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  • Social Media Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips

    Can Google Ads or Facebook Ads Help Your Service-Based Business?

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    Are you wondering if Google Ads or Facebook Ads are the way to go for your service-based business?

    To answer this question, we first need to understand the purpose of each ad type:

    • Google Ads allow you to reach potential customers when they’re trying to find a solution.
    • Facebook Ads (or Meta Ads as they’re called now) are shown to users when they’re on the platform checking out their friends’ posts and updates – they’re better for brand awareness and getting traffic to your website than for getting bookings.

    *Remember, Facebook/Meta Ads post to Instagram too. Placements are configured when creating the campaign.

    Let’s review the benefits of using Google Ads or Facebook Ads to get your services in front of the right people.

    The Argument for Google Ads

    Google Ads help to get your business in front of the right people at the right time. When people search for a solution to their problem your product or service addresses (whether they know it exists or not), your company can show up at the top of their search results with an ad on Google.

    Currently, Google uses “Ad” in bold letters to show the user which are ads versus the organic search results (a result of SEO). They’re usually the first few results and a few more towards the bottom of the page.

    Google Ads are targeted ads based on search queries. This means that people searching for what you offer will be more likely to click through and find out more about your business, call you, or send you their information. With Google Ads, you customize your ad targeting so that it shows up for specific keywords related to your business.

    The Argument for Social Media Ads

    Social media has transformed how consumers interact – it has become an integral part of business. Through social ads, businesses can tap into this space and create relationships with their customers that may not otherwise exist.

    Using social media ads, you can show tailored content specifically to certain groups of people based on audience targeting. It’s a great way to create engagement between customers and your brand – which can ultimately lead to more purchases due to stronger relationships.

    Depending on your chosen objective, social ads can get more traffic to your website, create brand awareness, capture leads, promote an app, or get people to convert (in my experience, the sales objective is best for retargeting warm leads).

    Facebook and Instagram ads work really well for brand awareness and traffic. They’re also great if you have a download or quiz for lead generation. One Facebook Lead Ad I created for a health coach with a digital download gathered hundreds of email addresses in a month with less than a $100 budget. Over seven months, they spent about $500 in ad spend and brought in over 1,300 leads in the form of email addresses.

    Should You Use Google Ads or Facebook Ads?

    There are several things to consider when deciding which type of digital ad is the best fit for your business.

    • Budget is obviously a major factor. Pricing varies between the two and across social media networks, but both are cheaper than traditional advertising methods like television commercials or radio spots.
    • How much time and effort can you put into creating and managing the ads?
    • Advertising goals – Do you want website traffic, people to engage with your posts, leads, purchases, or something else?
    • What type of audience are you trying to reach? This includes demographics like age, location, and interests, but also where your potential customers or patients are in their journey to make a purchase or schedule a consultation.

    Ultimately, it’s important to remember that both types of digital ads can effectively achieve your business goals if managed properly. To be honest, you should probably be using both, and maybe even LinkedIn Ads too.

    Here are some more of my insights that will help you when deciding to use Google Ads or Facebook Ads:

    • Social media ads are often easier to manage for beginners but do require design work upfront and tweaking throughout the campaign term.
    • Don’t waste your money on DIYing Google ads if you don’t have time to check on the ads and keywords weekly at the minimum. It’s better to hire a professional who knows what they’re doing.
    • Running larger campaigns across multiple platforms may be preferable if you need maximum exposure.
    • If building relationships with customers is most important to you, then investing in social media advertising would make sense over relying solely on Google Ads.

    When it comes down to it — test the different options to determine which is most effective for your business goals.

     

    Need help with your online ads? I’m certified in Google Ads Search, and we’ve helped clients create digital ads for several years now. Reach out if you’re ready to take the next step in your online marketing!

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  • Blog, Social Media Tips

    How Website Load Time on Mobile Affects Your Facebook Page’s Reach

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    Earlier this week Facebook announced that they’ve once again changed the algorithm delineating which content to show in users’ News Feeds. Content shared from websites with slow load times on mobile will decrease in views over the coming months.

    “During the coming months we’re making an update to News Feed to show people more stories that will load quickly on mobile and fewer stories that might take longer to load, so they can spend more time reading the stories they find relevant.”

    While this should fire you up to check on your own site’s load time, don’t forget about the OPC (Other People’s Content) that you’re sharing. If you share a lot of OPC from a slow moving website, your Page’s overall reach will begin to lessen.

    Facebook went on to say that the user’s “current network connection” will also be considered. If the user has a slower network connection, and the web page URL you’re sharing has a long load time, it will appear lower in their News Feed. Obviously, you don’t have control over their network connection, so the focus is on the time it takes your website to load that page on mobile.

    Testing and Improving Your Pages’ Loading Times

    The first thing you’ll need to do is check mobile load time. Facebook provided a list of Best Practices to Improve Mobile Site Performance that included a few options for evaluating current load time. Below is an example of the information you’ll receive on PageSpeed. This tool was easy to use and very self-explanatory. It even provides suggestions on how to optimize your page further.

    pagespeed_insights

    I also tried a few of the other tools on Facebook’s list. Instead of an overall grade, many gave me specific load times and were honestly overwhelming with the amount of data provided. Those tools are more for a developer, while the data from PageSpeed offered suggestions I could follow through on myself with a little bit of digging.

    As a site owner, this may feel frustrating, but looking at it from a user perspective this algorithm change makes sense. Improving your website for a better mobile experience is necessary in today’s world, especially if you want to reach your audience on Facebook. According to Venture Beat, 56.5% of users only log in to Facebook from mobile. Another eye-opening data point – there are over 1.74 billion mobile monthly active users on Facebook. If you don’t speed up your pages load time over the next few months be prepared to see your Facebook referral traffic fall.

    If you don’t improve your loading time over the next few months, be prepared to see your Facebook referral traffic drop. Now more than ever before is the time to consider the user experience of your website.

    free-def-guide-facebook-pages

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  • Marketing, Social Media Tips

    How to Find Powerful Hashtags for Social Media

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    Over the last few weeks, I’ve had two yoga teachers ask me about how to use hashtags on social media. Technology is often not high on the priority list for many yogis, and I’m gathering that very few in our industry know how to attract new students or customers by properly utilizing hashtags.

    If you grew up with social media this may not apply to you, but you still may learn a new way to find powerful hashtags that can help to get your brand noticed. Skip down to the section on Finding Hashtags if you already know how to use them.

    Finding Powerful Hashtags

    Hashtag Basics (or #basics)

    Hashtags help you to get noticed. If you click on a hashtag on Twitter, it jumps you to a stream of every tweet with that hashtag. Same goes for Instagram and Facebook. Someone that is interested in yoga is likely to scroll through photos/posts with #yoga. If you’re using #yoga too, they’ll see your image.

    Try to use only two per tweet, maybe three max. You should be using them in EVERY tweet you post.

    On Instagram put your hashtags in a comment below your caption. You can use up to 30 on Instagram.

    For Facebook, a lot of people don’t use them. I’ve even had some people ask me why I was using them there and almost get defensive like I wasn’t following the “Facebook rules.” But, these were individuals who don’t work on digital so, poo on them! If you do use some in your Facebook posts, three is a good number. Test it out and see how your audience takes to it.

    LinkedIn is another place where many users aren’t used to seeing hashtags, but you should still be adding them to your posts. The hashtags on LinkedIn help to categorize posts and allow new readers to find your content.

    Finding Hashtags

    You’ll need to find hashtags that are relevant to what you’re sharing. So if your post is about writing a book use tags like #amwriting #fridayreads #amreading, etc. You can find new ones to use by looking through the streams of others using these hashtags. Click a photo in the hashtag stream you’re viewing and see what other tags that user listed.

    If you are targeting a geographical area, use relevant hashtags to your region, i.e. #StAugustine #JaxBeach #Jax. Again, if you look at other people’s posts, you can find new hashtags to use on yours.

    Here’s a trick to finding new hashtags on Instagram:
    Go to the search section on Instagram and click the Tags tab.
    Type in the hashtag you want to find more about (using yoga in my example). You can see from this screenshot a list of other relevant hashtags.
    >hashtag_research_instagram

    Click one of the tags and then read the Related hashtags at the top of the page, you can scroll to the right for more. This can be a rabbit hole and lead you to find tons of new relevant tags.
    >instagram_hashtag_research

    Hashtag research will lead you to new accounts you may want to take notes from and follow. Reviewing what works for others in your industry is smart. Check out what are other yogis are using that appears to be gaining traction for them.

    Another way is to start writing a word and see what tags auto-populate.

    When looking for hashtags to use on Twitter, I often consult Hashtagify. It provides you with a popularity rating of a particular hashtag and gives a web of relevant hashtags. Again, this can be a rabbit hole and can lead to an overwhelming amount of results. I use Hashtagify weekly to find new hashtags to use on social media.

    hashtagify_yoga

    Finding hashtags is something you want to revisit regularly. New ones are popping up constantly, and you’ll want to test and reevaluate the ones you are using every so often.

    Do you have any other ideas about how to find new hashtags?
    Let me know in the comments below! 

    free-def-guide-facebook-pages
    style=”display: none;”>How-to-find-powerful-hashtags

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