Growth Hack #2 – Get Specific With Your Facebook Ad Interest Targeting:
If you don’t have an existing customer base and you’re creating a Facebook ad target audience using interests, avoid using generic or broad interests. For example, don’t just use “Running”.
Instead, pick specific interests, like The Boston Marathon.
How do you ensure you’re targeting the hardcore runner and not just the generic fan?
Pick the interests ONLY hardcore running enthusiasts know, like Runkeeper or Runtastic or Endomondo.
Growth Hack #3 – This Google Shopping Case Study Earned +192% Revenue:
Midas Media managed to boost their revenue from Google Shopping by +192%, and profits by around 300%!
How did they do it?
1. They analyzed data and found that 8-9-word long search queries (product specific) generate on average +300% more revenue.
So they started to bid high against these terms.
2. Then they remarketed ads to those who: Viewed basket, didn’t commit to purchase Viewed a high ‘detail-view’ to checkout-rate product Stayed on website for over 4 minutes in one session Viewed site in the past 5, 10, and 15 days Visited site from high converting location Visited site from high converting device Viewed site and in top lifetime value segment
3. Then they segmented their data by mobile devices, gender, age, and geography and found who generates the highest ROI. They focused their ads specifically on the most valuable segment.
4. They found that time and day of the week when their ad was displayed heavily influenced their ROI. So they regularly calculated data and get something like the chart image above.
Then they created scripts that automated bidding across this custom schedule.
“They look similar to News Feed ads and have the same transparency and controls, including a “Sponsored” label so it’s clearly marked as paid placement.”
In general, it seems either a square or 1.91:1 ratio is the way to go with these.
How to Set Up a Facebook Search Advertising Campaign
Since search ads are still so new, there’s not much documentation on Facebook’s site – or anywhere, really – on how to set them up or tips for optimization.
What we do know, though, is that they’re an option of ad placement within Ads Manager.
We also know that you need to select a compatible campaign objective in order to use them.
As of now, these include:
Product Sales
Traffic
Conversions
If you’re selecting specific placements for your campaign, you’ll find the search option within the Placements tab.
Alternatively, you can run a campaign using Automatic Placements.
If this is the case, Facebook will automatically show your ad in the search results – as long as the objective is compatible.
Making the Most of Your Search Ads
Considering the lack of info surrounding search ads on Facebook, the best advice we can give is to include it in a part of your current strategy as an additional placement.
With that, too, optimize them like you would any other, commerce-focused ad.
What do we mean by this?
Well, first we’re talking about design: Use bright, full-color, and eye-catching imagery.
Then, optimize your campaign functionality.
This includes honing in on your targeting, running remarketing ads, and incentivizing engagement (e.g. contests or offers).
Why You Need This for Your Facebook Advertising Right Now
We keep reiterating this phrase: “right now” when it comes to using search ads.
But why, especially if there’s still so many unanswered questions around formatting and optimizing?
Well, it comes down to competition and reaching new audiences.
In terms of competition: As we’ve seen with every other Facebook ad placement, advertisers saturate a space quickly.
Now, with the number of Facebook advertisers exceeding 7 million, it’s harder than ever to stand out.
A new ad placement – like Facebook search ads – offers a new opportunity for showing up in a place that’s not yet overrun by other advertisers. Webinars can also be a good place to start! Make sure you check out what some of the best webinar platforms are.
And going back to reaching new audiences, the reason is pretty intuitive but worth reminding.
It’s as simple as this: Search ads on Facebook and Marketplace let you reach people you could not with other placements!
Plus, showing ads across placements drives real results.
Facebook research has shown that audiences that saw ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network achieved an 8x higher conversion rate than those that were served only a single ad.
Being among the first wave of advertisers to use search ads on Facebook can drive real results while helping you get ahead of the competition.
It’s time to leverage this placement in your campaign right now.
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Growth Hack #1 – Increase Referral Sales by 3,600% With Tangible Offers:
Have you ever seen “Invite a friend – get X amount of money”, or “X%/$X discount for your next purchase”?
These offers are everywhere.
But do they work?
A study found that simply shifting from a cash reward to a bottle of wine (1/10th the cost of the cash reward) increased the number of referral sales by 3,600%!
The takeaway: Real gifts work much better than cash incentives.
Maybe this is a reason why Uber positions its referral message as “Get a free ride worth up to $5 when you refer a friend to try Uber” and not just “Get $5 …”.
Let’s just say it: Online videos are all the rage in 2019.
And, the trend shows no signs of slowing down.
In fact, Cisco predicts video will account for over 80% of all internet traffic by 2022.
But, so many businesses are including videos in their long term marketing strategies that it has become difficult to stand out in such a bustling crowd.
For more information on why you need a video marketing strategy, continue reading!
As such, you should be promoting your brand with the end goal of conversions in mind.
Failing to include a CTA when you create a marketing video is a missed opportunity to grab the viewers’ attention even firmer and increase conversion rates.
Ideally, your video should end with either contact information or a call to action – or both!
Ask people to subscribe, like, share, visit your website, etc.
Whatever it is, talk to them and push them in the direction you want.
Bottom Line
Videos will continue to play an essential role in any type of digital marketing campaign.
Your task is to learn how to create a modern and engaging video content strategy that attracts viewers and increases conversion rates.
Check out the infographic below for more video marketing tips and tricks.
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Growth Hack #1 – Privacy Copy Can Cost You 18.7% of Conversions:
A company tested two checkboxes for an email signup box.
Version A: just said “Terms and Conditions” Version B: Said “100% privacy – We will never spam you”.
The treatment with the privacy policy reduced conversions by 18.70%. The result was completely counter-intuitive, but it teaches an important lesson: simply adding a privacy policy doesn’t guarantee more sing-ups. In fact, it can seriously reduce your conversion rate.
Tests indicated that the word “spam” had an undesirable effect – even when used to assure visitors that they would not receive any spam. The hypothesis is that by placing the word spam in close proximity of the form, you actually plant an idea in the minds of the prospects:
“Oh wait, could they actually end up spamming me?”
So, you’ve got your million-dollar idea sorted out.
You’ve got your primary branding in place.
It’s time to attract customers to your business.
You could be offering all of the products and services in the entire world, but failing to attract the right target audience will send your efforts down the drain.
This is precisely why you need to ace your marketing strategy.
So, here are eleven small business marketing strategies that’ll help you draw your desired target audience:
1. Establish A Clear Identity Through Branding
Building your identity is a vital part of conducting business.
You need to communicate the right message to your audience when marketing a small business.
Essentially, you need to ensure you know what your company does and what it stands for.
Once this is sorted out, you need the right business name (or domain name).
Then, there’s also the logo, imagery, and colors to convey your brand identity to your customers.
If you’re worrying too much about this step, don’t be.
You can always get someone on board who will help you create your brand identity.
While this is a small business marketing idea that’s definitely an investment, it’s also one that’s worth it.
Simply think about how brands – such as Apple and KFC – have managed to create identities that have lasted decades. Remember to check out MoneyBrighter for your LLC tips.
Once your logo is finalized, it needs to go up on all of your branding material.
This includes advertising, email signatures, business cards, and envelopes.
Doing so reiterates that identity, builds brand visibility, and boosts awareness.
Build upon this marketing tip for a small business even further by establishing your branding enough to ensure it’s recognizable even without the logo.
2. Understand Your Small Business And Target Audience Before Launching Marketing Campaigns
Businesses are always trying to target customers with the right small business marketing ideas.
However, many brands make the mistake of believing that one strategy will be sufficient to target its customers.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions you can make since every business – and every customer – is different.
Small business marketing strategies need to be created according to that.
Before you determine which elements should go into your marketing strategy, you need to devote time to your target audience.
Keep the following essential demographics in mind to help identify and target your audience:
Where they live
Age
Gender
Purchase habits (where and how they spend)
Having these details sorted out will help you develop a more refined SMB marketing strategy that will start yielding results for you in no time.
3. Marketing a Small Business? Take Advantage of Facebook Ads!
Facebook ads are perhaps the most effective ways to target a certain demographic.
Using Facebook as a marketing tool for a small business helps you focus on factors and online habits that help you refine your target audience.
These can include items such as gender, location, age, and interests.
The tool is quite user-friendly and reasonable in terms of money.
Therefore, Facebook ad targeting is ideal for reaching a large number of customers in a short period.
4. Create A Top-Notch Website
Nothing turns potential customers away more than a site that’s poorly designed.
Think about it: You spend a considerable amount of money trying to bring your target audience to your website.
They get there, but only for them to come across a website that isn’t user-friendly, like it’s slow and difficult to navigate.
As a result, all your efforts go down the drain.
An error such as this is an easy one to make, but just as easily avoided.
Having a fast and user-friendly site is one of the most essential marketing tips for a small business.
Additionally, you need to ensure your target audience can reach your website easily.
This comes down to locking down your domain name.
Additionally, make sure to acquire other, related domain names so people don’t get confused.
Seems like a pretty great marketing idea for a small business, eh?
To make the most of your video ads or other video content, ensure it’s reiterating your brand message by using the same fonts and color themes you use for other content.
6. Take Advantage Of Email Marketing for Your SMB
Emails have also proven to be quite advantageous as an SMB marketing tactic.
Once you do that, you can provide them with engaging and valuable content that’ll encourage them to open your emails instead of sending them to the junk or deleted folders.
Consider that email leads tend to have one of the best conversion rates as compared to other channels.
So, with a small business email marketing strategy, your aim should be to drive people from your emails to your website.
7. Don’t Forget Google My Business
Google My Business is one of the best marketing tools for small businesses that have local customers.
When people in your area conduct searches on Google for a product or service you provide, your business appears in the search results.
Potential customers will see your business profile.
Along with that, they’ll see any positive reviews left by satisfied buyers.
Then, this will build the credibility of your business as more people would be willing to buy from you.
It’s such a simple small business marketing idea, yet can give a huge boost to your visibility and legitimacy.
8. Use Articles Or Blog Posts as a Marketing Tool for a Small Business
Content marketing is at the heart of small business marketing strategies.
By publishing high-quality blog posts focusing on relevant topics, you’ll be able to attract new visitors to your website.
For starters, you should look up blog post ideas that are popular in the industry you operate in.
The content you publish will only work as a marketing tool for your small business if customers can gain something from it.
So, it’s important to create content that’ll provide new information to your visitors that can both help and entertain them.
To take your blog up a notch, you can always have another blogger with a huge following to publish a guest post on your blog.
Then, you can return the favor.
This will allow you to expand your audience and even turn their followers into yours.
9. Provide Free Samples Or Trials
If you want to increase your brand awareness, you need to give customers a taste of what’s in store for them.
Try providing product samples or demos.
This is a great marketing idea for a small business because it helps customers try out your product before they invest money in it.
It also shows that you’re confident enough about your product to let people try some of it for free.
This strategy works well for many businesses.
Whether it’s a skincare brand providing free samples at Sephora or a software house giving customers a free trial, offering something for free is an enticing deal for anyone.
10. Use Referrals to Enhance Your Small Business Marketing Strategy
There’s almost nothing more powerful in convincing a potential customer than a glowing review from someone who’s already tried your product.
To increase the number of reviews customers leave, you should provide incentives to them.
While many people do leave reviews without expecting something in return, incentives such as free products, discounts, or gifts increase the likelihood.
It’s always important to create infographics that summarize your article into an aesthetically-pleasing and engaging picture.
Infographics work even better as a marketing tool for a small business when your content includes stats.
That’s because numbers are easier to read and digest when presented in a concise form.
The biggest advantage that infographics offer when marketing a small business is their ability to be shared.
By posting your infographics on platforms such as Pinterest, you will be able to expose it to a whole new audience.
They can simply save the image and share it with their own followers.
Just remember to include your website and business details in the infographic.
What’s the Best Way to Market a Small Business?
There are many small business marketing options available for you to explore.
As such, you should always be open to trying a variety of strategies to determine what works best for your business.
The marketing ideas that work best for one small business may not work well for another.
Similarly, sometimes, it takes a combination of SMB marketing strategies instead of an isolated tactic to start generating the results you want.
As long as you’re open to trial and error, you’ll figure out what works. For instance, you might want to try guest posting about your brand on high DA blogs.
Have you tried any of these marketing tips for your small business before?
Or do you have suggestions of your own?
Sound off in the comments below!
Author bio:
Marcus Svensson is a Head of Growth at Albacross, a B2B lead generation platform, that shows you which companies visit your website. Passionate about creating value, human connection, and positive impact. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
