Merchants of any size who are looking for ways to grow should take note of the latest entrant to the e-commerce space. Facebook announced its latest feature, Facebook Shops, which would be compatible with both Shopify and BigCommerce. If you are currently using these e-commerce platforms, you have a huge advantage over your competitors. If you’re on another system, talk to Ventura Web Design about how you can move your store to BigCommerce or Shopify today.
Facebook Shops was rolled out on Facebook and Instagram, giving business owners the opportunity to capitalize on the online e-commerce trend and lack of in-person foot traffic due to the pandemic.
Shops allows business owners with existing e-commerce websites to export products from their eCommerce sites to their Facebook Shop. It’s also easy to upload products that don’t exist already on the web directly into Facebook Shops.
How To Setup Facebook Shop
Before continuing to create your shop setup, make sure you have a Facebook page dedicated to your business with admin capabilities.
The new feature was created so businesses can easily publish listings for products. It’s simple to set up your shop. Follow these steps:
Go to your Facebook page
Click Settings in the top right corner
Click on Templates and Tabs
Click Add a Tab at the bottom of the page
Click Add Tab next to the Shop option
Go back to your page and click the Shop button from the left panel
Agree to the Terms and Conditions
From the pop-up window choose Message to Buy or Checkout Another Website to choose how customers will view/buy products
Describe your store and what you sell in the description box and save the changes
How To Add Products
Click Add Product
Add photos/videos of the product
Give the product a name
Fill in the price
Add a product description
Click Save
Want to Outsource Your Facebook Shop Setup?
Whether you’re too busy or simply don’t have the technical ability or patience to set up your shop, we can take it off your hands. At Ventura Web Design and Marketing, we specialize in e-commerce. We can ensure not only your Facebook Shop page is optimized, but your e-commerce site is too. If you want to increase your revenue, contact us online or by phone. The number for the Tampa location is 813-556-7990, and the number for the Las Vegas location is 702-515-2057.
How To Set Up Payment
For shops in the U.S, customers can pay directly through the shop page. For those outside the U.S, you have to use an e-commerce platform like Shopify or Big Commerce to process payments.
How To Set Up Facebook Product Catalog Ads
Catalogs allow Shop owners to retarget those who have viewed shop ads. By choosing the Dynamic Ad option you can serve an ad to the potential customer that already viewed that product. You can also choose the generic ad option to drive traffic to your shop, but that won’t be as targeted.
Access the Facebook Business Manager
Click on the dropdown menu in the top left corner
Click Catalogs under the Assets section
Click on the Diagnostics tab
Choose between a generic ad and a Dynamic Ad
Create your ad according to your business demographics and preferences
Connect Your Facebook Shop To Your Ecommerce Website
Shopify:
From your Shopify admin, click the + button beside the Sales channels heading.
On the Add sales channel dialog, click Facebook Shop to learn more about the sales channel.
Click Add channel.
Connect the Facebook account you want your store to appear on:
Go to Facebook Shop > Account
Click Connect account
Confirm that you’re using the correct Facebook account. If you’re not logged in, enter your Facebook login credentials.
Follow the prompts on the Log in with Facebook dialog to allow Shopify to connect with your business’s Facebook page.
Facebook will take up to 48 hours to review your store. You will receive an email when your shop is approved.
BigCommerce
On your BigCommerce shop account click on Channel Manager and then Facebook
Confirm you’re using compatible currency then click Get Started
Fill in your business info on the following pages
You’ll need your Facebook business page name, business manager account, business address, business email address, list of states you have offices in, shipping options offered, and return policy)
Set up Facebook payments
You’ll need your social security number or EIN (employee identification number) and your preferred bank account number
Once you have completed the steps above, your catalogs will begin to export to Facebook. This may take a while depending on the number of products you have
You can check the status of the export in the Export tab of the Facebook Channel Manager page.
Once the export is complete, Facebook will notify you within 48 hours to let you know if your products conform with their guidelines.
We’re Here To Help
Set up a free consultation to allow us to review your website and assess your needs. Contact us online or by phone. The number for the Tampa location is 813-556-7990, and the number for the Las Vegas location is 702-515-2057.
Up your Instagram game and grow your following by creating posts and stories using Instagram’s newest feature called Reels. It’s designed to edit videos taken in the app that are up to 15-seconds long by adding audio, speed effects, special effects, and a pre-recording timer.
While Reels was released in the United States on August 5, 2020, they released the feature in select countries a few weeks prior. It was received positively and a few brands are capitalizing on this new feature, connecting with new and old customers.
Reels may sound similar to stories but there are a few major differentiating factors:
Reels lets you edit videos. You have the ability to add audio, speed controls, special effects, and a pre-recording timer.
Reels can be shared to Instagram’s Explore feed. (Your account will have to be public)
You can include original audio and it will be attributed to you. Other users can also use your audio which makes it great for exposure
Why the sudden push for a feature like this? Is Instagram trying to compete with TikTok or is it trying to match Snapchat’s effects and filters? It’s hard to say but there’s no doubt this new feature may take some loyal TikTokers and Snapchaters away from their beloved apps.
How To Use Instagram Reels
Tap the camera icon like you would to create a story
Tap ‘Reels’ on the bottom of the screen
Choose your effects
Record your video
Trim the video if needed
Tap the arrow to the right of the Reels record icon
Choose a cover photo, caption, and hashtags for your Reel
Publish to the desired location
Where are Reels Published?
You can choose where to publish your Reels. Share it to the Reels highlight that appears at the top of the Explore section (if your account is public), as a post on your feed that appears on your Instagram grid, or simply share it to your story and it will be deleted in 24 hours like other stories.
This feature has only been live for a few weeks in France and Sephora France already seems to have cracked the Reels code. Their Reels have nearly half a million views after just weeks of being posted.
View and Interact with Reels
You can like, share, and follow other user’s Reels by visiting the Explore page, tapping the Reels highlight, and scrolling through the Reels.
Features and Analytics on Instagram Reels
The Reels feature is somewhat limited with the GIFs, stickers, and effects you can use, but we are expecting that to change very soon with the Instagram user’s feedback on the feature.
The only analytics available on Reels right now are view count, likes, and comments. This too is expected to get more in-depth in the future.
Get on the Reels bandwagon early and create creative content to connect with potential customers and followers.
Contact Us
If you would like to revamp your social media presence or overhaul your website or marketing efforts we’re here to help. Contact us online or by phone for a free consultation. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa office is 813-556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas office is 702-515-2057.2020
Now that you know how to set up your Instagram account from our previous blog, you’re ready to start posting. In this blog, we discuss how to post, how often to post, what to post, and what should accompany your photos. Start growing your Instagram account with these tips today!
How To Post
Open Instagram
Tap the plus button at the bottom of the screen
Choose the image you would like to post from your camera roll or take a photo on the spot using the app
Tap the ‘Next’ button in the top right-hand corner of the screen
Edit your photo
Add your caption, your location, and tag people then hit ‘Share’
How Often To Post
Some sources recommend posting every day. Big brands post multiple times per day, on average, 1.5 – 6 times a day. Finding the right balance for your business is the most important thing. If you can only post quality content three days a week then stick to that for now until you can post more frequently. It’s better to post less frequently and have quality content than to post more frequently and have subpar content. Remember you’re posting for your followers and potential followers, not to keep up with big brands that post multiple times a day.
With that said Instagram’s algorithm has always favored accounts that post more frequently by placing them closer to the top of followers feeds. So if possible it is best to eventually strive to post more frequently.
What Time To Post
This is the most variable aspect of Instagram. It largely depends on your audience, category, and location. The best suggestion in this scenario is to consistently post multiple days a week at the same. Then test another time the next week and continue this process for a few weeks to see where most of your engagement is.
Here are some general trends for engagement on Instagram from Hubspot. They also broke down the engagement times by category. This is because different audiences are active at different times.
What To Post On Your Instagram Page
Instagram was and still is mainly about photos. People will see the photo before anything else when scrolling on Instagram so make sure your photos are as high quality and as enticing as possible. Here are some photo ideas to post:
Photos of your staff, product, services
Generate buzz for a product, demonstrate a service, or show off your staff. These are all good photos to post on your Instagram to connect with your audience.
Customer-generated content
With credit given to the original creator, you can repost their content. This is why you want to have a business hashtag, so when people go to your business or use your product they can easily tag you using the hashtag.
Events
Gone are the days of posting event flyers on telephone poles. Now you can post a high-quality graphic or photo to Instagram to generate buzz for your events.
Giveaways
This is one of the most effective ways to grow your Instagram following. Create a giveaway and post that to be eligible a person must tag friends and follow your page. Giveaway posts receive extremely high engagement rates and should be utilized on a monthly basis if possible.
Announcements
Is there a business anniversary or policy change happening? These are great examples of posts to make on your Instagram.
If you need an easy service to create social media graphics try Canva or Adobe Spark. All the designs come from templates so there’s no need for extensive graphic design training!
Should You Have A Theme?
What’s a theme? A theme is how you edit your photos or the color palette you choose to present in your photos. When multiple photos like this are posted they then create a cohesive page that can be extremely aesthetically pleasing and thus attract more followers.
24As previously mentioned the way your photos look is extremely important. Decide if its right for your business to create a cohesive theme on your Instagram page.
Here are some examples of Instagram pages that have consistent themes.
What To Add To An Instagram Post
While the photo is the main focus there are some other details that should be attended to before hitting Share.
Caption
Each business should have a different writing style and tone. The point of the captions is to have a brief, captivating caption that evokes a response like a purchase, booking, or the user following an account.
Tags
Is there anyone in the photo that you would like to tag? Before publishing a photo Instagram will allow you to tag someone. The photo will then show up in their tagged photos and they can easily share it.
Hashtags
Posting hashtags along with your content is how you get your content in front of new viewers. Hashtags are keywords or phrases you can search on Instagram to find content related to it.
It’s best to use hashtags sparingly within the actual caption. Try sticking to just the hashtag you created for your business or another relevant hashtag.
Also note, you can post up to 30 hashtags but engagement can drop after you use more than 10 hashtags.
Look on Instagram at competitors to see what hashtags they’re using both locally and globally to get ideas for what hashtags you can use. Also, research relevant hashtags on sites like tagfinder to boost engagement on your posts.
What To Post On Instagram Stories
Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours. This is a good way to share content that you don’t want to make a post for but still want to share.
Instagram stories are archived and this is where you will get content from for your highlight reels if you choose to have them.
Highlight reels
Highlight reels are a fun way to share categorized collections of photos. Simply add photos from your archive of stories into your highlight reel.
Contact Us
By using all of the steps and features above you should be well on your way to creating a successful business Instagram. Read the next blog in this series about how to advertise on Instagram and how to measure success. If you would like to outsource your social media management contact us online or by phone at (813) 556-7990 for the Tampa office and (702) 515-2057 for the Las Vegas office.
Posting on your business’s Instagram page is only half the fun, the other half is looking at your insights and measuring the success of your posts and ads, and adjusting as necessary. In this blog, we will discuss Instagram insights, how to create an Instagram ad, and how to measure your success.
Insights
Instagram business accounts are great because they let you track the success of stories, posts, and promotions. Here’s how to see those insights:
Go to your profile
Tap the ‘Insights’ button
Select the post, story, or promotion you would like to research
Track the insights of a particular post by going into the Insights page and clicking on the post you’d like to research. Once there you’ll find helpful metrics for your post like:
Impressions- this is how many people took an action from your post like visiting your profile or using the call/email button attached to your post
Likes- how many times people liked your post
Comments-how many comments the post received
Saves-how many times your post was saved to a user’s Saved folder
Discovery- how many people found your post from the Discovery page, how many users found your post from their home feed,
Follows- how many new followers were gained from the post
Instagram tracks audience insights as well. It tracks a user’s age demographics, gender, and location. The location can be set to a country or a specific city, so small businesses can find this feature extremely useful. This audience insights page also contains:
The hours your followers are most active each day
The days your followers are most active
The Activity tab lets you track weekly Interactions, Reach, and Impressions. This can give you an idea of how well your page performs. Some other helpful features you can track in the profile analytics page include:
Profile visits- how many times users visited your profile
Website clicks- how many times people clicked on your website from your profile
Call/email clicks- how many times people clicked the call/email call-to-action buttons on your profile
Mentions- how many times people mentioned you using your Instagram handle
Advertising On Instagram
The quickest way to gain a following on Instagram and start achieving your goals is to place paid ads. You should be targeting your demographic with these ads to increase sales and brand awareness. Here’s a quick rundown of how to create an Instagram ad:
1. Create a business Facebook page
If you don’t have one already you will need to create a business Facebook page since the apps are connected and the Ads Manager is run through Facebook.
2. Set up an ad
In the Ads Manager select the ad objective, target audience, and ad format. You can also select a post you’ve already created and tap Promote. Instagram will do the work for you of selecting an audience to view your ads. This is recommended unless you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable about your target audience and how to use the Ad Manager.
3. Set your budget
Choose your maximum budget and how long your ad should run.
4. Publish
Publish your ad, once it is reviewed and approved you will get a notification that indicates it’s ready to run.
Measuring Success
When measuring success on Instagram it’s important to remember why you created it. Was it to gain followers, get more bookings, build brand awareness? Here are three important metrics to consider when measuring success on Instagram:
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness ties into previously discussed topics like posting high-quality content, posting consistently, and targeting the right audience. When you do these things well a following comes naturally. These are the metrics for measuring brand awareness:
Followers- Watch your follower count over time. This will grow slowly at first then exponentially when you start posting more frequently and running ads.
Reach- Reach tracks the accounts viewing your stories, posts, profile. The great thing about this metric though is that it only measures new accounts viewing these things. So the same account viewing your profile more than once won’t skew the data. Over time your reach should improve steadily.
Impressions- Impressions are similar to reach in that it measures how many users view your stories, profile, and posts. The only difference is this metric can be skewed because it counts the total number of impressions, so if someone views your profile more than once it will count multiple views. It’s still a helpful tool if you want to measure how your posts are affecting your profile views or how your stories are affecting if people are looking at your profile, but reach is a better metric to measure how many new people you’re reaching.
Ad Success
Placing paid ads is a crucial part of a business’s success on Instagram. Track how your ads are performing with the following metrics:
Website Clicks- It’s likely if your advertising a product you’ll place a ‘Shop Now’ button on the ad that brings an Instagram user to your website. Track these metrics to figure out how well your ads are doing. Visit the Activity page in the Insights to see how many website clicks you’re getting
Email/Call Clicks- If your goal for creating Instagram ads was to receive emails or calls track how many of these are coming from Instagram with your Activity tab in the Insights page.
Success of ads- What ads are generating your desired results? Ask yourself if its the content that’s accompanying your ad, the copy, the time of day you posted it. Figure out what ads work for your business and replicate that.
Community Engagement
Follower counts and leads are great, but are you building a genuine relationship? Brands that build a genuine community have the most success long term. Here are some important metrics when considering your community engagement on Instagram:
Comments- This shows people are engaging with your content. You want to build a community and have a dialogue with your followers. It’s crucial that you have people commenting and that you respond to these comments.
Story replies- If a user is invested in your business they are likely to watch your story and reply. How many replies you get is a good measure of how good of a relationship your building with followers
User-generated content- Are people frequenting your business or using your product/service and creating content based on it? This is one of the biggest factors to look at. If a customer is really invested in your product they will advertise for you. This shows you have a quality business. It’s very important to engage with these users when they post about your business since it opens a dialogue and creates a deeper relationship.
Interacting With The Instagram Community
We touched on the importance of engaging with your community earlier. It’s also important to engage with other businesses in your area and industry. Being active and commenting on other’s posts is not just showing your support, but it’s getting your business out there in another way where potential followers or customers could see it. Instagram’s algorithm also favors people who exchange DM’s, comment, and like other’s posts. So if they’re following you you’re more likely to appear at the top of their Home page. This is crucial for engagement rates.
Contact Us
If you would like to outsource your social media advertising to experts contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa location is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.
There’s no doubt that Instagram started as a simple photo-sharing app and has now become one of the largest social media platforms out there. It’s one of the best tools for businesses to reach their target audience. In this blog, we discuss why you should be on Instagram, how to set up your account, what to write in your bio, and how to set up call-to-action buttons.
Why You Should Be On Instagram
Instagram boasts some impressive statistics that are advantageous for businesses when the proper steps are taken.
200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile every day
Instagram has a huge share of different demographics
18-29: 59%
30-49: 33%
50-64: 18%
65+: 8%
One of Instagram’s appeals is that people can choose to follow a brand, unlike other forms of advertising you can reach your audience without being intrusive. Thus, they are more likely to receive your message and convert to customers.
How To Set Up An Account
Download the Instagram app
Make a non-business profile (it will be changed to a business account)
Tap the three-line icon in the top right corner of your profile
Tap ‘Settings’
Tap ‘Account’
Tap ‘Switch to Professional Account’
Tap ‘Business’
At this point, you can attach your business’s Facebook page so your Instagram posts will automatically publish to your Facebook
Add your business category and contact information
Tap ‘Done’
Make An Impression With Your Profile Picture And Bio
Choose your profile picture. Most businesses use their logo. You will want this photo (like all the other photos you post on Instagram) to be of high quality.
Craft a unique bio. Ask yourself these questions when drafting your bio:
What are you?
What do you stand for?
Where are you located?
What’s your website?
What is your business hashtag?
Call-To-Action Buttons
Instagram has call-to-action buttons and it’s highly recommended you use at least one. Here’s how to set them up.
Instagram only used to have four options: Call, Text, Email, and Directions. They have since added new action buttons: Book, Buy Tickets, Start Order, Reserve. Determine which call to action buttons would be best for your audience and add them to your profile. You can reference these buttons in posts and stories for extra traction.
Contact Us
Congrats! Once you have completed these steps you can start posting on your new business Instagram page. If you would like to outsource your social media duties contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you the Tampa office phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas phone number is (702) 515-2057.
While most businesses crown Google or Instagram as King of Advertising, Snapchat is often overlooked as a powerful, effective, and relatively inexpensive way to reach the highly coveted millennial demographic. This guide is designed to show you the benefits of advertising on Snapchat and how it compares to its competitors. It will show you how to create successful Snapchat ads, and what metrics to look for after your ad is implemented.
Benefits Of Advertising On Snapchat
Here are some benefits to Snapchat advertising:
The spending power of users
Ability to target younger demographics
Ease of ad creation
Specific location targeting
Full-screen ads
Unique Snapchat features
Targeting your core demographic is a vital part of picking what platform to place ads. Snapchat users are primarily within the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. If your target audience aligns with these age groups Snapchat would be a favorable platform to place ads.
According to a Hootsuite article written in 2018, Snapchat captures 41% of those ages 18-34 every day. It also has the sixth-highest concentration of Millennials among all mobile apps.
Millennials and Gen Z have a $1 trillion spending ability. By neglecting Snapchat as an advertising platform you are leaving money and potential consumers behind.
In a Murphy research study, they found Snapchat users were 60% more likely to impulse buy.
Snapchat’s Ad Manager interface is extremely user friendly. It intuitively guides you through the whole process with their ‘Instant Create’ option. Comparatively, Facebook and Google have much more complex processes for creating an ad.
If you’re a seasoned ad creator, Snapchat has a more advanced ad creation option called ‘Advanced Create’. Anyone with a business Snapchat account has access to this feature. You can find the ‘Advanced Create’ portal from your desktop by logging into your Snapchat account and hovering over the ‘Create Ads’ button in the top left corner and selecting ‘Advanced Create’. Within the advanced create feature you can access a lot more customizable campaign options like:
Split Testing
Campaign creation instead of a single ad creation
Access to more specific controls for who views your ad
Access to a lifetime budget instead of just a daily budget
Advanced bidding options (Auto-bid or Max bid)
Tags that allow you to be able to target users that may consume products related to it
Topsnap testing
In addition to its younger user demographic, and workable interface, Snapchat is the only platform that allows super-specific location targeting. It allows advertisers to target universities, parks, or even specific buildings. This allows you to target areas that largely contain your demographic instead of targeting a whole city, region, or country where your ad dollars would be wasted.
How Is Snapchat Different From Its Competitors?
Snapchat gives you the creative license when deciding what you want your ad to look like. You can use a GIF, video, or static image.
A ‘Snap Ad’ will run in a full-screen video format with the sound on. This differentiates itself from other platforms where the sound is turned off until the user decides to turn it on. This is a huge opportunity to make an initial impression with sound. The 100% full-screen ad is advantageous, Instagram is the only other platform to use this method of advertising. It’s only within their story feature and it doesn’t include sound.
There are three different types of Snap Ad formats displayed below:
App Installs look like this on the app:
Long-form videos are presented like this:
Last but not least, web view ads are presented like this on the app:
The full-screen ads differ from other platforms. For example, Facebook and Instagram feed ads take up about 25%-33% of the screen when scrolling through a timeline or browser this allows for the user to be distracted by other information, while on Snapchat the ad has their full attention when the advertiser uses the full-screen presentation option.
Another Snapchat exclusive feature is branded tiles on the ‘Discover’ page. These are companies like Seventeen magazine that make content consistently to be featured within the ‘Discover’ page but companies can also pay to be a sponsored tile on the page.
Other Snapchat advertising options include sponsored lenses and sponsored filters.
Here’s an example of a Snapchat lens:
This is one of Snapchat’s success stories.
The last example is a Snapchat filter that was launched in Germany. It was a huge success for the brand. View their KPI’s here.
Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk praises Snapchat for its ability to capture the attention of its users. He said he hasn’t seen such an active user base since Twitter in 2007 and 2008. Let’s compare Snapchat stories to emails. According to Gary, on the best day, only 25% of his emails are opened this would be a very low percentage of stories viewed on Snapchat.
Industries Advertising On Snapchat
Naming all the businesses that advertise on Snapchat would be almost impossible, so instead here’s a list of industries that Snapchat has hosted ads for:
E-commerce
App services
Technology
Entertainment
Consumer packaged goods
Auto
Retail
Restaurants
Travel
Financial services
Health
Telecommunications
Insurance
Government/Politics
How To Engage An Ad Viewer
The average Snapchat user is very engaged with the app, opening it 18-25 times a day. While the users are loyal to the app it is important when creating an ad to catch their attention as soon as possible with a clear message, USP, and call to action. Here is an example of a brand that had clear messaging, engaging visuals, and a clear call to action.
Elf had eye-catching visuals to open the ad with, then by the third second of their ad they had their USP displayed on the screen, and finished with a ‘Shop Now’ call to action. They followed the formula for a successful Snapchat ad.
Engage in 1-2 seconds + Present USP in 3-4 seconds + Finish strong with a call to action
Questions To Ask Before Creating A Snapchat Ad
Who is the target audience?
What do you want your viewers to do?
Gain awareness of the brand, buy a product, download an app, visit a website
What type of ad will you run?
How do you want the ad to look?
Video, GIF, image
Will there be ad copy?
Is there music or a voice-over?
What is the daily and lifetime budget for the ad/campaign?
How long should the ad run?
Most Effective Snapchat Ads
Lead Generation Ads
Best for audiences you don’t have a relationship with
Offer something that solves a problem or provides value
The benefit:
You receive the customer’s email that can be used to occasionally promote your business
You can retarget those that visited your site in the future (this requires the Snap Pixel plug-in)
Doorbuster Ads
This ad gives something away for free that gets customers into a brick and mortar location
The benefit:
People came in for the freebie but bought additional items
Counterpart Ads
This is an ad served to customers that are theoretically interested in the same things your current customers are.
How to do it:
Load up your email customer contact list into Snapchat. (located under the assets tab in the ‘Audience’ section)
The app then builds a list of potential new customers that will theoretically like the same things as your current customers.
Create an ad for this specific customer base.
The ad you’ve created will then be served to the people that the Snapchat algorithm deemed of value to you.
Note: You should have more than 1,000 emails to make sure the Snapchat has enough people to use in their algorithm.
How To Create Snapchat Ads
The first step to creating Snapchat ads is to download the app.
Creating your business’s Snapchat account:
Download Snapchat from the App Store
Open Snapchat
Tap ‘Sign Up’
Enter your name and tap ‘Sign Up & Accept’
Enter your date of birth
Create a username
Create a password
Enter your phone number and verify it *optional
Use your username and password to access Ads Manager within the app
Once you’ve accessed the Ads Manager follow these steps to create your ad with Instant Create:
Select ‘Instant Create’ option
Select an ad goal
Input website
Select the image, video, or GIF you want to use
Crop image or video if necessary
Enter ad copy and choose a layout template
Edit template as desired
Continue and fill ad demographic information, the location where you want the ad to appear, the duration for the campaign, and business and payment information
Follow these instructions to create an ad with ‘Advanced Create’:
Build Your Campaign
Choose what you want your viewers to do and convert to.
Choose a detailed name for your ad.
The best option is to name it by the objective of the ad and the time frame in which it will run. Then choose the time frame you want the ad to run through
Choose daily and lifetime budgets
Ad Sets
It’s suggested you name your ad set by the audience, budget, goal, and schedule.
The more detail the better considering you can run multiple ad campaigns and ad sets.
Select the ad format and ad type, then attach the file that you wish to advertise.
Commercial ads cannot be skipped and are recommended.
Select your placement preferences, audience location, demographics, and language.
This will vary from business to business and should all be decided in the research phase before creating an ad.
Select audiences predefined category, operating system, and connection type
Choose the status of the ad, budget, start and end date of the ad, the goal of the ad, and your bid type.
As a newcomer, it is recommended to choose the auto-bid option. This takes the guesswork out of how much you’ll need to spend on daily ad budgets in the future. It will also allow you to figure out your cost per action or in layman’s terms how much you spend for someone to complete your desired ad goal.
Build Your Ad
Fill in your ad name, brand name, and headline then choose whether you want the ad to be sharable. Test your ad in Topsnap to make sure it meets the minimum requirements.
Select whether you want the ad to be active and fill in the tags that correspond to your ad.
Review and Publish
Review your previous ad choices, fill in your business information, and payment details.
Publish your campaign
How To Install Snap Pixel
Snap Pixel is an important program you will want for the purposes of retargeting and analytics. You can add it to your website by following this video tutorial.
How To Measure Success On Snapchat
KPI’s (key performance indicators) are what you will use to measure the success of your campaign. If you already have a website, your current KPIs might be conversion rate, total revenue, or time spent on your web page. Outlining metrics to measure your success in advance is helpful because it keeps you (and your team) focused on the end goal throughout the entire project and helps avoid distractions.
There are two apps needed to measure your KPI’s on Snapchat. Snaplytics and Delmondo.
Neither app measures every KPI.
Snaplytics measures open rates, story views, average screenshots per story, and completion rate.
Delmondo tracks more helpful metrics and provides a more detailed view of your audience, basic metrics, and channel comparisons to your other social media channels.
Here are some of the specific KPI’s tracked by Delmondo
Audience Insights
Location
Age
Interests
Basic KPI’s
Impressions
Views
Completion rates
Screenshot rates
Channel Comparisons
Measures how well your Snapchat is doing against your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Other important KPI’s to measure that aren’t on Snaplytics or Delmondo
Fall-off rate – The fall-off rate takes a little bit of grade school math to calculate. Here’s how you do it:
Compare the views of your first two photos on your story
The first has 500 views and the second has 400
500 – 400 = 100
100 / 500 = .2
.2 x 100 = 20%
Therefore your fall-off rate is 20%.
Number of followers – Below are the steps to locate your follower count
Open Snapchat
Click on your Bitmoji in the top left corner
Look under your yellow snap code and beside your username
The number located there is your follower count
Geofilter analytics – Here’s how to locate your geofilter analytics
Log into the desktop version of your Snapchat account
If you would like to take full advantage of your advertising budget, outsource your Snapchat marketing or other digital marketing needs to experts please contact Ventura Web Design at (813) 556-7990 or fill out the online contact form.
Businesses are transitioning to an online environment
The coronavirus is severely impacting businesses of all sizes from bankruptcies to layoffs, to gaps in revenue. One of the most important pivots to make is committing to the online transition where you can and where it makes sense.
Evaluate your services and products. Are there ways you can translate these virtually or digitally? How can you provide a similar experience to your customers? Is there a way you can provide an even better experience?
Regardless of the changes you’re currently making, you have to effectively communicate these changes and updates to your customers. Without proper messaging, your customers aren’t informed. If they aren’t informed, they aren’t going to know that your business is open, and they aren’t going to know about how your business is actively adapting to their needs.
Ventura Web Design & Marketing has proven, agile experience in translating and creating messaging appropriate for different businesses in this current climate. COVID-19 is changing the way businesses interact with their customers, and we’re the experts who can help you keep up.
We have a wealth of experience with SEO, PPC, social media campaigns, website updates, and more that can help flip the revenue switch. Online traffic is more important than ever. Making sure your customers are aware of your new services is imperative. For a consultation on how you can improve your marketing strategy, online traffic, and engagement, contact us today.
Ventura Web Design & Marketing remains open during normal business hours. However, our team is working remotely to keep our clients and staff safe. We are here for immediate assistance and emergency strategy sessions. Be sure to contact us today and keep your customer base informed.
COVID-19 is impacting businesses in many different ways, and Yelp is one of them. Yelp is now displaying generic alerts on business account pages concerning the coronavirus. You can (and should) customize these alerts. It’s important that you take advantage of this opportunity to keep your customers informed.
It’s likely that your business has changed and is offering virtual and digital alternatives to your traditional services. For example, if you feature online courses or virtual appointments to accommodate social distancing, be sure to update your Yelp account. This helps you pivot and transition alongside your customers.
It’s important that while you’re creating your custom COVID-19 alert, you’re also updating your business hours, location, photos, and more. Keeping your Yelp account up to date is imperative for maintaining trustworthy communication with your customers.
Ventura Web Design & Marketing Is Open During Regular Operating Hours
We Are Here For You And Working Remotely Until Further Notice
We are all aware of the impact and gravity of current events concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to slow the transmission and spread of the coronavirus nationwide, most of the U.S. economy has come to a jarring halt. We understand how seriously this affects you, your family, your team, and your business. Our dedication to you is why Ventura Web Design & Marketing will remain open during our regular operating hours. To protect our clients and our team, and adhere to national health recommendations, we have implemented a remote work policy which is in effect until the U.S. Government provides us with additional guidance. We are not currently scheduling any in-person meetings.
If your business is being severely impacted, please do not hesitate to contact us immediately and set up an emergency strategy session. If you have a brick and mortar business that is suffering, we can discuss options to pivot towards an online or virtual experience for your customers. We can organize messaging so your customers are kept in the loop, know that you are open, and know you support them. Reach out to us so we can help you correct or alleviate your current revenue trajectory and lessen the possible impact.
We do everything we possibly can to help our clients make it through this difficult, uncertain, and hopefully temporary disruption of normal business. While we do not yet know what the near future holds, it is our sincere hope that once the national lockdown period is lifted, businesses and families will flourish again and do so better than ever before.
As always, we continue to strive to operate at peak efficiency – even while our team is working remotely. Although working together in close physical proximity is the ideal, technological improvements have made remote work more possible and efficient than it has ever been. If your business is operating remotely and new to web conferencing, please read our comprehensive guide to web conference etiquette and get the most out of your virtual meetings.
We wish you, your teammates, your families, and your customers peace during this very difficult time for our nation and global community. Stay strong and trust that we will come through this together.
Sincerely,
Kevin Richards
Founder / CEO, Ventura Web Design & Marketing
Many of us are transitioning towards a remote work environment. This means our meetings are no longer in person and we’re using digital platforms to discuss ideas. We’ve put together a list of things you should (and shouldn’t) do during your virtual conference calls to help you stay focused, productive, and professional.
DO: Give Notice
Try to let all participants know when to expect a meeting, or that they will be receiving an invitation soon. This is not only polite, but it gives everyone a chance to check their schedules and make adjustments. You can avoid repetitious meetings or constant rescheduling by making sure everyone has the availability first. Send out virtual invitations if possible to let everyone know the designated time and date. Depending on which platform you’re using, you may even be able to share a link to the meeting beforehand.
DO: Set The “Place”
Let everyone know “where” to meet. This means you should be designating the platform you all are going to use. Some popular platforms include Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, or Slack. Most everyone on your team should be using the same platform already. However, specifically naming the platform can give everyone a chance to update their applications or install the software in case they’re using a different computer to work remotely. This can also give your team the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the technology ahead of time if they’ve never used it before.
DO: Provide a Topic
Try your best to let your team know why there’s going to be a virtual meeting and what is going to be discussed. This will give everyone more time to mentally prepare and gather necessary materials that may be needed during the meeting. Impromptu meetings certainly aren’t ineffective, but the more time you can give your employees or coworkers time to prepare, the more meaningful your discussion will be. Providing a topic ahead of time also gives structure to the meeting which helps keep everyone on track and focused.
DO: Look Professional (At Least From The Waist Up)
Just because you’re aren’t at the office, doesn’t mean you aren’t at work! Working remotely has its benefits: no commute, more sleep, closer to last night’s leftovers in the fridge. However, it’s still business and it’s important to appear as professional as you would in the office or traditional work environment. You’re also more likely to look less presentable on camera than you would in person. You may need to adjust accordingly by paying attention to how your outfits, hair, makeup, etc. appear through the lens.
DO: Control What You Can
Traditional conference rooms are set up with little distractions and designed for focused discussion. When working remotely, you need to create a space like that in your home so you’re prepared for virtual meetings. This means you need to control everything that you reasonably can when it comes to your remote set-up. Do you have pets or children who can be picked up on your microphone? What is in the line of sight of your computer’s camera?
Minimize background noises and tidy up what other people will be able to see. Remember that your work computer and phone can be a source of distraction as well. Remember to mute your notifications sounds and silence your cell phone during a meeting. If you’re working from home and you have roommates, family members, etc. you can always have a sign or signal that you’re in a meeting so others don’t barge in.
DON’T: Eat Or Drink On Camera
Unless it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. your boss deemed this meeting as a working lunch), avoid eating and drinking on camera. Not only is it unprofessional, it’s something most people would avoid anyway during traditional meetings. Remember to save snack time for after the meeting.
DON’T: Bite Your Fingernails, Groom Yourself, Etc.
Just like a physical office, employees, employers, coworkers, etc. are expected to show up to work ready for work. This means that you still need to get all of your personal grooming and hygiene habits out of the way before the beginning of the day. At the very least, you should be avoiding these on camera during a virtual discussion.
DON’T: Forget You Can Be Seen And Heard
If you don’t mute your mic or turn off your camera, you’re still visible. Some of us tend to forget that we can be seen and heard through our computers when on a call. Try to be aware of yourself and your surroundings when communicating virtually because you can be a distraction to others, or do something you may regret later.
DON’T: Forget To End Or Leave The Call
In the same vein as pocket dialing, forgetting to end or leave a virtual conference call can make for some embarrassing moments. Most of us are unlikely to do or say anything wild. But there’s a chance your coworkers may be on the other side of the screen seeing you chew with your mouth open or talking to your grandmother. Be especially aware of this if you were screensharing during the meeting. By ending a call, you’re also signaling to all other participants that it’s time to act on whatever was just discussed.
DON’T: Interrupt Or Have An Unorganized Meeting
A good rule of thumb is to mimic your traditional meetings and come up with ground rules so people aren’t talking over one another. Because of the way that virtual calls are set up, it’s difficult to tell who the speaker is talking to because we’ve lost that spacial perspective. If you’re the speaker, try to say someone’s name before asking a question or sharing information. This gives them an auditory clue that they are being engaged and you can skip over the “are you talking to me?” questions.
DON’T: Avoid Eye Contact
Remember to pay attention to your screen and try to mimic traditional eye contact. For example, you can lower or raise your computer’s camera to it’s closer to your natural eye level. This method makes you appear as though you’re giving eye contact which signals to other participants that you’re engaged and actively paying attention.
DON’T: Be The Only Person Without Your Mic or Camera On
Another general rule of thumb is to make sure all participants are on the same page when it comes to mic and camera use. Everyone should be on camera (the ideal choice), or they should all be off camera. Test out the meeting platform ahead of time to adjust settings. Figure out how to mute your mic and turn your camera on and off ahead of time as well, as you’ll likely need to do both of these at some point.
Now you’re ready for the world of virtual meetings in the digital world. By following these guidelines, you should be more prepared for remote productivity.
