EP. 9: More impact, less effort. Amplify your organic content using Facebook Ads.
What’s this episode about?
Following last weeks episode where we talked about organic strategies to grow your business (quickly!), this week we’re looking at 3 ways you can use Ads to amplify all that effort and get the maximum impact!
PLUS I share details of my group programme for the first time and how I can help you master your marketing (and stop the overwhelm!).
Episode key takeaways:
Getting more engagement on your social media strategically (i.e. without boosting 😉)
How you can increase the amount of people on your email list using Ads
Why video views should be a campaign that everyone should be thinking about as a long-term strategy.
KEY LINKS:
Group Programme Waitlist: I want to join the waitlist!
Come say hello over on Instagram: The Social Pod
Join my email list and get the ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TARGETING PARENTS WITH YOUR FACEBOOK AD'S
Subscribe to the Growing Pains podcast
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Read the transcript:
NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.
Hello, and welcome to growing pains. The marketing podcast for parent and baby brands who want to grow and get more consistent sales, but without the overwhelm of feeling like you have to be online 24 7, I'm Sophie, your host, and a Facebook and Instagram ad strategist who specializes in parent and baby brands as well as a mom of two.
Join me each week as I alongside some wonderful guests, she had practical tips and advice about how you can use and combine marketing strategies to get more impact for your effort.
Sophie: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of growing pains. This week, we're talking all about how you can amplify your organic content. And basically have more impact with the effort that you're already putting in. And that's one of the fundamental things I talk about on the podcast and over my Instagram as well, is that Whaley. We don't have time to be creating loads of different content. And in all the marketing things, we really want to be doing [00:01:00] is creating some core content and then making sure as many people as possible can see it. Now this doesn't have to be really expensive. So the apps I'm talking about today,
You can run for as little as at two to three pounds a day. In an ideal world, it would be about five pounds a day, but it definitely can be less and you can just leave them taking over. They can grow your business, literally from the content. That you've already created.
So let's jump in last episode, we talked all about how to grow your audience quickly without using ads. Definitely go back and listen to that episode if you haven't already. But as a quick overview, we talked about things like collaborating with other businesses on gift guides or. Doing Insta lives, togethers. Or giving your customers or clients a taster of the kind of thing that you offer by running workshops or taster sessions.
So all of those things definitely take more of an effort than just creating a simple social media post. But I would say 99% of the time we'll have more impact. So from there, there's two things [00:02:00] really. First of all, if you're putting more effort into it, then you want to make sure that it has more long lasting impact. So you really want to be using whatever you created. However you're doing it, whatever kind of collaboration you're doing. Think about how you can use that over the long term. And I'm talking like weeks or months here.
And the flip side of that is if you haven't taken any of that action yet, that's fine. And you are creating your social media posts, wheels, videos then today, we're still gonna be able to cover things that you can do to amplify the impact of that as well. Using ads.
So we're going to wet three things today. We're going to talk about how you can get more engagement on your social media, how you can increase the map, people on your email list and why video views should be a campaign that everyone should be thinking about as more of a long-term strategy. So let's talk about getting more engagement on your social media. Now, this is a hot topic I know because you know, it's a bit depressing, isn't it? When you spend time, whether it's creating a social media post, a reel, or even, you know, going live with someone else. [00:03:00]
It's a bit depressing when you do that. And you know, you see your reach is like, 50 people. And he said, okay, great. You know, 50 people have seen that. Maybe you get a little bit of engagement. Sometimes it feels like the impact it has is not really worth the effort. Now we all know that consistency is key and builds over time, and we don't want to judge our success based on one single post.
However, if you've put like quite a key message or, you know, say you're launching a new product or you're launching a sale, or there's something that you really want your followers to see, or even just a connection piece that you really think will help your followers understand why you do what you do. It's really hard when you do that. And no one sees it and you think, oh God, what am I going to do now? Should I take it down? Should I do something again next week. So really this is where we can use ads. To really make sure that your followers see it, make sure new people say.
And we test what our audience responds to this isn't just a one-time thing where it will say, Okay, I'm going to put a bit of money behind this post because I want more people to stay up. This is something that, you know, [00:04:00] it's more of an ongoing test and learn kind of process.
So I'm going to talk you through a little bit of the logistics of this, because I know you, most of you will be thinking, oh, I could just boost a post. Right. So I've put a post out that it's not getting good traction and I really need it to I'll just boost it. Now there are some occasions when I would recommend boosting a post. Okay. However, that really, really limited.
The majority of time for the majority of people, you're going to be better off setting up an engagement campaign in Facebook ads manager. Now the reason I say this is because the boosting a post functionality is yes. It's very easy. Yes. It's relatively quick. Yes. Facebook will take your money or Instagram will take your money very quickly. It's all very simple.
And going into ads manager, setting up an engagement campaign. It can feel a bit if you're not used to, it can feel a bit overwhelming. It can feel a bit stressful. I can feel a bit like you don't know what you're doing.
So the big kind of advantage [00:05:00] of doing an ads manager is that you get data. And data really should be feeding your marketing strategy. So if you're not getting any data, which you don't, when you boost a post, you're really not understanding. How you can do better next time. So within ads manager, you set up an engagement campaign, you then choose your audience. So you can get really specific with your audience. You can pull in all different types of people and I'd really recommend.
Looking at both a warm audience and a cold audience. You'd have these in two separate ad sets. So they're two separate audiences. The reason why you'd actually promote your posts to your warm audience, which is people that are probably already following you on social or do on your email list. Maybe you've been on your website recently is because the likelihood is that and your small percentage of them will have even seen the post.
So if it's something that you think your warm audience will be interested in. So for example, if you're launching a new product or it's a sale, or it's a core message that you want your followers to know about then definitely use ads to get in front of them.
But also, we might want to use a cold audience because if [00:06:00] we're looking to grow our following as well, then we need new people having eyes on our content as well. So that's your two assets that you'd set up and then the actual ads themselves you would go in and there's a a dropdown quite high up on the ad creation screen that says create a post or use existing post. So you'd make sure that's on use existing post you then go on to select post.
And you can then choose from any of your posts that you've put up. Now there are some limits to this. You can't choose carousels. You can only choose single images. You also can't choose posts that have tagged products in them either. So you need to play around with it a little bit. Understand if you can't use the post, there'll be a little red triangle and it, and you can hold very ran. Facebook will tell you why you can't use it.
Then, what you want to be doing is having at least two ads on at the same time. So you can set your budget. To whatever you want it to be, but make sure there's two ads on it. And the reason for this is you want to be able to compare their performance and the sort of things you're going to be looking for are what are the click [00:07:00] through rates? So that's in the Facebook ads manager that CTR, and then in brackets link clicks.
So you want to know. You know how many people are actually clicking on the link. If that's what you're asking them to do, how many people are commenting, how many people are liking. You know, which of those two ads gets the best result. And then once you've got like the winner, turn off the other one and then pull another post through and then run another one up against it. And over time, you'll start to see that there's probably a bit of a trend
like maybe your audience really interested in a flat lays and they respond best to them. Maybe they're interested in pictures of you or maybe they prefer posts that are really short. And to the point, you start to see a bit of a pattern and that can help inform your ad strategy later on. So even if you're only running these at the moment, you're getting more eyes on your social media.
You're getting more engagement on your post. And you're kind of signaling to Facebook that your account is active and engaged. And if you then come to run ads for conversions later on, so to actually get sales [00:08:00] a you'll know what your audience responds to. B your already have a nice pool of warm people there to target.
So, those are really the big things about getting engagement on your social media and the things you need to think about. These are all things that I run through with my clients all the time. And if you, if I'm talking in what sounds like riddles and have no idea what I'm on about. I really, really like Booker call-in with me. You can have a week and have a 15 minute chat. And then if you want to kind of go ahead and I can help you set up the campaign. We could set up an engagement campaign in an hour. That is not a problem at all. We could do a power hour and get this sorted for you.
And then it's there. In the background, you'd know how to use it. You'd know how to pull posts in and you can just use that going forward. And my group program I'm launching in June as well. This will be something that's quite fundamental.
There's a whole section of the program that looks at audience growth and how you can do that organically and with ads and everything I've talked about and everything I talk about today will be [00:09:00] included in that as well. So if you're thinking you might want more of a longterm support, the group program is definitely one. You need to listen out to. I will put the link for the wait list in the show notes, and I will update it with a link to the program in future as well.
Once it goes live. Okay. Second thing. So you've created a lead magnet. Now a lead magnet might be a 10% off, especially if your e-comm that's quite common. It might be the gift guide that I suggested in the last episode. It might be that you want to use your workshop or taster session as a lead magnet, make it into something that's recorded and that people can access at any time.
Bye. You know, signing up to your email list. It could be that you collaborate with someone else you. You know, for alive and then you do a followup. You could do some kind of valuable content for your customers or a discount code for each other's customers. And then you could use that as a lead magnet as well.
So there's loads of different options for your lead magnet. If you've gone to the time and effort creating one, you really need to be getting people on your list. Right? So it's all very well. I see this really often people [00:10:00] create a lead magnet and they spend loads of time setting up the tech and everything.
But then if no, one's actually going to sign up to your list because you're not promoting it, or you're not getting enough people on your website to see the pop-up. Then there's kind of no point, right. So you need people on your list and you can use ads to do that. Now again, You would be looking at your warm audience.
To target people on your warm audience, but really importantly, you'd want to exclude your email subscribers on X because obviously they've already subscribed. So we don't really want them getting the ads because it is pointless paying for them. So we really want people, maybe who've been on your website and haven't signed up or on your social media and haven't signed up. So that's definitely one audience I'd look at. And again, I'd also look at the cold audience as well. You want new people on your email list?
You want to be growing your audience all the time, filling the top of that funnel with new people. So, yeah, but you could use ads. Now Facebook is transitioning over at the moment. So there's two different types of objective selection. Now on one, if you've got like the old style, which has like four [00:11:00] columns, you'd be looking at conversions for this. If you've got the new style, which is a list of about eight, then you'd be looking at leads for this.
And this one you would be setting up for optimizing that for people who are going to likely to give you their email address. And you're going to be setting up a landing page or direct to them, to your landing page. If you've already got one. Setting up your audiences, warm and cold.
And then in the ad, you're going to make sure you're really clear what they're going to gain. You're going to make sure you have the call to action as I either sign up, or I think there's a subscribe as well. So you probably want to test both of those as the buttons. And then I would use short and sweet copy. Keep it quite clear, quite simple, and make sure you call out exactly who you're talking to in the copy as well.
So, again, really great way of getting it. More people onto your email list is using ads for that.
And finally the third one I want to talk about today is video views. Now, if you've done any videos in the past, especially ones that I kind of designed to either offer value, warm your [00:12:00] audience up.
Make people aware of who you are brand-building that sort of thing. These are really great videos to have running on. Like again, two to three pounds a day. In the background. And they will literally be going out to ideal clients. These are great for building brand awareness. And they also, one of the key things here is that because people are staying on Facebook, they're watching the video.
Facebook can track everything may do. So Facebook owns all of the data. We're not sending anyone off to a website page or landing page or anything like that. So, It's really great data for future campaigns. And this is why I said it's a bit of a longterm strategy. Because say your you know, you're launching something in September or, you know, black Friday and Christmas are a really big deal for you. You really need to make sure that you're keeping people warm. You're keeping people engaged and you're bringing new people into your world and warming them up.
Now you don't necessarily want them to do anything at the moment. So it might be that you just want to nurture them for the next two to three months you know, and invest in that kind of nurturing so that when you're [00:13:00] ready to launch or you're ready to have new products. You've got those people there.
Now obviously we all want purchases all of the time and it's really hard sometimes to invest in these campaigns without any direct Without any direct impact on your income straight away. And I do get that. And often, you know, when I work with clients, we'll set up a video views and then we will maybe try and get those people. Who've watched say 50% of the video.
To sign up to our email list and we would re target. Those people who've watched 50% with an ad say, sign up to our email list and that sort of thing. Or you can retarget and ask them for the purchase. But in terms of this episode, we're talking about amplifying your organic content. So if you have a video that's done quite well, then definitely, you know, put a little bit, spend on it, grow that warm following, and then you can either use it in your current ads or in the future as well.
Videos are really great way to build connection with your audience. And this is a really great strategy. If you have a plan and you know, what's coming and you kind of in the buildup to something. Now on that note, Having a plan and knowing what's happening in the next [00:14:00] three to six months is something that I know people struggle with. And I know that.
Often we find ourselves in the day-to-day of our business and we're literally just getting stuff done, getting a social media post out, trying to get an email out, just trying to get more sales thinking thinking about, do we really need to join tech talk? Should I be doing more PR?
Maybe I should be focusing on Google shopping ads. Like, do I need to do Facebook ads? Okay. It can feel really overwhelming when there's so many different options out there. So I have got a new program launching in June, which I will be talking a lot more about, and this for parent and baby brands who really want to get a grip on their marketing, like get a plan together, stop the overwhelm, stop the procrastination, and really get to the point where you know what you're doing each week. You've got a plan, you know exactly what you need to do in the buildup to a launch or a new product, or for Christmas or to a peak period or.
Whatever it is that you're doing, you know, you've got a marketing plan for it and you know exactly what you need to do and [00:15:00] when you need to do it so that you're not feeling overwhelmed and stressed. And one of the biggest things really is just thinking about it all the time, even when you're not working.
Like that work-life separation is just really, really hard when you run your own business. And the 99% of the time, you probably don't have enough time to do everything you want to do. So you've really got to nail down on things that are working for you and be really, really laser focused on getting results and what you're doing.
So that's kind of what the program's about. I've been hinting at it for a little while. It will have Facebook ads in it. It's a good chunk of it, but it is actually much more about broad marketing. It's about. Making sure your website is set up for conversions. It's about. Really sorting out your social media. So you've got a strategy and you don't feel like you have to be on it 24 7, you've got a plan. You know what you're doing? And it actually makes an impact. And then your email marketing as well, looking at those automations that like, how often are you sending emails?
How often do you need to be sending emails? How [00:16:00] can we get automation set up so that things just work without you needing to be in doing your marketing? Day in day out and you can actually run your business and have a life as well, which is lovely. Right. So there'll be loads more on that coming soon.
If you're interested in, you know, it's something you want to sort out then make sure you drop me a DM over on Instagram, which is at the underscore social underscore pod. I'll also put a link to the wait list in the show notes.
I can't wait to share more about that over the next few weeks. As always, thank you so much for listening. I love to hear when you've listened to the podcast and if you feel like it's been helpful, so please keep sending me those messages. And I will speak to you soon.
Thank you so much for joining me this week before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you ever enjoyed these podcast episodes, I'd really love to ask you to leave a review in apple podcasts reviews are one of the major ways that apple ranks their podcasts, and it [00:17:00] only takes a few seconds, but really does make a massive difference to new people.
Finding me. Thank you again for joining me, Sophie, in this episode of growing pains, see you next time.
