Month: January 2021

When it comes to gaining traction through social media, there’s almost no better way than to create Facebook ads. With many marketing tools and a worldwide user base of 2.7 billion people, Facebook can help you reach just about any audience. That said, with so many people utilizing the platform, the goalposts have shifted. Not everyone’s ads convert, and that is why it’s all the more important to slow down and consider everything when making your Facebook ads. From the creative to the targeting, we’re counting four things your Facebook ads need to survive on this competitive platform.

1. Precise Targeting

Targeting your ads to the right people is an art. It’s often a balancing act where you try to ensure your ads are seen by all the people you want to see it and no more. But the most common targeting mistake is that the audience is far too broad, as business owners fear that being more specific will ultimately exclude someone who may want to buy from them. It is true that by being more specific with your targeting, you do run the risk of potentially excluding someone from seeing your ad. But try to think of it another way. Without proper targeting, Facebook is going to have a harder time deciding who is best for your ads with your budget, potentially excluding even more of your target audience as Facebook serves instead to others who may not even look at your ad, let alone convert. Don’t fall into this trap. 

2. A Pixel for Your Website

Your ad’s ability to help you doesn’t actually stop when they click on the link. Enter Facebook Pixel. Though not a literal pixel, Facebook Pixel is a block of code that can be added to each page of your website to track your viewers as they move around and interact with your site. An important usage of the Pixel is tracking conversions, which are the actions you want those viewers to complete after seeing your ad. By tracking all the way from their initial viewing on Facebook, to the things they click on the website, you’re able to know precisely what does and does not work in both your Facebook ads and your website, allowing you to make more informed decisions whenever pivots need to be made.

3. Great (And Correctly Sized) Ad Creative

With a huge variety of ad types that allow you to add videos, photos, gifs, products and more, there’s a lot of room to play in the ad creative on Facebook. The ultimate question is: what will your audience respond to? That’s not an easy question to answer, especially if you haven’t been running ads for a long time. It takes a lot of time to measure and figure out what works, so what do you do? Our advice is to try everything. Change your ad creative and copy often, and allow each a fair amount of time to bring in new eyes. You may be surprised at what works, and what doesn’t. Remember that your ad creative is the first thing many may see of your business, so spend as much time with it as you can.

On another note, make sure that your images and videos are the proper sizes. Always consult the documentation for the specific kind of ad you’re trying to publish, and follow its advice as best you can. 

4. A Willingness to Experiment

As we said in the last section, changing things often is a must. The likelihood that your ads will perform to their best ability on the very first try is very low. The best Facebook ad campaigns are carefully crafted over time. Everything from the budget, to the goals, to the targeting and creative, change with experimentation and research. There’s a reason that Facebook gives you all of those charting and demographics tools. Making informed, researched decisions on how to pivot your ads is a must, and those are there to help you do just that. By doing this enough, your ROI will increase and allow you to achieve your ultimate goal with your online advertising: ads that just pay for themselves.

Facebook ads are a complicated subject, and many don’t have the time to constantly be checking them. That’s why you should hire an expert team of marketers with the experience necessary to kick Facebook ads into high gear for you and fast. Call us at 251.517.9425 today to find out more about what we can do for your business!

A new year is finally upon us, and a major theme for this year is “change”. The last several years have shown us just how much can change for business owners in a very short time, and this year will likely continue that trend. Keeping up with the times and pivoting your business accordingly is essential.

That’s why we’re listing off 4 of the most important survival tips going into 2021.

1. Embrace Digitization

Peoples’ needs for convenience are only increasing, so it’s becoming more essential to make sure that your business is online. There are many things a business needs to accomplish that, from building an accessible, functional and beautiful website, to being on social media and regularly using it to post to your followers. This new digital world we live in is indeed a lot of work, but it’s no longer just something that’s “nice to do.” It’s all but required. Do the best that you can with it, and remember that the time you’re spending is an investment in your business’s success. Of course, if you ever need help with bringing your business online, we can help you do just that.

2. Targeted Social Media Marketing

“Doing social media” is a common phrase these days, but for a business trying to garner more customers through these platforms, what do you need to do?

Creating a page and posting is great on its own, but to see results from your social marketing efforts, you need to make sure you know your audience. Facebook’s user base is some 2.7 BILLION users large, so it’s impossible to market to everybody. You need to narrow it down, which is a process called targeting. By deciding on a specific type of user, called a user persona, you can quantify what kind of content those users respond to the most. So instead of just “everybody,” your user persona might be women between the ages of 18-25 who are engaged shoppers. With a description like that, you can more easily determine where and what to post based on what kind of content frequently gets engagement from that audience.

3. Make Your Reputation a Priority

Maintaining your bottom line is of course super important, but a definitive trend that continues to grow is the importance of your business’s reputation online. People want to do business with companies they like and support, and maintaining a relationship with your audience by providing value can do just that. That is to say, make and post content that can help them. Use your expertise to craft a message that gives them something to think about, or laugh with, or even something that might measurably help them in their personal lives. Doing so will make it infinitely more likely for them to think of you when they need help, and is far more effective than constant sales posts consuming your whole timeline.

4. Don’t Stop Marketing

Due to the current extreme state of the world, revenue may be down. If you’re struggling, it is a good idea to cut costs where you can, but something we highly urge you to do is NOT cut your marketing. As Henry Ford once said, “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” In other words, your marketing is an integral part of your business. Always market your business, especially in a time like this.

That being said, marketing can be a full-time job on its own. Not every business owner will have the luxury of time to do it themselves this year. In those cases, we highly recommend that you hire a reliable and professional marketing agency to get the job done for you, and here at Southern View Media, we do just that. Just visit our website at www.southernviewmedia.com to find out more about how we can help your business survive and thrive through 2021!

THE CLIENT

Entrepreneur Scott Blair had dreamed of opening his own tire, rim and chassis training center. In mid-2020, he fulfilled that lifelong dream by establishing T.R.A.C.K. Auto Training, a training center that is the first of its kind in the United States. We were more than happy to assist Blair in bringing his vision to life. In December 2020, we published a website as dynamic as him and his other brands.

THE WEBSITE

After many meetings with the client, a Southern View Media designer created a mockup of the homepage in Adobe XD. Upon the client’s approval of the initial design, a Southern View Media developer began building the site and the designer began the secondary pages. With its overall design and features, the website is simple and accessible but dynamic with its colors and shapes.

At Southern View Media, we believe in the details and use industry-grade techniques. Our talented developer built the website in WordPress. All 8 website pages were built with Elementor. Scott Blair wanted clients to register for courses online, so we utilized Google Calendar integration. Other Gravity Forms, such as the contact form, were customized with CSS.

A simple but satisfying detail is the custom preloader of a tire and wrench.

THE RESULTS

The final product is a modern website designed to attract clients, promote course registration and encourage sponsorships. You can visit the final site at https://trackautotraining.com/. Maybe you should sign up for a class while you’re at it!