742: Facebook Campaigns and Retargeting: Discover Profitable Paid Social Ads with Naira Perez

Robert Plank 0:00 Marketer of the day. Episode 742, Facebook campaigns and retargeting discover profitable, paid social ads with Naira Perez. Hey everyone, and welcome back to the marketer of the day podcast. We are here with Naira Perez from springhilldigital.com and we are going to be talking today about Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn ads and how to make them work for you. So Nyra, glad to be talking to you.

Naira Perez 0:30 Thank you for having me

Robert Plank 0:32 so social media, running ads, getting people to landing page, opt in, form coaching, call, tell us about that sort of thing.

Naira Perez 0:43 Well, we actually specialize in social media, paid social media, and I'm going to tell you that this is an effective way to bring new audiences to your product or service, to get to know your brand, if you're been doing organic, that's fantastic. You need to continue making doing organic. However, your reach is very small. So basically, the platforms are just saying you have to pay to play. So to bring new people, you have to do advertising in the platforms. I

Robert Plank 1:20 agree completely. And it's super interesting that the people that are not internet marketers, they don't even, I think they don't even realize what's an ad and what's not. Sometimes, my wife will be searching something and she'll say, Well, here's the top result on Google. And I'll say, you do see there's a box around it and it says in fine print, sponsored. Or she'll send me a screenshot of something that appears on her Facebook timeline. And I'll say, You do know that instead of the date under the post, it says sponsored. But it seems like a lot of people don't notice this. And I agree with you completely. There that on, especially on Google and on search engines, like you said, a lot of people, they kind of cross their fingers and they hope that the content, the videos, the blog posts will work with them. When you look at all those paid ads, it's like the first top of the page, and you're already automatically on rank three or four just by not running those ads. So I agree with you completely. We have to be running ads to be seen

Naira Perez 2:14 exactly, and Google has done it where very clearly the ads are at the top of the page. So even if you work really, really hard on your sto if your competitor is doing ads on key words that belong well, that you will describe your product or service, then they will take the first spots, like you said, your wife doesn't know, because we are busy people, and we tend to just go really fast. Now in social media, it does say promoted. You can normally tell is an ad, but the ads are getting way more entertaining. They're getting some audiences will just like to watch a video ad, because they're very well done. They're very informative. Now there's a little bit of everybody in social media, especially in advertising, where some people will put ads that are like just not properly done, but there are others that will use the proper techniques and entertain audiences so much so that audiences really like to see those ads. So speaking

Robert Plank 3:25 of these proper techniques you're mentioning, do you have any interesting stories of some ads you've run for clients, or some campaigns you've run where you made sure to stand out from all those other lazy marketers,

Naira Perez 3:38 from the lazy marketers, yes, we have actually a brand that we worked with that was a plus size clothing so whenever we got the account, they actually were running ads that were very direct by now. Here are the sales. And there was no let's say there was no heart to it. It was talking to an audience that is different from audit audiences is a very niche audience, and their pain points, their needs, are different. So what we did is we started generating ads that were content related, that actually express what these audience was feeling, and we partner, in many cases with influencers that would give us the content. So influencers, what they're really good at is knowing what their audience wants. That's the entire premise to be online, to know what their audience wants and then give it to them. So whenever we partner with them and started creating content together. Then our audience really was positively reacting to our ads. We created through paid media, we actually created a community where, you know, plus size clothing can have certain topics that are very. Very, you know, polarizing, so the community will come out and actually have very good conversations in even defending the brand whenever the ads were taken in the wrong way. So that was a very positive experience. Their cost per click went down increasingly. They we managed, in four months to just go down. Their cost per click went down two cents on the dollar, and their conversions, we knew that all the conversions that came to their website came from social media, because there was no other advertising that was being generated. So their channel of preference was Facebook and Instagram. And as soon as we stopped, for whatever reason, we would stop the ads, sales will almost come to a halt. So we had a positive effect into their entire sales process.

Robert Plank 5:59 Super cool. And I think you made a really good point there, that it's really tempting to just say, buy now, right? It's really tempting to just choose one skew in the catalog and say, here's this one thing, and everyone needs to buy it. And what's, what's kind of being becoming more and more clear to me when I talk to people who run these social media ads, is that you kind of have to take your time, right? That you have to kind of give some content first, get people reacting, and then you can run more ads that target people more and more down. And, you know, I do retargeting and things like that, and I really like how you're kind of thinking outside the box, so to speak, where it's not just sales video, it's not just a demo video. You're going after specific influencers who then they'll they have millions of followers, they put out videos every day, and then they create the videos for you, and you pay for that. But it's like something different, right? It's not like you don't just automatically tune out because you're used to seeing some kind of commercial, and you like, you know, you you tune out, you stop listening for 30 seconds. You're you're seeing something that you actually want to see, and it's customized for you, and all that good stuff.

Naira Perez 7:11 Yeah, yeah. And the general thought is, you have to give to the audience before you can receive. That's, that's what we follow. We give content. We give just we try to address those pain points before we actually ask them to buy. So what you were saying about retargeting is something that we take to heart very much. We will put that content down there, and maybe your acquisition ads are not as profitable as you wish, but the retargeting ads are incredibly profitable because those people already know you. Those people already know that you have a product or service that will solve something in their life that they want to be solved. So that one two step is actually important, and some process, some funnels, like we do a lot of, also LinkedIn advertising, and those funnels are actually much longer. They take more more touch. They take more retargeting. And it also very important for a business to have a good strategy after the ad. So what happens when, as an example, you get a lead, then the brand has to start having that conversation, maybe through email, maybe through, you know, obviously retargeting, but you have to continue that conversation. You have to nurture that lead. And it's something that a lot of businesses forget. They think that putting an ad app will solve all their problems, and they forget that, yes, I brought somebody to your house. Now you have to invite them in, give them a tour of the house, you know, be hospital, those sorts of things, and that is a lot of work, but that's where you get your best leads. You get them from the ads, and then you nurture them. You take their hand and drive them where you want them to go, which, in this case, in B to B, especially it's a sale at the end of the day. So that's the most perfect example of how a long process can turn into a very profitable one.

Robert Plank 9:33 And you make a lot of really good points here, and especially that it's not just one ad, it's many different ads, and sometimes you pause ads, tweak ads, make new ads and and, yes, it is a lot of work, but that's why people should go to you and your agency, instead of spending all day long trying to figure it out for themselves and to so just to get people caught up a little bit on we met, we're mentioning this thing called retargeting. This is where someone clicks on an ad on Facebook. They go. Order your website, and then they get cookied, they get pixeled. And then you go around on other websites, and this ad seems to follow you around until you buy. And I've been and like you mentioned, there so few companies remember to do this, and I've been so amazed when they do, like the abandoned cart ad on me, if I add something to the cart, and I would ever get distracted, leave the site, then the ads follow me around, and it's like I was so ready to almost click the button. And because they they reminded me to do it, they salvaged a sale from me that they would not otherwise have had. And then also, I've been so impressed by sometimes when I sign up for something like a piece of software or some kind of thing, and I end up not using it, then sometimes they'll give me the reminders to log back in, or I was using a tool once that generates videos at a blog post, and I wasn't using it, and then the platform started generating them on its own and sending me emails saying, hey, look, we made this video for you based on your blog. Like, why don't you use this? And again, I was so impressed, just because maybe 5% or less of the websites I go to even think to do things like this. And so, you know, we're mentioning a lot of things that you've been doing well and doing great. But has there ever been a time when you kind of struggled, or when the LinkedIn ad campaign wasn't quite working, or some kind of situation where it just it wasn't working out, and you had to maybe think differently or try new things to make it happen.

Naira Perez 11:28 Yes, we do have clients that are in industries where the thoughts are very poor, polarizing. As an example, you know, renewable energy could be one of those examples where you know you're pro or against, and whenever you're pro or against, your thoughts are really, really deep and very you believe in them very much. So that's where, when a campaign comes out and you put your best foot forward, you do all your research, and it doesn't go as predicted, then you have to listen. That's the right moment to listen to those comments that sometimes it's actually a painful moment because you may have missed the mark. So when you listen to the comments, then you realize that most of the misunderstanding between the ad and the audience comes from a lack of education. Therefore, you have to go back into your campaign and redesign a campaign that it starts with educating people on those topics that they don't understand or they have misconceptions and so, and that is, I could say at least 60 to 70% of the time of why a campaign didn't work. One could be because you're you're targeting the wrong audience, but another one is because, you know, we started way too far down the line. We started talking language that the audience is not using, or talking about topics they don't understand. So you have to go back to the drawing board and say, okay, so what did we learn? And then let's, let's put a campaign that actually meets the expectations of the audience and also is keeping up with the algorithms. That's another important thing that we do, we're specialists in paid media, so keeping up with the algorithm is essential if you want a campaign to work out as you want it to work out, because they make so many changes so fast. Facebook does, LinkedIn does that. There are opportunities that you may be missing if you're doing a campaign in 2020 like you were doing in 2019 you're missing a lot of opportunities that other people are taking advantage of. So going back to something that has not worked in the past. Is one, education. Two, right audience. And three, keep up with the algorithms. Those are three, three very important things to do,

Robert Plank 14:05 and that is very good advice. And you're reminding me of so many, so many ads I've seen, because I think that it's a good idea for all of us to pay attention to the ads that that we see. And it might just be me, I might just be genuinely curious, but I always when I see an ad that, for some reason, makes me perk up. I click on the the top corner on Facebook that tells me why I saw why, why I was seeing the ad, and how they targeted me. And sometimes I go and I I opt in, and I saw something just this morning where someone had a free book funnel, right? He was like, selling just it's like, here's my book, just $5 for the shipping. And then under the ad, there was a comment that someone said something like, Well, I wouldn't get this book even if you gave me $100 bill as the bookmark. And I thought, oh, no, why is he not even looking at those comments and deleting? The troublemakers are, are seeing if there's that bad feedback and, and readjusting and, and, yeah. And there's so many good examples of just when, uh. When people just need the dumbing down, right? They need the educating. And, like you mentioned, the the sustainable renewable energy, and I saw something like just last week where some guy said he didn't believe in windmill energy because the the amount of electricity it generated, like never would recoup the cost of making it, and I did a quick Google search, and the windmills make their money back in six months. But it's a common it's easy enough to like just not be educated on on those sorts of things. So these are all really good points that you're making here. And so, you know, you mentioned about how sometimes we need to look at that Facebook or that LinkedIn or the Instagram algorithm, sometimes go back to the drawing board. Sometimes look at feedback. Do you see like even, even aside from all that, do you see a common mistake happening with all of your other competitors out there? Do you see people just always doing the wrong thing when it comes to running some of these paid ads.

Naira Perez 16:02 Yes, the two most common things are one, you just don't just go straight to sale. I mean, there are very few products that I would recommend that for, because people identify that as an ad, are not interested, and then just move on. And two, there is the set it and forget it mentality that happens a lot, especially with people that are just entering the Facebook advertising world or the LinkedIn advertising world. I've seen a lot of agencies that just said it once it performs sort of okay. The client doesn't say anything. Nobody says anything. And there he goes, a campaign that is not optimized. We actually look at campaigns almost every day just because things can happen. We can have bad comments that spiral out of control. We can have something that happens, you know, around us that make the ad actually tone deaf, and we have to change it. There is so many things that can happen that that can derail your campaign really fast, and you do not, as an agency, you do not want to be the last one to know. But also there is opportunities like, as an example, LinkedIn now included a feature where you can retarget certain audiences that you couldn't before, and this was in the last week that we saw this happen. So if I just said I'm forgetting my campaign. I'm missing that retargeting opportunity that I didn't have a week ago. Now I have it so I can make a campaign go from not performing very well to performing very well, because I am including some retargeting that was needed. So yeah, the set it and forget it is, is the one that it's my pet peeve, maybe because I'm just addicted to the data, and I like to look at my campaigns, as I said almost every day, that whenever I see somebody not looking at them, and I find legacy campaigns and campaigns that were done in, you know, three, four months ago, and nobody has touched them. That actually hurts my feelings.

Robert Plank 18:29 Well, I think that it takes a special brain to think in the terms that you do. I could never do that sometimes, but I'm sure that you're like this. And I know people who who think and act like you, where they enjoy jumping into campaigns and pausing what's not working, and duplicating and making something new and and most of us just can't do it. Most of us don't have the patience for it, and that's why we need you and your agency to be at this every day to make sure that the that the ground doesn't shift around us, that the ads keep working, that we generate new ads, that we try new things, and that, as always, platforms always put out new opportunities for us to run ads, that there's someone like you who's always staying on top of the cutting edge. So if someone out there has a company of any kind and they need to run ads on social media, how do they reach out to you and your team,

Naira Perez 19:20 you can find us@springhilldigital.com Again, that's Springhill digital.com in our website, you can find all sorts of resources and articles that we write, and yeah, you can contact us directly from there,

Robert Plank 19:38 super Cool springhilldigital.com and at the very least, there are blog posts, there are resources, there are things to read about. And then as far as people reaching out to you to get some ads run, how do people know if they are an ideal candidate for you? Is there like, a minimum budget, or is there a certain length of time to put into this to do. For it to begin working. How does someone know if they're a good fit for you? That

Naira Perez 20:04 is an excellent question. So we help the small to medium companies with paid media, especially social paid media and Google ads being ads. So if those channels are in your strategic plan for next year or for the next month. Those are the things that we do, and we do them very well, because we specialize in them. Now I want to make sure that hiring us is a profitable endeavor for the brands. So think about a budget that is at least $1,000 a month in media, because our fees, you know, have to be at least at that level. So if your plan is 50,000 $50,000 or more, then we're, you know, we're going to make it work. If you have less, then we can always do a consulting and your team does it. So there are many options, but, yeah, that will be the best candidates. Well,

Robert Plank 21:11 fantastic. Well, the place for everyone listening right now is to go to springhilldigital.com, and hopefully, even if they leave the page, they'll get retargeted with ads right at least, I hope so. So you practice what you what you preach, but set up that coaching, call, reach out, fill in that contact form, so that way you can see how Naira and her team can make these, these paid ads that you always see people running, and you might be jealous, or you might wish that you're get caught up well now her team can make it happen. Springhill digital.com is the place to be. We'll see you there. And thanks so much for stopping by naira.

Naira Perez 21:49 Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

Robert Plank 21:55 Want to be a guest on marketer of the day. Or can you recommend an author, speaker coach or entrepreneur with a great success story and awesome insights, go to marketer of the day.com/ask and tell us who you'd like to have on the show that's marketer of the day.com/ask