Week 11 - Online Advertising

By Thursday:

After reading the lecture and text book assignment, write a blog post in response to this assignment: Develop an understanding of the different FaceBook ad options.

How can you design and implement ads for social media using the principals of good design, using Banner Ads, Twitter Advertising  

With that in mind, what sort of advertising could your business use, and how often should you use ads? Explain the different kinds of FaceBook advertising is available and which ones you might try for your business. Be sure to include your reasoning behind your choice, timing and budget you feel would have the most impact and generate the best results.  

Create several sample ads following the specific requirements of FaceBook, Twitter or other social media platform you want to utilize. The ads should target the specific market you are interested in pursuing. Make screen shots of your ads and include them into your blog post. Explain why you think they would be effective.

 

Which social media platform?  

For a "New Business Lead List Provider" type of service, I would just do Facebook, LinkedIn and a free Blog.  Twitter, if and when I can afford it down the road. 

Facebook:

Being that my budget is small I would start off with Facebook's Page Post and Page Likes ads.  I would do an A/B test of my two ads you see below that have the same message but different photos.

I like Facebook due to the relatively low cost of reaching out to my target market first Southern California and later to Northern California with specific demographics.  After establishing a following I would look into targeting a lookalike audience. Below is Facebook's definition of a lookalike audience and the link to what it is and how to create a lookalike audience.  Of course if you already have followers you can just get right into it.

https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?query=lookalike%20audience

What are lookalike audiences?

Lookalike audiences let you reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they're similar to a customer list you care about. When you use custom audience, you can choose to create a lookalike audience that targets people who are similar to your Custom Audience list. 

Lookalike audiences help you reach people who are similar to your current customers for fan acquisition, site registration, off-Facebook purchases, coupon claims and brand awareness.  Keep in mind that your lookalike audience can only include people from one country at a time.

In a nutshell, here's my plan with Facebook 2014:

Strategy: Objective is to get a ton of likes, get people to click on my website through Page Post Engagement and Page Likes with the mandatory useful content, tips, advice, solutions, discounts and some free give-aways.  

Ads placed in newsfeed and the right side of the page.  With newsfeed I hope to lower my acquisition cost and hopefully good feedback and results. 

Timing: Monthly intervals subject to feedback and metrics. 

Budget: Monthly budget of $500-$750.

Facebook Ads, Audience Definition, Ad Review Order

Facebook "Soar" ad.  One of two Facebook ads to be interchanged

Facebook "Needle in a Haystack" ad.

Audience Definition (With my location set with Anaheim being central + 50 miles, I hope to get all of Orange County, most of Los Angeles and part of San Diego North which gives me a potential reach of 48,000 peeps)

Facebook ad review order

 

LinkedIn: 

I would use LinkedIn to develop my company's brand by engaging with like minded groups regarding lead services, using the same business strategy with as with Twitter.  

 

Networking, building and nurturing relationships would be my priorities with LinkedIn.  As with Twitter and Facebook to get folks over to my website I would use different ad messages rotated at various times to gauge responses.

 

LinkedIn Links:

LinkedIn Official Blog Site

 

Strategy:  Determine size of my audience of like-minded groups and peers.  Start off pretty low at first with a minimum of $10/day pay-per-click bid option.  After a      30 day test and evaluation, determine new budget and strategy at that time.

Timing: Mornings, Monday thru Saturday.

Budget:  Use a pay-per-click (CPC) bid option first to get my name out there.     May do a pay-per-impression of 1000 (CPM) bidding options the 2nd month           in addition to the CPC bid option to test both type of options.

Twitter: When I can afford it

There are 3 different ad types on   Twitter, Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Trends which are clearly marked with a "Promoted" icon.

I would see what people are tweeting about regarding my industry.  If I was eligible, I would've used "promoted tweets" to those who've expressed interest with useful content, tips, advice and CTA's to build brand awareness.

Something else to look into are "Twitter cards" which take your tweets beyond basic text.  For more info on the different types of Twitter cards see the blog link from Forbes at the bottom of the page.
 
 

Not everybody is eligible to advertise: When doing the steps for promoted tweets, seems I'm not eligible if I choose the lessor of two choices of a $5000 to zero budget.  



Choose a monthly budget of $5000+ you get this screen seen at left. <<<<<<<<<<<<<

Choose less then $5000, you get, or least I did, this announcement of not being eligible.

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Here's what Twitter says about eligibility:  Twitter accounts must meet certain criteria in order to be eligible to participate in Twitter Ads and use our suite of advertising products. This list describes common reasons why accounts may be ineligible to advertise, along with steps to become eligible in the future...

Here's Twitters eligibility requirement page: "About Eligibility for Twitter Ads"

Additional Twitter links:

About Twitter 

Business Twitter Page

The Twitter blog network

The Twitter Advertising Blog

If I was financially able to do Twitter, this would be my:
 
Strategy:  Form relationships with a subtle approach in regards to promote branding, website, promotions, freebies, engaging and sharing marketing messages, focusing on interest and similarities.  Using ad copy to communicate       to users "what's in it for them" to follow my brand.

Timing: Monday thru Saturday. When new specials are available.

Budget: Monthly budget of $5000.

Twitter cards

What Is A Twitter Card?
Twitter Cards let you take your tweets beyond basic text. They allow you to create a media-rich experience for website visitors who tweet your content. They add visual interest through images, product info, videos, etc. All you have to do to get started with using the feature is add a couple lines of code to your site.
For those interested in using the feature, there are seven Card types to choose from:

• gallery cards featuring a number of images
• single photo cards
• summary cards which let you post a link with further information
• summary cards with images
• app cards
• player cards which showcase videos
• product cards

The most exciting option for marketers is the product card, which allows users to share product photos and information directly through tweets. Twitter Cards help set your content apart from the rest of the Twitter stream, increasing the likelihood that your customers will click on and retweet your posts.


To see the Forbes blog article on Twitter cards, click link below:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/03/20/the-definitive-guide-to-using-twitter-cards/

 

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