Ads Helper

When you’ve an app, you must use the app ads helper . It is a tool which troubleshoots & fixes any issues with the app. 

Ads Reporting

Ads reporting tool can store all saved reports. Here’re steps to follow if you are navigating through ads reporting page. 

Press the ad, campaigns, or ad sets to run your report. Click a category that you need to get your report on.    

Press Export - Create Custom Report   

Custom Conversions

These let you optimize & track for particular actions even without adjusting the existing pixel code. It is a process which needs replacing pixels placed on your final page after required action is finished. Custom conversions let you track the conversion event that is based on the URL string. It means you could enter URL of your page that you will mark as the conversion, & Facebook would track every user who makes this to that page.

Now, go to the Custom Conversions   

Press “Create Custom Conversions”

Now, fill in the vital information to make the custom conversion. 

Select “URL Contains” and type URL keywords. Name the custom conversion, select a value & a category. Press “Create”

Images   

If you visit a drop-down menu in the Business Manager then you would see, under assets section, the option that is labeled as “Images.” By clicking this, it would lead you to an images page that contains all images that you have uploaded for your various ads.

Pixels

Below assets tab, you’ll also view an option that is labeled as “Pixels.” If you click it, you would be just directed to the page which consists of performance information regarding your pixel. So, from there, you’ll view a graph which displays if your pixel is fired & a list which consists of the domains, URLs, & devices that the pixel is fired from. Plus, on the screen’s upper-right side, you would see crucial information regarding your pixel.

Offline Events

The offline events is an important tool which lets you track the offline conversions. For tracking offline conversions, you’ll have to create one Offline event set, and you could upload data.

Go to the Offline Event s

Press “Create Offline Event Set”

Now, name an event set. Add some description and click Create option   

Assign the ad accounts for testing offline event set (it is optional)

You might select several accounts. Press “Next” or “Skip” for skipping this step.  

Assign users to test the offline event set (it is optional)

Press “Next” or “Skip” for skipping this step  

Now, drag the file within box & click “Next: Map Data”   

Press Next: Review   

Press Start Upload   

Press Close & See Results.

Product Catalogs

The product catalog consists of a file that is called product feed which contains all products that you will advertise on Facebook. You want product catalogs for the Dynamic Product Ad. In case you need to upload your product catalog then you should go to the page of Catalog Manager in the Business Manager.

Go to Catalogs

Press Create Catalog   

Choose catalog type   

Choose catalog owner & select catalog name   

View the catalog   

Upload a product that is feed by clicking the Add Products. The formats that are compatible for uploading include CSV, ATOM XML, RSS XML, and TSV.   

Choose Use Data Feeds   

Select Upload Once and drag product catalog into its box. 

Page Post

Page post section that is under Create & Manage has all page posts you have published on the Facebook page. You could also create & delete your posts from there. 

App Dashboard

App dashboard consists of all apps you are advertising. From here you could view app ID & app status. 

Test & Learn 

Test & learn is a great tool for people who need to boost campaigns by searching good strategies. 

Monetization Manager

It helps you in tracking and managing monetization on Audience Network. Also, from there, you’ll manage ads & placements, analyze the ad performance, & optimize revenue.

Analytics

It contains all analytics for pixels, groups, pages, and apps. Analytics information contains monthly new users, monthly active users, & monthly revenue. You can visit this page for monitoring the performance of assets.

Events Manager 

It contains your assets that are related to the event tracking. You can also access your partner integrations, pixels, custom conversions, offline events, and app events.  

Audiences

From here, you will find audience lists that you have uploaded including Custom Audiences, Lookalike Audiences, and remarketing lists. In this section, you’ll create your new audience & use filter tool for searching a particular audience list. 

Videos

You will find videos section under assets. There, you might view entire videos that you uploaded for the ads. When you need to upload more videos, you will do so here. 

Analyzing results

After publishing the Facebook ads, you’ll analyze all of your results. You could not create ads & leave those running. You have to monitor their performance regularly. 

You’ll view your results in the Ads Manager through clicking on the campaign. When you click on the campaign, you’ll view columns with the metrics including budget, frequency, reach, and cost per results. In this chapter, I will list important metrics.

CTR

Click through rate or CTR is the set of clicks on the ad’s link which takes your users to the URL destination. You’ll use this percentage in order to see whether the ad is relevant to the audience. If there is a low CTR then it might indicate that the ad isn’t attracting audience’s attention. 

Cost per Link Click (CPC)

CPC is an average cost for every link click. When the CPC is at 1.25 dollars, you are paying 1.25 dollars per user’s clicks on the ad. You may calculate your CPC by dividing total amount that is spent on the ad by the link clicks. 

Impressions

It is the number of times an ad appears on the users’ screens. When a user, scrolls down the News Feed, come upon the ad, Facebook will count this instance as 1 impression. When that user scrolls back up to view your ad, that also counts as 1 impression.

Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM) 

It’s an average cost for a thousand impressions. You can calculate it by dividing total amount that is spent by the impressions & multiplied by thousand:

spend / impressions x 1,000

You can use CPM in determining whether the ad is relevant to the audience. 

Cost per Result

The cost per result shows cost per result. This result is an outcome relying on the objectives that you elected for the ad. It’s calculated by dividing the amount that you spent by your results. 

Frequency

Frequency is the number of times you see an ad on the feed. While monitoring frequency, ensure to do this along with the results & relevance score. When you see that the results & relevance score are decreasing and the frequency is rising, it shows that the audience is having ad fatigue. If this happens, you’ll have to change ad targeting or creatives.

Reach

It is the number of users who viewed your ad even once. When the reach is high then the ad is appearing to a large number of people. 

Amount Spent

It is an estimated total amount that you spend on the ads. You might reference this metric for keeping track of the spending. 

Relevance Score

It is very important metrics for tracking because this one estimates the ad’s relevance to the audience. There is a rating from one to ten, the relevance score sees whether the ads would be shown to the target users in comparison to the competitors. 

Website Purchases

This metric shows a total number of the purchases that result from the Facebook ads. It is vital to track it because this helps you in understanding the number of sales that your ads generate. 

Cost per Website Purchase

While monitoring your site purchases then you need to do this while looking at the cost per website purchase that is an average cost of the site sales. It’s calculated by:

spent/site purchases = cost per site purchase

Website Purchase Return on Ad Spend 

Website purchase ROAS tells you how much capital you make each dollar spent. It, along with the relevance score, is an important metric for tracking. It shows you that the ad is generating revenue or not. 

Building sales funnel

There are different stages of the buying process. It is called a sales funnel. This is some upside-down triangle. From the top to bottom you’ve 4 stages: action, awareness, interest, and decision. Here is a breakdown of all 4 phases:

Awareness is Top Funnel

For the ads targeting the top-funnel users, I suggest you to target the broad audiences & Lookalike Audience. Use Lookalike Audience because it is particularly useful for top funnel as the customers haven’t seen the ad before, as they’re similar to the current customers, there is a high chance that they will be receptive towards your marketing message.

Interest is Middle Funnel

Customers that lie in the middle funnel debate whether to buy from you or not, researching competitors, & learning more regarding your business. So, for this funnel, you should create ads which talk about the business & products that you offer. 

Decision is Bottom Funnel

After users click on the middle-funnel ad, it is time to close your deal. For this phase, as the customers are ready to purchase so you might create ads which push for more sales, along with CTAs & copies which urge the customers to purchase. 

Set up remarketing

For creating your remarketing ad, select an objective with an ad format & go to an ad set level. You will then select Custom Audience for the targeting. You’ve 4 retargeting options: engagement, website traffic, offline activity, and app activity.

Engagement: This’s a retargeting option letting you target users who actually engaged with Facebook posts.

Website Traffic: Use this option to target those customers who have visited particular web pages. 

Offline Activity: When you have to target those customers who have visited your store, use this option. It lets you retarget anybody who took the action offline. 

App Activity: You might target someone who took some particular action on the app just after clicking the ad.

Next, pick a schedule. Also, ensure tweaking your ads so the customers are not repeatedly viewing the same ad.

When your audience converts, it is good to exclude those from the remarketing ads. Here is how you can exclude users who have already converted:

Go to the Audience in Business Manager & create the Custom Audience. Press Website Traffic - Purchase. Now, create your audience

Next, go to your ad set level. Press Exclude and under EXCLUDE people option, choose the second text field will appear, and type in the name of your newest Custom Audience.

Chapter 11: Scheduling

Controlling when ads are delivered

You are going to be able to control how your ads are delivered and when they are going to run. 

Your ad is going to be eligible to start being posted as soon as it is approved. This process is usually going to take up to twenty-four hours but for some ads it could take longer. If you decide to have your ad posted as soon as it is approved, then it is going to start running once the review process is over. 

Another option that you can use is to have your ad run at a specific time. You will create your ads and then turn off the ad set or the campaign. Therefore, once the ad is reviewed and approved, you can turn it on whenever you are ready to start having your ad delivered. 

A third option would be to create a schedule while you are creating the ad. In order to do this, you are going to pick start and stop dates in the scheduling section. This will tell Facebook when to deploy your ad and when to pull it off the site. 

In order to schedule your ad to be run at certain times or days of the week you will have to be using the lifetime budget and then you are going to follow these steps. 

Go to the ad scheduling section in your ad set creation. 

Go to run ads on a schedule.  You may have to click on the advance options first 

Find the dropdown that allows you to pick your schedules time zone. This is going to need to be in your time zone so that you can know exactly when it is going to be deployed. You also can view reports for time-of-day ad account time zone or ad time of day viewer’s time zone. 

Pick the time of day and the days of the week that you are going to want your ad to show. 

Finish making your ad and place your order. 

Viewing and editing ad schedules

In order to go in and look at the times and dates that you have set your ad to run you will. 

Open the ads manager or power editor 

Select which campaign you are wanting to use

Go to the ad set and move over to the schedule column. 

In order to edit this schedule, you will 

Open up the ad manager or power editor and move over to the ad that you are wanting to edit. 

Click on edit and make your changes. 

Make sure to hit save so that your changes can be applied. 

Managing delivery

You are going to pick between two delivery systems for your ads; either standard or accelerated. You can find the choice under the delivery type in your budget and schedule section when you are creating your ad. Most ads are going to want to use the standard delivery so that the budget that is set for that ad can be spread out throughout the entire campaign and the ad reaches out to the most people possible. But those people who are working with bigger budgets are going to want to reach out to as many people as quickly as possible will choose the accelerated delivery. 

When you are using the accelerated delivery, you will: 

Use manual bidding in order for you to be in control of the maximum price for the delivery of the ad. The maximum cost bidding has to be chosen so that Facebook can optimize the budget that they are given rather than worry about trying to save money and get the ad seen more. 

The ad is still going to have to go through the review process. 

The ad duration should be set to at least two hours so that more people can be reached and there is enough time for the ad to be delivered. Campaigns that have lower time frames are going to experience under delivery. 

Being that accelerated delivery is going to go for speed and not value, there is probably going to be a higher cost per result. While using the accelerated option is going to prevent people from getting the rawest value, it is going to be worth it because the ad could be tied to a time sensitive sale that is not going to be going on later. 

Whenever you are using the accelerated option the entire budget for your ad will be spent as quickly as possible. This means that your budget could be spent before the end of your campaign and if that happens, the ad is no longer going to be delivered. 

Ad set end dates

The end date is going to tell the Facebook system when an ad needs to stop being delivered. Having to pick an end date is going to depend on what type of budget that you are going to use. 

If you are going to use a lifetime budget, then you will have to pick an end date so that the budget can be spent at an even pace and your ad is seen by as many people in your target audience as possible. 

The daily budget will allow you to set an end date, but it is not required. If you do not, then the ad will continue to be delivered until you interfere and pause it or until the account spending limit has been reached. 

Note: the end date for your ad can be changed at any time, but it is not recommended to be done too often because that will interfere with the delivery system. 

Chapter 12: Maximizing Organic Reach on Facebook

Here is a common misconception that you must be advertising on Facebook in order to achieve good reach, meaning the number of people or fans who actually see your posts.

The organic reach of your page depends on a number of factors, such as the number of likes or followers your page has. The more likes or fans a page has the more people are likely to see the posts published. The engagement levels that you currently have on your page also contribute to the organic reach of your posts.

So, what is considered an engagement? If someone likes, comments, shares or clicks on a post this is considered an engagement. People seem more likely to click on a post to ‘see more’ if some of the text of a post is hidden. They might not like, comment or share the post but will still click the ‘see more’ to read the entire post. This type of engagement is also tracked by Facebook and is often the easiest way to get people to engage.

The higher the engagement levels on your page, the more Facebook will show your posts in the news feeds of your fans. If your posts are boring, repetitive and of poor quality, and if over time the engagement levels are consistently poor, so too will be the organic reach of your page.

So how do you maximize your chances of achieving higher engagement levels and thus a better organic reach?

Use media-rich content with every post

Always use an image or a video with every post. Text-only posts simply get much less notice in the news feed. Adding an image or a video to your post will increase its organic reach by between 50 per cent and 180 per cent. Even when you think your post doesn’t merit an image, think outside the box and find one that is suitable. The better the image the more attention it will attract in the news feed.

The image serves three main purposes: to get the attention of people in the news feed (stop them as they scroll), to communicate the subject of the post and to raise brand awareness.

Remember that people are generally scrolling on their phones so you need an image to help your post to stand out. If your fans stop engaging with your posts (liking, commenting, sharing, clicking), it will reduce the general reach of your page. If your fans stop engaging with your posts, Facebook assumes they are not interested in your content in general. That’s why it’s important to consider every post you publish carefully. If you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to find an image, don’t post at all until you have the time to do it properly.

A perfect image incorporates the business’s logo, uses brand colors, is the correct size and has less than 20 per cent text. Facebook used to apply a text rule whereby images with more than 20 per cent text could not be used in boosted posts and other Facebook Ads. Although Facebook has relaxed this rule, they still advise that images with over 20 per cent text will not reach as many people and may cost more as a result.

Use images of the correct size

Use images of good quality, for which you have copyright and that are the correct size for Facebook, that is, 1200 x 900 pixels. If images are the incorrect size, they will appear justified to the left in the desktop news feed. It’s less obvious on a smart phone as the screen is smaller.

In the post above, you can see that the image is too small. It is sitting to the left on the screen.

Many small businesses tend to publish posters on their pages. I recommend against this generally as posters will be the incorrect size and will have too much text. When an image has over 20 per cent text it may not be approved for a ‘boost post’ (when you pay Facebook to show your post to more people) and even if it is approved you may find that your ad is expensive. Instead, take one of the images from the poster, resize it to the recommended size and use the poster content as the image description. Type your description where it says, ‘Say something about this photo’.

Here is an example of a post with a strong visual. The image is the correct size, so it looks more professional. It integrates my company logo and uses brand colors. There is some text on the image to draw attention to the subject of the post.

Use image descriptions

Posting images without descriptions is one of the most common mistakes businesses make. This is like holding up an image in front of someone but not telling them what it is about or why you are showing it to them. You need to tell your audience what it is you are sharing, why you are sharing it and why you believe it is of interest to them. Don’t assume your audience will know why you’re sharing the image … remember, they are scrolling. Even if you are sharing a link to a website article or video and there is a snippet of the article underneath the image, you still need to tell your audience why you are sharing it with them.

One post that stands out in my memory is one of a car appearing to drive out of a hotel’s banqueting room wall! It just looked so unusual and there was plenty of scope for the hotel to have had fun with the post. They could have come up with a funny comment or even asked their fans to come up with a caption for the image. The image was in fact a candy cart! But without a description the post got no engagement and was a missed opportunity.

Use an image editing tool to resize images to the correct size. You should also integrate your logo where possible, your brand colors and fonts as well.

I am a big fan of Canva, an online graphic design website. It’s easy to use and has a free version which has excellent functionality. It has saved templates of popular design types including marketing material, email marketing headers and social media channels. In relation to Facebook, it has templates for cover images, event cover images and Facebook post. It’s also possible to create images using custom dimensions.

Chapter 13: Focus on Cost Per Action (CPA)

The most important thing you can remember going forward on Facebook ads and in Facebook marketing is a relentless focus on Cost Per Action .

Cost Per Action is the cost that it takes to get the action you want. That means the cost for a page Like, a page post engagement, a video view, a click to website or a conversion.

Your Cost Per Action can be abbreviated to CPA .

Your CPA is the only thing that matters. Your CPA is the only metric you want to focus on for all of your ads and in all of your marketing efforts.

For your ads, it will usually be in terms of the amount of money you spend to generate your action and that's your cost per action .

With marketing efforts, it will generally be the time you spend to generate your action because most of your marketing efforts are free.

You won't have to pay to get them out but if you combine your marketing efforts with your ads, then you have both a time and money cost per action .

How much am I paying for Likes?

How much am I paying for a post engagement?

How much am I paying to get a video view?

How much am I paying to get a click to website or a conversion?

There is a lot of data that Facebook gives you and they greatly benefit in the short term if you get lost in all of the data.

Many people worry and get hung up on the click-through rate.

Forget click-through rate.

Forget it! 

Ignore click-through rates.

Forget click-through rate. It doesn't matter.

Your click-through rate is so complicated that I can't possibly understand it. Why is it so complicated? Because Facebook decides very carefully who to show an ad to.

Your click-through rate is more a function of Facebook's ability to decide who and when to show an ad to than it is of your actual ad.

Your cost per action is all you need to know because you can have an ad with a really low click-through rate that's getting you really cheap cost per action . Some of my ads don't have very good click-through rates and yet they get me those page Likes for cheap.

They don't have great click-through rates and they get me cheap video views. They get me cheap conversions and the thing is, focusing on click-through rate does nothing for you because it's a distraction.

You want a relentless and unyielding focus on cost per action because things will get in the way if you deviate.

I had an ad set up for a client. They were getting conversions for under $10 on an average of a 100+ order. The ad was absolutely incredibly effective for months, but what was most important to the client was to feel.

“I wanna feel good about launching this new product.”

“I wanna do things, I wanna do it my way.”

When you do things your way, your metric of cost per action gets messed up.

I would have ads running where he was spending $100 a day on and then he'd spend $10,000 to promote a new product with a cost per action that would be two to ten times as high.

If he would have spent that much more on his ads, he likely would have made two to five times as much money and people might have said, “Oh, it's not just about the money!”  

If you're running ads, it's about the money or the attention.

What you get when you do not focus on CPA is emotional decisions. You will see yourself doing something that is completely irrational because the real motivation is not the cost per action .

Everything I do is about the cost per action and that's all I care about. I don't care how it makes me feel.

People are predictably irrational and try to notice the predictable irrationality in you. If you're getting upset over your click-through rate and you're ignoring your cost per action, remember what I've just shared with you and go back to your cost per action.

I see tons of posts in the discussions of my course about the click-through rate and about all kinds of other things. The cost per action is all that matters and I'm repeating this because reading it more than once will help it sink in.

The main reason I see people fail is for not paying attention to their cost per action. If they had paid attention to their cost per action, they would have stopped the ads long before, they would have tried different things to lower their cost per action, or they wouldn't have spent $10,000 to get a cost per action that was five times higher than the ads they are already running.

You want to avoid those things because they will wipe you out, especially if you're starting your business and you don't have much money. You'll spend all your time doing something that doesn't get you good returns after you'll have ignored something that did work.

I know I've done a lot of that.

I took my business into some local strategy in complete ignorance of all the data of what was highly effective online. It cost me six months and $20,000+ in terms of money spent and income lost. I did that because I wanted to feel something.

You want to get the importance of cost per action down and just zoom in on that.

The people that are doing an exceptional job in my Udemy course are doing exactly that. I can see their posts in the discussions where they've got clicks to website nearly for free, at scale because of their relentless focus on that cost per action .

So, if you can just focus on the cost per action, you can also ignore all of the other data… and what relief that is because Facebook gives you so much data that you can drown in it. There are so many things you can look at and if you're not looking primarily at what matters, then it's easy to get lost.

If I'm getting cheap clicks to my website, that's good. I don't care about the other data. If I'm getting cheap video views like one cent video views in the US , that's good. I don't need to get upset because the same person watched the video twice.

Get the cost per action down before you go do anything farther. No matter what you're doing, a cost per action will be really useful for you.

Maybe you're not sure what cost per action you should pay attention to and it depends on exactly what metric you're going for.

If you're trying to get people to pay you in some way, then you need conversion tracking set up and you've got to watch that cost per conversion . Nothing else matters.

If you’re trying to get emails via an opt-in page, you need conversion tracking set up, and the cost per conversion to get that email address is all that matters. Nothing else matters.

You just need to know how much it costs you to get that email address and I've seen lots of people do a great job with that.

If you're trying to build a bigger page up with page Likes, then cost per page Like is all that matters.

If you focus on it, you'll keep trying to do things to lower that cost per action . If you get distracted, you'll start messing around.

I've seen lots of people who spent tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars with almost no regard to the cost per action .

All I had to do for them was to zoom in on what they were already doing right.

“Look, you've already done this right. Do more of it.”

The most helpful thing you can do is to figure out what you're doing right and do more of it.

My whole business has grown on that.

Assume you do not know anything and find what works in the data

In all the ads I do, I tend to assume I don't know to start, and then I try and focus on my cost per action, and try and figure out then what I do know.

It seems that most people and most of my life, I did the opposite. I started figuring out I already did know, and then I looked for evidence I was right. A lot of the things in life are exactly like that.

People think they know to start and look for proof of it. I know from being hired, that what people wanted lots of times was just to confirm what they already knew. They'd give me the exact thing they wanted done, and what they wanted to do was get proof that what they thought was right was right when they couldn't prove it themselves.

What you want to do and what I do in all of my ads is to assume I don’t know.

So, what don't I know?

I assume I don't know exactly what image will work.

I assume I don't know exactly what kind of post or product will work the best.

I assume I know nothing to start and all I do is just try and work with the limited knowledge I do have.

For example, if I'm selling a Udemy course, I probably want to try Udemy as an audience. If I'm selling something on Facebook Ads, I probably want to try something for Facebook page admins as an audience.

I try lots of other things too.

If you start with the assumption that you really don't know, and then try it and let the data show you what does work, then you can count on getting the best results.

What you think you already know is the biggest barrier to your success because if you think you know something, you will often ignore proof that you don't know it.

I would go about for a while thinking I knew which countries are the lowest cost and I would then get frustrated.

“Well, why are my likes going up in cost?”

I'd look through the data.

“Oh! This country's not low-cost anymore.”

What I’d do then is try a bunch of new countries and find those that were low cost at the time. I would now have a better low-cost country list then.

Assuming that you know is the most devastating thing you can do because if you assume you know which ad image works, what text people should like, what landing page they like, which audience it will work with, how you should bid, what time of day will work, then the more limited you are in trying new things.

The idea is just to try a bunch of different things. Most online ad campaigns do not work individually, but when you find one that works, you can beat it to death. Most of the online ad campaigns I run do work because I try a lot of campaigns .

Look at it this way.

I create hundreds of Facebook ad sets on all different kinds of targeting assumptions and I create all different ad images, links and texts in the ad. I try all these different things and most of them usually won't work well.

But then what happens?

I find that 80/20 principle. 

I find a small percentage that works really well and then I run them over and over again.

When you assume you don't know you'll be willing to test a bunch of things and when you do so and relentlessly focus on cost per action you will find exactly what does work. Sometimes you'll find nothing works and that is a good thing to know because if nothing works, you don't want to waste any more time on it.

I know that on some of my ad campaigns I would try all these different things to sell a certain product or service, and nothing would work. So, I'd stop and I’d try something else.

That's what I did with my business, I tried all these different things and I finally landed on Udemy . That works, so now, I do it every day.

If you're willing to assume you don't know anything and you're willing to use little guesses to get started and to try new things, then you can find what does work and stick with it.

No matter what you're doing with your Facebook ads and marketing this is a very powerful way to go about it.

Guessing

Just trying to guess at a bunch of different things that might work. Looking at the data to find what does work, according to the cost per action and then doing more of that. Making more similar ad sets or just turning everything else off and letting the one that does work run.

This is a big difference from how a lot of people teach things on Facebook ads. Generally, there's this “Best Practices,” of what works. Well, what do you do if the best practices don't work? They often don't.

The only way to tell what works for real right now is to guess at a bunch of different things and see what actually works. If you guessed there's no emotional attachment to it.

When you think you know exactly what will work, your feelings will get hurt when it doesn't work, and you'll be obstinate. You'll try to prove it works more then you'll try to actually get the results. This is the weirdest thing I've seen with clients over and over again.

They want themselves to be right more than they want the actual results. They see and ignore the results.

“Well, I want it done this way!”

If you can see that in yourself you can avoid the biggest problem, you're likely to have, which is trying to be right because when you try to be right, you'll ignore all the other signs that you're wrong, and you'll relentlessly focus on trying to be right.

So, if you just start out assuming you don't know anything, then you don't have to be right about anything either. When I create my campaigns and even my marketing strategies, I just guess at stuff, and I don't go about it like I'm some expert that knows all this stuff.

I've just done a lot of it. I look at the data and then if I find what works according to the data right now, I do more of it. If it stops working, I stop doing it.

You have to have the mindset: “I don't care if I'm right or not. The data will show me where I'm right. Once I have data that shows me what works, then I can do more of it.”

I hope that using this mindset of assuming you don't know when going in with the intent to find out will be really helpful for you.

Chapter 14: Using the Pixel to improve Ad Targeting

Allowing an advertiser access to this type of data would better allow them to create products and content well – suited to appealing to their target audience, allowing for a better match between marketing and the customer. In addition, this data is not only invaluable for developing ads, but also for targeting them, making sure that they end up reaching their target audience, as after all, an ad that no one sees has no value.

In addition, the ads allow the website owner to get greater value off of their content, such as targeting people who landed on a blog post, were offered a content upgrade, but did not push through with the upgrade. How does this work? Using the Facebook Pixel, the website owner can target those people who visited the specific page and spent X number of minutes on it, implying the consumption of the content, but chose not to opt in to bonus or extra paid content, such as an upgrade. Facebook Pixel would allow the advertiser to distinguish these people who opted out from those people who chose to take the content upgrade, which would then better allow the advertiser to choose to retarget and focus their ads on those people who visit but don’t get the upgrade.

Facebook Pixel is not only there to help define custom audiences for an ad campaign, but can also greatly assist in refining how the ads are deployed and targeted to possible audiences. This would help advertisers when meeting their requirements and objectives for their businesses. For example, using the Pixel to narrow down what audiences actually visit the website is helpful in gauging as to whether or not the actual market is the same as the target market, and this would inform a decision to check whether or not they should pivot towards a new market, or perhaps take a different approach if they wish to continue targeting that particular market.

The Facebook Pixel tool can also be easily used to generate leads for a business. For example, if the advertiser or the website owner wishes to give out a free item, for example an easily obtained item such as a digital product like a guidebook or a work sheet, they can probably run an advertisement campaign on multiple platforms, including Facebook, in order to get the word out. Clicking the ad for a free product would of course then redirect the customer to the page where they can obtain it, and in doing so, Facebook Pixel can track how many customers land on that particular download page, and furthermore, how many customers actually end up registering for that particular free product. Of course, as people get the product, they are directed to a thank – you page, which will also help in tracking the number of customers that that particular ad campaign reached. This can help in guiding the advertiser when it comes to creating and tracking leads, as they are fully aware of how many people actually click the ad, and how many people actually end up availing of the offer of a free product. If we extend the example, what if the advertiser wants to target an ad to those people who did click the ad but never ended up availing of the offer? In order to do that, Facebook Pixel will just allow us to target ads towards those who landed on the initial offer page but never ended up going to the thank you page, allowing the advertiser to make use of custom audiences, and in doing so better allow them to develop a strategy as to how they can generate leads.

Another example would be to use a function such as a purchase event code, which will allow the advertiser to check what budgets need to be expanded or reduced for specific campaigns. For example, an advertiser wants to know how much he has to spend in order to pull in a certain number of registrants in a web seminar, they can use the purchase event code to see as to whether or not they made a profit, if people spent more in the seminar versus how much the advertiser had to spend on Facebook ads, which allows them to gauge ad performance.

Accessing Facebook Pixel Data

Accessing the data gathered by the Facebook Pixel tool is relatively simple. Opening the Facebook Ads manager is the first step, as this is where the analytics for the Pixel can be accessed. The first thing that will be displayed is a graph, where the graph will be measuring the number of times the Facebook Pixel would have fired in the past two weeks, or fourteen days, “fired” meaning activated, as the Pixel functions mainly as a counter.

Below the main graph will be four main tabs that will help the advertiser analyze the data that the Facebook Pixel was able to gather. The following will give a short overview of the data available to the advertiser in each tab:

Events: The events tab contains all the events that were selected for every time the pixel was used. There will be a green dot to show whether or not the Pixel was active. Furthermore, this tab also contains details for all the event codes in use by the advertiser.

URLs: The URL tab will display all the URLs accessed by the Pixel during its runtime, meaning all the URLs where a Pixel was triggered will be shown here, including the third – party URLs, which allows the advertiser to be able to measure just how popular a particular page or piece of content is. Note that the Pixel is usually limited to the past fourteen days, so the advertiser may wish to keep their own record if they want to see how a particular piece of content or page compares to another one in the past.

Domains: The domains tab is similar to the URL tab in the sense that it shows which domains the Pixel is firing off of, rather than the specific web pages. This particular form of information is better used when the advertiser is using multiple websites hosted on differing domains, or even perhaps making use of third – party sites. There may be some cases where in some websites will be listed even though the user has no pixel installed on those websites. This is not a bug, but rather notes the referring website where the customer accessed the advertiser’s website from. One example of how this may happen is when a blogger makes a guest post for someone else’s blog and places a link on that post in order to redirect the reader to their own blog or website.

Devices: This tab refers to the ability of Pixel to determine what device was used when the Pixel was triggered. This would allow the advertiser to see what devices their customers and audiences are using the most, which would better allow them to tailor – fit their ad campaign to pander to the audiences. For example, if the Pixel detects that most visitors on the website use mobile devices, it would most likely be to the advantage of the advertiser to make heavy use of mobile advertisements rather than using the more standard ads that also apply to laptop / desktop users.

Chapter 15: Common mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Simply having a business page on Facebook does not guarantee that your ad campaign will succeed. Everyone is prone to make mistakes. Although mistakes are not always bad, especially if you can learn from them. However, it is a great idea always to stay clear of the mistakes rather than wasting time and energy. 

Let's see the most common mistakes and how to avoid them.

Using a profile to promote your business

Oftentimes people avoid the hassle and promote their business using a Facebook profile. It is not recommended. If you do so, you will not be able to analyze the results. Facebook profiles do not use any tracking tools; hence all the efforts will go to waste. Without the analytics and engagement status in your information toolbox, you will not be able to develop the right strategy.

Secondly, sending a friend request as a business is considered creepy. This is different compared to like a page. When you send a friend request, it is just like asking the user to share personal data. It is a violation of social boundaries. Lastly, it is also against the Facebook's Terms of Service. What's the point of investing resources when the profile will be deleted anyway?

Posting at a bad times

This is an important element to consider when it comes to Facebook marketing. A lot of marketers tend to overlook this aspect. They forget that majority of the buyers have a 9-5 job and will not be logging in at that time. Posting in the period of the workday is usually not effective compared to putting up a post in the early evening or even morning.

When brand’s post at a user’s presence, then it increases the likelihood of reaching out. You can easily schedule posts using Post Planner.

Optimizing Ads Too Often

Majority of the advertisers on Facebook consistently turn up the knobs of the ads believing that altering the budget, bids and the targets will lead to quicker progress. In reality, optimization resets the ad rank and positions it at the start of the learning stage.

Similarly, having more does not automatically increase your chances to win. Every ad set must reach at least 50 conversations weekly. If you waste the budget on multiple ads, then you will not have one strong ad to reach the goal. You will have to depend on bigger audience pools and lookalike audiences. Find your winners using a 3 step funnel of awareness, consideration, and conversion. Then invest in that.

Don’t advertise through a group

Some of the marketers try to advertise through a variety of groups. This is a common mistake and is not very effective. Groups on Facebook are created with the aim of facilitating individuals to connect with one another based on similar interests or goals. Concentrating the efforts on a single brand is difficult.  A group is successful when all the members have an equal role. Groups with a solitary entity directing topics usually aren’t effective.

Overzealous or Insensitive Posting

In the enthusiastic marketing plans, businesses forget about the value that the ads offer to the followers. Studies suggest that clogging a customer’s newsfeed has led to a fall of many companies, and the same can happen to you. Excessively adding posts several times in a day will only lead to avoidance and might even result in your page being reported.

To protect people, Facebook has designed an algorithm which ensures that they do not get to see extra posts. It shows that high volume posting will only push the clientele away. Users might even unlike the page, and it will be impossible to get them back. Going more than 5 posts a day is overkill.

Don’t ignore comments

Facebook fans are individuals, just like you. When they leave a comment on your business page, they automatically expect a preceding comment or reply. This is an indication that you are listening.  Brand pages that constantly overlook comments by fans do not succeed. It is because fans won’t return to the page if they feel unheard. Secondly, when you respond, the client automatically visits the page again.

Not Having Enough Visuals

All of us love viewing images rather than text. Similarly, our customers would like the same. Reading long posts is exhausting. This is why it is essential for brands to ensure that their posts are short and to the point. The best way to draw attention is with captivating visuals, combined with text that exemplifies your point. Concentrate on giving top-notch pictures and save the marketing terminology to a minimum.

Having a Relaxed Approach

Marketers indulge in another common mistake by taking their page lightly, similar to how they treat their profiles. Individuals that utilize Facebook profiles seldom have the main business agenda. For the most part, using profiles on Facebook is a totally different activity that is fun. You must have a well thought out strategy that integrates understanding your fan base, offering an exceptional message, and computing results.

Copy and Pasting Competitor’s Strategy

Some Facebook marketers are lazy to the point where they would look at their competitor and simply imitate the ad structure. Even if they make slight alterations, chances are they will end up failing. Wondering why that is? It is because your rival will initially expend a huge number of resources to optimize their marketing efforts. However, copying them won’t give you a competitive advantage.

Behind the scenes and the analysis behind a strategy is as important as the ad itself. When you copy the ad, you will not be aware of what you are doing exactly. You may not be aware of the segment that delivers results. It is quite possible that you say the wrong things at the right time or you may even address the right people with the wrong things — end result: failure.

Being too pushy or selling it too little

Selling too much is perhaps the most widely made a mistake by businesses who promote on Facebook. Let’s suppose you set up a page and instantly begin posting content that revolves around your services or products. This will not work because users are not concerned with the products. All they worry about are the things associated with those products or services. For instance, if you are a sports shop than instead of advertising your products, you can discuss hiking places and embed the store link. 

On the contrary, selling too little is a possible mistake. Let’s take the above example a little further. If the sports store learned about selling too much and stop selling too much; but even then the sales do not increase. This is because Facebook users enjoy conversing.

Quitting Paid Marketing Too Early

Majority of the marketers have a one-time mindset, which means that they will spend but only once. They might pull out their investment quickly if the campaign results are not what they expected. It might even lead them to quit Facebook altogether. Just because one campaign is not successful, it does not mean that you pull the plug. Rather you can stop the campaign and initiate a new one.

Avoid these mistakes to ensure that you utilize the investment in the best manner.

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Conclusion

Congratulations again on taking the time to read this book and sharpen your online marketing knowledge – you have already taken the first step to increasing the success of your business.

I trust this book was able to help you gain the tools to truly master Facebook marketing. For any business in the modern era, this social media platform presents an opportunity with so much potential that it would be an egregious mistake to ignore it. This guide has taken you through the process of becoming an expert in Facebook marketing. We began by gaining a ground on the basics of Facebook marketing, the difference between organic content and inorganic content, the concept of Facebook reach, the structure of a campaign advertising system and other foundations.

We investigated Facebook Insights; we advised how you may want to interpret the data this feature offers and what particulars you should focus on in this domain. We explored advanced Facebook strategies.  Additionally, we described methods on how to re-target potential customers as well as how to intelligently and logically test and manipulate advertising performance via split testing and conversion lift testing. We supplemented your Facebook credentials with a range of Facebook related resources for you to investigate and refer back to whenever necessary. If you wish to study further, you now know how to work with services like Facebook Blueprint or Facebook Studios as source materials.

You were reminded that your Facebook marketing knowledge is only useful if it is current and fresh. To help keep you up to date, we provided you with important developments and projects Facebook has unveiled in the last year. You now know the importance of staying abreast of any impactful changes, such as Facebook Reactions, but also subtler fine-grained changes to the newsfeed reaction, such as hoax updates.

The next step is to go to your Facebook page and apply the lessons you have learned here in the real world. Re-think your internet marketing strategy. How can the most powerful social media marketing tool be used to bring you product or business to the level? We have explored the topic to an utmost depth here – the tenacious action you now take will be your next teacher.

Google ADWORDS

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO LEARN HOW GOOGLE WORKS. USE GOOGLE ANALYTICS, SEO AND ADS WITH ADWORDS FOR YOUR BUSINESS. DOMINATE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, BECOME AN INFLUENCER

JEREMY PREACE

Description

Google Marketing is a powerful showcasing approach for business owners. You can show your product or service promotion to potential customers searching for your type of solution. Secondly, you can target people searching exactly where you are located. This makes most business owners have to promote on Google necessarily.

Everything About Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a solution that can take your business to the following degree. You can place and run promotions displayed with an exact Googles search. These promotions will look smooth as well as attractive in their appearances. Google sets these advertisements tactically above, beside, or below the search results web page when people search for your keywords.

When a purchaser looks for a term or expression, Google will undoubtedly reveal crucial discounts depending on the keywords used in the query to the client. Websites that need their coupons to show up on the results web page deal on keyword expressions that they rely upon. People will undoubtedly utilize these keywords when looking for their kind of organization. For instance, a handyman placed in Atlanta may depend on the search phrases such as "woodworking Florida," "Home timber products," or "woodwork devices." 

Contingent upon the amount you offer contrasted with different handypersons in the area, your promotion may appear on the outcomes web page when individuals check for the terms you provide. No matter the amount you give, Google additionally considers the importance along with the nature of your advertisement and the website. So regardless of whether you have one of the most fantastic products or services, the promo for your shop will most likely never show up in search when someone looks for "labor residence work." You need to have a great deal of certainty with essential expressions.

This guide will focus on the following:

Choosing Keywords

How To Build a Google Friendly Website

Local SEO Begins at Home

Website Content that is Keyword Specific

Creating Compelling Ads

Optimizing for Conversions

Tips on Improving your Content Marketing Strategy

Search Campaigns Ad Group Settings & structure

Converting Your Followers

How to Optimize Your AdWords Campaign

… AND MORE!!!

Introduction

Most haven't given much thought to Gmail and AdWords regarding social media marketing. Your business could be passing up some essential advantages.

Over the most recent couple of years, Gmail has experienced some significant updates, including enabling organizations to interface with clients and prospects. This chapter will give you a short introduction on all that you have to think about when it comes to Gmail and AdWords and how to use them as a great tool to boost your brand's image.

Google promoting is an extraordinary showcasing technique for entrepreneurs. You can show promotion for your business to individuals hunting down your kind of business at that exact second and who are searching for organizations in your vicinity. This kind of focusing makes most entrepreneurs need to publicize on Google.

How Ads on Google Work

When a buyer scans for a term or expression, Google will demonstrate the essential customer promotions dependent on the keywords utilized in the inquiry. Sites that need their advertisements to appear on the outcomes page offer keywords they trust. Individuals will use these keywords when searching for their sort of business.

Depending on the amount you offer compared to competitors in your territory, your advertisement may or may not appear on the results page when individuals search with the words you target. Notwithstanding the amount you offer, Google additionally considers the significance and nature of your advertisement and site. So regardless of whether you have the most astounding delivered, the ad for your store will presumably never show up in search when somebody seeks "labor housework." You have to be more specific with keywords.

The Benefits of Advertising on Google

There are three essential advantages to promoting on Google:

Searchers are Committed to Buying

People searching on Google are ordinarily in the market for the catchphrases they are hunting down. If someone is looking for a "smart TV," it makes it impossible to expect they are searching for a store to buy T-shirts soon after that. You can ensure that only individuals in your close area see your promotion because you may set the geographic area where you need your advertisement to appear. For instance, you can advise Google to advertise to California individuals.

Contrast this with promoting on Facebook. Even though you can advertise your t-shirts to somebody who is a known cool shirt fan, you have to focus on those searching for a place to buy shirts.

These are the reasons that make publicizing on Google so effective and dissimilar to other promoting. You are explicitly focusing on individuals in the market for your products or service. Not just that, you can target just individuals situated in your general vicinity, which is a tremendous addition to nearby organizations.

You Won't Pay Unless Customers Click on The Ads You Create

Another alluring variable is that you pay if your notice works. Since Google utilizes compensation for every snap publicizing model, you spend on the off chance that somebody is scanning for the watchword you have offered on and is intrigued enough in your promotion to tap on it.

You can set the amount you will pay per tap on your advertisement and choose an appropriate day-by-day spending plan. This is the big difference between google advertising and a simple newspaper ad that costs a standard value regardless of whether someone takes a look at your ad or not.

Google AdWords has changed how publicizes work by just making you pay when the client has made a move to see your site. We will expound the amount it expenses later.

Live Tracking for Your Ads

With the AdWords dashboard, you can follow what number of individuals see your promotion, the number of taps on your advertisement, and what number of make a move once on your site. That way, on the off chance that you see that many individuals are tapping on your advertisement, yet nobody is purchasing anything once on your site, you realize you have to alter either the greeting page or the promotion itself. By keeping a heartbeat on how your advertisement is getting along, you can rapidly make any essential changes with the end goal of an effective promotion campaign.

The following abilities with publicizing on Google are colossal for independent companies. Envision your flower shop and choose to purchase a board ad. Unless the client lets you know, there would be practically no data letting you know whether anybody went to your store since they saw the announcement. You would make a significant venture without knowing whether it yielded a positive return.

With Google advertisements, you can follow precisely how many individuals visited your site since they tapped on your promotion. There is a minor hazard since you can quit running an ad because you are not getting the outcomes you need anytime you see that. We will investigate the ideal approaches to follow your promotions later in the article.

How Google Analyzes Where Your Ads are Placed

Google utilizes a mix of three essential variables to decide when a promotion appears on the outcomes page:

Offer:  The offer is the value you will pay for a tick on your promotion. You offer against the different sites on watchwords you trust individuals scan for, for the off chance they are interested in your item. A home business store may provide the expressions "startup home based business" or "make money online" or "Forex Trading at Home."

Quality and pertinence of the advertisement:  Your promotion should have the ultimate goal of appearing on the indexed listings page. On the off chance that somebody seeks "business ideas", it wouldn't bode well for Google to demonstrate an advertisement for a Target department store. You need to make sure that you have several slogans so that Google can consider your promotion as meaningful for hunting.

Presentation page understanding:  When someone taps your advertisement, the greeting page sent to them should have content comparable to the promotion itself and contain the words used in the ad. Suppose you have a salon and are promoting nail trims. In that case, you'll need to connect straightforwardly to a page that has more data on nail trims rather than to the landing page, which incorporates the majority of your administrations.

Portable and work area promotions on Google are fundamentally the same. They are both presentation advertisements at the best and base of the query items page, and you offer on watchwords a similar route with both. Even though some entrepreneurs neglect versatility, it is something you unquestionably need to consider when promoting on Google. The most significant portion of Google's enterprise is cell phones, and individuals searching on their cell phones regularly have nearby options.

The critical contrasts among work area and portable promoting are:

There is less space on a smartphone, so you have to ensure your message is direct to the point.

Individuals on their phones are in a hurry, so you need to tailor your message for the precise lifestyle.

Chapter 1: Choosing Keywords

Imagine being stranded out at sea with no mode of communication. That is how it feels when you have a business no one is aware of except you and your staff, of course. Google Local is the best resource if you want your target audience to locate your local business online quickly. People are more likely to find your company via Google than if you deploy traditional offline marketing techniques.

Google will not automatically project your business to your intended target. You will have to help Google grow your business with the right keywords or phrases. These keywords or phrases play a significant role in ensuring that your business gets an impressive ranking on Google and other famous search engines. 

Your intended target audience will search for businesses such as yours using specific keywords or phrases. To rank high on Google so that your target audience can quickly locate your business, you will have to incorporate these local keywords or phrases on your Google My Business Listing and in the web content on your website. Not all companies are ranked in localized web searches, even though this may seem simple enough.

Website owners have no idea how to find those keywords or phrases that will help their business to rank high in localized web searches by their target audience. The question to be asked at this point is: can local keywords or phrases be found?

Well, there are different ways to find local keywords or phrases that would help get your business ranked up on search engines like Google. You can learn how to locate these keywords in this chapter.

Search Engines Now Personalize Search Results 

Google works assiduously to have search results personalized as much as possible, and this is in stark contrast to what was obtained some time back. The top five or so search results in one state in the U.S, for example, would also be the top five search results in another state. This has dramatically changed the way businesses search for the ideal keywords or phrases that will help them rank high on search engines.

These days Google deploys a localized technique. When a person uses specific keywords or phrases on Google in search of a business, the businesses closest to the person and those listed in local directories are given top priority. 

Google will pinpoint the person's location searching and then return those businesses that are closest to their location. Google also personally provides individuals logged into their respective Google accounts with localized search results.

How to Choose Localized Keywords and Phrases

If you want to locate local keywords or phrases to help your business rank high on Google and other search engines, you can use three easy steps today.

The first step you should consider in choosing localized keywords or phrases is to locate industry-standard keywords or phrases.

1. Locate Industry Standard Keywords 

People regularly use keywords or phrases when searching online for a business. Your objective will be to find out those ranking keywords or phrases used by people when they want to describe your respective local business. You need to think the same way as your target audience and contemplate what keywords or phrases might be used when searching for your business on Google. Come up with a comprehensive list comprising of about ten local business keywords or phrases.

A typical local standard keyword or phrase list for a "vaporizer pen business" could include the following; "vape pen" or "vape pen business."

2. Locate and Make Use of Modifiers 

When people are searching for a business on Google or any other search engine, they usually use modifiers. With modifiers, people may find a specific business or commodity. Modifiers are those words or phrases that will further describe a company to enhance a search result. Some modifiers examples in the case of the "vaporizer pen business" are:

"wax vaporizer pen"

"CBD vaporizer pen"

"dry herb vaporizer pen"

"the best vaporizer pen"

"pink striped vaporizer pen"

"cheapest vaporizer pen"

3. Use Local Specific Keywords or Phrases

The final step in choosing keywords or phrases that could help your business rank high on Google Local includes specific locations.

If your business intends to provide commodities for people of an area or region, you will have to use location-specific keywords. These keywords could be used by people in narrowing down their search results to businesses within their locality. 

The content of your website would need to have locations as keywords to help with your ranking on search engines. The truth is, your target audience would most likely be looking for those businesses closest. 

Still, going back to the example of a "vaporizer pen business," you may want to limit or specify the locality of the vaporizer pen being searched for. For example, "vaporizer pen in Detroit," "Long Island vape pen," or "vaporizer pen L.A." This way, your business would rank high on local search results by people (your target audience) in your area of business.

Chapter 2: Local SEO Begins at Home

What you need to promote your local business online is "out there," meaning it's not part of your website. 

But not yet. Not until you've done what needs doing to your website.

"SEO" stands for "Search Engine Optimization" which is the process used to optimize a website's technical setting, content relevance, and link popularity so that its pages become easily searchable, more relevant and popular to users' search queries, and, consequently, search engines rank them better.

Local SEO happens in two places: on-site (on your website) and off-site (everywhere else on the Internet). You may also hear this referred to as on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

Once you've got your on-site situation squared away, it will be a lot easier to handle the off-site tasks. Without proper on-site SEO, your website will never be able to reach its local ranking potential. Once you get it right, your site will be working for you instead of just wallowing in the search engine abyss.

The heart of SEO is to know how to choose and use the right keywords.

What Is a Keyword?

It is the word, or phrase people key into a search engine like Google when they search for something. Occasionally, it is called a key phrase when more than one word is used. But whether it's a phrase or a word, it's usually referred to as a keyword. Keywords form the basis for all Search Engine Optimization strategies, so before you ramp up your SEO program, you must know which keywords your prospective customers are using when searching for your products and services.

Probable-Keyword Tools & Selecting the Right Keywords

As it turns out, there are some free tools you can use to help develop a list of probable keywords. The most popular is Google's Keyword Planner. This is a tool for Google's pay-per-click (PPC) service, AdWords. However, it's a great free tool that you can use for SEO keyword research:

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Just type in a word or phrase that you think people might use when searching for you. The tool will kick out a list of associated keywords with information about the number of searches done for each keyword per month. It also indicates the competitiveness of each keyword, meaning how many other companies are engaging in a PPC bidding war for a given word or phrase. This is handy information because if the volume, suggested price per click, and the competition level is high, you know that those keywords correlate to more sales, and thus those are the terms and phrases you should focus on. Proper keyword research takes the guesswork out of SEO.

The following picture shows an example for the search of “plumbing” that generate 717 keywords idea available:

Long-Tail Keywords

Naturally, shorter, more generic words and phrases have more competition than longer, more specific keywords, called “long-tail” keywords. The more detailed a long-tail keyword is, the easier it is for your website to rank when people search for it. As a local business owner, you’ll be happy to learn that local long-tail keywords – like “Plumbing Supplies Atlanta, GA” – appear in over 40% of all Google searches. Using the counties, cities, or neighborhoods your company services in your local SEO program can radically improve their effectiveness. In other words, you’ll want to naturally use various combinations of [city or suburb] + [service] in your web page and blog copy, as well as the other SEO-related website code on your site (more on that later).

After you’ve finished your keyword research, you should have scores of potential keywords that might be used by searchers looking for what your company provides. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it’s not. Think about all the possible terms people might use to search for what you do.

For example, here’s a list of keywords for an Atlanta, GA plumbing company:

Atlanta GA Plumbing Company

Atlanta GA Plumbing Repair

Atlanta GA Plumbing Service

Atlanta GA Commercial Plumbing

Atlanta GA Residential Plumbing

Plumbing Company Atlanta GA

Plumbing Repair Atlanta GA

Plumbing Service Atlanta GA

Commercial Plumbing Atlanta GA

Residential Plumbing Atlanta GA

And that's just the beginning. It's not even counting other terms like toilet repair, septic system, garbage disposal, sump pump, water heater, etc. And of course, there are more specific geographic references for areas around Atlanta like Alpharetta, Marietta, Peachtree City, and Athens. Once you start adding in these combinations of variables, the list explodes.

Ok, so now you've got a list of hundreds of possible keywords. What should you do with them?

Your Keywords, Your Website

When you look at your website, examine it closely, page by page. Choose one to two keywords per page, and optimize that page for that keyword(s), including your home page.

As you write the content for that page, be sure to include your keyword in a few different places on the page, including:

The page title: this is the browser bar title on your site, and usually see the blue clickable title text in search engine results.

The meta tag (meta description): This text is not visible on your website, but it's typically the text you see under the blue title text within Google search results.

Image ALT tags and title tags for any images on your page: Google cannot read graphic text, so you can use computer code to assign a keyword or phrase to every image on your site, so Google knows the context of the image and its relevance to the web page.

Anchor links: Anywhere throughout your text, you include a clickable link to another page on your website. If you mention one product or service on a page, make a clickable link to that product or service and use your keyword as the clickable anchor text.

Geo-targeted phrases: Anytime your text includes naturally geo-targeted phrases (like city, neighborhood, or suburbs) on a web page or in a blog post.

Outbound Global Authority Links: Whenever you include a clickable link to an authority site in your industry (this is good to do!), providing that it adds value and is relevant to the content on a given page.

Outbound Local Authority Links: Whenever you include a clickable link to a local website (Chamber of Commerce, a local government site, or a local news site), again – providing its natural, relevant. It adds editorial value to the page or blog post.

Make sure you don't just stick your keywords anywhere to help your SEO efforts. You should only insert them where they fit naturally, add to the content flow, and make editorial sense. As helpful as keywords are to your website, "stuffing" words and links to and from your website can be equally damaging to your website. Google, in particular, is excellent at sniffing out websites that over-optimize or use manipulative SEO techniques to try and game their system. If you stick to quality content that naturally works in keyword phrases into your website, you should not have to worry about search engine penalties. Google has a detailed list of quality guidelines you can find here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769

The anchor text link is built directly into the text rather than a traditional URL link. For example, if the text says "List of our plumbing supplies" and you made that phrase a clickable link, that would be an example of an anchor text link. It is quite different and much more common today than telling your website visitors, "For more information on our plumbing supplies, visit www.atlantaplumbinginc.com/supplies." Compared to the traditional URL link, you can see how cleaner the anchor text link is.

Regarding linking out to other sites, your website visitors might find it helpful if you link to other websites that might add some contextual value to that page's content, like to a "Who's Who in Plumbing" website. And it's not just to jack up your value with the search engines. Your website visitors will also appreciate it if you have these kinds of links to authoritative resource websites. Simply put, these outbound links improve the website's overall content, and that's always a good thing.

Next, you'll need to duplicate this procedure for every page on your website. Of course, you'll need to do it again whenever you add a new page or a blog post, which you should be doing regularly to enhance your ranking.

Don't Skimp on Content

It's essential to make sure every page on your website has "enough" text to gain the respect of the search engines as a legitimate, valuable page. Part of determining how a search engine views your pages' value involves how long visitors stay on those pages. If you've got just a little bit of text, they'll read it in seconds and click elsewhere. That's not good.

You want enough words on your pages to say what you need to say, to engage your readers, and to make them stay put for more than ten seconds. Here are some guidelines for content length:

Home page: 200-300 words

Core service pages: 300+ words

Blog posts: 500+ words minimum

Long-form or in-depth blog posts: blog posts of 1,000 to 2,500 words or more are performing better on the search engines these days.

Be sure the text on every page is accessible to the eyes. No overwhelming blocks of text. No super-long paragraphs. Use sub-headlines, bullet points, embedded YouTube videos images to make the page appealing.

Go Mobile!

The statistics on mobile usage are staggering. Over 50% of all searches are from mobile devices. The odds are good that when your new customers look for you online, they're using a smartphone or a tablet. If your website isn't mobile-friendly in a mobile responsive design, you're sunk! They'll click to your competitor's mobile responsive site and forget all about you.

There's a saying about mobile: "Pinch and zoom spell your doom." What it means is that if your smartphone-using website visitors can't navigate and use your website (and read what's on it) without having to use their fingers to expand and move your content, you've got a severe problem. In other words: "Thumb-scroll to get the cash to roll!"

When mobile sites first became popular, many companies set up separate websites for desktop and smartphone users. These sites would somehow recognize which machine the user was on and send them to the appropriate venue. That's an old hat now.

Now, the technology is called responsive. It's the same in that it detects whether a visitor is on a desktop or a mobile device, but there is no longer any need for a separate website. Thank goodness, because, with two sites, you face double the trouble for optimization tasks!

Not sure whether your website is responsive? Whip out your smartphone and take a look. Can you read and use your site without squinting or doing the old pinch and zoom?

Want a more scientific way to know whether your website is mobile-friendly? Just enter your website into this tool, and you’ll find out whether Google thinks it is:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Introducing The Grand Schema

Every project has that one phase that’s just awful. If you’re painting, it’s the wall prep. If you’re sewing, it’s pinning the pattern. If you’re building a paver patio, it’s tamping the ground.

If you’re optimizing your website, it’s Schema. It’s pretty much a guarantee that you won’t want to do this step – but we’d be doing you no favors by not telling you about it.

Schema markup also known as "structured data," is the language that search engines use to read and understand the content of your pages, so it is a way to make your website easier for search engines to find. It tells search engines what your website means instead of what it says. That’s every bit as important as it sounds.

Essentially Schema is a format (AKA whole other foreign, techy language) you apply to the HTML code of your web pages to give the search engines the information they need to identify your content. The Schema microdata is what forms rich snippets of your content, which ends up on the search engine results page. (Yes, we know, it hurts!) A typical example is when you see extra information in search results, such as a product star rating or event listings. Schema is a unique SEO code that tells Google you want to consider showing this extra information to searchers.

Categorizing your content well is critical to the search engines’ ability to serve relevant information when people search. Irrelevant content in the search engine results is the surest way to lose users, which translates to billions of dollars in lost revenue.

So, for you, Schema’s significant pain in the neck, the likes of which we can’t adequately convey. For search engines, Schema’s a considerable hurdle. They want to watch you jump when they serve up your site to searchers who will quickly see that they’re in the right place.

Even without stepping into Schema, the entire on-site optimization process is time-consuming, not to mention complicated, especially if you’ve got a decent-sized website. That’s why reputable Local SEO agencies find that their clients are eager to hand this set of tasks off to them.

OK, that part is over. We apologize in advance for any Schema-themed nightmares you have tonight. It has to be done, but it sure isn’t pleasant.

Next up, we’ll zero in on how Local SEO works and what you need to know if you want to remain competitive in your location. While most business owners have a passing understanding of ‘regular’ SEO, the local business owners who grasp Local SEO are the ones who get a steady stream of new customers coming in.

Chapter 3: PPC vs. SEO

First, let's understand the differences between ads and organic SEO results. When Google shows a search result, we must remember that paid ads appear above organic search results. The former is PPC, which has to be paid for by the advertiser, such as Jorge or Sophia. On the other hand, the latter is free but requires time to get right-SEO. Implementing SEO strategies to increase your organic ranking in Google does not cost a dollar but will take time away from your business or enterprise. Both Jorge and Sophia need to do some back-end calculations to determine which strategy works best. For example, if Jorge finds that artwork for advertisements never really sells well, he may opt for a strong SEO strategy. On the other hand, if Sophia can obtain a strong CPC ratio in her PPC, she may choose to go the advertisement route.  

Besides the relatively low costs associated with SEO, there are a few other benefits. A strong SEO strategy creates awareness within Google of your company or business, but this is a double-edged sword. One bad review can stay at the top of your Google rankings for a long time. Instead, a string of good reviews can bolster user confidence in your product. This confidence builds upon credibility and trust. A small business like the one running Sophia needs to rely on more repeat customers, which means the better their reviews, the more profits Sophia can generate. In that sense, if Sophia sees that her small business is climbing the Google rankings, she's already miles ahead of many other vendors in the same industry. That said, being miles ahead of the competition takes a lot of extra hard work.  

So, what if you don't have much competition in your field? Specific industries are hyper-geographically focused, such as wedding photographers, for example. Few wedding photographers are interested in traveling across the country to cover a wedding. This means that if you're a wedding photographer living in the Tulsa suburbs, you probably don't have too much competition. So, when someone in Tulsa searches for "wedding photographers near me" or "wedding photography in Tulsa", your page is more likely to reach the top of the Google rankings. The wedding photographer should employ a targeted SEO strategy rather than struggling and paying for PPC if this is the case. 

First, if you are looking to employ an SEO strategy, you need to consider that you will be competing with giants like Amazon and eBay. If you see that your site is consistently ranking lower than these titans, you may need to re-think your strategy (perhaps selling Sophia candles on Etsy could do the trick). 

Some businesses offer a unique product, such as Jorge's vintage prints of Chicago. These can't be found anywhere else but Curious Jorge's. Because of this, he does not have to compete with Amazon, eBay, or Craigslist. On the other hand, there are multiple vendors of soy-based candles, meaning that Sophia's competition in her niche is much stronger. Again, choosing SEO or PPC depends on your business model.  

PPC offers a very targeted audience. Because of this, you're not competing with Amazon or eBay, who sell everything, but rather another very niche market. This highly targeted audience may be smaller but much more receptive to paid ads in their results since they searched for just that! Another benefit of PPC is time. While developing website credibility and increasing Google rank takes a long time, creating a paid ad can take a day. Using PPC in this way can be a great way to quickly increase your online visibility, especially if you want to sell products during vacations or Valentine's Day. Again, this really depends on your business model. Concerning the speed of posting your products, PPC is a good strategy if a business owner is testing a product to see how successful it can be. Since you get results relatively quickly, there are more ways to test the product and measure its popularity.

Here's another great thing about PPC. Contrary to SEO strategies that pit one website against another, PPC represents graphically the product you're selling. If you sell a visual attractive product, PPC may be exactly the strategy for you, especially if it is a unique product. If you are a woodworker trying to sell 2x4s, a PPC approach is maybe not for you because 2x4s are not visually appealing. However, if your small business does design handmade pens, PPC is a more viable strategy now, as these can appear as visually appealing ads on Google. PPC is also a good strategy if you are a modest company that sells several different items. While all candles may look more or less the same, if you are a jeweler with many kinds of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings, then you are consistently pumping out new products and product lines. This would render PPC a more potent strategy than SEO because otherwise, users would have to search for specific keywords to reach your landing page.

As the reader may remember from above, using PPC and SEO is costly (PPC) and time-consuming (SEO). If the entrepreneur has changed strategies or is looking to get a product off the ground quickly, then an oscillation between PPC for the new product, combined with SEO later on, could be a great idea. Once users start searching for the product online more frequently, the entrepreneur can remove the paid ads. Then, when there is another product they wish to sell, they can repeat the process ad infinitum. Here's the trick to this strategy: the entrepreneur must switch systems repeatedly. This method works if a business is selling different products or growing at such as fast rate that a new product line is ordered every few months. 

Some readers may be tempted to use both SEO and PPC simultaneously. This is possible, but unless you have a special reason, it is typically not considered an excellent strategy. Not only does this tactic cost time and money, but your efforts may also finally cancel each other out. Imagine if a user searches for soy candles online and sees a website organically found through SEO techniques and an ad for the same product placed through PPC. Sophia's best interest is that the user clicks through to its website and saves the cost of click-through advertising, but this is not a guarantee. Ultimately, having your webpage pop up twice for one search cuts the effectiveness of both strategies by half, rendering this combination a suboptimal solution to online marketing problems.  

By now, the reader should be familiar with the differences between PPC and SEO and have a general idea of what strategy they would be using for their business.    

Website Content that is Keyword Specific

Once you have determined the website layout, you are ready to start researching keywords and keyword phrases. Your keywords directly relate to the user intention and your overall target audience. Suppose you target the older population, such as anyone in their 60s and older. In that case, your language will need to reflect your target audience by being more formal than trying to attract teenagers. The keywords also have to relate to age. Do you think someone in their 70s would understand ROFL in a text unless it was explained to them on a previous occasion? It is like some urban slang that better fits a younger target audience. 

Google has become a powerhouse of intelligence. The algorithms can search for specific keywords, tell you others are missing, and display relevant results. But, how do you find the keywords you need? Do you make them up and hope for the best?

Yes, and no, what you sell provides general keywords. There are keyword tools to find broad and niche terms for your website content to target your audience better. You will begin a keyword search based on what you sell.

Use Google Keyword Tools

Google has AdWords, which is a keyword search tool. It was designed explicitly for creating a banner and pay-per-click ads. However, you can also run a keyword search to determine which words are most famous for your sell items. There are other keyword tools, but since you are targeting Google, it is best to stick with AdWords. 

The keyword planner can help you find new keywords and see the search volume data. According to the Google AdWords search page, you can search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category. You can also search for trends and volume data, as well as multiply keywords as a way to get new keywords. 

First, choose to search for new keywords based on a category, website, or phrase. You can enter your product or service and customize your search for the best results. Let's use pets as an example again. 

The results will appear in ad group ideas. If you used pet, you might see pet adoption, pet shop, dog adoption, puppy, pet supplies, cat, online store as the ad group ideas. You can also click to get a list of keyword ideas. You will care about two columns in the displayed results: average monthly searches and competition. 

The average monthly searches tell you how frequently online users use the specific keyword or keyword phrase. For pets, the average number of monthly searches is 60,500. The competition is considered low, meaning there are not a lot of companies trying to buy that word and use it in their ads. Dogs are searched for 673,000 times, and the competition is low because it is not specific enough to create an ad. 

You want Broad and Niche Keywords

As you generate keyword lists, not only to assess the frequency they are used in a search, but whether there is a high competition for the word, you need to find two types of keywords. 

Pets, pet, dog, dogs, and pet supplies are broad terms. Any site that sells items relating to any pet will use these broad terms. They do so for word flow. You must use dog when you are talking about the dog. This is why the competition for the word is low in ads. 

What if you used dog supplies in Cleveland, such as "We sell dog supplies in Cleveland at our…?" You have just narrowed dog supplies to a specific niche. You tell an online user that your store is located in Cleveland, and because they live in Cleveland, Google displayed results based on their location. 

They didn't even have to use the keyword phrase "dog supplies Cleveland" to get your webpage. Google tracks your location and determines the best results based on where you live or your most typical searches for specific areas helps get you the local results. 

If you sell only organic pet supplies, you would want to use organic in your website content and avoid using terms like non-organic or leaving off organic. 

Do not Misspell Words

It is tantalizing to misspell words to attract a varied target audience. However, Google has improved its intelligence, and you no longer need to misspell words. Google will display two types of results:

Showing results for "correctly spelled words"

Search instead for "incorrectly spelled words"

Google will ask you if you meant to spell the word correctly and wanted those results or if you liked it spelled the other way. For example, if you typed in "trafing online" google will show up results for "trading online" on the assumption that you meant trading and not a non-existent word "trafing".

Keywords in Headings and Subheadings

Each page will have a heading or a title. This heading needs to have your main keyword—the word you know will be searched and put your website on the first page of the Google rankings. It is the niche keyword. Your subheadings or H2 headings also need to have keywords. These keywords should relate to the page topic and the niche keyword you are targeting for that page. For example, an H2 heading might be girl's clothing, sizes 5-14. This way, if someone is searching for those clothing sizes for girls, they will find the right page in the Google page results. 

If the keyword appears in the headings and subheadings, it must also appear in the written content on that page.

Chapter 4: Website Content that is Keyword Specific

You are ready to write your content based on SEO practices. You have your website layout designed for a user-friendly experience. You grabbed keyword lists to determine what people search for, understanding the broad and niche keywords that will help your site land on the first page of Google search results.

You need to create the website content, the actual words, and images to fill the page with appropriate internal links. Remember, Google sends out search bots that will index your website pages, allowing your page to display in the results when someone searches for the keywords or topic of your pages.

For the bots to search your content, you need external links that bring a person to your site and internal links that help a user navigate your website.

Write Naturally

Do not try to force keywords into your written work. Your content should be without mistakes, grammatically correct, and flow naturally. Your target audience will know if something is confusing due to improper flow or grammatical errors. Nothing has a person leaving your site faster than significant mistakes in your content.

You are an expert in your retail business; at least, that is what the target audience will assume. A non-expert will have errors on their website and a non-user-friendly experience, at least that is the assumption, mainly when a user sees errors.

While writing naturally, you want to avoid language that may not fit your target consumer. A good rule is to write at a 7th to 8th-grade level. According to literacy studies, the average American reads and writes at a 7th to 8th-grade level, with only 15% of the population reading at full literacy or what you would consider a doctorate level.

Hire a Writer

If you know your strength is not in writing, hire a writer. There are plenty of writers out there willing to create website content. Finding one is easy, as long as you know how to search. Be specific that you want to see written samples, and the writer needs to be a native English speaker. Also, be willing to pay a livable wage to ensure the quality of the content.

If you are unsure if you have the budget, think of the time it would take you to create quality content. Is it worth $10 per every 1,000 words to get quality content when you might spend 5 hours on one page of content?

If there are grammar or spelling mistakes, note how many there are before getting upset at your writer. You had probably made mistakes, even when you tried not to in your business. It can happen. An untalented writer is an error in every sentence or two sentences, but one mistake in 10,000 words of content is not. A recent book often on the New York Bestseller list had “jury-rigged” instead of “jerry-rigged,” when talking about setting up a place to work. It is published for thousands to read, yet it has a mistake. The writer, editor, or editing software may have been responsible for the error.

1,000 to 1,250 Words of Content

Google creators have changed their views on the number of content website pages should have. It used to be 300 words, which was suitable for website pages. Now, 1,000 to 1,250 words are more appropriate. However, do not be married to only one length.

First and foremost, the content needs to be natural, without forcing the subject or adding in fluff. You wouldn’t read this book if it kept repeating things over and over to make the word count, correct? No, of course, you wouldn’t; thus, your website content should be an appropriate length that details the subject, without repetition or fluffy words.

Some pages will require less content. You don’t need 1,000 words to tell someone how to contact you, but you do need around 1,000 words to discuss your experience, your business, and other essential employees. You want to outline your return policy, refund policy, and additional specific retail information with as much detail as possible.

Evergreen Content not a Must

In previous years, evergreen content was a must. Website content creators wanted the content to last for years without being rewritten. Now, this has changed. The way to keep your website relevant is to have frequently updated content.

Marketing News and Codeable agree that you need to write and write to ensure you have something for the user. Original content is imperative, whether you upload written, video, or image-based content.

The newer your content, the more frequently Google bots will search your site and refresh the index and page ranking. If there is nothing new to add to your main website pages, then yes, by all means, go with evergreen content so that minor, quick updates can be made.

Imagine if your users come to your site once a week for two months, but you never had anything new. This user will determine that you are not updating your site, that all the information has been gleaned from it, and they are no longer interested.

Chapter 5: Google Quality Score

One thing to remember about Google is that it is all about the numbers and the rankings. Every aspect of your campaign will be measured and assigned a place within Google's different algorithms. Every detail is relevant when you are setting up your ad on Google because Google is constantly monitoring and calculating the performance of your data and because you need to be careful that changing algorithms won't mess with your ads.

No one wants to spend more on their advertisement than they have to, and the Google Quality Score will help you to keep the costs of your campaign as low as possible. If you make ads that don't match up well, or do keyword stuffing or do other things that will anger your customers and make for a lousy advertisement using AdWords, then your score is going to be lower, and you will have to pay more for the keywords that you want to use. 

However, if you make sure that you write high-quality ads for your campaigns, follow the rules, pick out good keywords, and follow the other rules that come with Google AdWords, you will find that you will get a higher score. And this results in better bid prices, which bring you the visibility you want, without the high costs.  

Let's take a look at what the Google Quality Score is all about and how a marketer will use this number to help effectively grow their audience without spending a ton of extra money.  

What Is the Google Quality Score? 

Each ad on AdWords will have a quality score from Google. The keywords used in your ad will also receive this score. Google has an algorithm to determine if an ad is doing well or not, and some of the different aspects that will help you to get a higher score would include: 

The CTR or click-through rate. This value is the percentage of people who click on your ad when they see it.  

The relevance of the keywords to the ad. It measures how well the keyword will match the text you have in the ad.  

The quality of the landing page. It evaluates how the page is written and optimized, the keyword, and the ad relevance.  

The quality and relevance of ad text to the keywords and the landing page.  

The average account performance with AdWords over a given period.  

So, why should you work on this quality score? A higher score can help lower the amount you pay in bid rates, and it can ensure that the ad will rank higher. This means that you can get more out of your budget and get more customers to your page. 

Ways That You Can Improve the Google Quality Score 

The good news is that there are steps that you can take to improve the Google Quality Score that you have. Some of the measures that you can take to maximize your ad performance and get the highest Google Quality Score possible include: 

Keyword relevance: Make sure that the display URL and the ad copy are relevant to the targeted keywords.

The landing page's relevance: You should optimize your landing pages to give your visitors a message and experience consistent with your ad. 

Test the different ad text variations to see which type of phrasing seems to get the best click-through rate. 

Build out the negative keyword list. It helps narrow the target audience and ensures that you don't waste your budget on the wrong people.

To ensure that you get your ads placed in the best spots and for a chance to get better visibility for less spending, you need to make sure that you have a boost to your Google Quality Score. If you follow the tips in the rest of the guidebook, you will naturally have a great Quality Score to help you out. 

Chapter 6: Creating Compelling Ads

What makes up a Google AdWords ad?

A basic Google AdWords ad consists of four lines. They include a Headline, a URL, and two description lines. Generally, we find a Call-To-Action (CTA) in the second description line, directing prospects toward a particular action. The first character of each word on every line of an ad, except the URL, must be uppercase. All other characters in the terms are lower case. It is important to note that while an exclamation point can appear in any ad line excluding the URL, only one exclamation can occur in the entire ad. All other punctuation can be used as needed. Vulgar language is unacceptable, and brand names may appear in an ad only if Google receives written permission from the trademark owner. Let's take a closer look at these lines in the order that they appear in the ad.

Creating a headline

The headline is designed to grab the prospect's attention. It must be eye-catching and different from the competition's ads. One way to accomplish this is to include at least one keyword in the headline, which can be no longer than twenty-five characters (always remember when calculating length that spaces count as characters). 

Strategies that should be used in the headline are:

Always be professional. Be mindful not to offend prospects.

Try beginning with a question. A question engages the chance.

Get to the point. Space and time are limited. So, get to the point quickly. A prospect spends seconds comparing ads. Be specific about the offer, including a price and CTA. Avoid engaging irrelevant prospects and wasting clicks.

Include keywords. Keywords increase the relevancy of the text and are automatically displayed in bold, making them easier to find in the ad. Try to use them wherever possible, including in the URL. Also, the usage of keywords may reduce the cost for better placement on the SERP.

Extend the Headline. An ad may be displayed in a larger format if it appears in the first two positions of page one, and there is punctuation at the end of the first description line. This pulls the first description line up to extend the headline.

Example: Water Heater Busted? Install & Repair in 24 Hours.Licensed + Insured. Free Quotes!

Use abbreviations or symbols. Tighten up the text to maximize the information.

Creating a destination URL

The Destination URL, commonly referred to as the URL, is the address for the location that appears after the prospect clicks on the ad. The destination should be a landing page and not the homepage to expedite lead generation. The URL can be up to thirty-five characters and should contain no spaces. All characters in the URL should be lowercase. As with the headline, it is recommended to use a keyword that continues to match the prospect's search. If more than one keyword is used in the URL, they can be separated with an underscore or hyphen between the words. 

TIP: Avoiding the home page. The chance of converting a prospect from a home page is slim because it offers too many options. The URL should go to a landing page.

Creating description lines

The First Description line should indicate the benefits and/or features of the product/service. It is recommended to include a time frame/limitation to encourage a sense of urgency (if possible). The first description line can be up to thirty-five characters, including spaces.

Description line 1

Strategies to be used in the description line one:

Always promote the benefits to get prospects to click.

Use Numbers because they are easy to read. They can represent the value of an offer (20% Discount), validate the vendor's success (2.5 million Sold), or create a sense of urgency like, offer ends 6/11/23.

Description line 2

The Second Description line indicates the benefits and/or features of the product/services and should include a Call-to-Action. Furthermore, the CTA invites the prospect to click on the ad to receive free quotes. This CTA further helps differentiate this service from the competition and further engages the prospect.  

Strategies for the second description line include:

An exclamation mark. Only one exclamation mark is permitted per ad. Use it to bring attention and/or a sense of urgency to a CTA. Exclamation marks cannot be used in the headline, only once in either description line one or description line two.

Abbreviations or symbols. Tighten up the text to maximize the information.

Include an offer. An offer stimulates interest.

A Call-to-Action (CTA). Get the prospect to take the next step by providing an action such as an opportunity to sign up, purchase, or get information. Be sure to set a time limit and include an exclamation mark to get an immediate click! Often used CTA's include:

Buy Now!

Read the White Paper!

Learn More!

Register Now!

Contact Sales!

Get a Free Trial!

Read More!

Limited Time Offer!

Strategies for creating engaging ads

A strategy that consistently produces good results is often a best practice. Here is a list of best practice strategies to create an ad that effectively engages prospects and maximizes clicks.

Include keywords. Keywords increase the relevancy of the text and are automatically displayed in bold, making them easier to find in the ad. Try to use them whenever possible, including the URL. Also, the usage of keywords may reduce the cost for better placement on the SERP. (See on Quality Score.)

Use an exclamation mark. Only one exclamation mark per ad is permitted. Use it to bring attention and/or a sense of urgency to a CTA or perhaps one description line.

Promote benefits. Always promote the benefits to get prospects to click.

Include a value proposition. A value proposition, such as Free Shipping or 20% Discount, provides an extra bonus and makes the ad stand out.

Include numbers. Numbers are easy to read. They can represent the value of an offer (20% Discount), validate the success of the vendor (2.5 million Sold), or create a sense of urgency (offer ends on 6/11/15).

Avoid the home page. The chance of converting a prospect from a home page is slim because it provides too many options. The URL should go to a landing page.

Use Trademarks. One trademark is permitted per ad. It conveys a sense of trust and confidence. Be sure to get written permission as needed.

To obtain written permission for Trademarks – 3rd party Google Authorization Request, use the following URLs.

https://services.google.com/inquiry/aw_tmauth?

Use the word "you". Address the ad directly to the prospect.

Use abbreviations or symbols. Tighten up the text to maximize the information.

Site Links - Ad Extensions. The more space an ad occupies, the better the chance a prospect will click on it. The Site Links feature accepts up to six additional links.

Optimizing an ad. For optimizing an ad, include a minimum of two ads in every ad group to see which performs better. The AdWords optimization feature allows the more popular ad to place higher on the SERP. Change one thing on the lower placing ad and rerun the campaign. If top performance is not achieved, continue changing one item at a time until the desired performance is reached.

Test Your Knowledge

1. A Google AdWords ad consists of all except:

a. Headline

b. Descriptive line

c. Display URL

d. Landing Page

2. An exclamation mark can be used as many times as needed in an AdWords ad.

a. True

b. False

3. The best strategy for a Google AdWords ad is never to use a CTA because it is very pushy to the prospect, and ads should be informative and too offensive.

a. True

b. False

4. Which of the following components can be up to 25 characters, including spaces?

a. Display URL

b. First Description line

c. Second Description line

d. Headline

5. What can the display URL not contain?

a. an exclamation point

b. lowercase character

c. spaces

d. underscore

Test Your Knowledge - Answers

1. A Google AdWords ad consists of all except:

a. Landing Page

2. An exclamation mark can be used as many times as needed in an AdWords ad.

b. False

3. The best strategy for a Google AdWords ad is to never use a call-to-action because it is very pushy to the prospect and ads should be informative and not pushy.

b. False

4. Which of the following components can be up to 25 characters, including spaces?

d. Headline

5. What can the display URL not contain?

a. an exclamation point

Chapter 7: Optimizing for Conversions  

The reason for tracking all these conversions is to "optimize" the campaign based on the conversion data we acquire. I put that word in quotation marks because it gets thrown around a lot when people talk about their AdWords campaigns. The problem with the term, in my opinion, is that it implies perfection – that somehow the campaign will reach an "optimized" state where it is no longer able to be improved. This isn't true. There is always room for improvement. 

Nonetheless, I will use the word anyway. Just keep in mind that I am talking about a process rather than an elusive result. 

Conversion optimization is probably the most critical and complex process to undertake in an AdWords account. Once everything else is in order, it's the primary thing that will determine the long-term success of a campaign. It's highly technical, and it's the main reason clients pay thousands of dollars a month to manage their AdWords accounts. 

I'll do my best to break down the basics of conversion optimization right now. 

Essentially, we're looking to maximize traffic from the components of the account that are generating a profit and decrease or eliminate traffic from elements that are not generating profit. 

Depending on the conversion tracking you have in place, and how much you know about your conversions (profit margin, value per lead, etc.), it can be very easy or extremely tricky to determine profitability.

Whether or not you know your exact numbers, you need to value your conversions and use that value when optimizing your campaigns. This value will be our target cost per conversion. Sometimes it makes sense to start with a target conversion cost that is at or above break-even, as this will allow you to gather more data more quickly to create a more profitable campaign eventually. You can constantly adjust target conversion cost later. 

When optimizing for conversions, there are several factors to consider. 

Campaign Conversion Dat a  

If our target cost per conversion is $10, and we've already spent $500 on the campaign with only two conversions, then we've got a lot of work to do. In that example, we can do nothing to start optimizing for conversions. If the campaign is already set up according to the strategies outlined in this book and the keywords in the search term report look good, a more realistic place to start would be with the website or the product itself. Maybe the website needs a serious overhaul. Or perhaps the product isn't right for AdWords.

If, instead, we've spent $500, and we've received 40 conversions, we are in a much better place to start optimizing the campaign for conversions. The cost per conversion is $12.50, so it should be easy to bring this down to $10.00 or less.

One approach might be to simply decrease all bids in the campaign. This operation will lower the cost per click, which will translate to a lower cost per conversion (assuming the conversion rate stays the same). 

This can be a quick fix, but we may also be sacrificing some good traffic by bidding less per click. Whether or not we are spending our entire budget every day, we might even end up with fewer conversions (and less profit) overall. 

So rather than decrease all of our bids, a winning conversion optimization strategy will use other data points within the account.

Ad Group Conversion Data  

Take a look at the cost per conversion for each of your ad groups. Is one ad group responsible for the bulk of your conversions? This is often the case, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with this. By looking at the ad groups you are spending most of your budget on, you can start to look for differences.

Perhaps one ad group has a cost per conversion of $20, and another has a cost per conversion of $8. If there are at least a few conversions in each ad group, you can start to make adjustments. In this case, we would decrease the bid for the ad group with the $20 conversions and increase the bid for the ad group with the $8 conversions.

I said "at least a few conversions" because it is essential to make sure there is enough data to justify these decisions. If you have an ad group that has spent $5 and received one conversion, this doesn't mean that the ad group will have an average cost per conversion of $5. It means there isn't enough data yet to make that decision, so that we would leave things alone. We need at least a few conversions to start figuring out an average.

However, suppose we've spent 2x or 3x our target cost per conversion, and we've received zero conversions. In that case, we can start decreasing those bids and eventually removing those ad groups entirely. We don't want to make rash decisions (the next conversion could be right around the corner), but if we're not getting any conversions from something, we don't want to keep spending money on it forever either. It's a fine line.

I usually start to decrease bids when campaign components are 2x my target cost per conversion, and I begin to consider removing components once I reach 3x-4x my target with zero conversions. You might change things sooner or later depending on how much you can afford to invest in getting things working. This goes for ad groups bids and for all the other components I will be discussing in this chapter.

Keyword Conversion Data  

Like with your ad groups, you may find that specific keywords are getting most of your traffic and conversions. It takes longer for the data to accumulate (compared to ad group data) since it is split across many keywords. Still, eventually, you will find specific keywords are performing better or worse than others.

When you find keywords with a good amount of traffic and a high or low cost per conversion, you should start to adjust the bids for those keywords.

Again, if a keyword has a high cost per conversion, you should decrease your bid for that keyword. If a keyword has a low cost per conversion, you should increase your bid for that keyword.

This may sound relatively simple so far – decreasing and increasing bids – but here’s where it starts to get more complex: After we start making these changes, other things are going to change. AdWords traffic and customer behavior are not static, but it is fluid. The conversions rates will not stay the same, and there are other changes we will make to the campaign that will affect overall performance.

Conversion optimization isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a process. (Have I made this clear yet?)

Other Conversion Data  

Inside your AdWords account, you will find results and numbers to help you optimize for conversions. 

I’ll say again: In all cases, we are looking to maximize traffic from the components of the account generating a profit and decrease or eliminate traffic from elements that are not generating profit.

Here are some of the other data points to evaluate and consider when making these adjustments:

Search partner network (you can’t increase or decrease bids for this traffic, but you can turn it off if it isn’t generating any conversions)

Locations (countries, states, cities, zip codes, neighborhoods, etc.)

Schedule (times of day and days of the week)

Devices (mobile, desktop, and tablet)

Audiences (remarketing and in-market) 

Demographics (age, gender, income – Note: Google’s household income targeting is not very good)

Compounding Bid Adjustments:  

As you can see, there are a lot of places in AdWords where we can adjust the bids. There are a lot of settings that can be changed that will affect other settings, and they often compound on each other. Let’s say, for example, you’ve applied the following bid adjustments to a campaign: 

Mobile +15%

Canada +15%

Tuesday +15%

You may have data that justify each of these changes. But if someone on a mobile device, in Canada, on a Tuesday, searches for your ad, your bid adjustment for that person is +45% (it’s not exactly 45%, the formula works out a little different than that, but to simplify it we can just say 45%). Does your data justify a change that big? Probably not.

So be mindful of those possibilities. If your campaign shows significant differences in performance among these options, consider splitting them up into separate campaigns. Perhaps you would end up with campaigns that look like this: 

Canada + Mobile

Canada + Desktop/Tablet

USA + Mobile

USA + Desktop/Tablet

So now, instead of one campaign, we have four. We can then adjust the bids more precisely in each campaign. This isn’t always necessary, but it can certainly be helpful if you need to avoid the compounding effects of too many bid adjustments.

Search Term Conversions

We analyze the search term report the same way we study the keyword data. Any search terms that are getting conversions should be added to the campaign as exact match keywords.

We can then bid on them using the search term report data as our starting point. 

We will see the different types of keywords matching later to fully understand this concept. For now, you just need to know that there are 3 types of matching for each keyword:

Broad : all keywords are present in the customer's search query. It may also contain close variants, such as plurals or acronyms, and additional words.

Phrase : keywords will be matched only to searches that contain the exact phrase of the keyword or a sequence of words from the keyword.

Exact : the customer's search term must match the keyword exactly for the ad to appear.

In general, when you’re looking through your search term report, you should be adding every search term you see as an exact match keyword or a negative keyword. You need to decide whether or not you want to target every keyword. If it’s a keyword you wish to, don’t rely on a broad match or a phrase match keyword to capture it. Add it as an exact match keyword, so you have more control over the bid in the future.

Ads: Stand Up, Shout, & Get Noticed (By the Right People)

A well-crafted, engaging ad will bring customers to your website. For the most part, you want ads that accomplish this goal. 

But there’s a catch: A higher click-through rate usually equals a lower conversion rate. 

Imagine analyzing data from two ads that were running in the same ad group during the same period: 

Notice that the first ad has a significantly higher CTR and a lower conversion rate. Both ads generated the same number of conversions, but the first ad cost us TWICE as much as the second.  

I’ll admit that this is an extreme example. But when you test enough ads, you’ll notice that this correlation almost always exists. 

So, what’s going on here? 

Both ads attract the same number of buyers to click on them, but the ad with the higher CTR attracts a lot more non-buyers. This could be because the ad is written too well to trigger the user’s curiosity, but your actual product or service is not attractive to them. There may also be a discontinuity between your ad and landing page causing most people to leave. Only the hardcore customers, who are desperately in need of what you’re selling, stick around long enough to make a purchase. 

When split-testing ads, you should always split tests based on cost per conversion. The ad with the lowest cost per conversion will be the winner. 

An exception to this will be if your cost per conversion is already so low that you can afford to pay more if it means you will generate more overall conversions. In this case, your cost per conversion may be higher, but your net profits will be higher as well. 

Because of all this, it almost sounds like writing killer ads isn’t that important since you may pay the price if your ads are too good. However, getting customers to come to your website is still the number one goal of an AdWords ad. If people aren’t converting once they get there, you need to look at the landing page experience or the types of people and keywords you are targeting in your campaign.  

With this in mind, I’ll discuss what it takes to write killer ads.

Chapter 8: Tips for your Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is a difficult skill to master; there is so much new content arriving online every day that your content can easily be swallowed up and vanish into the murky world of the internet, to vanish forever.

As well as having to compete with other content, you must also be aware of the increasing demand that consumers place on instant results. If your content is graphic-heavy, it may take too long to load, and your potential customer has moved on to something else. The same is also true if your website takes too long to load.

The best way to avoid this issue is to create content that stimulates your readers and stays with them, even after reading. This can be harder to reach than you imagine! The following tips should help you to shape your content to ensure it rises above the other postings on the web.

Display

It is essential to ensure your content displays well over a wide range of media as with your marketing strategy. The best approach to this is to use a relatively new technique, known as responsive design. This ensures your content is displayed well on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, or other devices.

Ensuring your content is well displayed and loads quickly, even on a mobile phone, effectively increase sales. This is also becoming increasingly important for your ranking in the search engines as they are now taking mobile usage into account when calculating the rankings. This is a direct response to statistics that now show that forty percent of people access the internet via their handheld devices.

Customer Needs

Every client has various desires and needs and may have taken a different route to your site and your content. It is necessary to differentiate between where they are in the process and what their needs are likely to be to provide the best possible experience and increase the effectiveness of your content marketing. The first part is if this is achieved by using cookies; this will establish whether they have visited your site before. New arrivals may wish to see all the options and learn about your business, whereas returning customers may prefer to be directed straight back to the last product they purchased and shown similar items.

The experience will be faster and better, ensuring your customer absorbs the necessary content and returns again and again.

Navigation

Your website must be easy to navigate with a layout conducive to the eye and easy to use. Most people read from left to right and from top to bottom. This means that the navigation tabs should be at the top of the page in a left to the right style.

The easier it is to find what they are looking for, the more likely they will purchase something from your site.

This ease of navigation should be applied to every content article you write; a link from your article to your website should take your visitor directly to the page they want; this will increase the efficacy of your content and the likelihood of a sale.

The Content

One of the most challenging contents to write is the product description; there is so much you can say about some products, which the manufacturer often summarizes. Many businesses use the manufacturer's product description on their site; copying and pasting are quicker and easier than creating new content.

However, the search engines respond best to new content; it is better to create a new description for each product and create just a few each day. The search engines will rate you higher because you are posting original content and posting regularly!

There is a secondary reason for creating these unique descriptions and completing additional articles regularly. The search engines operate what is known as 'crawlers'; these pieces of software trawl the web and look for new material. Sites that have fresh material are deemed more active relevant and will feature higher in the search engine rankings.

The more content you post, the more often the crawler will recognize your site, and your ranking will be better!

Product Ideas

A very effective way of posting additional content and improving your customer relations is to add a short spiel to each sale. These must be relevant to the product. For example, if you sell a hammer, you could suggest a way of keeping the hammer safe or how to use it; you could even provide tips on keeping your thumb out of the way when using it!

Every piece of information will endear your customer to you, particularly if you can add some humor to it. The best details can be added to your social media account and linked to your website to encourage additional followers.

An additional content marketing strategy that can produce excellent results is to provide a section on your website where customers can leave their reviews and feedback. These reviews can be highlighted by using the right software, and they can then actually be picked up by Google! In turn, these snippets will be used by Goggle on their search results page and can result in a higher click-through rate. Providing your website has been well designed, and the tips in this book have been applied, you should be able to convert some of these into additional sales.

Add a Seal

Anyone can write content, although it is relatively apparent when written by someone who understands the subject. It is a good idea to become accredited by a relevant organization to increase your trustworthiness. This can be the approval by an organization such as the better business bureau or an endorsement from a manufacturer.

Budget and Review

The first rule of any business expenditure is to budget; decide what you can afford to invest in content marketing and stick to the budget. There is no point in attracting lots of potential customers if you are not making any money! If you write your content yourself, it may seem as though creating it is free; but this is never the case. When you spend time writing content, you could be doing other work, whether this is producing your product, reducing other overheads, or even coming up with the next big thing! While content is essential to building an online following and creating a customer base, other items need your attention.

Of course, if you pay someone else to write the content for you, there is an undeniable cost. Once the budget is set, you will need to look at where the funds are going and the success of the various content marketing campaigns. If you do not do this, you may discover that your time and effort are being spent in the wrong direction; for example, Facebook is the biggest social platform, so it would seem to make sense to put the majority of your content there. However, your product may be more visually appealing, and you may have much more success from a smaller social site, something like Pinterest, which focuses on images. Choose the proper arena to spend your money in!

Guidelines

One of the most important parts of your content postings is that they remain consistent. While the actual content is different, the approach and presentation should stay the same. This will assure the reader that they know what they are getting; they will not be bombarded with information they do not need. You may choose to tell a funny story in the first two paragraphs; the story will highlight an issue you will solve in the third paragraph. You could then close with some helpful tips on using this product and a call to action.

Again, there is no right or wrong approach to this, but you do need to develop a strategy that works and is consistent, even if you have a team of writers working for you. Guidelines can be essential if you have a team of writers; it will give them the correct information to do the job correctly. Your guidelines should include the tone, the feel, and the type of content.

An essential extra part of creating guidelines is the creation of a posting schedule. Customers do not wish to constantly check back to see if you have any new content. Instead, create a program if content will be created and posted. Once you have established your routine, you will simply need to create quality content that answers a need; even if they did not know they had the need! Your customers will learn when your new content is published and return at the right time to digest it.

Goals

The ultimate goal is probably to be successful and make a profit in your chosen endeavor. However, this is only possible if you set yourself goals. Break down your main goal into smaller, achievable goals. Then, break these down into even smaller goals. Ideally, you want to have a mini target to achieve each day; reaching the daily target will automatically take care of the larger target.

Without establishing goals and working towards them, you will be unable to create a successful online content marketing strategy. Setting them does not mean you cannot change them as your understanding and ambitions change.

Think Outside the Box

There are many different ways to produce content; the classic article or newsletter is a good tool and something that can be used very effectively to get a specific point across. However, much of your content marketing efforts can be focused on alternative options; video and pictures are becoming increasingly popular, and there are other ways of attracting the attention of those who are already in line.

Allowing yourself time to think will provide you with an opportunity to create unique content which breaks the mold; this can be the key to building a large following very quickly.

Free Content

You may shudder at the thought of giving your content away, especially if you have paid someone to write it! However, creating content for free will encourage people to read it and make a following that can be turned into sales in the future. All content should have your contact details and a link to your subscriber list, even if these items are at the bottom of the page.

Giving away quality content will also convince people that you are genuine, know your subject, and are trustworthy. They will be much more likely to spend money with you in the future when they need information which is not free!

Online content marketing is an essential part of the business if you wish to succeed.

Online content marketing is an essential part of the business if you wish to succeed. The number of people using social media and the internet to find answers is overgrowing; this means that your potential customer base is also growing rapidly, and you need to jump out at them and show them how good your product is.

It is important to remember that your approach must be different depending on dealing with individuals or other businesses. An individual online will be happy to connect to you emotionally, which is often achieved by telling personal stories. These stories should trigger feelings in the reader as they believe it could happen to anyone. However, businesses work differently; they are all about the bottom line; feelings are rarely part of the equation. Instead, focus on your product's value to their business and back up your claims with data.

To establish the success of your online content marketing strategy, you will need goals and key performance indicators. You will then be able to mark your success against the performance indicators which are essential to you.

Chapter 9: Search Campaigns Ad Group Settings & structure

Let's start this chapter with some basic definitions regarding the type of match for a keyword. There are 3 types of matching for a keyword:

Broad match (BM): keywords are related to the main keyword, and search results related to them can also include searches that do not contain the keyword terms. They are spelled as they are (Ex. Colored lamp)

Phrase match (PM): ads could be shown in searches that contain the meaning of the keyword. The meaning of the primary keyword may be implied, and user searches could be a more specific and relevant form of the same. They are written in quotation marks (Ex. "snow shoes")

Exact Match (EM): ads may be shown in searches that contain the same meaning or intent as the keyword. Keywords are those that are specific and highly relevant. They are written in square brackets (Ex. [dining chairs])

Each of our main ad groups should be created two times, one as Exact match and one as Broad Match Modified (BMM). These ad groups will contain only Exact match keywords or BMM keywords, respectively. 

Creating an Exact match keywords ad group is that if a keyword is good enough for us to bid on, we should use it only as an exact match. 

The reason for creating a Broad Match Modified keywords ad group is that we want to use it for “mining” keywords. When we run a Search Query Report (SQR) which we will describe later, we will find search queries by BMM keywords that brought users to our site. If they are good to us (got conversions, clicks, etc.), we will then remove them from the BMM ad group and add them as exact match to an Exact match ad group. 

Our ad group names should consist of 3 parts:

1. Main ad group name

2. Actual ad group name

3. Match type

This naming convention will make reviewing and optimization much more manageable.

EXAMPLES

For Dining Chairs under the campaign named Search.Furniture.Chairs, we will create two ad groups named:

Group 1: Dining Chairs.Dining Chairs.Exact

Group 2: Dining Chairs.Dining Chairs.Bm

The exact match ad group will contain the keyword [dining chair], and the broad match will contain the keyword dining chair (writing the words without quotes and parentheses)

Same, e.g., Round Mirrors under the campaign named Search.Decoration.Mirrors, we will create two ad groups named:

Group 1: Round Mirrors.Round Mirrors.Exact

Group 2: Round Mirrors.Round Mirrors.Bm

Now, the main keyword used in each set of Exact match and Bm match should be added as a negative keyword from the Bm group. Thus, we can ensure that when someone searches for, e.g., “Dining Chairs” or “Round Mirrors,” only the Exact match ad group will participate in Google’s auction. Additionally, when a user searches something similar to our keyword like “wooden dining chairs” or “dining chairs on sale” or “modern dining chairs,” we will also be eligible to appear in Google’s results since our Dining Chairs.Dining Chairs.Bm ad group contains the keywords “dining chairs.”

We might then find that “modern dining chairs” is a great keyword that brings lots of conversions! We will then add it as a negative keyword from the ad group where it initially came from (Dining Chairs.Dining Chairs.Bm) and create an Exact match ad group which will use the exact match type keyword [modern dining chairs]: 

Dining Chairs.Modern Dining Chairs.Exact

As you can see once again, the first part of the name is the main ad group name which tells us that this ad group refers to Dining Chairs, the second part refers to the actual ad group name, and the third part is the match type used.

Also, there is no need to create an additional Bm ad group for this new ad group since we will still be eligible to show our ads for search terms similar to our new keyword like “cheap modern dining chairs” or “modern dining chairs on sale” by the Dining Chairs.Dining Chairs.Bm ad group.

As you understand the Main ad group name used as a prefix is very important because:

You will have a more explicit ad structure. When your ad groups are shorted alphabetically, it will be easy to review and understand your structure.

By creating a filter and searching for all ad groups containing the name: “Dining Chairs,” you can instantly view the total performance of each subcategory. If you use the naming convention as explained in the book across all types of ad groups, you will also be able to view the performance of a subcategory across the whole account and in every kind of campaign.

It will help us later with our optimizations as this will allow us to perform optimizations at a specific subcategories level.

Quick Note: Don’t panic about the seemingly huge amount of work needed to structure your ad groups. 

Branding campaign

We will create one Broad match and one Exact match ad group on the branding campaign referring to our company. So, we will create a YourCompany.Exact and YourCompany.Bm ad groups. The initial Exact match ad group will be used when a user searches for our company on Google. The Bm match will be used once again for mining keyword ideas when a user searches for our company along with something else, e.g., “examplecompany office desks”. Same as before, if we find search queries that bring conversions, clicks, etc., we would create new ad groups as Exact match only. There is no need to add a prefix here since all ad groups practically point to our brand. 

Competition campaign

At a minimum, create an exact match ad group for each of your competitors. If you want to expand your Competition Campaign even further, add Bm ad groups and scale your campaign when necessary. For prefix, use the name of your competitor. Creating an Ad Group

To add one or more ad groups to your campaigns, perform the following steps:

From the list of types, select Ad Groups.

In the toolbar, choose Add Ad Group.

If required, select the target campaign and click OK.

Enter the name of the ad group and one or more offers

Name your ad groups as described and set a default bid of, e.g., $0.10. 

We will make all of our optimizations on search campaigns at the keywords level, so if you create an ad group for a search campaign, don’t pay attention to the Default bid at the ad group. Once we add bids on keywords, the ad group bids will be ignored.

You can skip the step of adding keywords; we can add them later. Click SAVE AND CONTINUE.

RLSA (Remarketing List of Search Ads)

On all of our Search campaigns, it is a very good practice to bid more for users who have visited our site but did not convert and users who visited our site and converted. The first audience is already familiar with our business so let’s try to bring them back to our store! Furthermore, Converters are not just past visitors, they have made a purchase from our company, and it is much easier for them to purchase again. We will need to bid even more for this audience. So, let’s create a Converters and a Non-Converters list (RLSA).

Create Converters list

Probably you will have already linked AdWords with Analytics. Analytics has the option to create Audiences lists that will automatically be available to use in AdWords.

For creating a Converters list on Google Analytics:

a. On the bottom left of the Analytics interface, click on Admin

b. Under Property, click on Audience Definitions

c. Click Audiences

d. Click +NEW AUDIENCE

e. Click Import Segment

f. Click on Converters

g. Change the Membership duration to 100 days

h. Name your audience “All Converters 100”

i. Click on Next step

j. Click on +Add Destinations

k. Add the list to your AdWords & Analytics account

l. Click Publish.

Create Non-Converters list

a. On the bottom left of the Analytics interface, click on Admin

b. Under Property, click on Audience Definitions

c. Click Audiences

d. Click +NEW AUDIENCE

e. Click Import Segment as we did previously 

f. Now click on Non-Converters

g. Click on the pencil icon

h. Click Behavior

i. Change Session Duration to be greater than 2 seconds. This way, we can be sure that we will add users to our list who showed interest in our content and didn’t bounce. This simple rule will reduce our Bounce rate a lot.

j. Click Apply

k. Change the Membership duration to 100 days

l. Name your audience “Non-Converters 100”

m. Click on Next step

n. Click on +Add Destinations

o. Add the list to your AdWords & Analytics account

p. Click Publish

Now let’s see if everything is set up well. Go to the AdWords interface, click on the wrench icon on the top right of the screen, and under Shared Library, click on Audience manager. You should see your newly created lists there.

Add Converters & Non-Converters lists to your Ad Groups

We will now add these two lists to each of our ad groups. Go into each ad group of your search campaigns and do the following:

a. Click on Audiences

b. Click on +AUDIENCES

c. Leave the Observation option checked

d. Click Website visitors

e. Choose your two newly created lists

f. Click Save

Your lists have been added. Now let’s make some bid adjustments. You will see the audiences associated with your ad group on the audience tab.

Find the column for bid adjustments. Click on the pencil symbol for each audience and make the following adjustments:

Non-Converters 100: Increase by 10%

Converters 100: Increase by 30%

Thus, when a past visitor who didn’t convert or a past visitor who converted searches something on Google and his search query is relevant to our ads, we will participate in the auction with increased bids since this user is more valuable to us.

Quick note:  Be sure to check that you haven’t set any goals or conversions on anything different than sales. If you have created a goal for, e.g., a page visit or a conversion action for, e.g., filling up a form, these actions will count as conversions sales which we don’t want. If that’s the case, you will need to define your audience better.

The following question might have popped up to some of you:

If a user visits our site, browse it for 3 seconds, and leaves without a purchase, he is added to our Non-Converters list?

What if he comes again and purchases something?

Wouldn’t he be added to the Converters list as well?

What happens in this case since he will belong to two different lists?

The answer is that the higher bid always wins, so even if he belongs to two lists, the higher bid (Converters) will be used.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) Ad group structure

Dynamic search ads are the simplest method of finding customers who are searching Google for exactly what you offer. These types of ads use content from your website to target ads and can help fill gaps in your keyword-based campaigns. To use these types of ads, your website must therefore be well-developed and have a large inventory of information. For our DSA campaign, we will create one ad group for the entire site. For larger accounts, we can create multiple ad groups for different sections of our site. So, assuming you have created your Dynamic DSA campaign while always respecting the suggestions for naming it, proceed as follows:

a. Click on +CREATE AD GROUP

b. Be sure that Ad group type is set to Dynamic

c. Name your ad group “All webpages”

d. On the bottom, click on All web pages

e. Click All web pages once again

f. Click SAVE AND CONTINUE

Once again, add the Converters and Non-Converters lists as we did previously using the same bid adjustments.

At this point, be sure to add as many negative keywords as possible before launching your campaign. Upon the first days of launching your DSA campaign, be sure to add negative keywords daily.

Prospecting campaign (Prsp) Ad Group Settings

This type of campaign will be used for bringing new visitors to our site. While we could create various prospecting campaigns, we will use just one since it will work fine for most businesses. 

Prospecting campaign ad group structure

On the prospecting campaign named Prsp, each ad group can refer to any level of the categories of your site you want. So, we could create ad groups for the category Dining Chairs, the category Chairs or the category Furniture, or even all of them. So, map the site categories you would like to run ads (if not all) and go on and create the corresponding ad groups. 

For our display campaigns, our ad groups should use the identical same naming convention we used for naming our search campaigns without using the term “Search” in the beginning. 

Below are some examples of ad group names we would use:

Furniture.Chairs.Dining Chairs

Furniture.Benches

Decoration.Mirrors.Wall Mirrors

Furthermore, each ad group should be created twice; we will create one ad group running contextual ads and another based on interests (topics) and demographics. Let’s give an example of how this would change our naming convention. 

Furniture.Chairs.Dining Chairs.contextual

Furniture.Chairs.Dining Chairs.interests

Furniture.Benches.contextual

Furniture.Benches.interests

Decoration.Mirrors.Wall Mirrors.contextual

Decoration.Mirrors.Wall Mirrors.interests

Contextual ad group settings

With contextual ads, your ads are eligible to be shown when a web page contains one or more keywords you have predefined. 

Access each one of your contextual ad groups and do the following:

a. Click on Keywords

b. Click on the button +KEYWORDS

c. Add all relevant keywords of your ad group, one keyword per line. 

It is a good idea to use the keywords included in the ad groups of the corresponding search campaign. Don’t be bothered about match types; all keywords will be treated as Broad Match. Since keywords will be treated as broad match, it is very important to visit the NEGATIVE KEYWORDS tab and add negative keywords.

Before you click save, be sure to click on Content: Only show ads on web pages, apps, and videos related to these keywords under the Keyword setting. If you want to have an increased reach, you can leave the first option as is, but this will impact performance.

Now, if you want your prospecting ads to appear in some predefined placements on the web, then go to the Placements tab. Add all websites, YouTube channels, etc., you believe are relevant to your business and content. 

If you want to target only these placements with content related to the keywords, you will choose Targeting (recommended). 

If you want your ads to appear on every related to your keywords webpage AND on your placements (if they have content related to your keywords), choose the “Observation” method. If I want to use placements along with keywords, this is the method I usually use.

If you want to focus on some specific sites but have your ads shown on other web pages, we will have to make some bid adjustments. On the placements tab and after you have added your placements, choose the websites you want to focus on, click on edit, and click on Change bid adjustments. An increase of 30% will do the work.

Interests ad group settings

Access each one of your interests ad groups, click on Topics, and then click on the button to add topics.

Add all related to your business user interests. Leave the Targeting (recommended) option as is.

Now visit the Demographics tab: Enable/Disable demographics according to your needs. I rarely make any changes here. Don’t make any assumptions upfront. You can optimize later on when you have enough data. A rare case scenario where I would make adjustments upfront is when our business is gender-specific, e.g., women’s shoe store, men’s clothing, etc. If that’s the case, add this demographic option to your contextual ad groups as well, and also be sure to make these adjustments in your remarketing campaign.

Chapter 10: Facebook and paid advertising

AdWords vs. Facebook

This is a question that people that are not experienced marketers often ask. The answer is always "it depends." We need to understand the goals we want to achieve with our advertising campaign. It is usually fundamental to combine both strategies. It all depends on the type of question, whether latent or conscious (or both). If the goal is to make branding and then stimulate users who do not know us and may be interested (latent demand), then the best choice is Facebook Ads which will allow you, as we will see later, to reach potential customers. You can do this with various types of targeted campaigns and get leads. 

Similarly, you can also use ads on the Google Display Network to reach potential customers by submitting your banners to specific placements. If users are already looking for your product or service, the right approach is to use Google AdWords by creating ads on the Search Network. In this case, the user is already in a much lower part of the funnel, therefore more inclined to purchase as he is looking for your product/service. We will find both types of demand in most cases, and we will have to work on both platforms jointly. The key is to understand where the user is inside our sales funnel and act accordingly; we will never stress it.

Going inside, it will be useful to retarget users who have shown interest in the product or service working with both Facebook Ads and AdWords through ads on the display network. 

Note: what if we intercept potential customers on Facebook through FB Ads and look for us on Google, but we are not positioned organically (without paying) for that keyword? 

Simple, they will click on a competition link. The risk is, therefore, to practically advertise competitors. Understand well then how important it is, in the absence of organic positioning with SEO, that we must also have Google ads on the search network to cover some keywords. 

The fact is that Facebook marketing is not so powerful if done alone. It is something that some people see as a disadvantage. 

Each Facebook campaign consists of 3 levels, and it starts from the campaign level, which consists of one or more ad groups. As you have just read, you will have to choose a goal for each campaign you create. This is the real distinctive factor at the campaign level. 

At the Ad Group level (Ad Set), you will have to choose the target, the available budget, the publication times, the offer, and the placements (placements). Going down the hierarchy, at the level of the announcements, you can set the type of announcement (image, video, carousel, etc.), all the texts, the call to action (action button), and the destination links. 

The Definition of the Goals 

Now that we understand the structure of a Facebook campaign and the parameters to be set for each level, we are ready to launch our first campaign. The first question is, "What is the goal to be achieved?" Do you want to sell a specific product because maybe you have an e-commerce store, want to create awareness or reputation, or do you want to have leads or what? 

Often, in a complete web marketing strategy, we will have to create different campaigns for the different phases of the purchasing process. We can then create different ads depending on whether the target user does not know our brand or knows it but does not know our product/service, or for example, knows our product/service and may be interested in a commercial offer. 

In the creation phase, Facebook itself will propose different objectives divided into four macro-categories. Let's see them in detail one by one. 

Brand Awareness 

When to use it: In large-scale campaigns, there is no particular action that you want to take to the user. This goal will be more attractive to large companies that can afford to launch campaigns for pure branding. However, for smaller companies, almost every other objective will give better and more significant results. 

Reach 

When to use it: Similar to the brand awareness goal, the reach objective is functional to reach the maximum number of users the ad will show. With the introduction of the rules, Facebook now allows you to cap the frequency with which the ad is shown to the same user. In this sense, the goal for reach becomes very useful when working with a relatively small audience, and you want everyone to view the ad. 

Traffic 

When to use it: When we want to take users to a website, or for example, on a landing page, it is a very interesting goal when promoting content, such as a blog post. 

Leads

When to use it: The lead ads greatly simplify the mobile device signup process. When someone clicks on the ad, a form opens with all personal contact information already pre-filled based on the information they share on Facebook, such as name, surname, phone, and email address. This aspect makes the process fast and within two clicks, one to open the ad and one to send the information. 

The only problem with this type of objective is that the email address used to sign up for Facebook several years ago is obsolete and has not been updated for too long. In this case, we would get a useless contact. As a result, it has been seen that better conversion campaigns perform that point to specific external landing pages with data to be filled out. 

Another aspect to keep in mind is that lead ads do not allow you to include all the information you want in the offer, like on a landing page. Therefore, for campaigns that require a great deal of cognitive attention from the user, a campaign for conversions will be more successful. That said, in any case, it is always better to do a test between the two approaches and see which performs better because each case and sector can behave differently. 

The success of a Facebook campaign depends almost entirely on how we select the right target. Good results are not obtained by trying to guess the interests but only by experimenting and testing and knowing the right tools. 

The pixel of Facebook

Fabio Sutto, a Facebook expert, says it is categorical. The pixel of Facebook should always be installed anyway, even if at the moment we are not interested in campaigning and even if we believe we do not need anything. But why? Because when it is installed (by entering a code on our website), it starts recording data. The pixel will then be able to make us reach users who come into contact with our site, and these users can be used in the future for our listings. It must be installed "regardless" because we may regret not collecting the data when these will help us. 

Spy on competitors' sponsorships

Coming into an advertisement published by our competitors can be a golden opportunity. We can "spy" the target they have chosen for their sponsorship. Just clicking on the 'Why do I view this ad?', the magic is accomplished; we will see exactly what target has set our competitor. 

Whether the interests that our competitor has selected works or not, we do not know; however, we can get an idea based on the vanity metrics. And in any case, we now have some tools to test.

Create a personalized audience

Facebook gives us many options to intercept our potential customers, and we should always start with our customers or our traffic. For example, we can upload a file with our LinkedIn contacts or newsletter subscribers. We can take advantage of the pixel and select who visits specific site pages or generates events (such as sales or add to cart), who spends more time on the site or who visits him more often, or who opens the newsletter. 

Take advantage of other channels, like AdWords

The ads on Facebook certainly do not answer any conscious question. We launch the bait to a potentially interested public and hope that someone will realize that they need our product or service. With ads on AdWords, we intercept the conscious need; the user needs the tires and searches on Google, find our ad, and land on our site. 

Well, we can take advantage of the results obtained from AdWords. Such as? Just leave the pixel of Facebook "listening" and create our custom audience based on traffic on the site with the data obtained. At that point, the user who has seen our model X of tires but who has not completed the purchase will see "chased" from our product even within Facebook. 

Use A/B testing  

The analysis of the results obtained must always be exploited to our advantage. Facebook gives us the opportunity with A/B testing.  A/B testing is a tool to compare two specific elements in order to figure out which one generates the best results and can be used with any marketing tool, such as landing pages, newsletters, Facebook Ads, and blog titles.

Facebook Campaigns: Rules to Define the Budget 

The risk of wasting money on Facebook campaigns is very high. There are a series of precautions that it is best to undertake to avoid spending our money badly. 

Rules to improve CPAs (cost per action) by working on the budget: 

Do not choose too ambitious self-optimization goals. This is especially true for e-commerce, but it is always applicable. It takes several daily conversions high enough for campaigns to learn effectively and improve their performance. We use micro-conversions, i.e., intermediate conversions that are easier to obtain.

Head different configurations (see advanced planning). When the available budget allows it and "we are allowed to make mistakes," it is good to test different configurations to find the ideal setting. 

Increase the budget progressively. When a campaign proves to be performing, it is normal to want to increase its budget and make it climb; however, the increase must be progressive and for small steps (10% -20%). Or, if there is urgency, better clone the campaign and create a new one with the desired budget. Otherwise, 9/10, there is an increase in CPC and a general decline in performance. 

Do not accept default placements. Always separate positions in groups with the same target until proven otherwise. 

Chapter 11: YouTube  

I am certain that everyone who has ever used the Internet is aware of how huge YouTube is. In fact, I am also pretty sure that, at some point, we have all wasted an entire lazy day watching funny YouTube videos. But what not everyone knows is that, besides its ability to entertain, this platform has also become a crucial tool for successful marketers from all over the world. 

With over 2.5 billion monthly users (who are actually logged in), over 1 billion hours of watched videos per day, and over 400 hours' worth of video being uploaded every minute, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine.  

Whatever category they might fall under, chances are, a huge chunk of your target audience is already on YouTube. Marketing your content on YouTube is a smart move that will help your brand grow by providing more value to your customers. 

Creating Your Business Profile 

Before we get right into setting up your business YouTube account and creating your profile, we first need to make sure that you have an active Google account. As you may know, YouTube is owned by Google, and by owning a Gmail account, you can access YouTube logged-in. 

But wait before opening YouTube and beginning the profile creation process. Tying up your YouTube profile to your already existing mail may not be such a good idea, especially if we are talking about your business Gmail account. Sharing your access to your YouTube profile with everyone in your company who has access to your business email is not that recommended. For that purpose, it is smart to open a different Gmail account: 

Go to  www.google.com  and select the 'Sign In' button found in the upper right corner. 

Go to 'Create' -> 'Create Account'

Fill out the details by entering your name, the name of the email, password, birthday, etc., and click on 'Next Step'.  

Verify your account by entering your phone number, where a code number will be sent. Type in the code and click 'Continue'. Your new Gmail account is now up and running. 

Now that you have a Gmail account, it is time to set up the actual YouTube account for your brand and create its profile. 

To get started, simply visit  www.youtube.com . If you are logged in with your Gmail, then you are probably already logged in with YouTube. If not, click on the 'Sign In' button in the upper right corner and enter your Gmail and its password. Once you are in, click on the button of your Gmail account in the upper right corner, and select 'My Channel'. You will have the option to create your channel right away, but for your purpose, choose 'Use a Business or Other Name' from the bottom of the page. Now, enter the name of your brand and then click 'Create'. Keep in mind that this can be updated later from your settings menu.  

Channel Icon and Channel Art 

Now that your channel is created, it is time to customize it. Simply select the 'Edit Layout' and let's get started. First, you need to create a channel icon and art. Channel icon and channel art for YouTube are what the profile picture and cover image are for Facebook – they are the first thing that your visitors see and therefore leave the first impression.  

Click on the default red picture to add your channel icon. Choose a file from your computer, but keep in mind that this picture will be used on your Grail and Google+ accounts as well; 800 x 800 pixels is recommended here. 

Next, click on the 'Add channel art' button found in the center of your channel and upload your preferred image. Here, 2560 x 1440 pixels are recommended.  

Describing Your Brand  

After uploading your pictures, it is time to add some details about your business and customize the 'About' tab. Write a gripping and compelling description that will explain your business briefly and also let people know about the type of videos that will be uploaded on your channel. Make sure to include links to your website and other social media platforms, as well as to include your business email address.  

A great option that YouTube provides is the fact that you can customize your channel differently for unsubscribed and subscribed users. The best way to use this option is to add a channel trailer that will lure visitors into hitting the 'subscribed' button.  

The channel trailer is a video description of your channel, and it should be short (no longer than 90 seconds; 45 seconds is the best) and appealing. Its main purpose should be to welcome visitors and encourage them to subscribe. 

Once you make your channel trailer, it is time to upload it: 

Log in to YouTube Studio

On the left menu, select Customization>Layout

Under Featured Videos, click ADD and select the video for the trailer you created.

Click on Publish

Once you get your first 100 subscribers, your channel is more than 30 days old, and you have a channel icon and art uploaded, your YouTube profile will become eligible for a unique and custom URL, which will give it a more professional look. 

Appointing the Roles 

Before you start uploading video content and begin your YouTube marketing strategy, you need to indicate how many people on your team will have access to your brand's YouTube channel and their roles.  

Once you give them access to the Google account, there are three different role options: 

Owner: They will have full power, meaning they can add/remove managers, respond/delete comments or reviews, edit information, etc. 

Manager: Managers can have all of the editing access as the owner without the ability to add or remove other managers. 

Communications Manager: As the name suggests, the communications manager is mainly in charge of communicating with the audience. They can respond to comments and reviews and do some other editing options. However, they cannot upload new content, view the analytics, or use the video manager. Go to 'Overview' -> 'Add or remove managers' and add individuals to manage your YouTube account. 

Optimizing for SEO 

So, you've successfully created your YouTube business channel. Congratulations! But there is so much more to successful marketing than just creating and uploading engaging videos. For people to watch your videos, they will have to find them first. And how can they do so if you haven't optimized the metadata of your videos? 

The metadata of your videos is what gives people information about the video such as its title, category, thumbnail, tags, description, subtitles, etc., and providing the right kind of metadata will help your audience discover your video easily, whether on YouTube or Google search.  

Title 

When scrolling through the results on YouTube, the first thing that people notice about a video are its title and thumbnail. The title is what hooks the viewer's attention and, therefore, should be well-thought-out. Conduct research to understand what it is that people are looking for. Then, include the relevant keywords and important information in the title, but be careful not to go overboard. If your title has more than sixty characters, it will be shown cut-off in the video result pages on YouTube, and people may not even read the whole thing. Keep it simple, clear, and extremely compelling. 

Description 

Just like your title, the description of the video should also contain relevant keywords that will help potential viewers discover your video easily. But as important as the description is, you need to keep in mind that most people do not actually bother to read it. Unless they are interested, that is. Your job is to make them interested. YouTube usually shows only the first 2-3 lines of the description. If viewers want to read the rest of it, they have to click the 'show more' button for the remaining content. Make sure to polish and re-polish the beginning of the description as much as it takes for it to be compelling so that your viewers would want to read the entire content.  

If your description contains CTAs or some important links that you want to share with your audience, make sure to include them at the beginning of the description where people will be able to see them even without clicking 'show more'. 

Another thing when it comes to writing the description, it is important to always include a transcript of your video. Why? Because your video itself is filled with keywords. By writing a short transcript with these keywords, you will significantly improve your SEO and, eventually, your brand's ranking. 

Tags 

Tags are extremely useful because they can associate your brand's videos with other similar videos on YouTube, which only increases their reach and increases your visibility. To that end, make sure your important keywords are tagged. Highlighting the most relevant keywords first is a key part of your brand's SEO optimization, so make sure you choose your words carefully. 

Category 

Once your video is uploaded, you will need to choose the category under which it will be shown on YouTube. You can choose the video's category under 'Advanced settings'. You can choose from Film & Animation, Travel & Events, Entertainment, Music, Pets & Animals, Educations, Nonprofits & Activism, People & Blogs, Sports, Autos & Vehicles, How-to & Style, Science & Technology, News & Politics, and Comedy.  

Choosing your category carefully is very important as the categories are what group your videos with the relevant ones on YouTube. For instance, if you are selling dog shampoo and list your video under People & Blogs instead of Pets & Animals, you may not reach your target audience. 

Thumbnail 

The thumbnails have a significant impact on the number of views and should be selected carefully. Although YouTube will recommend an option of a few auto-generated thumbnails after uploading, it is highly recommended to skip this option and include a custom thumbnail instead. Choose a shot that will encourage people to click and that represents your video in a good light. YouTube says that 90% of the most successful videos on YouTube actually have custom thumbnails, so you cannot be wrong with this one. 

SRT Files 

Closed captions and subtitles are extremely helpful for viewers, but that is not the only reason why your video should include them. SRT files are also a great way for you to highlight your keywords. Whether you choose to add a timed subtitles file or a transcript of your text, SRT files are a valuable SEO optimization tool that you should definitely take advantage of. 

To add SRT files, go to 'Video Manager' -> 'Videos'. There, choose the video to which you want to add the SRT files and select the drop-down arrow on the right. Select 'Subtitles/CC' and choose accordingly. 

End Screens and Cards 

Adding end screens and cards is a valuable option offered by YouTube that can help you encourage your viewers to visit your website, check out your other videos, and even answer poll questions.  

Cards are the small notifications that usually appear in the upper right corner of your video. Your card can contain a poll, a link, another video, or can be used to promote another channel on YouTube. You can add up to 5 cards at the same time, but be careful as too many inquiries have the tendency to put off viewers. If you absolutely must add a few cards, make sure to space them out well so that your viewers can take several actions without feeling overwhelmed.  

To add a card, go to 'Video Manager' -> 'Cards' -> 'Add Card' and choose whether you want to create a Link, Video or Playlist, Channel, or a Poll card. After creation, simply drag the card to where you want it to appear on the video. 

End Screens are those last seconds of the video that encourage the viewers to take further action, such as subscribe to a channel, visit a Facebook page, click the like button, check out another video, etc. You can add 5-20 extra seconds to your videos and ask your viewers to engage with your brand. 

To add an end screen, go to 'Video Manager', click on the drop-down arrow, then choose 'End Screens and Annotations'. There, you can choose which elements you want your end screen to include, just keep in mind that it is required to promote another YouTube video or a playlist, so even if you only wanted to encourage viewers to visit your website, you'd have to also encourage people to watch some other video of your brand there. 

Playlists 

You may think that creating playlists is not worth your time, but this feature is a real gem for YouTube marketers. Why? Because it increases your visibility. By creating your playlists, you can combine videos not only from your channels but other YouTube channels as well. And the best part is that these playlists are listed and shown separately in the search results. For instance, if you make a collection of your videos and include some popular ones with similar content, you will help other people who may not have heard about your brand before discovering you. 

To create a playlist, click on the '+' button under your video, select 'Create new playlist', choose the name for your playlist, and click on 'Create'. To add more videos, simply use the same button but instead of clicking on 'Create new playlist', choose the already existing one to feature your videos there. 

Chapter 12: Converting Your Followers

Producing a steady stream of relevant, quality content, and doing everything in your power to ensure it's the kind of information your target audience is interested in, is a key step for a successful social media marketing campaign. However, content creation is not the ultimate goal, but only a means to a goal which is conversion. You can have the best content of all, but if you don't take care of the activities to maximize your conversions, your commission rate will never come close to your total views.  

If you want to reach or beat the average, follow these tips:

Define your goals

The first thing to understand is that there may be more to a successful marketing campaign to bring the right person to your page. Your interests could be a variety of things: generating more mentions of your brand, improving your social media presence, improving your ranking on the major search engines, improving your newsletter methods, creating more leads for sales, or simply increasing your website traffic for additional advertising revenue. If you want to boost your business regardless of your goals, you will need to properly track your results. Fortunately, there are metrics to track your goals, whatever they may be. If you're looking to increase your search engine rankings, then there are many SEO tools that can help you track your ranking in real-time.

Create your "Buyer Personas"

To maximize the conversions of your content, you need to be even more specific. The secret to success is to create what is known as "buyer personas" by studying their lifestyle, emotions, behaviors, age, and more. 

To create the "buyer personas," you need to use all the data you can collect from your users. Go through them and try to figure out what types of patterns emerge; you need to strive to be as accurate as possible during this phase in order to segment your audience and target the part that interests you. Things like employment type, gender and age are all good starting points, but you need to find more precise characteristics. Here are some of the questions you should be asking your users:

What is their lifestyle, and how does it affect their purchase choices? 

What kind of family does my user live in?

Who makes the economic decisions? 

What might lead them to choose my competitors? 

What are their preferences? 

What are their interests?

What do they dream about?

What are their aspirations?

One of the main reasons for the "buyer personas" is to be able to remember that behind every number and every percentage that we are going to analyze, there are real people with dreams, hopes, emotions, and goals. This deep approach allows for direct communication with them and will make it easy to generate the type of content they are looking for and will respond positively to.

Increase engagement 

From a study conducted by Forrester on posts made by 249 brand profiles, it was found that the best brands post on average 4.9 times per week. You have to study your niche and your target audience, you have to do some research and some work, but you won't regret it also because communication platforms are available at no cost. It is very important to know your audience and the time slots in which they are online since the most popular social media such as Instagram, give higher priority to posts with more engagement than history.

To increase engagement, use high-quality content that is consistent with your brand. When a follower of yours receives a personal shout-out from you, it will only solidify their engagement and push them to continue following you, and most likely, they could become an ambassador for your brand. Turn an emotionless relationship into a deeper connection. This way, other fans will be inspired to come up with great content, and voila, you yourself will have even more great content and supporters. 

Maximize your conversion

The final goal of everything you post on your site is to sell your products. As such, it's important to formulate your posts in such a way as to ensure that you convert as many viewers as possible into paying customers.  

Additionally, it's important to always include the type of person the product in question is intended for; this will get people who are that type of person interested because it says the product was created with them in mind. Assuming that the group in question has a positive association, you will also attract people who want to be identified that way. 

Declarer doesn't imply the benefits of the product in question: A recent study found that simply by listing five bullet points related to the benefits of using their service, a major online booking site was able to increase their conversion rate by nearly 200 percent. 

The benefits you're talking about don't have to be revolutionary or even far outside of what you'd expect; the most important thing, though, is that any benefits you list must be real and verifiable.

Avoid ad fatigue

If you run the same advertisement for too long can become boring to your audience, who will stop responding. You can try different time periods, but changing your ad completely or changing the offer every week or two might help. You need to prevent your audience from starting to ignore your ads because they think there's nothing new, so find new ways to stimulate your audience. Using video, humor, or an irresistible sale every now and then can help regenerate your ad.

Match your style to your brand

The style of your ads should match the existing style of your brand. For example, if you used "skin like silk" to refer to your skincare products, then this terminology should also be made evident in your Instagram ad for those products. You need to post periodically and stay active on social media. A regular and consistent stream of content is how your audience knows you're always on and where they keep up to date with your latest and interesting business offerings. 

Use the power of Instagram

Instagram is very powerful and has some unique features, including Boomerang and Layout, that offer an amazing opportunity to showcase your products in different exciting ways. Try experimenting with them and see how you can use them to your brand's advantage.  

Imagine before you publish

Stop and think about how your ad will look on a smartphone. Social media are heavy platforms, and almost all of your viewers will see your content mainly on their mobile devices. Imagine how your ad will look on these devices and do everything you can to optimize it before you publish.

Check the right image size.

Check the video aspect ratio specifications.

Remind to include closed captions. 

Highlight your call to action 

The best way to get people to take action is to capture their attention. If your ad has a call to action, put it in the middle of your page, where it will show up well. This is helpful in attracting interested viewers who are already watching your video as well. Calls to action at the beginning of videos only had a 3.25% conversion rate, while calls to action placed at the end of videos were at 10.97%. 

Try Google AdSense 

Google AdSense is a free and simple tool that allows you to earn money by showing relevant and engaging ads to visitors to your site and even customizing its appearance to make it fit your pages.

The first thing to do is to choose the available block formatting types to find the one that best matches your site. According to Google, the shapes that usually see the best results are 160x600, 300x250, and 336x280. It's important to respect a color scheme for the ad that doesn't contrast with the rest of your site. The location of the ad is also important because if the potential customer sees the ad too quickly, they could easily be turned away from your site. So, the least intrusive locations are usually the left or right of the sidebar.

If you're interested in trying Google AdSense, you can download a plugin to easily set it up from the plugin installation menu.

Once the plugin has been installed, simply find the list of plugins and choose the option to activate AdSense. You'll then need to visit the plugin's settings menu and choose the Get Started option (you'll need to log in to your Google account).  

Choosing Your Approach  

Once you have determined what your goals are on social media, you will need to decide what your overall social media approach is going to be; after that, you can get into platform-specific strategies. Choosing your approach includes understanding how each social media platform works, how it is best used, and how it can fit into your general goals for attempting to build your business through social media.

Learning the Benefits of Each Platform  

The first thing you need to understand is how each platform is meant to be used when it comes to social media marketing. Before that, a general understanding of what each one offers will help you to determine which one will be most useful for your business. 

For example, Instagram is a great social sharing platform for visual marketing and visual storytelling because it involves several features that are excellent for showing people your brand. You can use the picture-based profile, stories, live videos, and IGTV to show your brand to people both professionally and more intimately so that people can get a feel for who you are and feel like they are being taken behind the scenes in your brand. 

Facebook is another visual storytelling platform, although it also includes personal profiles, business pages, post-sharing features, and status updates which can all be used to amplify your brand through written storytelling. Many people will use Instagram and Facebook together, as these two are owned by the same parent company and can be integrated into many ways that make each of them far more valuable.  

YouTube is great if you are interested in sharing videos. It can easily be integrated with most other platforms through sharing and embedding videos. If you have a lot that you want to teach, show, or share, using YouTube to design your videos and share them can be a great opportunity to produce professional-quality videos to integrate nearly anywhere on the internet. 

Twitter is primarily status updates. Although recently, they have made it more picture and video-friendly and even added a live video feed to platforms. That being said, the biggest benefit behind being on Twitter is being able to engage in conversations with people on the platform and get your brand in front of people through conversation.  

Pinterest is considered essential for anyone who runs a blog, as it allows you a great amount of outreach. The Pinterest community tends to be very into DIY and picture-based inspiration, so sharing on this platform gives you a great opportunity to be seen by people who are looking for inspiration or information. Unlike other platforms, Pinterest is more of a picture-based search engine. However, it still operates as a social media platform due to the ability to message others and share Pins with people seamlessly through the platform.  

LinkedIn is another great platform, especially if you are a professional who offers services over products. The system offers many ways for you to connect with people who offer services similar to yours, as well as people who are looking for the services you offer. If you build your profile properly, you can become well-established in the online business and get recommended to many different clients who may be looking for exactly what you offer.  

Deciding Which Two or Three Fit Your Needs  

In order to decide your overall social media approach, you need to decide on two or three platforms that are going to suit your needs for social media marketing. Although you can certainly market across many platforms, most people find that attempting to market across too many platforms is overwhelming and can leave you struggling to generate real engagement on any of the platforms. Of course, if you have a social media marketing agency, you can always leave this up to them. The reality of it is that it will still be easier to concentrate your efforts and resources on just two or three platforms rather than several.  

The best way to determine which platforms to use depends on your social media goals. If you know that you want people buying your products more, using visual storytelling platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest will support you in visually getting your products in front of people. Most people would rather see what they are looking to buy rather than simply read about it, which is why this strategy works best.  

If you are looking to talk about and promote your professional services online, you need to be looking into using platforms that are more based on the written word. Depending on what your services are, you may also benefit from having a more visual-based platform included as well. For example, if you are a marketing agency, building a following on Instagram is a good way to prove that you know how to use this popular marketing platform, and it will also help you better engage with your target audience. Aside from that, focusing more on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn will be more effective for most professional services.  

If you are sharing personal services, you may want to "hang out" where people hang out online, which typically includes Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Here, you can share pictures, status updates, and videos about the services that you offer and connect more closely with the people who are going to be most likely to actually invest in your services. The same goes if you are offering in-person services or products. You need to get in front of people and show them your location and why they need to come and visit you in person. 

Ultimately, you will need to decide what platforms are going to blend best with the goals that you are trying to achieve and then get yourself on those platforms. Again, refrain from stretching yourself out too thin. Each of your platforms will come with its own learning curve as you discover how to use strategies that actually work on it. Furthermore, it is easier to gain engagement and traction on two or three platforms than it is to attempt to do it over several. If you concentrate your efforts, you will find that getting online and making a big impact relatively quickly is quite simple, which will allow you to go big and make financial progress through social media. 

Risks to Avoid  

When you get on social media, it is important that you understand that your success is not guaranteed just because you created an account and shared a few posts. When it comes to social media, many businesses are trying to reach the same audience as you are, so you need to make sure that you stand out in the crowd. The market is far from being "tapped out," but if you come onto a platform without knowing how to use it effectively, you are quickly going to get overlooked as your audience favors brands that come in with a strategy.  

In this chapter, you are going to learn what risks to avoid when using social media, in general, to ensure that you are not wasting your time using the wrong growth strategies online. You will learn what mistakes to avoid on each specific platform later, but for now, it is important that you understand the general risks to avoid so that you can have a massive impact online from day one.  

Overstretching Yourself  

Every single social media platform comes with a learning curve that you will need to endure in order to discover to master the platform and begin earning a high return on your social media marketing efforts. Regardless of whether or not you have already been on the platform, if you are not yet used to using that platform for marketing, you will need to learn how to adjust your approach and ensure that it is optimized for marketing so that you can increase your earnings. When you are looking to use social media for marketing, it is important that you do not overstretch yourself, as this can lead to not having the required attention to enduring each learning curve and actually putting that platform to use.  

To avoid unnecessary stress, start by being honest about how much time you have each day to master your social media. If you have very limited time during the day or a few hours per week, it may be ideal to start out on the platform that is most likely to earn you an income. Then grow from there so that you are giving yourself enough time to thoroughly understand each platform. Once you have understood that first platform, then you can go ahead and start branching out to others so that you can master those as well.  

Although you may want to grow big online quickly, it is important to understand where the balance lies when it comes to your growth. That is, it is a lot more productive to go big on one platform at a time than it is to spread yourself so thin that none of your platforms gain traction, and you miss the mark on every social media site you try. You will find that you master each platform and grow a lot more quickly this way, making it easier for you to start generating great success online relatively quickly.

Spending Time on the Wrong Platforms 

Another big risk that you might make online is spending time on the wrong platforms or targeting the wrong parts of the platforms. If you are not directing your time and attention properly, you can quickly get drawn into taking actions that are not productive to your overall goal, which leaves you at risk of wasting a lot of time without a lot of results.  

Just because you may personally prefer one platform over another, or you may personally feel like one is better suited to your business compared to another, does not mean that this is actually the best choice. You need to be where your specific audience is and position yourself directly in front of them, or you are going to find yourself falling flat on your face online.  

This way, you can ensure that you are focusing entirely on areas that will support you rather than areas that will not.  

Not Embracing the Learning Curve 

When people get on social media, one of the biggest disservices they can do for themselves and their business is to fail to embrace the learning curve that comes with being on social media for marketing purposes. If you get on social media and fail to embrace the learning curve or try to do everything your way, you are going to find rather quickly that this is ineffective and that you are going to struggle to succeed online. While you certainly do need to embrace authenticity and freedom of expression online, failing to understand the basic concepts of how to get seen and heard online will only result in you struggling to grow your business.  

The learning curve can take a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months, depending on how much time you invest in social media and what you are doing to learn about the learning curve itself. If you want to accelerate this time, reading books like this one and paying attention to regular algorithm changes, new releases, and platform updates is a great opportunity to make sure that you are learning everything there is to know as quickly as possible. Aside from consuming the information, you also need to practice putting it to work online so that you can ensure that you are aware of both what the information is and how it works in practice. The more you read, learn, and integrate social media strategies online, the faster you will be at getting your business out there and for an online impact.  

That being said, make sure that you are not going too quickly online, either. If you change your strategy too frequently, no matter what platform you are on, you will find yourself struggling to stay seen because people will grow confused with what it is that you are trying to achieve. You need to be willing to give each strategy the time required to allow it to accumulate reasonable results based on your efforts so that you can determine whether or not it worked, how it could have been improved, and what can be maintained when you start adjusting your strategies. 

Blending Personal with Professional  

Finally, even if you are running a personal brand, you need to be cautious about how much you blend your personal life with your professional life. Attempting to blend your personal and professional lives too much can result in you oversharing online and muddying the face of your business. When building a brand, you have to be very cautious, especially if it is a personal brand. You need to be sure that you are not sharing information that could result in you taking away from the reputation or clarity of your business. In other words, even if you have a personal brand, keep your professional and personal lives separate to avoid having personal information leak into your business and destroy your professionalism.  

Even if you are well-meaning, there will be many parts of your personal life that are simply not on-brand and, if you share them, it could result in you being seen as confusing or unprofessional. At the end of the day, even if you are sharing a personal brand, there are certain parts of your life that people simply do not want to read about or heed. The people who are following you will be more interested in the stuff that relates to them or problems they may be facing over anything else. This is not because people do not care about you but because you are positioning yourself and your personal brand as a business. You need to be prepared to behave like a business. 

If you do want to have a personal online platform, make sure that you keep your personal accounts private and separate from your business accounts. You can always share your business life with your personal friends but refrain from sharing your personal life with your business connections unless it in some way makes sense to your business. For example, if you are starting a fashion blog, you can share fashion topics with your professional network but refrain from sharing about your love life or relationships unless it in some way can be tied into your outfit. If you were to wear a cute outfit on a date, for example, you could share this, but do not share about your hardships or troubles that your relationship may be facing online, as this will only lead to you being seen as unprofessional. If you want to be seen as a professional business and have the opportunity to do business like a professional, you need to behave like a professional online at all times.  

Chapter 13: Making Your Landing Page Effective

One step you should never overlook is to spend some time looking at the idea of a landing page to how it works with the success of your AdWords campaign. When someone clicks on your ad, you will need to send them over to a landing page. This is basically the last place they are going to hit before they decide whether or not to take the next step and become your customer. This means that you need to take some serious time and really make a good landing page.  

What Is the Landing Page? 

A landing page is going to be some kind of page on your website where people will go to make purchasing decisions; in some cases, it can also be where they go in order to get the information needed so you can make buying decisions later.

Your customer will be directed there from another website, an internal link on another page of your website, a social media link, or from one of your ads.  

Landing pages should be where you are going to put the sales pitch for your product. These pages are where you will demonstrate exactly how you are going to solve the problem for your customer and try to convince them to click on the Buy button. Some of the things that you should ask yourself when considering what to add to the landing page includes: 

What do your landing pages need to look like in order to maintain the attention of your visitor? 

What do these pages need to tell customers in order to get the sale? 

What buttons, resources, and forms should be on the landing page in order to build up an email list, generate the connections that you want on social media, or make an upsell? 

How do these landing pages convey a good and positive message for your company?  

How Do You Optimize the Landing Page? 

Before you launch your AdWords campaign, you need to ensure that the landing page is optimized for the new amount of traffic that is going to flow in. You would make a major venture.

Some of the things that should be included on an optimized landing page include: 

Easy to navigate: All of the drop-down menus need to be arranged and named in a logical manner. Contact forms and buttons should also be near the top of the page.  

Easy to scan and skim: Use lots of bullet points, lists, and sub-headers in order to catch the reader's attention to the major concepts on the page.  

Attractive: Try to use colors that are complementary and add in some images. You don't want to add in too much clutter, though. Put in enough to attract the customer, but not enough to distract them from the main message.  

A call to action that is obvious: There should never be any room for guesswork when it comes to what you want readers to do on the landing page.  

Quick to offer a solution to the problem of the customer: To sell your product as a solution, you must use this page to paint a clear picture of the problem for your customer. Explain this to the customer and then show exactly how the product is going to be the solution they need.  

Well written: It is worth your time to have an editor look through the landing page to check for syntax, spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. Although they might be a minor deal, they could wipe out your credibility with customers.  

Consistent with the ads: The keywords that you added to the campaign should also show up on the landing page. Also, make sure that the same vibe, feel, and look are found on the landing page and the ads.

Avoid hiring outside help if you are trying to do everything on a tight budget. But in reality, hiring a professional web designer to create or at least look through your self-made website can help. This ensures that you are able to improve the page as much as possible in order to get the sale.  

The quality of your landing page and the relevance of the keywords that you pick are going to play a huge role when it comes to calculating your Google Quality Score. Take the time that is needed in order to set up the website in a way that ensures it will generate sales.  

To ensure excellent results, make sure that the landing page is going to be attractive logically laid out and that it has all of the pertinent information that your customers will need to purchase from you. 

Chapter 14: How to Optimize Your AdWords Campaign

Now, when you look at AdWords, you know that several strategies can optimize the return that you get on your investment if you are advertising it. Mastering these tools to fine-tune the campaign and ensure that you are dialing to your specific target audience will take a bit of time for you. Sticking with it and being a bit picky with your ads optimizations can help you to get the most out of your campaign at the end. Let’s take a look at some of the steps you can take to help optimize your AdWords campaign.

AdWords Extensions

There are a variety of extensions that you can use to customize the information that shows up in your ads. These extensions will change the layout and the look of your ads, depending on which one you choose. You have to figure out what data is the most important to some of your potential customers. Then you can use one or more of these options to get as much traffic as you can out of the campaign you work with. 

There are several extensions that you can use. These extensions will include:

1. Callout extensions: These are nice because they allow you the chance to highlight the unique selling points about your product. These will be brief phrases that will appear below the description lines in your ad. They won’t be linked, but they allow you to show some of the crucial aspects of the company right inside the ad. 

2. Location extensions: These extensions will allow you to target your ads to a certain radius around their business location. Alternatively, you can choose a specific geographic area where show your ad. In addition, if you have a physical address, this extension will make it easier for the customer to know exactly where they need to go if they want to shop in person.

3. Sitelink extension: This one will create space underneath the primary ad for links to other pages that may be housed on that same website. If you think that sending the customer over to other pages on the same website would serve a good purpose as well, then this is something you should consider. For example, if you are working with shoppers, you know are not yet at the bottom of your sales funnel, you know they want to do more research. Giving these customers some links to click on your website can help them do a bit of research through the rest of the website. 

4. Call Extensions: These extensions make calling your business directly accessible for a shopper. You will use this to place a call button right inside the ads. Call extensions are common when you are advertising to a mobile device. When you use this kind of extension, you will pay Google any time that someone clicks on this Call button. 

Google is constantly changing things up and trying to enhance its extensions to fit the needs of both buyers and sellers. The best way for you to know what extensions are available and keep up with everything is to get onto the AdWords account and look through the setup pages for ads. You never know when a new bell or whistle may show up there. 

Keep Making Adjustments to Your Chosen Ads

Explaining all of the reports that are available with Google AdWords is something that could fill up quite a few more books overall. While we won’t go through and list out all of these, there is a ton of information at your fingertips when you get started with AdWords. 

Learning about and deciphering all of this data can help you make the best decisions to increase profits. You can learn how to adjust your list of keywords, update the copy in your ad, fine-tune your budgeting to get the most out of your money.  

There is only a little that you can prepare for when working with an online ad. In the end, it comes down to you as the advertiser being able to find the right combination of works, both in the ads and on your landing pages, that will lead to more people clicking and purchasing through the advertisements that you decide to place.  

Think of all this as more of a work in progress. You will not be able to place one ad and then walk away and do nothing while you make a big profit. Even more advanced advertisers find that they need to make adjustments and change things until they reach the right mixture of what seems to work the best for your ad and your business.  

Whenever you work on an advertisement, you will find it essential to figure out ways to optimize your content as much as possible to make it more likely that people will click on your ads and make it easier to make some sales on the clicks you are getting. 

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Conclusion

Google is a significant part of the internet, and there's no doubt about it. Some people even think Google is the gateway to the internet. If they need something, they turn to Google to guide them in the right direction. So, Google could serve as the guide to your business. Google has created several tools to help market your business. No Marketing strategy could be complete without Google. Most methods related to SEO have been put in place to affirm to guidelines set by Google. It is all about doing everything you can to find favor with Google search engine algorithms.

Google AdWords is, without doubt, one of the biggest of them all. You must pay extra attention to AdWords because you can reap benefits from what it has to provide. Google AdWords was built from the ground up for internet marketing. Most websites that offer internet marketing services were derived from Google AdWords.

It is the fastest and most efficient way to get your page to appear on the first page of results for your targeted keyword. If you want to hit the ground running by attracting customers to your business, you should spin Google AdWords.

Google Maps can help you put your business on the map. These days we all use google maps to navigate any place we wish to go. When you claim your business on Google My Business, you can place it in front of people. Google will automatically recommend your company when they are in the vicinity based on their location. When they search for a product or service provided by your business, Google will lead them to you with the help of turn-by-turn navigation. They can also call your business or visit your website without leaving Google's main page.

These and many more tools, which Google provides for almost free, can be used to build and grow your business. The strategies provided in this eBook will help you get the maximum results from Google Marketing. Besides AdWords, most of the tools mentioned in the eBook do not cost a penny. Hence you would not need to break the bank to present your business to your audience.

We wish you the best of good fortune and prosperity. We hope you use the power of Google to lead your business to places it has never been before.