jonloomer - Sydney Social Media Services

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Pin Campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager

You can pin important campaigns, ad sets, and ads in Facebook Ads Manager. Sometimes the simplest tools are the most helpful.

Here’s how it works…

Pinning in Ads Manager

It doesn’t matter whether you’re viewing campaigns, ad sets, or ads within Ads Manager. But my example will be using campaigns.

Hover over the name of the campaign. Then you’ll get options for View Charts, Edit, Duplicate, and Pin.

Once you pin a campaign, it will move to the top. It will also display a blue pin icon, regardless of whether you are hovering over the name.

You can pin multiple campaigns. As far as I can tell, there’s no limit to the number of campaigns you can pin.

If you want to unpin a campaign, simply hover over the name of a pinned campaign and click “Unpin.”

Why Would You Use This?

This is a really good organizational tool.

Let’s assume that you’re running a whole bunch of campaigns, ad sets, or ads. This may apply most to ads since you’re more likely to have a lot of ads running than campaigns.

Undoubtedly, there are specific assets you care about most and that you want to watch most closely. Pin them. No more scrolling or filtering. Always at the top.

Speaking of filtering, the pins hold when you filter, too. So, if you filter by objective, for example, the campaigns that you pinned of that objective will appear at the top.

Handy!

Is This New?

It’s new to me. Whether it’s been there and I’ve overlooked it or it just showed up in my Ads Manager, I can’t tell you for sure. What I do know is that everyone I’ve shown it to within my community so far hasn’t seen it before.

Of course, someone commented on a video I created that they’ve had this for a year. Is that true? Maybe. It’s also possible it’s something that was originally tested and then slowly rolled out.

It really doesn’t matter, though. It’s a good feature, and you should know about it!

Watch Video

And here’s a video I created about this feature…

@jonloomer You can now pin campaigns, ad sets, or ads to the top of Facebook Ads Manager. Here’s how it works. #facebookads #facebookadstips ♬ Voodoo (Hip Hop Instrumental) – SickBeats

If you haven’t followed me yet on TikTok, do that now!

Your Turn

Have you been pinning campaigns? Will you? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Pin Campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=4058

December 14, 2022/by exposure

Did Facebook Ads CPM Go Up This Holiday Season?

Social Media

Historically, the average CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions) has increased for Facebook advertisers during the holidays as competition for eyeballs and ad spending increase. Did it happen this year?

Prior to 2020, advertisers routinely saw CPM costs double, triple, or more during the most competitive times. I wrote a blog post about this phenomenon way back in 2014. Here’s a graphic showing that increase from 2013.

Of course, things got a bit weird and difficult to predict since 2020. Let’s take a look at what has happened so far this holiday season.

Year-Over-Year Comparison

I use the Within Marketing Pulse to track Facebook CPM and other information. It’s a free resource. Within provides reporting on what they’re seeing from their clients with $500 Million in budget.

Here’s what they’re showing compared to 2021 for Facebook and Instagram CPMs.

Facebook CPM has remained well below where it was on the same day a year ago. It’s remained between 30 to 60-percent below last year’s CPM throughout the past three months. Instagram CPMs have held closer to last year’s costs but are still down most days.

Absolute CPM

Well, maybe last year saw higher CPMs this time of year than normal. We should also check to see if CPM costs are generally trending up during the holidays.

Here’s a chart of the average CPM on Facebook during the past three months.

The average CPM for Within clients held consistently between $8.73 (November 25) and $15.32 (November 29). Prior to November, it was generally around $12.50. CPMs certainly became most volatile during November, but that resulted in just as many extreme lows as highs.

Overall, Facebook CPM is moving generally along that $12.50 line. It’s difficult to make the claim that we’ve seen a clear holiday spike since the lowest CPM during the past three months reported by Within happened on Black Friday (November 25).

Why Aren’t CPMs Going Up?

First, it’s important to point out that Within Marketing Pulse doesn’t represent all advertisers on the platform. There could be biases and small sample issues here.

We don’t know precisely what Facebook is seeing globally. We do have Meta’s Q3 Earnings Report. Meta reported a steady drop in average cost per ad.

Meta also reports a flattening in ad revenue, which is unusual historically for the platform.

A drop in ad costs (loosely CPM) could be at least partially related to a drop or flattening in ad revenue. Are advertisers spending less this holiday season? Are there fewer advertisers?

I’m also not an economist. Another potential factor related to CPM would be inventory. Inventory could be related to the number of users and the amount of time they are on the platform. It can also be altered by adding or removing placements. An increase in inventory would make it more difficult for CPM costs to increase (I presume, though it’s not my expertise).

We’re missing the fourth quarter, of course, but it will be interesting to see that data when it comes up. That will give us a much better idea regarding what has happened with advertising during the holidays in 2022.

What This Means

These are signals that CPM costs aren’t taking a normal holiday spike. As a result, this may be the best time to advertise. Not only are costs steady, but your customers are primed to buy during the holidays.

There are always variations in industries and brands, but there is a potential opportunity here.

Your Turn

I haven’t seen a dramatic increase in CPM related to my advertising, though that’s the definition of small sample sizes. What are you seeing?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Did Facebook Ads CPM Go Up This Holiday Season? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=4014

December 12, 2022/by exposure

How I’m Targeting People Most Engaged with My Reels

Social Media

Now that I’m putting a greater focus on Reels and short-form video, the next step is figuring out how to leverage this engagement with ads. I want to target the people who are most engaged with my Reels, both on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s clear that these videos are making an impact, even though they don’t drive traffic to my website. I’m getting better engagement than I’ve seen on Facebook and Instagram in years.

But, most importantly, I keep hearing from people who are seeing my content again. They had stopped seeing my stuff, even though I kept sharing links that went into the abyss. Many of the consumers who fall into this group are now buying from me.

So, I need to figure out some creative ways to use this to my advantage. First, I’ll need to figure out the best way to target them.

Create the Audience

Let’s consider our options.

I don’t want to target all people who are engaging with my posts. That’s just too broad. This can be done with both my Facebook page and Instagram account.

No, I want to focus on my videos. So, let’s use the Video Views Custom Audiences.

I’ll want to focus on those who watched the entire video (or at least 95%).

But, the immediate problem is that we need to select at least one video. So, we could go through and select all of my recent Facebook videos from the past couple of months…

Side note: It’s an obvious bug that all of my Facebook videos show they have 0 3-second views.

You’ll also want to select all of your Instagram videos…

The result is 118 videos, which may be a bit overkill.

I’ve decided that I want to focus on recency since I can’t isolate people who watch the most of these videos. Otherwise, someone who watched one video could be targeted perpetually.

So, let’s use the last 7 days…

Unfortunately, I’ll also need to update this audience every time I create a new video. Not ideal, but the lengths I’ll go to create good targeting.

How to Leverage this Group

There’s obviously plenty we can do with this. I could promote products and opt-ins. But for now, let’s just make sure we can reach these people.

So, I created a video indicating that if you’re seeing it, I have a feeling you’re my people. You’re someone who is watching my Reels to completion, and that seems to be a good indicator.

Since this is a small group (under 1,000 people), I’m using an Awareness campaign optimized for Reach.

And since it’s a small but relevant group, I’m using worldwide targeting. You can do this by simply removing any targeting from the location field.

I’m targeting the custom audience we just created. But I’m also excluding anyone who watched the video that I’m promoting in this ad. I created that audience after this campaign was published, then updated the targeting in the ad set.

I’ve focused on the more relevant video-first placements.

And I’m sticking with the default of 1 impression every 7 days.

The reason for that is I may keep this campaign running a while, and I don’t need to keep showing the same people the ad all the time. The exclusion helps prevent that, but this control helps as well.

Am I Reaching People?

Yeah, I am. Since I started this campaign on Thursday, I’ve reached a grand total of 147 people.

Not a lot, but these are important people. And due to the frequency cap, that size has shrunk pretty fast. I only reached 9 people yesterday and 13 so far today. But, the main thing is that it’s still running.

If delivery becomes an issue, I may need to update the frequency cap to something like 1 impression in every 3 days. But, we’ll worry about that if and when we need to.

One of the nice things is that it’s incredibly cheap to reach this very relevant group. I’ve only spent about $5 so far to run this campaign.

If I were to leverage this audience for something like list building or selling products, it has the potential to be very efficient.

What Could Have Been Better?

It’s fun to experiment with this, but the truth is that this isn’t my preferred approach. Two reasons.

1. Why can’t I target anyone who watched any Reel or video during the past 7 days?

I went to a lot of effort to create this audience based on people who could have watched any of my Reels. Even if I wanted to only focus on the most recent videos, I’d still need to keep updating the videos included as I publish new ones.

That’s far from ideal. Why isn’t there an option to isolate engagement with all videos at 95% during a specific period of time?

2. Why can’t I target people who watched at least 3 Reels during the past two months?

A frequency element would be amazing. That way, we could widen the net and include videos over a longer period of time. But without frequency, a person who watched one video two months ago (when I publish videos every day) isn’t as valuable as someone who watched one recently.

This is actually something that can be done with website custom audiences, so it’s not completely new functionality.

I created a video on this, too (because of course I did!). Check it out…

@jonloomer Here’s how Facebook could improve video views custom audiences. #facebookads ♬ Ocean Chill Guitar | Trap Hip Hop Instrumental – xklbeats

Your Turn

If you publish a lot of videos now, this may be a good approach for you. What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How I’m Targeting People Most Engaged with My Reels appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

December 5, 2022/by exposure

Should You Go Broad with Facebook Ads Targeting?

Social Media

You’ve likely heard the advice, whether from a Facebook ads rep or your regular ads “guru.” Micro-targeting with Facebook ads is no longer viable. You should go broad instead.

As someone who embraced targeting the smallest, most relevant audiences for years, coming around to this approach hasn’t been easy. But it has some merit. It can be the best approach in the right situation. It shouldn’t, however, be used universally in all cases.

Should you go broad with Facebook ads targeting? It depends. Let’s break this down…

What Broad Targeting Looks Like

Let’s be clear, I’m not just talking about targeting a large audience. When I saw “Go Broad,” I’m referring to the practice of using an audience that includes everyone within a given country.

No adjustments made to narrow your audience. No custom audiences, no lookalike audiences, and no interests or behaviors.

If you’ve been advertising for a long time like I have, the thought of this may make you twitch a little. It seems crazy. But, it may just be crazy enough to work.

How Optimization Works

To understand why going broad could work, you must first understand how optimization works.

You choose the optimization event within the ad set.

It could be a conversion, link click, app install, or something else. You provide a target audience. Facebook will then show your ad to people within your audience who are most likely to convert.

The audience is a guardrail. You will never reach everyone in that audience, and you should rarely want that. Facebook’s algorithm is smart and will avoid those least likely to convert while focusing on those with the greatest odds to perform that desired action. The goal is to get you the most optimization events at the lowest cost.

Of course, optimization has some weaknesses. But when it works well, it’s powerful. And it can learn and react much faster — and more intelligently — than we can make changes manually.

How Going Broad Works

The purpose of targeting is to give Facebook the pool of people who are most likely to act on your ad. The algorithm then finds the people within that group to perform that action.

But, when you pick the targeting yourself, the algorithm is limited by your selection. Maybe the people within your selected audience aren’t actually that likely to convert. You are hindering your own success (in theory).

The benefit of going broad is that you are giving Facebook the entire universe of people (not literally, I guess) as an option. The algorithm then goes to work from there.

Machine learning quickly figures out which people are making the action you want and makes real-time adjustments to who sees your ad, in what placement, and (in some cases) in what format.

For this to work, the key is that the algorithm has to learn quickly and effectively in order to find the actions you want. It may start out slowly, but your results should improve with time as the system learns.

This is also reliant on sufficient volume to learn. That may require more budget to get that volume. Ultimately, you will need to get at least 25-50 optimized actions per week per ad set to get optimal results (The Learning Phase).

It’s the Direction Facebook is Heading

If you’ve followed the changes that have rolled out to Ads Manager the past couple of years, you should understand that this is the direction we’re heading — whether we like it or not.

Facebook has rolled out the following “Advantage” features during the past year:

Advantage Detailed Targeting: Allows Facebook to expand your audience beyond the detailed targeting (interests and behaviors) you’ve selected.

Advantage Lookalikes: Allows Facebook to expand your lookalike audience beyond the percentage you used.

Advantage Custom Audiences: Allows Facebook to expand beyond the custom audience you entered for targeting.

In each case, your audience can be expanded beyond what you entered if Facebook believes that more or better results are possible.

In the cases of Advantage Detailed Targeting and Advantage Lookalikes, you can’t turn this off when running conversions campaigns. Your audience can be expanded and you can’t prevent it.

In other words, Facebook really wants you to go broad(er), and in some cases, we don’t have any choice.

Going Broad and Conversions Campaigns

As it is, we know that if you’re optimizing for a conversion, Facebook will have the ability to go broad with the Advantage audience expansion products. But the question is, should you want to go as broad as you can?

I contend that this specific situation — when you optimize for a conversion (especially a purchase) — is when you try it.

Facebook machine learning is currently best suited for conversions campaigns. The system’s only goal is to get you more conversions. You won’t get “low quallity conversions.” The problem with optimization comes about when you want something other than conversions. In that case, you can end up with low-quality (but cheap) actions.

But if you allow the algorithm to hunt for conversions, it can do amazing things. I encourage you to experiment with this as a user. Click on an ad for something like shoes. I use this example often because I’ve experienced it. I clicked an ad for a casual, nicer shoe. Not a tennis shoe. Not a dress shoe. I then started seeing ad after ad for similar STYLED shoes in my feed. Not from the same advertiser or same brand. The same style.

Super smart.

This is possible because Facebook has a crazy amount of data on their users based on their activity within the app, and even outside of it due to the pixel. Your actions help Facebook understand the things you like and don’t like. You also teach Facebook which placement and formats you prefer to consume content.

It’s this intelligence and set of algorithmic adjustments that make even considering going broad a possibility. You want conversions. Facebook is good at hunting for them. Allow Facebook to hunt.

The Potential Issues

If you’ve read closely, you’ll know where this is heading.

Going broad has merit when optimizing for a conversion because the ad delivery system is good at finding people who convert and there’s no such thing as a low-quality purchase. The problem is with other types of optimization.

I’ve long complained about Facebook’s inability to optimize for quality traffic or engagement. All traffic, for example, is equal to the algorithm — it doesn’t matter whether it’s an accidental click or a 10-minute visit. We know differently, of course.

Because of that, going broad doesn’t feel smart when optimizing for anything other than a conversion. It just makes it more likely that the system will find low-quality actions for you. This is where ad delivery could use a guardrail with targeting (and that itself often isn’t enough).

About Narrow Targeting

So, does this mean that you should no longer use narrow targeting for conversion optimization? Not necessarily.

First, I’m not suggesting that going broad is a must when your optimization event is a conversion. Like everything else with ads, there are very few universal rules. Consider it as an option.

But there are also times when narrow targeting is still important. I still recommend it for powerfully relevant messaging when remarketing. This can’t be replaced.

There may be times when interests are such a strong signal that they’re more effective than going broad. But this will differ from industry to industry and product to product.

Watch Video

I created a quick video on this, too.

@jonloomer Should you go completely broad with your Facebook ads targeting? #facebookads ♬ Hip-Hop Instrumental – Tonkyel

And if you haven’t yet followed me on TikTok, make sure to change that.

Your Turn

Do you go broad with your Facebook ads targeting? What do you think of this approach?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Should You Go Broad with Facebook Ads Targeting? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=3876

December 3, 2022/by exposure

How Short-Form Video Alters Marketing Evaluations

Social Media

You may know that I have fully embraced short-form video during the past couple of months. This was not an easy transition. I had to overcome so much of what I thought I knew about marketing and advertising to do it.

Throughout this pivot, it’s become obvious to me that there are so many “old school” marketers and advertisers who just don’t get it. But, I fully understand and appreciate why they don’t get it because I was one of them until recently.

Maybe you are in this group of resistant marketers. Allow me to attempt to explain your reservations before arguing why you’re wrong (in the nicest, gentlest way possible).

First, I’ll tee this up with what I’m doing right now — a strategy that will feel wrong to many.

What I’m Doing

After years of prioritizing my blog (I haven’t abandoned it!), I now focus first on short-form video. I make time for recording and editing videos. At least one video will be published to TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn on most days.

My short-form videos are not promotional. They are created with the goal of solving a problem. The vast majority of them are tutorials or discussions of an advertising tactic (mostly Facebook ads, but some TikTok, too).

Each video is a minute long. There is no call-to-action button. No link in the description. Just helpful info.

Okay, maybe not 100% non-promotional. Of the more than 100 short-form videos I’ve published in two months, a few discussed what happened during one of my weekly webinars, strategy sessions, or one-on-one sessions. So, these were at least loosely promotional.

But those videos make up the extreme minority. And you can bet they were far less popular than the others.

The Argument Against It

The old-school marketer in me resisted this approach for years. Not just because I was intimidated by getting in front of a camera and the perceived work involved to do it well. I couldn’t get over the hurdle related to measurement.

I’ve been asked several times during the past couple of months questions related to ROI. How much revenue is this generating? Is it leading to positive ROI?

I understand. For years, I only cared about driving traffic to my website. I valued the traffic because traffic is what fed my funnel. More traffic, more people on my email list, and more customers.

These things could be measured pretty easily because I was sharing links. I knew how many people clicked those links, and I could often figure out how many of those clicks led to purchases.

But, links aren’t added to these videos. I’m not able to track what people do after watching them. Realistically, they aren’t immediately going to my website because there isn’t a link.

I’m spending a couple of hours per day creating these videos. Time is money. I am not tracking (able or willing) whether anyone watching these videos is then buying from me. Without links, that’s not possible.

Why not just add a link? Well, that misses the point. We’ll get to that point.

But, the argument is made that such efforts are a complete waste of time and money. If you can’t connect a marketing effort to revenue, you shouldn’t do it. It was a failure.

Right??

My Goals

Understand that it’s not that I don’t have the goal of making money. I just don’t care whether I can tie revenue to these efforts.

My goals for this approach can be summed up like this…

Build my brand. Establish and reinforce expertise. Be top-of-mind. When someone has a Facebook ads-related problem, they think of me.

I built my brand years ago. I established my expertise. But the truth is that I started to lose that fresh polish. I wasn’t in your feed every day because I refused to play the algorithmic game. And ultimately, I was no longer top-of-mind.

I don’t need any encouragement or reassurance. I understand I lost some of that. It was my own fault. And it was largely because I didn’t evolve with video.

My videos don’t need to remind you every day that I have a website. They don’t need to push my products in your face constantly to get you to buy them.

I want to be present in your feed, but I don’t want to be annoying. I want you to look forward to seeing me there. It’s not like the commercial that you can’t get out of your head.

I want to own the most-followed account for Facebook ads strategies, tutorials, and advice — on TikTok and everywhere. That isn’t the case right now because I relied far too much on the success of my website to carry me.

This doesn’t happen by creating videos that push my products. This happens by being useful.

The Difference with Video

Look, we know that video is different for marketers than links. Many of those differences are negatives related to tracking. But, there’s also a huge benefit in our favor.

Videos can initiate a relationship that written words struggle to create.

With videos, you see a side of people and brands you wouldn’t normally see. Connections can be made. You come away feeling like you actually know this person.

This connection grows with each video.

Measuring Results

This approach can be maddening, I know. I’ve been putting in countless hours the past couple of months refining my process and learning what works and what doesn’t work. And it absolutely is challenging to stay motivated when you don’t know that it’s helping.

Initially, my reassurance to keep going was a small, daily reminder. I’d consistently get comments on my Facebook Reels from people saying that they were happy to see me in their news feed again. That I helped them years ago but they haven’t seen my stuff in forever.

I hadn’t gone anywhere. But, it was obvious. Until this new effort, I was no longer top-of-mind.

Those little reminders were nice. But we needed something of substance. That substance has repeated itself the past couple of days.

In two days, four separate people have told me the same thing. They were inspired to buy something from me because of my videos. In each case, they followed me years ago, and then I disappeared. The videos moved the needle.

Not any particular video. Just the collection of videos. The constant, subtle reminder that I could help them.

Those four people combined to buy three memberships (two annual) and 12 one-on-one sessions (this is not a misprint, they booked in advance).

Without the videos, none of this would have happened. I’m confident of that. They are confident of that, too.

My Challenge to You

Because these four people told me this, I can connect the videos to revenue. But without their friendly words, I would have no idea. And it would have been easy to get frustrated. But we can’t. We must see the bigger picture.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey. I challenge you to look beyond the way we have always done things.

Some efforts don’t need to be tied directly to revenue to be worthwhile. Some efforts merely set the stage. They make the purchase possible, even if the effort itself didn’t direct that purchase.

I encourage to create videos — even most of your videos — that only aim to provide value. No direct and obvious goal of a sale.

Things are changing. If you want to show up on short-form video on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, you need to consider how people consume that content. Don’t force them to click links because of your need to measure your impact.

Watch Video

It’s only natural that I have a quick video that discusses this topic, too!

@jonloomer

Two examples of the amazing impact of short-form video.

♬ Vice (Hip Hop Instrumental) – SickBeats

If you haven’t yet followed me on TikTok, make sure you change that.

Your Turn

Obviously, this applies more to info marketing than it does to e-comm, but I’d argue there’s room in e-comm strategy for this as well.

Have you come around to this marketing approach? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How Short-Form Video Alters Marketing Evaluations appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

December 1, 2022/by exposure

New Feature: Target Instagram Followers

Social Media

It’s finally here. You can run ads on Facebook and Instagram that target your Instagram followers.

If you’re like me and this sounds like old news, it’s not. There was something that was similar, but it didn’t include followers.

We’ll get to that. Let’s walk through how it works and how you can start targeting your Instagram followers today.

Make Sure It’s a Business Account

First, I don’t want to assume that you have everything set up properly to use this. Make sure that your Instagram profile is a business account. If it’s not, you may need to convert it.

Second, you’ll need to add that Instagram account to your Business Manager.

On the left, click “Instagram Accounts” under the Accounts section.

Click to add an account and then connect your Instagram account.

You may also need to give your ad account access to that asset.

Create an Audience

Next, go to your Audiences page and click to create a Custom Audience.

Select “Instagram Account.”

Click the “Events” drop-down and you’ll notice that the top option (not the pre-selected option) is “People who started following this professional account.”

You can then create an audience of your followers.

This is an audience that doesn’t have a number of days associated with it, so it doesn’t matter when people started following you. If they are following you now, they’ll be in the audience.

Yes, It’s New!

If you’re like me, you’re skeptical that this is new. This has been around for a few years now, right? I often second-guess myself when I see features that look new to me, but think maybe I just didn’t notice it.

This is indeed new. Luckily, I wrote a blog post on the Instagram Custom Audience a couple of years ago, so we can see what this looked like before.

Here’s how it looked previously…

It was always a bit odd that you could create a custom audience of your Facebook followers in this way but not your Instagram followers. That’s been fixed!

What to Do With It

Of course, you can now use this audience for targeting in your ad set…

You’ll need a reasonably sized audience, of course, to target this group. Or simply set budget and expectations accordingly.

You can also use it as your source for a Lookalike Audience.

This just gives you one more tool to work with.

Your Turn

Have you started using a custom audience for your Instagram followers yet?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post New Feature: Target Instagram Followers appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

November 17, 2022/by exposure

Introduction to TikTok Ads: Custom Audiences

Social Media

First, I walked you through the basics of campaign creation related to TikTok ads. The process is surprisingly similar (possibly inspired) by Facebook Ads Manager. Today, let’s discuss your options for TikTok ads Custom Audiences.

The concept of Custom Audiences on TikTok is largely no different than that on Facebook. You are able to create audiences of your customers and people who engaged with you, either on or off of the platform. There are some interesting variations, of course.

I should first make it clear that I am new to this platform. I am no expert. There will be portions here that are unclear to me and I’ll provide my most educated understanding of how something works. But, it’s entirely possible that I’m wrong in some cases. Please let me know if you spot any such inaccuracies.

Ready? Let’s discuss…

The Basics

To access Custom Audiences, go to the Assets menu in Ads Manager and select “Audiences.”

Now, click “Create Audience” and then “Custom Audience.”

I’m going to say this a lot (and you may be thinking it), but this is all so familiar.

There are six categories of Custom Audiences that you can create.

When you create these audiences, you’ll be able to set a number of days for how long someone will be in your audience. One difference here compared to Facebook Custom Audiences is that the number of days your audience covers is not free form. You have several options to choose from, starting at 7 days and going to 180.

When creating these audiences, many have options for autorefresh (on by default) and allowing them to be used in Reach & Frequency campaigns (off by default).

Let’s cover these audiences now…

Customer File

I know that advertisers will want the ability to target their email lists. Well, that’s not really what’s happening here.

These audiences only allow you to target users by IDFA or GAID. These are mobile device IDs. You would not typically have this information for those on your email list. This may be more specific to usage of your app.

Audiences by email address and phone number are not yet possible, but they are currently in testing.

App Activity

You can create audiences based on engagement with your app. There is a long list of potential events that you can choose from.

Maybe some other day we’ll cover everything in that deep list. In the meantime, here’s some documentation.

Lead Generation

The only options are Submit Form and Form View and the length of time goes up to 90 days (like Facebook).

I am not currently running TikTok lead ads, but it seems as those these audiences are general. In other words, I see nothing in the documentation that allows you to create different audiences for different forms.

This is obviously something I need to research more. But I assume this works differently than on Facebook, where you may create different forms for different opt-ins.

Engagement

As you can see in the image above, these are audiences based on engagement with videos in ads only. This is not related to any organic engagement. You can select engagement with specific ad groups (ad sets) or leave it open.

There are a few different ad types you can choose from to focus on .

And there are several action types. This goes all the way to watching 100% of the video ad.

Website Traffic

If you’re like me, you’re excited about this option. Unfortunately, that excitement is about to come down.

You can create audiences based on Page View or one of several standard events.

For more info on the events, here is some documentation from TikTok.

What’s disappointing about this? Well, first is that it doesn’t look like you can create audiences based on specific products or pages. I don’t have events set up yet, but there’s still no indication in the documentation that further focus is possible.

But, here’s the bigger issue, unless I’m misunderstanding how the TikTok pixel works…

All indications are that your website custom audience builds only based on traffic on your website driven by TikTok ads. I have not seen this documented officially. But I have heard it second-hand and I am experiencing what would be consistent with this.

For example, TikTok Events Manager tells me that the pixel is installed and has led to more than 400,000 page view events.

And yet, the website custom audience I created based on page views has only four people in it.

Note I haven’t been running ads to drive traffic, so this low number is possible based on advertising traffic. I’m a newbie over here, so user error is still possible. But this is consistent with what I’ve otherwise heard.

Business Account

These engagements will also include organic, unlike the Engagement group.

These actions have no time limit. In other words, it doesn’t matter when someone started following, viewed your profile, or watched your video. They are included in this audience. That could potentially get annoying later on.

What I’m Using So Far

I’ve just started creating and using these and most just wouldn’t be useful to me since I haven’t created lead forms (other than an organic form) or used ads to drive traffic or conversions.

That means that my audiences are all based on engagement with ads, my profile, or my videos generally.

I’ve started using these to try and isolate high quality engagement for increasing my following.

Your Turn

Have you started using TikTok custom audiences yet? Anything I’m misunderstanding? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Introduction to TikTok Ads: Custom Audiences appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=3439

November 11, 2022/by exposure

Introduction to TikTok Ads: Campaign Creation

Social Media

If you hadn’t noticed, I jumped into TikTok and short-form video creation recently. It’s only natural that this jump includes TikTok ads.

The hope is to catch some magic on a growing platform before the competition increases and prices go up. That’s what made Facebook advertising so insanely profitable in the early days.

Well, the first thing you’ll notice if you dive into TikTok advertising is that the TikTok Ads Manager is obviously inspired by Facebook Ads Manager.

@jonloomer

TikTok Ads Manager vs Facebook Ads Manager

♬ Puff – Hany Beats

My understanding is that the team that built TikTok Ads Manager includes developers who were part of the team that contributed to the very similar product from Meta. That would be a good explanation because you can’t ignore the similarities.

Because it’s so similar, I have good news for you: If you’re comfortable creating Facebook ads, you’ll be comfortable creating TikTok ads. The learning curve is incredibly short.

I want to share my experiences and journey through TikTok ads with you. I’m not going to claim to be a TikTok advertising expert. As similar as it may be to Facebook ads, I’m sure there are unique quirks and features that I will need to master. And I don’t want to make any assumptions about how something will work on TikTok based on how it did or didn’t work on Facebook.

A beginner’s mind can be powerful. I don’t want to be guided too strongly by experience with a different product.

So, let’s jump into TikTok advertising together. We’re obviously not going to get into anything all that advanced yet. Instead, I want to go through the basics. Maybe it will increase your confidence in getting started.

Campaign Creation

When you first create a TikTok campaign, you’ll have the option of Simplified or Custom Mode.

I compare Simplified Mode to Advantage Plus campaign creation. It limits the steps and uses preset defaults. Essentially, it protects inexperienced advertisers from themselves. You can certainly try this (and even should), but we’re going to use Custom Mode here.

You are unlikely to be surprised that the first step requires you to select a Campaign Objective.

Many of these options likely look familiar. When walking through this, we’re going to create the most basic TikTok campaign. So, we’ll use the Community Interaction objective to increase our followers (I know! Just hang with me here).

After selecting your Objective, you’ll have the option of making some other changes in Campaign Settings.

Once again, this stuff isn’t new to any experiencedFacebook advertiser.

Select a Special Ad Category if one applies
Create a Split Test if you want
Turn on Campaign Budget Optimization if you don’t want a firm budget per ad set
Set a Campaign Budget if you want that limit to determine overall spend

None of this stuff is new to us. Kinda crazy.

We’re going to leave all of this off.

Placements

Placements are first in the ad set.

Well, the only placement is TikTok, so that’s kinda weird. I assume they plan on including more in the future.

There are some items you can customize by clicking “Advanced Settings.”

By default, you allow users to comment on, download, and share your videos. But you can turn any of these off individually if you want. We won’t.

Targeting

Next is targeting. Depending on the objective, you may have the option of Custom Targeting or Automatic Targeting.

Facebook actually has something similar to Automatic Targeting these days, but I’ve only seen it when boosting posts. This is actually an intriguing option if you don’t know where to start with your targeting. But you’re putting a ton of trust in that TikTok algorithm!

If you go with Custom Targeting, you can modify several items under Demographics.

Country targeting is actually pretty sparse. A nice tweak to Age targeting is that you can individually select any of the age ranges. For example, you can select 18-24 AND 35-54, skipping 25-34 in between.

Household Income targeting? Yep, you can do this on TikTok.

The Interests and Behaviors section includes four groups.

Video Interactions allow you to reach people who have engaged with types of videos on TikTok in a specific way recently.

Creator Interactions are similar, but these allow you to reach people who have followed or viewed profiles in a specific category.

You can also target by hashtag engagement.

And finally, you can target users by device.

Some unique options here related to carrier, connectivity, and device price.

Content Exclusions

In this section, you can edit an Inventory Filter to control what types of videos your ads will or won’t appear on.

Sheesh, this is just like Facebook…

Budget & Schedule

Nothing new here for Facebook advertisers…

You can use Daily and Lifetime budgets. One difference here is that you can use Dayparting, but even when using a Daily budget.

Facebook requires you to use Lifetime budget in order to get access to dayparting.

TikTok does enforce a minimum daily budget of $10 or $20 USD, depending on the objective. This is something that Facebook does not do.

Bidding & Optimization

I mean come on…

So similar.

Your optimization goal options will depend upon your objective. Lowest Cost bidding is on by default, but you can set a Bid Cap.

And just like with Facebook ads, you have a buried option to use Accelerated Delivery.

Ad Creation

Spark Ads allow you to promote existing videos.

You can otherwise create a TikTok ad from scratch with a new video.

Something new here is the ability to add Interactive Add-Ons like stickers. This is something I don’t know much about…

Depending on the ad, you can provide a destination URL, even when promoting existing videos. But for the objective I’ve selected, this option isn’t available (because all we want is to increase followers).

Your CTA can either be dynamic or manual. That dynamic option is something new. The algorithm will decide for you.

And finally, there are some tracking options at the bottom.

That’s it!

You Can Do This

If you were like me, you went through this mostly unimpressed because so little of it is new. But, that’s a good thing. You know how to create TikTok ads because you know how to create Facebook ads.

Of course, there are some little quirks and differences here and there. Getting your ad account and everything set up is a process. But, you can bet that everything from the Business Manager to ad account to audiences and pixels will ring familiar.

Is This Interesting To You?

I was a little worried about writing this post or discussing this adventure because I realize it’s a bit off topic from Facebook ads. That said, as you’ve seen here it’s all very relevant and similar!

Still, I want to make sure I’m giving you the content that you want. If you want me to continue providing content on TikTok advertising in addition to Facebook advertising, please let me know.

Your Turn

Have you started experimenting with TikTok ads yet? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Introduction to TikTok Ads: Campaign Creation appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=3366

November 9, 2022/by exposure

How I’ve Pivoted to Short-Form Video on TikTok and Reels

Social Media

If you’ve been following me on any of my primary social channels during the past month or so, you’ve likely noticed a very clear pivot. I am deeply invested in short-form video.

This is a complete 180. I’ve long resisted video creation in every form. Admittedly, the delay was not smart strategically. But there were many reasons behind that delay.

It hasn’t been an easy transformation. It required getting uncomfortable. I was forced to get in front of the camera, something I really haven’t liked doing. Stubbornness, fears, and old habits all needed to be overcome.

I’m doing this not just for me but for the introverted marketers whom I share these struggles with. So far, it’s been a heck of a ride. Not an easy start, but the growth has been energizing.

Oh… And please follow me on TikTok (if you can).

And worth it.

Let’s take a closer look at what held me back, what I’ve done so far, and my future plans for short-form video. I encourage you to take whatever you can from this to help with your own journey.

The Excuses

Let’s face it. This website is more than 11 years old now. I’m an old dog who doesn’t want to be taught new tricks.

We could get into a very long, philosophical discussion about the unique holes I put myself into over the years by trying to streamline and simplify my business. But, that may be for another day.

Ultimately, I am most comfortable writing. I like to write. You don’t see me struggle when I write. I don’t need to worry about lighting, what I’m wearing, or how I deliver a message when I write. I can sit, think, write, delete, and write again.

My video efforts have been few and far between. Sometimes I’d turn a podcast into a video. But I’d do everything I could to keep from pointing the camera at myself.

Some of the excuses I made were for business reasons. I wanted to drive traffic to my website. That’s where business is done. A video on Facebook or Instagram doesn’t help satisfy that goal (or so I told myself).

I convinced myself that I didn’t need to go with the trends. Being different could separate me from the pack.

I was wrong. This, and several other decisions (and non-decisions) hurt my business.

The Pivot

The decision to pivot was late but necessary. It was made for several reasons.

Organic traffic to this website has always been the lifeblood of my business. It fed my list and funnel. It was this “easy” traffic that made profitability nearly effortless.

Of course, it took a ton of effort to get there. But there was a time when I was getting 10,000 organic referrals per day from Google. My list was robust and a high percentage of those on it were opening and clicking my emails.

When these things started drying up, business followed in the same negative direction. I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing.

My content was no longer reaching nearly as many people as it once did. I was no longer top of mind when people had a need for Facebook ads help. My brand had grown stale.

It was time to adjust. I could no longer treat my business like time stood still, hoping I could resist the laws of business physics. I needed to remind people that I was here, reaching them with the types of content people now want to consume.

It didn’t mean my blog would die. But short-form video needed to be a way to build my brand. Remind people that I’m here. And ultimately drive them back to my website and my products.

As recently as mid-September, I was mocking TikTok. Like every other “mature” person resistant to this format, I thought it was all dancing, memes, and junk. And then…

One Month of Production

Lots of fear and uncertainty, but I knew I had to do it. I gave myself grace, knowing that my early efforts would be cringe-worthy. But, I knew that I had to create in order to learn and get better.

On September 30, once I realized this was something I needed to do, I put myself out there with this embarrassing video…

@jonloomer

Create stuff that sucks!

♬ original sound – Jon Loomer

I had no idea how to use the app. I didn’t know how to edit or add music. This was a bad video, but I no longer cared. The effort was the point.

I’d ultimately create 70 videos in the month of October, publishing at least one video nearly every day of the month beginning October 3. I created with a variety of formats, experimenting with themes.

I struggled with efficiency and finding the right tools and processes to create quality content without taking an entire afternoon. I consumed others’ videos and noted what I liked and didn’t like.

Almost exactly a month from that “This Video is Going to Suck” effort, I created this…

@jonloomer Follow me for Facebook ads tips, tutorials, and maybe a little bit of breakdancing. #facebookads #facebookadstips ♬ Old school Hip-hop – Nebikov

I was getting comfortable. I began experimenting with TikTok ads. These videos were also repurposed for Facebook and Instagram Reels. An immediate impact was felt.

“I haven’t seen you in my feed for years!” I’d hear. Some of the comments almost treated me as if I were coming back from the dead (“I never went anywhere!” I wanted to scream…).

My audience on TikTok went from virtually nothing to 3,000 and counting. Confidence is building. Processes are sharpening. Efficiency is in sight.

My Short-Form Video Strategy

More than a month in now, a strategy is coming into shape. It will continue to evolve, but I want to share what I’m doing for the month of November.

1. MULTIPLE PLATFORMS

This experiment started with TikTok videos only. Then I’d download those videos and re-purpose the TikTok branded video for Facebook and Instagram Reels. This approach is now growing and maturing.

TIKTOK: It starts here. I really can’t believe that TikTok is my home base now — I’d never believe it a couple of months ago. But, I see the immediate impact but also the immense potential. I create two videos per day for TikTok.

INSTAGRAM REELS: I now longer use the TikTok branded video to publish to Instagram and Facebook Reels. Now I take the video I created (not within the TikTok app) and add music from Instagram.

FACEBOOK REELS: I don’t know what happened, but until last week I could cross-post from Instagram to Facebook. That option went away from my Instagram app, so I now also upload a unique version to Facebook Reels.

YOUTUBE SHORTS: I resisted. Just last week I told someone it was just too much to do this. But, I’ve started publishing these videos to YouTube Shorts, too. It helps that the format is the same.

LINKEDIN: During the past few days, I’ve started creating a square version for LinkedIn. Originally, I created an entirely new video. Now I just take the original 9:16 and put it on a square canvas. It’s otherwise too much work right now. We’ll see what impact it makes.

2. VIDEO LENGTH

Originally, I didn’t worry much about time. And then I realized that if I wanted to re-purpose to Instagram, it couldn’t be longer than 90 seconds. And if I wanted to push it to Facebook, it couldn’t be longer than 60 seconds.

This was a good thing. It forces me to edit. I am a butcher when it comes to editing (in a good way). The final video will be no more than 60 seconds.

Here’s something I recorded recently about my approach to recording and editing…

@jonloomer

If you ramble and struggle with short form video, this is for you. You can do it.

♬ Zodiac | Seamless Looping Trap Hip Hop Instrumental – xklbeats

3. FORMAT

There are three primary formats that I use:

Q&A: I answer questions I find in my comments (easiest and quickest video)
Reaction/Talking Head: Typically not edited in the TikTok app
Tutorial: Utilizes a screenshare and talking head

The third is surely the most valuable but also the most time intensive. I do enjoy creating them.

4. SUBJECT MATTER

Initially, my focus was going to be on Facebook advertising only (with some relevant Facebook marketing topics). But, I’m starting to share some videos related to my TikTok ads experiences, too.

5. FREQUENCY

For now, I’m aiming at two videos per day. I could see cutting this down to one per day on the weekends. But, I do believe that consistent creation is critical to growth. Avoiding burn-out is also important.

What’s Next?

This pivot is no small feat. It’s not just a new format but it’s an admission. I know that doing things the way I’ve always done them is no longer good enough.

There’s actually something very new and exciting about that. I haven’t experienced that type of feeling in a long time. I do sometimes miss how amazing those initial days of my business were, going from obscurity to an explosion of recognition. There’s a bit of a high achieved by overcoming this.

I’m admittedly not a big long-term planner. October was an important month for my business and my professional growth. November will be just as important. While I have plans for what I’m going to do, everything could change quickly as this evolves.

It’s already looking possible that TikTok advertising may become an additional topic discussed on these pages. No predictions. Stay tuned.

Your Turn

Have you made your pivot to short-form video yet?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How I’ve Pivoted to Short-Form Video on TikTok and Reels appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

November 7, 2022/by exposure

Meta is Bringing Back Breakdowns for Conversion Reporting

Social Media

What once was old is new again. After more than a year-and-a-half hiatus, Meta is bringing back breakdowns for conversion reporting.

This update follows a recent theme. After removing functionality in response to iOS 14 restrictions in 2021, Meta is beginning to bring them back. The return of breakdowns for conversions follows closely behind the Compare Attribution Settings feature and 28-day click attribution.

In this post, let’s clarify what Breakdowns are, what specifically went away, what’s back, and why it matters.

What are Breakdowns?

Breakdowns exist in both Ads Manager and Ad Reports, but for the purpose of simplicity let’s focus on Ads Manager.

Breakdowns allow you to take a single campaign, ad set, or ad and break down the results by a single segment. There are four categories of breakdowns: Time, Delivery, Action, and Dynamic Creative Element.

Let’s focus on the Delivery category since that’s what’s most impacted by this latest development. There are several ways you can break down your advertising…

There are a few more options below the scroll that aren’t picked up in this image.

Let’s say you use the Placement breakdown (admittedly my favorite). When you break down by placement, separate rows will be added to your reporting for each placement that received delivery. This helps advertisers understand, for example, how your advertising performed on Desktop Newsfeed, Facebook Stories, Instagram News Feed, and all the rest.

Whether it’s placement, country, age, gender, or something else, this can be incredibly enlightening.

What Went Away and Why?

When Apple announced the iOS 14+ changes related to opt-outs, Facebook made several adjustments in response. One of them was removing access to conversion data when running breakdowns.

This means that you could still perform a breakdown by placement, for example, but you wouldn’t get detailed segmentation for any conversion data. You’d only get it for the on-Facebook activity.

You’d get the summary row, but that’s it.

I don’t know that Meta has ever been incredibly clear about why this was. We can assume it has something to do with a lack of confidence in the data due to opt-outs. They may know, for example, that a conversion happened, but they are less sure about where.

What is Back?

Breakdowns for conversions are returning for the following (all fall under the “Delivery” category):

Age
Gender
Age and Gender
Country
Impression Device
Platform
Platform and Device
Placement

Here’s a quick video that walks through it.

@jonloomer Meta’s bringing back breakdowns for conversion reporting! #facebookads ♬ Hip Hop Background(814204) – Pavel

This, like every update, is a rollout. I only have it in one ad account, and it’s inactive. There’s been no official announcement from Meta (as far as I’ve seen), beyond messages from ad reps to advertisers.

Why Does it Matter?

These extra data points are so important. They provide necessary context.

Without split testing, you can quickly uncover which placements, ages, countries, and impression devices are performing the best. This might impact how you construct your campaigns going forward.

Loss of context has been significant since iOS changes. We are getting so much of that back with the return of Compare Attribution Settings, 28-day click attribution, and now breakdowns for conversions.

Your Turn

Do you have this yet? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta is Bringing Back Breakdowns for Conversion Reporting appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=3310

November 4, 2022/by exposure

Posts

Pinning in Ads Manager

Why Would You Use This?

Is This New?

Watch Video

Your Turn

Year-Over-Year Comparison

Absolute CPM

Why Aren’t CPMs Going Up?

What This Means

Your Turn

Create the Audience

How to Leverage this Group

Am I Reaching People?

What Could Have Been Better?

Your Turn

What Broad Targeting Looks Like

How Optimization Works

How Going Broad Works

It’s the Direction Facebook is Heading

Going Broad and Conversions Campaigns

The Potential Issues

About Narrow Targeting

Watch Video

Your Turn

What I’m Doing

The Argument Against It

My Goals

The Difference with Video

Measuring Results

My Challenge to You

Watch Video

Your Turn

Make Sure It’s a Business Account

Create an Audience

Yes, It’s New!

What to Do With It

Your Turn

The Basics

Customer File

App Activity

Lead Generation

Engagement

Website Traffic

Business Account

What I’m Using So Far

Your Turn

Campaign Creation

Placements

Targeting

Content Exclusions

Budget & Schedule

Bidding & Optimization

Ad Creation

You Can Do This

Is This Interesting To You?

Your Turn

The Excuses

The Pivot

One Month of Production

My Short-Form Video Strategy

What’s Next?

Your Turn

What are Breakdowns?

What Went Away and Why?

What is Back?

Why Does it Matter?

Your Turn

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