It’s one thing to establish your business and start showcasing your products on your social media feeds, but another to grow brand awareness. In this video, Andrew Mara shows how he grows his side hustle into a profitable small business with the help of Metigy’s Creative Services and Metigy Ads.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Metigy’s Video Creative Services
- How to start advertising as a small business
- How to create an effective Call To Action
- How much is too much selling?
- What makes a good influencer campaign?
- Do promo codes work?
- Successful advertising types
- Important factors to include in your advertisements
- Recommended starting budget
- Effective targeting
- Utilizing Facebook Marketing Pixel
Growing a small business with Metigy
Andrew has been building out a social selling strategy for Guitar Street and implemented a number of different technologies, including Facebook shop and Instagram shoppable posts. He also used the Metigy on-demand Creative Services to design his first ad units for carousel ads.
With a budget of $500, Andrew will build and launch Guitar Street’s first-ever advertising campaign and will be taking the profits, or losses, from each campaign and reinvesting them back into ads and optimizing along the way. He’ll be adding more products and more designs as we progress, and I’ll also be changing up the content.
If you need some extra help understanding social selling through organic and paid content, this article will help you!
Social selling through organic content
When you’re starting out social selling through organic content as a small business, here are three factors to keep in mind:
1. Look at your content
Look at your content and whether that’s really speaking to your audience. Ask yourself, is this relevant content that either addresses pain points, or is interesting enough for your target market?
For every piece of helpful content you put out there, you really need to put out another three before you start asking for things through a call to action. It’s important to build that trust with your audience before you ask them to do something.
2. Your CTA (Call To Action) is so important!
A good call to action should really speak to that specific point in the user journey. So if it’s an information piece and they want to learn more, then a great call to action would be “Learn More”.
But if it’s a piece asking them to take action and buy a shirt, for example, then it could be something like “Buy Now”. It should always be relevant and short and clear to the user what they should do next.
3. What other avenues of social selling are there?
There are so many benefits to using influencer marketing for your business. While influencer marketing is easy to implement, it’s important to consider whether they align with the audiences that you’re targeting. Do they also match the reach that you want to gain?
It’s important to have some way of tracking your influencer impact, whether that’s promo codes or even just a simple URL that’s specific to that influencer so that you can track the amount of traffic and sales that come off of a particular influencer.
Moving onto paid advertising now…
Paid advertising
What ad units would be the most successful on Facebook and Instagram at the moment?
The ad types that perform best on Facebook and Instagram are those that have been released the latest. Things like video content perform particularly well right now, as well as carousels. But it’s important when they’re first contacting your brand to have video aid so they can learn a bit more about the brand.
Additionally, when you’re using images or videos, it’s important to show that your brand is clearly seen on each and every image or video. Display its icon or brand name. To digress:
- Include your brand front and center in every image and video asset you use. Include all products or services that you want the audience to see
- Targeting is so important in launching paid ads. It’s important to try and narrow that targeting as quickly as possible to your ideal audience and those that will convert.
When you look at targeting, you should try and think about what your audiences will be interested in, apart from your products, and then try and test as many as possible. At the beginning, you want to set a fairly low budget for each audience, see how it runs over a period of three to five days. And if it’s performing, then you can start to scale from there.
When you’re optimizing a campaign, the two things that you’re really optimizing to are the best performing audiences and the best performing creatives.
What budget for ads should you start with?
It’s important to tailor that to the budget that you have available through your other channels, and that you’re willing to invest into those paid channels.
Having said that, for most small businesses, a budget of a couple of thousand dollars a month is probably sufficient to test.
Remarketing Pixel
If you have a marketing stack that consists of Facebook remarketing pixels, you can then start to build audiences off the back of it. These include existing remarketing audiences, as well as lookalike audiences.
The algorithm will find people for your business who are most likely to spend money on what you sell. The better audiences you put into the algorithm, the better it will perform in finding those that will buy from you.
To learn more about social selling and advertising, take a look at these resources:
-
Transcript
Andrew (00:01):
G’day. Andrew here again from Metigy. Thanks so much for tuning into the latest episode of Small Business Diaries, where I grow my side hustle into a profitable small business.
Andrew (00:09):
Over the past few episodes, I’ve been building out the social selling strategy for Guitar Street. I’ve built out an organic content strategy, I’ve implemented a number of different technologies, including Facebook shop and Instagram shoppable posts, and I’ve used the Metigy on-demand creative services to design my first ad units for carousel ads.
Andrew (00:30):
Today, we’ll build and launch the Guitar Street’s first-ever advertising campaign. I’m starting with a budget of $500. I’ve one creative that I’ll run across the most effective ad units in Facebook and Instagram, the carousel. I’ll be taking the profits, or losses, from each campaign and reinvesting them back into ads, of course, optimizing along the way. I’ll be adding more products and more designs as we progress, and I’ll also be changing up the content.
Andrew (01:00):
The strategy is pretty simple at this stage. Even then, this is my money and I want the biggest bang for buck that I can get. So I’ve asked Kevin from the Metigy marketing team to join me again. He’s going to help me build out these ad units so let’s jump into Facebook ad manager and get moving.
Andrew (01:18):
All right. Let’s bring in the big guns. It’s always a good idea to ask for help, especially when there’s marketing budget at stake, and the biggest gun we’ve got in the office is Kevin, Metigy’s marketing shaman. He’s going to take me on a trip to social selling success. G’day, Kevin.
Kevin (01:34):
Hi, Andrew.
Andrew (01:35):
What’s the most important thing I need to do to start selling my T-shirts?
Kevin (01:39):
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think you should probably start as a small business by looking at your content and whether that’s really speaking to your audience.
Kevin (01:47):
The second thing then is to have a look at paid ads and how you can use that to amplify the effects.
Andrew (01:52):
Okay, great. So with my organic content, I guess I should be adding calls to action?
Kevin (01:57):
I think so, but it’s really important to space them out.
Kevin (02:01):
The key concept in putting out content is be helpful. Always be helpful to your audience by putting out content that is relevant to them and of interest. For every piece of helpful content you put out there, you really need to put out another three before you start asking for things through a call to action. It’s important to build that trust with your audience before you ask them to do something.
Andrew (02:22):
Okay, that’s fair enough. When it comes to the call to action, what makes a good call to action?
Kevin (02:27):
A good call to action should really speak to that specific point in the user journey. So if it’s an information piece and they want to learn more, then obviously the call to action is Learn More.
Kevin (02:39):
But if it’s a piece asking them to take action and buy a shirt, for example, then it could be something like Buy Now. It should always be relevant and short and clear to the user what they should do next.
Andrew (02:51):
All right, cool. How much selling would be too much?
Kevin (02:55):
That’s a great question. For every five to six pieces of helpful content, I would slot in one call to action to engage with the brand.
Andrew (03:02):
Is there anything else I should be thinking about that might actually help me sell tees?
Kevin (03:06):
Yeah, I think this is the time to start turning your attention to other avenues to get that organic content working for you. Things like influencers can push your impact a lot further.
Andrew (03:18):
Okay, good call. That’s definitely something I’m looking at. What makes a good influencer campaign?
Kevin (03:23):
It’s important when you’re looking at influencers to consider whether they align with the audiences that you’re targeting. Do they also match the reach that you want to gain?
Andrew (03:31):
What about promo codes? Do they work, or can I ignore them?
Kevin (03:36):
It’s important to have some way of tracking your influencer impact, so whether that’s promo codes or even just a simple URL that’s specific to that influencer so that you can track the amount of traffic and sales that come off of a particular influencer.
Andrew (03:49):
Okay, perfect. Looks like I’m pretty set on organic content then. Thank you for that.
Andrew (03:53):
Let’s look at paid advertising. I’m really keen to start kicking off a bit of paid advertising. What ad units would be the most successful on Facebook and Instagram at the moment?
Kevin (04:02):
Generally those ad types that perform best on Facebook and Instagram are those that have been released the latest. Things like video content perform particularly well right now, as well as things like carousel.
Kevin (04:12):
In your case, when you’re selling shirts, if there’s a number of different products, things like carousel will perform really well. But it’s important when they’re first contacting your brand to have something like video so they can learn a bit more about the brand.
Andrew (04:24):
Okay, excellent. When it comes to Facebook advertising or Instagram advertising, is there anything else that’s really important that I should include?
Kevin (04:33):
Yes. When you’re looking at the creatives that you’re using, so that’s the images or videos that you’re using, it’s important to show that your brand is clearly seen on each and every image or video.
Andrew (04:44):
What are the most important things then to include in these ads?
Kevin (04:46):
It’s important to include your brand front and center in every image and video asset you use. Additionally, you should include all products or services that you want the audience to see.
Andrew (04:56):
I guess million-dollar question, literally, how much budget should I start with?
Kevin (05:01):
That’s a question that every small business starting on paid ads always ask. It’s important to tailor that to the budget that you have available through your other channels, and that you’re willing to invest into those paid channels.
Kevin (05:14):
Having said that, for most small businesses, a budget of couple of thousand dollars a month is probably sufficient to test.
Andrew (05:21):
Okay, excellent. It looks like I need to get my budget planned out. What do I need to know about targeting to make sure it’s really effective?
Kevin (05:28):
Targeting is so important in launching paid ads. It’s important to try and narrow that targeting as quickly as possible to your ideal audience and those that will convert.
Kevin (05:38):
When you look at targeting, you should try and think about what your audiences will be interested in, apart from your products, and then try and test as many as possible. At the beginning, you want to set a fairly low budget for each audience, see how it runs over a period of three to five days. And if it’s performing, then you can start to scale from there.
Andrew (05:57):
Is that what you mean when you talk about optimizing a campaign?
Kevin (06:01):
Exactly. When you’re optimizing a campaign, the two things that you’re really optimizing to is the best performing audiences and the best performing creatives.
Andrew (06:10):
Okay, great. Thanks for that. It’s something I think I’m going to need a bit of help on.
Andrew (06:15):
Lastly, can I also talk about technology? I’ve got a marketing stack that really just consists of Facebook remarketing pixel at the moment. What else should I look at?
Kevin (06:26):
Audiences are the right place to start. When you have your remarketing pixel set up, you can then start to build audiences off the back of it. Things like existing remarketing audiences, as well as lookalike audiences, effectively, those that look like your remarketing audiences.
Andrew (06:42):
So the algorithm will find people for me who are likely to spend money with me?
Kevin (06:47):
Exactly. The better audiences you put into the algorithm, the better it will perform in finding those that will buy from you.
Andrew (06:53):
Just before you leave, though, is there anything else, are there any other technologies I need to look at? I know that I don’t have Facebook shop set up at the moment. Is there anything else along those lines I should look at?
Kevin (07:05):
Yes, definitely set up Facebook shop and the ads that you have in there, as well as the feed of all your products. This will help you set up Facebook and Instagram shopping ads.
Andrew (07:15):
Okay, excellent. It sounds like a lot of work, so I’m definitely going to enlist your help if that’s cool.
Kevin (07:21):
Definitely.
Andrew (07:21):
Groovy.
Andrew (07:23):
Thanks so much for joining this episode of Small Business Stories. Join me next time as we hopefully start to see some results from this campaign, and I start to optimize with Kevin sitting by my side. Cheers.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Metigy.
or download the PDF here
