Almost all Facebook advertisers are making this one big mistake: too many campaigns, too many ad sets and too many ads. But don’t worry, our hosts are breaking down a bunch of new updates that Facebook and Instagram have rolled out over the past month.
Ralph and Molly explain two of “the Power 5” taken from a study Facebook did with its largest direct response advertisers. They also explain the customer satisfaction score, the 3 new metrics that are replacing relevance score by April 30th, how many ads a marketer should be running at one time, and how to use the Facebook split testing tool.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
“The Power5”—the 5 Facebook strategies that marketing disruptors are using to scale their ad campaigns
Why optimizing ads for placement changes how ads perform and what dimensions to use to optimize for best placement performance
How to use ad relevance diagnostics to improve ad performance
How to improve customer feedback to avoid spending more on ads than you need to
You know the story… you’ve split tested, reworked, and tweaked your paid ads and still have nothing to show for it.
We’ve all been there.
But one thing we often forget about when we’re testing campaigns is our ad scent.
I’m not talking about scratch-and-sniff stickers here; I’m talking about the trail a customer follows, starting with a paid ad and leading to your website, all with the goal of taking them through the customer journey.
Marketing That Stinks
One of the most frustrating experiences as a consumer is when you click on a link and you’re thrown off the scent because the link you clicked sent you to a seemingly—or completely—unrelated page.
Stinks, doesn’t it?
Well, it doesn’t convert well either. The “scent” from what was promised to what is delivered is so incongruent that virtually every visitor will bounce immediately.
Let’s be honest, though, nearly every “path” on the web could stand to improve its ad scent.
But What Even is Ad Scent?
Ad scent is the consistency between an ad and the landing page it sends you to.
When done right, there should be a seamless transition from ad to landing page. If there is any friction, you run the risk of the customer dropping out of the process.
Take this Stitch Fix ad as an example, which shows jeans, specifically “the best-fitting jeans.”
This ad sends you to this landing page, all about “your new favorite jeans.” They even maintain the “50+ brands” messaging.
The landing page feels and looks just like the ad, and customers get exactly what they clicked to find: jeans.
The key to getting ad scent right is to understand the importance of maintaining the scent for these 3 major elements:
Design/Imagery
Benefits
Offer
Design/Imagery Scent
Design is one of the most important aspects of ad scent because without cohesive imagery from an ad to your site, it’s easy to confuse someone. And as a consumer, you need to know you’re taking the right steps to find your desired end result.
Consider keeping the following elements in your design consistent along your path:
Here’s a path from Parachute with good design scent. This is a Facebook ad leading to a landing page.
Right off the bat, Parachute drives you to a blog post on the same topic as the ad. They also used the same image as in the ad, so you know that you’re in the right place.
They also keep a consistent color scheme throughout the blog—the gold color transfers from the headline down through the color of the links within the text, giving you a consistent scent throughout your entire experience.
A good example of a benefit scent is a car salesman.
Before I lose you… hear me out.
A good car salesman will listen very carefully to what you say. He’ll study your body language. He’ll try to find out if you’re more interested in horsepower or gas mileage. Luxury or economy? GPS, 4-wheel drive, satellite radio?
Then he’ll craft his pitch around the benefits you care about.
Your ads serve the same purpose. A click on an ad is an indication of interest in that thing, and the ensuing pitch should be consistent with the benefits from that ad.
Below you’ll find a Facebook sidebar ad where Framebridge is advertising a bamboo frame for your wedding day pictures:
But when you click:
Wait… what?
There’re no bamboo frames on the landing page, and not even anything remotely close to a wedding day photo (aside from the fact that the woman in the photo is wearing white).
Sorry, Framebridge, but this is a poor attempt at a benefit, and, quite frankly, the ad scent is off.
While the ad looks good and the landing page looks good, there’s no sense of continuity between the two. It would (obviously) make more sense to be sent to a landing page that is selling the bamboo frame or a variety of selections popular for wedding photos.
But with neither of those provided, you’re just left with an offer for custom framing, which would probably throw you off the scent based on why you originally clicked.
Offer Scent
It’s surprising how often marketers get this wrong.
If you make an offer in an ad, maintain the scent of that offer from the ad to the landing page. Otherwise, it’s bye-bye traffic.
The easiest way to do this is to use the same language from ad to landing page headline. But it can be done in a subtler manner.
In this PPC ad for the Nomatic Laptop Bag, we find that the same language is used on Google and the video on the landing page. This is a particularly good use of ad scent because you’re enticed to click the video and consume the content immediately to follow the scent.
The bullet points on the landing page even describe what is in the description of the ad, which is helpful to drive home the point that you’ve found exactly what you’ve been looking for.
When using the query “hair products,” however, you’ll find that it’s easy to get lost.
What I’m looking for by clicking on the above ad is a product that will create is voluminous hair, right?
I’m thinking some serious Farrah Fawcett hair.
Except, when you click the ad, you get this:
What do dry shampoo products have to do with the ad above?
One of the most important things you need to think about when selling a product is expectation vs. reality. What would someone expect to see vs. what you are actually selling… if there’s a discrepancy, you probably need to fix either the design, benefit, or offer of your ads.
Overall, sometimes you need to stop and smell the ads (that’s the cliché, right?). If something smells a little off, use the tactics above to start to increase conversion rates and get everything flowery fresh once again.
AMP itself isn't a factor in SEO but speed is, so in theory is does affect it indirectly. AMP creates speed, speed increases SEO. [ 0 ] Thank this user ...
I don't think they have a blanket ban on affiliate offers, but does anyone have more details on which sorts of offers they'll accept? Like are physical ...
How has online business and selling changed in the last twenty years? How can we as entrepreneurs move and change with the times to keep staying profitable, inspired and current?
Are there any rules that have stayed the same during this period?
Our topic for today centers around the world of online sales and the way in which they have and continue to evolve. The internet has sped up the development of the way traditional sales have functioned and this increasing speed is exponential!
In this episode, we break down a special guest’s particular journey, successes and misadventures, selling products on eBay and Amazon. We discuss early ideas and items, low risk moves and how they managed to scale their business slowly over time.
Today on the show we are joined by Quin Amorim, who started selling items on eBay in the late ’90s and arguably invented an early form of the now omnipresent drop shipping model. Quim has managed to build a hugely successful business and career for himself all from the early desire to make a bit more cash to spend partying!
We also talk about pocket rockets, wooden statues, quantities for packaging, becoming more organized and the importance of listening for feedback from audiences and friends. The episode really drums home the message of catching and riding different waves as they arrive and how your enthusiasm for building a brand can take you a long way.
For all of this and more, join the Fizzle team today!
Listen to the episode:
Subscribe to The Fizzle Show in your favorite podcast player:
How does a company overcome innovation stagnation to bring a new product to the marketplace? Alain Sylvain is the Founder of Sylvain Labs which is an innovation and brand design consultancy. Companies are able to outsource their innovation issues to Sylvain Labs where they help businesses to identify unmet consumer needs and in turn, create new products to meet those needs.
Alain Sylvain is the Founder of Sylvain Labs which is an innovation and brand design consultancy.
Sponsored by
Toptal – If you’re having trouble finding developers, Toptal is a network of elite pre-vetted software developers. You tell Toptal what you’re looking for, they search their network for the best people, they test the candidates, and then they present you with only the candidates who meet your individual needs. Once you pick someone you can start work with them the next day. They offer a no-risk trial period. Go to Toptal.com. Get the best of the best right now.
The James Altucher Show – James Altucher has started and ran more than 20 companies and is currently an investor in and advisor to over 30, but at one point, James lost everything. In a matter of months, his account drained from $15 million to $143. Depressed and on the floor, James realized the only way to be truly successful and fulfilled is to “choose yourself.” Now, James Altucher is a bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, angel investor, chess master, & host of The James Altucher Show podcast. Text ANDREW to 50445 to receive James Altucher’s free Ultimate Guide to Self-Publishing
So most I've had on a daily basis is maybe 30 views/sessions, I use shopify and I sell a variety of items, not necessarily a niche store. I was using it to ...
Hal Elrod shares his amazing story of not one but two near-death experiences, and how they helped him develop the philosophy behind his book, The Miracle Equation. His passion and insight are truly contagious, so take a listen.
In the first of the Smart Work Report series, COO/CFO Matthew Gartland shares how he works, his favorite business tools, and the transformation of Team SPI.
How do you react when you are told you can’t do something? Do you rise to the occasion and prove the haters wrong or pack up your toys and go home? Francesca Roveda is Co-Founder of SixthContinent which is an e-commerce platform. Francesca was told she couldn’t break into the male-dominated finance industry so she set out to prove she could and SixthContinent was born to give people more purchasing power.
Francesca Roveda is Co-Founder of SixthContinent which is an e-commerce platform.
Sponsored by
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit http://bit.ly/2BX3ZX2 to see what HostGator can do for your website.
Toptal – If you’re having trouble finding developers, Toptal is a network of elite pre-vetted software developers. You tell Toptal what you’re looking for, they search their network for the best people, they test the candidates, and then they present you with only the candidates who meet your individual needs. Once you pick someone you can start work with them the next day. They offer a no-risk trial period. Go to Toptal.com. Get the best of the best right now.
Stay up-to-date with the best Internet Marketing Content, Copywriting Growth Hacking, Digital Marketing Product and a lot more! Warrior Forum is the ...
We are so confident that you will make sales with the website we build that if you don't, we will grant you a full refund.If you prove you did everything ...
When is the last time you took your business to the chiropractor?
Brad Martineau, CEO of SixthDivision, visited the DigitalMarketer office to remind the DM Certified Partners that they been forgetting to give their business the TLC it needs. Part of that TLC is going to the “chiropractor” and getting your agency’s backbone aligned.
What does that mean?
Brad explains that each agency has a core backbone and its alignment is a crucial step to growing your business and succeeding with the goals you set when you started your own agency.
If somewhere down the entrepreneurial journey your business turned from a nice idea into a terrifying demon, watch this training.
And if you don’t have time to sit down and watch the whole thing, don’t worry. We’ve outlined the main ideas down below.
Here are the 4 ways to align your agency’s business purpose so you can reach your goals, showcase your value, choose your products, and make a profit.
#1: What’s the Return?
Why do you have your agency? What are you getting from it?
The easy answer is to make money; but this is where agency owners mess up and their nice idea starts to transform into something ugly. There are 3 aspects of return that will align your agency’s spine.
Aspect #1: Money
What is the amount of money you need to take home in order to survive?
This doesn’t mean your gross revenue. This means how much money, post-tax, you need coming your way in order to put food on the table and keep your business afloat.
Defining this number is crucial in understanding how you’re going to achieve it. As Brad highlights in his presentation, if your business doesn’t work in an Excel spreadsheet, it won’t work in the real world.
Aspect #2: Time
How much time do you want to spend working?
This ideal work schedule is never going to be stagnant.
In the first months, and potentially years, of your agency, you’re going to spend a lot of time working—but the goal is to move toward your weekly work goal.
For example, your ideal work schedule may be 9:30am to 4pm Monday through Friday, with a hard no on working weekends. Or, your ideal work schedule is working ten hours a week maximum.
This ideal work schedule is never going to be stagnant. If you’re already an agency owner, you know there are ebbs and flows. Some months you can leave the office by 5pm and then other months you’re eating late-night dinners at your desk trying to fix every problem coming your way.
The goal is to know what work schedule you want and push toward it on a regular basis.
Aspect #3: Peace of Mind
What gives you peace of mind?
This is the architecture of your company and the return you’re scaling toward. Your agency doesn’t have to become an 8-figure agency. It can be a $250,000 a year agency that makes you happier than trying to run a massive organization.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Do you want to be the CEO?
Do you want to be a technician who builds a team around themselves?
Is this a massive agency?
Is this a small agency?
(NOTE: Want even MORE info about how to grow your agency? Reserve your spot in this FREE online training to learn about the tools and strategies you have been missing out on.)
#2: What’s the Business Purpose?
How does your agency serve other people, what transformation does it give them, and what trigger motivates them to work with you?
When we ask what the purpose of our agency is, there are a lot (A LOT!) of pitfalls to avoid. That’s why defining 3 purposes, not just 1, is necessary.
Purpose #1: The Bigger Picture
This is the purpose that a beauty pageant contestant would give to the judges when asked what they want to do to change the world. Your answer doesn’t have to be “Create world peace,” but it’s allowed to be an answer that gives you the warm fuzzies and reminds you of the good you’re doing.
Purpose #2: The Right Now Purpose
The right now purpose is the down-to-earth purpose that anchors you to the work you’re doing today. Right now—who are you serving and what is the transformation you are giving them? This purpose accumulated over time is what creates the bigger picture purpose.
Purpose #3: The “Could Be” Purpose
This is the growth purpose. The “could be” purpose is positioned for the question, “What could this turn into?” This business purpose isn’t associated with anything you’re doing right now, but what you could do in the future to have more impact and/or make more money.
These 3 purposes give you buckets you can organize your business into. Everything that you do and every idea you have should be able to be placed into one of the buckets. Every idea that lands in the “could be” purpose bucket stays there until the opportunity comes for it to be transferred into the Right Now Purpose bucket.
TIP: Don’t change your right now business purpose more than once a year
Everything that you do and every idea you have should be able to be placed into one of the buckets.
Quarterly, ask your team and yourself:
Do we need to adjust our right now purpose?
Do we want to modify what our big picture business purpose is?
Are there any “could be’s” that we want to bring in?
Is there anything we should cut out?
To really make a statement about your agency’s purpose, also ask yourself:
Who do I not serve?
What’s the transformation I’m not trying to create?
What are the triggers I don’t want to have anything to do with?
#3: What’s Your Product Menu?
What products do you have for purchase?
Taco Bell has a brilliant system as its product menu. When you see their menu, you’ll see over 10 options of different items to get. Now, really look at what they’re serving—tortilla, beans, cheese, meat, and lettuce served in different ways.
That’s what you want your product menu to look like too.
Your agency can create different offerings that use the same services. When you start to offer services that have different fulfillment requirements, you bring in new ingredients and start to make your life more difficult.
If you’re in the services business, abide by this ratio:
The number of team members divided by the number of products or services needs to be more than one.
If this isn’t the case, you’ll run into a problem. You won’t be able to predict deliverability and create profitability without team members being able to focus on each product offering.
#4: What is the Purpose of Each Product?
For the last alignment, we’re going back to #3: Purpose—but instead of asking the purpose of your agency we’re asking what the purpose of each product is.
Each product should be designed for a specific person, deliver a specific transformation, and have a certain trigger that makes people want to buy it.
Each product should be designed for a specific person, deliver a specific transformation, and have a certain trigger that makes people want to buy it.
On the backend, each product needs to have a team that stands by and upgrades, markets, and supports it.
For example, a digital course needs somebody to support it to makes sure it’s always accessible and up to date. Once you know you need this person, you can figure out what resources you need in order to have that product on your menu.
Now you can define the resources necessary to keep it on your product menu.
Do you have the resources?
If not, how much is it going to cost to get them?
How many units do you need to sell to make it profitable?
After your agency’s chiropractor appointment, you can start to have marketing conversations about lead magnets and marketing automation.
When is the last time you aligned your agency’s spine?
(NOTE: Want even MORE info about how to grow your agency? Reserve your spot in this FREE online training to learn about the tools and strategies you have been missing out on.)
This week we’re talking about the strategy disrupting the marketing world right now: conversational marketing.
People don’t want to be sold to, they want to have conversations—they want their product questions answered, they want to know where to find information on a website, and they want all of it now. Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift, joins us to explain how to use conversational marketing to talk with your customers and create a movement around your brand.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
Why conversational marketing is such a big deal in 2019
How conversational marketing became a norm in the marketing world by branding it to create a movement
How Drift creates content that doesn’t sell their products but showcases their expertise
How Dave uses LinkedIn to market Drift—including giving people rides to the airport
This post is based onepisode 146 of the ProBlogger podcast.
Before you start writing your sales page, promotional blog post, tweets or Facebook updates to sell something, you need to do something else.
You need to listen.
I first came across this advice many years ago, and since then I’ve heard from numerous people. Robert Bruce breaks it down very well in his Copyblogger post How to Become a Truly Great Copywriter, where he writes about three core ways you need to listen.
It’s a short post, with three key paragraphs I want to dig into here.
#1: Listen to the Product’s Creator
Robert writes:
Listen to the creator of the product you’re selling. Let her talk (for hours if necessary) about what makes it work, why she built it, what she hopes it will do for her customers. This practice alone can give you the bulk of your copy.
Maybe someone on your team created a product or service your business sells. Maybe you’re selling an ebook that someone else wrote. (All our Digital Photography School ebooks and courses have been created in partnership with someone else.)
Even if you created the product yourself, you might find it helpful to run through some of these questions:
Why do you want to create this product? Who’s it for? (Or if it has already created, who did you have in mind when you created it?)
What are the benefits of the product? How do you use it? What makes it work? What’s the product’s ‘secret sauce’? What problem does it solve?
Do you have any or worries about how your product will be perceived? What are they? (This is really useful information, as it lets you know the limitations of the product, or how it could potentially be misunderstood.)
Are there any similar products out there? How is your product different?
Over at Digital Photography School we ask a lot of these questions before the product is created. The author or creator gives us a description or outline of the product and tells us who it’s for. This helps us decide whether the product will be a good fit for our audience, and how to market it.
Here’s a simple example. When we launched Mike Newton’s Adobe Lightroom course, we noticed that Mike kept using the words “mastering Lightroom” when explaining the course to us. He wanted to help people master Lightroom.
We liked that, and decided to call the course Lightroom Mastery. We used the word “mastering” quite a bit in the sales copy.
That’s just one example of how an author’s language helped shape the sales material.
This can also work if you’re doing an affiliate promotion. Ideally you’d talk to the product creator. But if you can’t then look at the sales copy they use, the blog posts they’ve written about their product, and interviews they’ve done with other bloggers.
#2: Listen to Your Audience
Robert writes:
Listen to your audience. What are they telling you — directly or indirectly — about what they really want and need? If social media has given us anything, it’s an unprecedented ability to hear the demands and desires of real people, in real time.
I love this idea of listening to your audience when it comes to sales copy. This is something you want to do before you even start creating products. That way, you know your readers’ needs and challenges, and get an insight into the language they use.
When you’re writing sales copy, ask yourself some of these questions:
Who is the audience? Who will buy this product?
What are their pain points? What are their challenges? What are their problems? How do they express these – what language do they use?
What do they hope to gain? What are the dreams they hope could come true by using your product, or a product like yours? Again, what language do they use to describe these?
What are their fears? What questions do they have about your product, and what objections do they raise? (These may come out after you’ve launched your product. If they do you can edit your sales page, perhaps by adding Frequently Asked Questions section.)
You can also ask your readers about their challenges directly. When we were launching the Lightroom cause, I asked on the Digital Photograph School Facebook page, “What are your frustrations and challenges with Lightroom?”
Two themes came out strongly:
people had bought the software, but felt overwhelmed by it and weren’t using it
people had so many photos they didn’t have time to process them.
And so we weaved these two themes into our sales copy.
#3: Listen to Your Competitors
Robert writes:
Listen to your competitors. It’s wise to have a view of the entire field. What’s working in your market? What’s not working? What can you learn from others’ success and failure (and from the language that got them there)?
On Digital Photography School we often create products with people who are actually our competitors. The Lightroom course I’ve been referring to was created by Mike Newton, who sells similar products to ours on his own site. He came onto our radar when we were looking for affiliate products to promote, and we learned a lot by looking at how he was selling his products.
Knowing what other people are selling and how they’re selling it can really shape what you do. Maybe the way they do their sales pages, their launch emails, or even their social media will inspire you.
If you’re selling something at the moment, or if you’re about to create your first product, do this listening exercise.
Listen to whoever created the product, whether it was you or someone else.
Listen to your audience and understand the language they use – this should be the basis for your sales copy.
Listen to your competitors and collaborators, too.
That way you’ll be creating a product your readers will love, and promoting it in a way that shows how it can help them.
Hal Elrod shares his amazing story of not one but two near-death experiences, and how they helped him develop the philosophy behind his book, The Miracle Equation. His passion and insight are truly contagious, so take a listen.
How does an entrepreneur overcome insecurities and complete failure to refocus and launch a successful company? Erik Bergman is the founder of Catena Media, which is a high-quality lead generation company. If February 2016, Catena Media went public on the Swedish stock exchange and is valued at $400M USD.
Erik Bergman is the founder of Catena Media, which is a high-quality lead generation company.
Sponsored by
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit http://bit.ly/2BX3ZX2 to see what HostGator can do for your website.
ActiveCampaign – Improve your marketing & sales processes by upgrading to an automated platform. Start sending follow-up that adapts to your customers’ behavior so you are sending the perfect message at the perfect time. You’ll have happier customers and higher conversions. See why over 150,000 marketers use ActiveCampaign to create intelligent marketing that gets better results.
If you’re with one of their confusing competitors and you want something new, you owe it to your business to check out ActiveCampaign.
