June 1, 2021 - Eden Ads

Boosting Posts on Facebook: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Spicy Nugget: Boosting Facebook Posts?

“Boosting posts on Facebook? Don’t do it.”
-Adam A. Sene, CEO

Is it worth anything boosting your Facebook posts? If you’re a scanner and you just want to get the gist and get on with your day, here’s what you need to know:

The Good: Boosting is convenient and easy especially for those who aren’t particularly Facebook marketing savvy. It’s a pretty affordable self-service option to get more eyeballs and some more engagement on something you’ve posted from your page.

(If you’re reading this and are thinking, “Yeah! That sounds like me!” please just stop reading here and contact us immediately.)

The Bad: You get what you pay for in marketing, and boosting posts on Facebook doesn’t result in any real, measurable business objectives (like sales, conversions or clicks to your website).

The Ugly: Boosting posts is not an advertising strategy. If you really want your advertising dollars to go far, Facebook post boosting will be a total waste.

In a Nutshell: If Likes and Comments are valuable to you, go for it. Wait—no, don’t go for it! Call us instead! We’ll get you those things and MORE with the budget you have. Expert use of Facebook’s Ads Manager tool offers way more customization than boosting posts, so you get the engagement and visibility you crave while ALSO getting sales, conversion, and traffic to your site by people who have a strong intent to purchase or, at the very least, a likelihood of being interested in your product.

If you’re a reader and you want to know more, let’s dig deeper into questions surrounding whether boosting posts on Facebook is worth it—starting with what it actually does.

So, What Does “Boosting Posts” on Facebook Actually Do?

If you have a Facebook page for your business, you’ll see the “Boost Post” button available to you as the page’s manager on every single post you do. At the time of this writing, when you click that button you are met with 3 options for choosing a “Goal” in setting up your boosted post:

To allow Facebook to choose the goal for you based on your page activity and settings,
Get more engagement (reactions, comments and shares), or
Get more messages.

You set the budget and how many days you’d like to boost that post for. You can even choose a few basic targeting parameters and voila! Hit publish, and you’re done.

After doing this, you’re likely to see more:

Comments
Post reactions
Post shares
Page follows

And you’re likely to see fewer:

Website visits
Product sales
Signups, downloads or conversions

While you might get increased site traffic or a couple extra sales or sign-ups as a byproduct of boosting, it’s important to note that this is not really the primary goal of Facebook post boosting.

Boosting Posts vs Running Ads on Facebook

The purpose of boosting posts is to increase a few vanity metrics for your brand—i.e. the ones that make you look good (like impressions, likes, comments, etc.) but which do not really allow you to make future decisions about your business or help your business to grow in any real, measurable way.

Further, it’s vital to note that the way Facebook will successfully execute a boosted post is to optimize itself by showing it to people who have a higher likelihood to like/comment/react over their likelihood to click a link. And remember, just because someone is commenting doesn’t mean they’re likely to be a good fit for your business. It could be a troll, your mom or just someone who is super active on Facebook.

Using the Ads Manager, your content can be targeted in a 1,000 different ways that actually spark brand growth (and, thus, your vanity metrics), sales, conversions and subscribers, AND give you measurable insights you can act on as a business owner.

Should I Boost Posts AND Advertise with Facebook Business?

If you’re still here, the last section may have led you to this question—would it make sense to do both, Facebook ads and post boosting? It’s a fair question. Short answer: Maybe!

As a strategy, doing both may make sense if you…

Have it in your budget to focus on boosting posts while you run ads
Boost a post that really aligns with your overall business and marketing strategy
Share some content that is super valuable for your community to specifically see and engagement (such as news or an important update)
Just want to get more out of the organic content you’re sharing, and already get a ton of sales through other marketing strategy on and offline.
Don’t care about sales, conversions, website traffic or any other measurable business and marketing objectives.

But EVEN IF those things are true, save yourself some money! Optimize your marketing strategy by chatting with a Marketing Consultant, outlining your goals and discussing what the best options would be to get you where you want to be.

You Guys Just Want Me to Run Ads ‘Cause You’re an Advertising Agency, Right?

Nah, not our style. Of course we’d love for you to become our client, but the potential within Facebook advertising is just too great for you not to at least become aware of it before making the decision to boost posts. The Ads Manager tool within the Facebook Business platform is a beast in the hands of an expert.

Facebook Advertising is an unprecedented opportunity for business owners. With a community just shy of 2 million users that you can target content, sales and ads to based on age, gender, location, relationship status, past purchase behavior, past web searches, engagement with other similar brands, and so on, and so on, and so on…

That’s something you just can’t do with post boosting.

Is There Ever a Case Where Boosting Would Make Sense?

Well, no, but sure! It’s:

Good for testing
Perhaps a good option for lower budget situations
Good for those who “just don’t have time” to work out a deeper marketing strategy but want to keep wheels turning a little bit

Boosting Posts on Facebook: The Short Story

It’s easy to boost posts on Facebook. It’s right there! It’s built to be a convenient self-service promotion opportunity, and it really is so easy your 12-year-old could do it for you. But you’ll always get what you pay for in marketing, and this is no exception.

There are far, far more in-depth advertising options available in the Business.Facebook.com platform that actually enable real business objectives to be achieved (i.e.: views, conversions, sales, newsletter signups, site traffic, etc.) that Facebook Post Boosting gives you none of.

Feel like talking with a real human about your marketing goals? We’re here! Let’s do this.

In digital marketing, Facebook Ads, Google Ads

WTH Are Ad Impressions, and Who Cares?

Spicy Nugget: Ad impressions – Use & limitations

“If your digital marketing agency is leading with ad impressions as their number one metric for your campaign’s success, run. As fast as you can. What this statistic tells you is how many times your ad was on the screen of a user/potential buyer. It shows that your ad is going out and saturating, hopefully multiple times over, your target audience.

“What it does NOT tell you is whether that user even noticed the ad, did anything with it, or if that user is even the right person to be targeting. We don’t use this metrics to determine an account’s success, but rather to diagnose the source of potential problems.

“Our advertising nerds—ahem, I mean experts—will compare Impressions to other metrics but never as a standalone measure of success. If your agency is reporting Impressions to you as a “results” metric, then you might have an expensive problem to fix.”

-Adam A. Sene, CEO

What are impressions, and who cares?

Impressions are, to quote Facebook exactly: “the number of times your ads were on a screen.” Google defines the word in much the same way, counting one impression each time your ad is shown on a Google search results page or as a display ad in the Google network. Since neither of those definitions really tell you anything about what impressions actually are, let’s dig in.

Ad impressions are a commonly monitored metric and usually make the “top 5 fave metrics” list for marketing pros. This is because they are the number one way to measure how many times your ads were exposed to your target audience, so obviously they matter to a certain extent.

How Are THEY Counted?

One impression is counted for each instance an ad appears on screen for the first time. The example Facebook gives is that if an ad appears on screen for a user, and then the user scrolls down and back up to the same ad, that counts as only 1 impression. If an ad appears on screen for someone 2 different times in a day, however, that would count as 2 impressions.

On Google, an impression is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or on another site in the Google Display network.

What’s the Difference Between Impressions and Reach?

Reach is defined as the number of people who were exposed to your ad campaign at least one time. Reach might seem super similar to impressions (because it is), but the main difference between the former and the latter is that impressions can include multiple views of the same ad by the same user.

Reach is essentially a PEOPLE metric, whereas impressions are VIEWS.

Get to the Point… Why Do AD Impressions Matter?

Impressions are a great metric for a number of reasons, not the least of which is brand awareness and recall-ability for your potential buyers. If you’re running a brand awareness campaign, this IS your key metric.

Have you ever seen an ad on Facebook or elsewhere for a brand or product you liked, and then when someone else mentioned that brand or product to you, you said, “Oh yeah, I know them… I saw them online somewhere”? Boom. Impressions.

Impressions are an awareness metric. They are eyeballs on your brand. This, loosely speaking, can translate to new clients, leads and more sales. Without impressions, you’re literally living in a cave where nobody sees you or knows about the amazing services you offer.

Impressions tell you that your ads are being seen by your target audience, but just on their own, they definitely don’t determine the success of your campaign. You have to keep one eye on Impressions while keeping another eye on each of your other metrics like Spend, Click-Through-Rate (CTR), your Leads, Cost Per Click and Cost Per Lead. (That’s at least 5 more eyes—yikes!)

A Lesson From Nerds: Ignore Data if You Like Wasting Money

A little known secret about ad experts is we’re actually complete nerds. You might think splashy creatives and amazing taglines are what get the job done, but we’re here to tell ya—it’s the numbers and the data. Our super nerds analyze, refine and optimize campaigns based on the data we gain from metrics, so that campaigns perform beyond our clients’ expectations. The honest truth is that our Design Team just does a heck of a job making math look sexy.

For example, if we see a campaign getting thousands of Impressions per day for months and months, yet CTR and Leads are still in the toilet, chances are the audience isn’t refined enough and you need to tighten things up.

Do I Need an Agency to Run My Ads on Facebook and Google?

Business owners hire professionals to handle ad campaigns because agencies have more eyeballs than business owners. Plain and simple.

Can you run your own ad campaigns? Of course you can! We even created this guide to getting Facebook Ads approved because we believe in you! But you’d better be prepared to lose some money along the way as you learn the ropes. Ads without precise optimization, targeting and data analysis can be quite a money pit.

Want some help? We’re here, and we give out free advice all the time. Reach out!

In digital marketing, organic content marketing

A Newbie’s Guide to Organic Content Marketing

Spicy Nugget: Content Marketing

“Whether you’re a small business owner or running a large corporation, organic content strategy is vital. Does it directly produce leads? Maybe. For the most part, content does NOT drive leads—it nurtures them.

-Adam A. Sene, CEO

Before you complain about how expensive or time consuming it is to maintain a social media presence or to have content written, consider this.

If you’re too laser-focused on the sales aspect of your business strategy, you’ll neglect to build a brand which will sustain the sales you’re trying to make. Having a strong website where relevant, high-quality content is housed is like having someone to answer the phone at your front desk.

If you run ads with a dated logo, a website built in 2008 and not even a little brand presence in the form of content to help nurture sales, it’s kind of the equivalent of having lunch lady Doris at your reception desk yelling at anyone who dare to call your business. You’ll just drive them away.

“I run ads, so no need for an organic content strategy, right?”

Wrong!

The Eden Ads blog isn’t called Spicy Nugget-ville for no reason. No kid gloves here, just marketing advice that cuts to the point. A well-developed organic content strategy is the stuff of which your brand is made, so let’s dive in.

What is Organic Content Marketing, and Who Cares?

In the world of digital marketing, the term “organic” just means it isn’t a sponsored (paid) advertisement of any kind. It may have cost you some money to create the graphic or have a writer create the blog or write the caption, but that’s beside the point.

Organic content is that which isn’t used in an ad campaign.

Good organic content strategy looks for opportunities to establish a voice, build trust, inspire confidence, share what amazing work you do and—best of all—to engage with your fans, followers and potential customers. If you aren’t posting organic content, you are in fact missing out on a vital building block of marketing.

The Purpose of Organic Content Strategy

If you aren’t creating organic content, you are further missing out on an opportunity to show your prospective customers how you’ll solve their problems.

The purpose of organic content, whether it’s a blog post, a simple social media caption or a billion dollar video is to:

Pose a problem, situation or experience, and
Position Brand ABC’s products or services as the solution to 1.

EXAMPLES:

This dietician does a great job highlighting the types of diet pitfalls people experience and then poses her custom diet plans as a solution. Ultimately, people who are struggling with their diet and who end up on this website need her help with their diet plans, and she knows that and plans her content around it.
Hubspot is somewhat known for covering topics surrounding digital marketing trends in their blog, and they’re pretty good at it. But it can be overwhelming, so many of their 29M visitors per month turn to them for the expertise they’re known for.
Stitch Fix is a personal style box service that also has a blog with fashion and styling tips. But for those who are overwhelmed at the idea of personal styling and following fashion trends, that box full of clothes that arrives on your doorstep sounds mighty good.

Maybe you’ve noticed that when you’re reading a good article, a few things happen.

First, you become interested in the article because it genuinely grabs your attention with a problem or situation that hits home for you.

Next, you start into the article, voraciously looking for solutions. “Hmm… Some good information here.”

And by the end of the article you’re thinking, “You know what? I’ll just hire these guys to do it for me.” (Or, “I’ll buy their product. They seem to really know what they’re talking about.”)

Therein is the entire purpose of organic content marketing.

People Are Stalkers

Social media and the internet in general is beloved by many for the fact that it affords us the ability to creep around and look at people/product makers/brands, without those people/product makers/brands knowing we’re doing so. (Well, that’s not entirely true… but that’s another topic for another day.)

When a potential client or customer finds your brand through an ad or bumps into you on Google, they will mostly likely engage with you first by doing a little lurking.

If their first impression is that you haven’t written a blog since 2017 or your last social media post was 8 months ago (or that you don’t have these assets in place at all), they might be a little off-put.

Organic content is THE place where your brand voice is born. It’s also where brand positioning takes place. If you sell vitamins, for example:

What type of customer do you want to attract?
How is your product superior to those concrete vitamin tablets you can buy at Walgreens?
How will you inspire your audience to become your customer for life?

These questions can be answered with organic content.

Content Marketing is Expensive

Well, kinda. You’ll get what you pay for. More importantly, how much does it cost you to NOT have organic content?

If your social feed is sparse or your blog is wildly outdated, the cost of not converting a lead once they arrive at your website or social media page is something you can’t afford—I guarantee it.

You can get thrifty by utilizing your staff to come up with some ideas for an organic content marketing strategy and you’ll save some money by doing this. But if you’re a business owner or a receptionist, you know how unworkable it can be to have the receptionist writing your blogs and doing social media posts for you.

Need help? We’re here for you. Our team of seasoned writers across all industries from science to lifestyle, personal care and medicine will write your web content, blog or even the next letter to your grandma. Connect with us online or give us a call at (813) 940-5699!

In digital marketing, Facebook Ads, Getting Facebook Ads Approved

Your Complete Guide to Getting Disapproved Facebook Ads… Approved

Spicy Nugget: Disapproved Facebook Ads Can Get Approved… With Patient Tweaking

The process may lead you into a spiral of frustration and continued disapprovals. While banging on your keyboard might feel like a fantastic outlet for said rage, we don’t recommend it.

-Adam A. Sene, CEO

True story

Recently we set up Facebook ads for a client who sold protein powder. The ad set was disapproved for being “inappropriate,” and when we looked into this it became clear Facebook disapproved the ads because they thought we were selling er,… adult toys.

That’s right, sex toys.

How Facebook thought a canister of PROTEIN POWDER was a sex toy, we have no idea (bots, anyone?) — but this is merely one example in a sea of thousands of situations we’ve seen.

Ads for soaps, hand creams, coffee beans, wellness treatments and even t-shirts were rejected by Facebook advertising team (bots? AI? humans? cyborgs?) for being inappropriate, explicit or flat-out something that “will make others feel bad.” Yes, Facebook cares for your feelings.

Half the time, Eden Ads is hired to handle disapproved Facebook ads for clients who are simply too frustrated to deal with Facebook constantly disapproving sponsored content.

So, you’re not alone, O Frustrated Facebook User. It happens to the best of us.

Just recently we loaded a hand cream ad which was rejected for being “too controversial.” (Ummmh…) But fear not! We have a few tricks up our sleeves we’re happy to share in the hopes that you’re able to get your ad campaigns off and running.

Disapproved Facebook ads: initial Steps for Overturning the No

If your ad isn’t approved, as a first step take an honest look at your ad content—both the visual and the copy. If your ad contains adult content, promotes any kind of violence, nudity, illegal activity, misleading claims or sensationalism it is likely to be flagged and disapproved. We don’t love or agree with all of Facebook’s advertising policies, but you can read them in full here.

Up until September 2020, if your ad graphic contained too much text, it could be disapproved. The tool proposed by Facebok to measure the % of text coverage had been widely criticized for years in the advertising community, on the ground of both advertising fundamentals and pure testing proving Facebook wrong. Facebook finally listened, and gave new advisory guidelines to advertisers. It’s helpful to read them.

Finally, check that your URLs are correct and that your landing page(s), website and link pathways are all functional.

If you move through these troubleshooting steps and still have trouble getting your Facebook ads approved after appealing the decision, read on.

Getting Facebook Ads Approved… WTH Adam, help me out here!

Getting disapproved Facebook ads approved is an art and a science. It’s also a real pain in the butt. Sometimes making a simple change to the ad creative and appealing to Facebook’s bots—I mean, ahem, customer service team—does the trick.

But sometimes, this process just leads you into a spiral of frustration, rage and continued disapprovals. While screaming and banging on your keyboard might feel like a fantastic outlet for said rage, we don’t recommend it.

Instead, try the following (see pictures for illustration).

In the bottom right-hand corner of your Facebook Business Manager platform, click on the Help Desk link.
Then, at the bottom click to “Get Started” with Support.
Select “Policy & Account Security” as your support topic.
Then shout, “Expecto patronum!” (Ok, this step is optional.)
On the next screen, click “Chat with a Representative” and fill out your personal information.
The customer service rep may ask you for the ad ID’s for the specific ads in question. You can provide these preemptively before the chat to save time, or during. To get the Ad ID #’s, return to Ads Manager in a separate tab and add “Ad ID” as a column by using the Customize Columns option.
Select, by Ad ID, the ad account which you’re experiencing the chronic disapprovals, check a few more of their info boxes and voila… “Start Chat.”

We recommend starting the chat polite by being polite, hoping that FB just woke up on the right side of the bed and made a mistake.
Be clear in your description of what the problem is, e.g.: “My ad was disapproved for violating _____ policy, but there is no mention of _____ anywhere in the text, image or on the website. I tried appealing, but it was rejected and it doesn’t appear that anyone actually reviewed my case.”
It isn’t uncommon for these live chat reps to play dumb or act like they can’t do anything. In this case, it may help to take a sterner tone of voice and express some degree of disappointment that your representative is useless

If through this course of action you find your ads STILL are not approved, we’re sorry to say you’ll have to delete the campaign and start from scratch.

O Facebook, Why Are Thou So Difficult?

Sometimes Facebook can be a real doozy to work with, but we put up with it because it’s an otherwise fantastic advertising platform that allows seriously precise targeting based on audience behavior that exists literally nowhere else on the internet.

If you’re struggling with disapproved Facebook ads and want some help with campaigns that will literally blow your mind with the return on ad spend (ROAS), or even if you just want some free advice from our expert team, we’re happy to chat with you. Give us a call at (813) 940-5699 or send us a message here.

Monthly Archives: June 2021