Facebook are releasing a new function called "shops" ahead of schedule in an effort to help businesses affected by COVID-19

Facebook announced on Tuesday the 19th of May that it is adding shopfronts to it's long list of features paired with some new functions across it's spread of apps.

These new features put it in the same ring as Amazon, Etsy and eBay being a platform where users can purchase goods directly from!

Facebook Shops will allow business page admins to create digital storefronts on the platform where they can host a range of products and either send users off-site to complete their payment, or take a payment directly through Facebook.

Basically, Facebook could potentially be your new ecom store!

On top of that, users will also gain access to a function to tag their products in live video. Enabling people to purchase products in a very warm manner, by seeing them live either for the first time or after seeing the benefit they provide.

Facebook said these features were pushed ahead of schedule with COVID-19 affecting small business owners.

“We’re seeing a lot of small businesses that never had online presences get online for the first time,” Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday. “For a lot of small businesses in this period, this is the difference between staying afloat and going under.”

 My thoughts 🤔

I love it

I just imagine an even lower barrier to entry for new and aspiring business owners to enter the market with product and immediate have access to all the tools they need to thrive.

Could it possibly negate the need for a website? No more shopify? No more squarespace? No more landing pages?

And don't get me started on tagging products in Facebook Live videos! Flash sales here we come!

We'll see how this all fares in due time

As a Digital Marketer managing quite a few different brands - both online and local business, there's a lot of uncertainty in whether or not you should be advertising online at all right now. 

So here's my take backed by some facts..

Right now, 28 of the 33 brands we manage or mentor have seen a 20% decrease in lead cost/cost per purchase, this was between the 4th and 15th of March 2020 when fear of this spread was increasing dramatically. 

Not only that but it was/is also cheaper to advertise on Facebook right now. 

One of the ways we measure that is by CPM or 'cost per 1000 impressions' - How much it costs to show your Facebook Ad 1000x

This figure usually sits comfortably at $12 CPM most days of the week. 

Right now across the accounts we manage that figure has dropped FORTY ONE PERCENT to $7 - that's 41% just in case that didn't stick..

SO,

Not only are you able to get cheaper leads and sales right now but IT'S CHEAPER TO ADVERTISE IN GENERAL!

The last time it was this cheap consistently, Facebook had just got done for the cambridge analytica privacy breach.

But let's talk about WHY this might be - Ask yourself. 

Are you trying to conserve your spend right now as a business owner? 

Are you anticipating a drop in sales? 

Do you think every other business owner is thinking the same thing? 🤔

Given the above facts - do you see the opportunity to not only generate new business, cheaper - but also acquire a huge foothold in your industry whilst your competitors are shrinking their marketing efforts?

We've even upped our spend quite considerably to make the most of the current terrain!

So if you're a little unsure - or you need a strategy to navigate the landscape with certainty.. 

Feel free to book a chat and I'll throw some strategies at you free-of-charge

CLICK HERE TO BOOK
*spots limited*

I love dabbling in other marketing platforms.

Don't get me wrong, Facebook is by far the most powerful platform to market yourself online, but just like a good investment portfolio - it's a good idea to diversify.

Plus it's fun 🤓

Snapchat allows you to get in front of an age range of 16 - 35 year old people consistently.

And no it's not just a "young person platform" and even if it were, they'll grow up someday - so whose brand would you like them to recognise?

Right now Snapchat is something I'd consider to be "underpriced attention"

Clicks are cheap, just .28c in fact.

Imagine only paying $28 for 100 targeted people to visit your website - then retargeting them on Facebook

​With this particular campaign pictured above, I was generating interest for my mentorship course.

We got 1720 "swipe ups" a.k.a clicks @ 28c each

146,000 impressions (eyeballs on my ad)

and a CPM of $3.29 - basically how much it costs to reach 1000 people at a time (compare that to the average CPM on Facebook of $12 and you see why I'm stoked)

Ad Creation 

Creating the ad is a tad bit fiddly I must admit.

Snapchat have their own self-serve ad platform similar to Facebook

Your image or video needs to be a PORTRAIT style and I have found just turning the selfie camera on and speaking tends to be one of the better performing types of ad content - don't be afraid to get in front of that camera!

Also you'll need to have your logo in the video/image as well.

They don't allow for any "perceived negative" before and after pics in the content either - basically if you follow Facebook's guidelines for advertising then you should be right.

All in all, if nothing else, Snapchat is a great tool for branding - letting people know who you are and what your business does
​
And cheaply I might add 😉

story by Gaby Del Valle

Instagram is somewhere between a social media app and an advertising platform. Regardless of how you’ve chosen to curate your feed, you’re guaranteed to see ads in between meme posts and pictures posted by your friends.

Now Instagram is making it even easier for brands to advertise to its users: Starting Tuesday, Instagram users in the US can buy products from more than 20 brands without ever leaving the app.

The Facebook-owned platform has given brands the option to include “product tags” on their posts since 2017, which give users — i.e., potential customers — information on items that appear in posts and Stories, as well as the option to buy the products from the brand’s website. Now instead of redirecting users off the platform, Instagram is letting users shop directly through the app.

Here’s how it works: When users tap on a product to look at the details, they’ll see the option to “Checkout on Instagram.” From there, they can enter their billing and shipping information, which is stored for future purchases, and track their order. That’s basically it. It’s designed to be easy and, presumably, to enable impulse shopping.

For now, the feature is only enabled for 22 brands. It’s a mix of really high-end stuff — Prada, Balmain, Oscar de la Renta — and fast-fashion companies like H&M and Zara.

This is a natural move for Instagram, a platform whose users have become accustomed to being advertised to left and right. Brand posts are advertisements, as are many posts by influencers and micro-influencers, even when they don’t bear the requisite #ad tag.

According to Instagram’s own metrics, 80 percent of users follow at least one business account. And brand accounts are a vital source of revenue for Instagram: As of 2018, there were more than 25 million businesses on the app, 2 million of which used its ad functions. The Motley Fool reported last week that the app could bring in more than $2 million in ad revenue in 2019 alone. According to a spokesperson, Instagram will introduce a “selling fee” to fund the checkout process and to “offset transaction-related expenses.”

Of course, even if you don’t follow a single business, brand, or influencer on Instagram, the products you do see aren’t just shown to you by happenstance — the ads you’re served are the result of sophisticated data collection algorithms that know literally everything about you, including what kinds of ads you’re most likely to click. By letting brands advertise and sell to consumers directly, Instagram is cutting out the middleman even further.

Written by David Cohen

Facebook Canvas has a new name— Instant Experience—and some new capabilities to go along with its name change.

The social network said in a blog post that the number of Instant Experience campaigns has more than doubled over the past year, and content now loads 15 times faster than standard mobile websites.

Facebook took the wraps off Canvas in February 2016 and added templates in September 2017.

New template Instant Forms—which enables brands to ease the process by which people share their contact information—joins existing templates Instant Storefront, Instant Lookbook, Instant Customer Acquisition and Instant Storytelling.

Facebook also revealed that the Facebook pixel will now be automatically added to Instant Experiences for any brand that is already using the pixel on its website.

The social network said in a blog post, “Businesses can now integrate the Facebook pixel and third-party pixels into their Instant Experience to get more detailed data and insights … This will enable businesses to re-engage with customers who interacted with their Instant Experience.”
​
Third-party pixels can be embedded into Instant Experiences in order to track engagement and compare performance with that of other campaigns via their analytics or insights tools of choice. 

Author: ​RENATA EKINE

A new tracking possibility is being rolled out to Facebook advertisers who own Facebook groups. If you have been managing a Facebook Page for quite some time, then you have been battling with low reach. Many Facebook Page admins, in their effort to combat low reach and have their audience engage with them turned to Facebook Groups. One disadvantage to that was the inability to target those people. This will soon change!
Facebook enables advertisers to implement a Facebook Pixel right into their group to see the actions people take on your website after engaging with the posts in your group. To connect to your Facebook Pixel to your group, you need to:

Data from the chosen pixel will appear in the Group Tab insights within 24 hours and will be available to the admins of the group and anyone who has admin access to the Facebook pixel.

What will be interesting to see is whether we can create a custom audience based that we can later target with ads.

​According to Facebook: “It’s important to note that attributed results (or actions taken as a result of your Group posts) will only show in Group Insights and not in Events Manager or Ads Manager. It’s important to note that these results are not related to the paid advertising results that appear in Ads Manager“.

​The possibility to add a Facebook pixel to your groups will gradually roll out to all Facebook groups over the next weeks.

How many times have you fallen into this trap?

"This post is performing 95% better than previous posts, boost it to reach more people."

As attractive as that may sound, the reason you're reading this blog is because you know boosting posts doesn't produce SALES or ENQUIRIES! 

Maybe you got a few LIKES, COMMENTS & SHARES but unfortunately, those 'vanity metrics' a.k.a 'stupid data' don't translate into generating new revenue into your business do they? 

Here's why..

By default, when boosting a post, Facebook uses the "engagement" objective.

Engagement = LIKES, COMMENTS, SHARES and basically any interaction with your post. 

So if you want people to enquire through Facebook messenger or visit your website, then you can't be surprised when boosting doesn't yield those results for you, because you haven't chosen the right objective. 

If you've ever had a play around in Ads Manager when creating an Ad (the only place you should be creating ads) then you'd see a whole bunch of different objectives like the ones pictured below

As an example, if you wanted more people to visit your website, you'd use the "Traffic" objective circled above.

Similarly, if you wanted more people to enquire via messenger then you'd use the "Messages" objective. 

So, hopefully you've gotten some valuable insight into why your BOOSTS haven't worked in the past. But don't stress, there's a more efficient way to being creating your Ads to achieve greater success with them. 

If you're interested I did an EPIC 35min webinar on "How To Create a Facebook Ad Properly" that you can gain access to for FREE - Note: You don't have to be a tech wizard to learn this either

​Just hit the button below