Oct 23, 2019
Hey there podcast family, welcome to episode 43 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.
Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!
Today’s episode is brought to you by my brand new, course Facebook Ads for Beginners. It’s been many hours in the making, but it’s here and I’m more excited than a cat when the Christmas tree goes up!
I love talking about Facebook Ads. I believe they have the power to make a massive difference in my business and in yours.
But one of the biggest mistakes people make and probably one of the most asked question I get about Ads is “to boost or not to boost”? So, I thought I’d deal with just that question here on the podcast today.
It won’t surprise to learn that I am anti-boosting. But it will surprise you to hear that I think they do have a time and place and I’ll talk about that a bit later.
Before I get all addsie (!) with you – let’s do the discovery of the week.
THIS WEEK’S DISCOVERY!
This discovery is a fun one! If you’re anything like me, you see things, get curious and think “how did you do that” and off you set down a 100 rabbit holes looking for the solution to what you saw and that was a little bit cute/different or awesome.
Alas, this was one of those needless investigations driven purely by curiosity.
Let me see if I can explain it? Have you ever seen on Facebook or Instagram or social media for that matter, a post where someone is texting in an animation and a second later someone responds? With all the sound effects of text typing and look and feel of a text.
Well that’s what I’ve seen and thought “cool”! So, I found an app that does it.
It’s called TextingStory and you’ll find it in the app store. It’s free and well, frankly, I think it’s a little cool.
If standing out from the crowd on social media, where it’s busy and crowded, is the name of our game – then this little app just might hit that goal.
And plus, it’s like having a little conversation with yourself! For those who talk to themselves, you know what I mean?!?!
Anyway, check it out. I’ll have a story of what I am talking about here on my Instagram stories today – so go look at it – head to Small Business Made Simple and check it out.
As always, just a little disclaimer, my discoveries are just that and I am in no way affiliated with any of them but promise to tell you if I ever am. I just love them and from the response of my listeners, you guys, you are loving them too!
Hey and if you have a little discovery, or something you use in your business that you’d like to share, please do so. Email me at jenn@jenndonovan.com.au or tag me @smallbusinessmadesimple. I really love to know what tools you use to help make your life simpler!
ARE FACEBOOK BOOST POSTS WORTH IT?
Ok so let’s get into today’s episode all about boosting posts.
Recently, a Facebook account manager had this to say about Boosted Posts:
You are targeting engagement of heavy users and this does not correlate with purchase intent, brand recognition, etc. Instead, it is solely focused on those who tend to react or “like” anything.
Yikes! Do you want to spend most of your ad dollars with an objective where people “like” anything?
And as I’ve said several times on this Podcast when it comes to social media, my bank manager doesn’t accept “likes” as payment and I suspect yours doesn’t either!
Boosting, frankly, is chasing that vanity metric – likes. It’s not good business strategy and it doesn’t help you reach those business goals.
The abundance of information and targeting options for advertisers that can be used for advertising from within Facebook can be overwhelming for anyone that doesn’t work at a digital agency.
Facebook knows this which is why it created the Boost Post option from the page interface.
It knows it needed an “easier” option for businesses, so it created one – but it doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you.
Easy isn’t always best.
There’s a reason why this podcast is called Small Business Made Simple NOT Small Business Made Easy – easy isn’t always the right option.
Here’s 3 reasons boosted posts are not a good option
Reason One
There are far more effective options available to you as an advertiser. Boosted posts are just one of twenty different marketing objectives Facebook offers advertisers. Many of its other marketing objectives will help you achieve business outcomes that Boosted Posts will not, such as leads, sales, brand awareness, increasing video views, and more.
Reason Two
Boosted Posts are focused on engagement (these are vanity metrics – like I mentioned before) and targeted specifically to the 16% of users likely to engage with an ad.
Each of Facebook’s marketing objectives is designed for a specific goal and boosted posts are focused solely on post engagement. And engagement is not a good objective to pursue when you are focused on business outcomes such as growing revenue.
Reason Three
When you boost a post from your page interface, the targeting options are further restricted (versus running ads from the ad manager or Power Editor) as you cannot test different styles of creative (images, copy, or video) or bidding types.
And if you’ve learnt anything from this podcast – marketing is all about test and measure and repeat!
If you listened to last week’s podcast on Facebook Ads, you’ll remember I said, “assume nothing, test everything!”
Just like we learnt in Footloose the movie – there is a time for everything and therefore there is a time for boosting (maybe, perhaps, almost!)
So, when would you boost?
The best case for running boosted posts are to increase your visibility within the organic news feed and to communicate something to your fans. The people who see your boosted posts are most likely going to be your most engaging fans – the social butterflies – those people that are always “liking” and engaging with posts regardless.
My bestie who owns a retail shop (Judd’s in Yarrawonga – just to give it a plug) boosts, despite my requests not too (grrr) and she gets results. She puts up a picture of the new green shirt that’s just arrived, boosts it for a couple of dollars and boom, it’s sold out.
I hate that! But why does it work – well, because of what I just said, she’s boosting to her most engaged fans – the ones who already love her and her business.
You might argue that the green shirt would sell anyway, but that’s a test and measure thing!
So, do this with extreme caution. Be really aware of what the goal is.
So as we wrap up this little rant when it comes to Facebook Boosting, I would love for you to put your hand in the air and say these words “Jenn, from today I promise to keep my fingers off the boost button and I will make time to learn the Ads platform, because I know it’s so much more powerful for my business”.
Excellent – glad we got that sorted!
Now if you’re interested in my brand-new Facebook Ads for Beginners course, I’d love to be the person to teach you.
I take your hand and I walk you through, step by step, not only on the actual Facebook Ads platform, but also goal setting, starting with the end in mind, your client avatar and SO MUCH MORE.
This is truly a labour of love.
My mission is to help as many small business owners as I can. This course is purely built on that core value. I am so tired to small business owners not using the platform because they don’t know how.
THAT ALL ENDS TODAY MY PEEPS, today!
To find out all the details about my course, go to www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/facebook
You’ll have lifetime access. As the platform changes, this course will update too, and you will have access to those updates, and I have an exclusive Facebook Group for my students of course so they can slip in there and have their questions answered by me or get help from fellow students as well.
It’s almost the end of the year, so if learning Facebook Ads was one of your goals, then perhaps this is just what you need to tick that off your list!
I’ll be back next Thursday with some more marketing know-how and another discovery of course.
But that is all for Episode 43. I’d love to connect with you all on social – so let’s get social on social – I’m on all the good platforms, so let’s do that!
…….. and remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!