What are the social media sites to use?

I guess everyone knows what social media sites are active nowadays, but there are specific sites that are best for networking and marketing on a social and business level. The most popular social media sites to date are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Plus and LinkedIn.

Below are some guidelines on how to boost your content reach with social media:

Facebook

Let’s go back to the history of Facebook. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg, he launched his creation on February 2004. Facebook was not literary facebook, it was a site for Harvard students. On September 2006, he announced facebook and was open for everyone aged 13 and above. Now, over a million people has joined Facebook.

Since its launch, Facebook has helped people connect all over the world. From lovers to business partners. Facebook is a good social media site to post things. Because millions and millions of people go online everyday and a lot of people like sharing posts. That’s the good benefit of Facebook.

The guidelines on posting on Facebook:

If you will be posting on Facebook, avoid posting two or three times on the first week. Let your first post be a guide on what people want to see in your page. For example your first post was an image post, if you attracted a lot of audience in your first post, therefore you could use that type of content again. But don’t repost the same image after it goes live, you may use it after a week or so. Consider trying to post different varieties like a link post, an image post or a video post. Through this different types of post, you could see the different audience members and which post works best.

Never repeat images. Keep in mind to use different copy and preview image as you post. Use images that are connected to the post, the description and headline as well. You must mix and match different scenarios.

To spread the word to people who don’t follow your business page, ask your friends or team members to share your post to their personal account. The shares of your team members or friends can help you because through their share, you are already connecting to the public.

Twitter

Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass. They launched the site on July 2006. Just like Facebook, Twitter now has over a million people logged in. Twitter is very famous for teens, it’s where they like expressing their thoughts. Twitter is not only for “thinking out loud”, you could also use Twitter to build and promote your business.

Here are the guidelines:

In twitter, you must share your content three or four times. But never repeat the tweet more than five times, you’ll annoy your followers and they’ll surely unfollow you. Take a break.  Through studies, it is said that there are best times to post on social media – this is called “peak time”.

Also in Twitter there are hashtags and mentions, use those in every status update but remember to limit your hashtags and use keywords relevant to your post. Again, try varying your content from posting or sharing articles, images, and videos.

Is retweeting other people’s tweets okay? Yes, definitely. Don’t forget to mention the original source and don’t fill your account with others’ retweets. Keep in mind that your main goal is to establish your brand, your own voice.  You may retweet but you should be creating your own content as well. Let your followers know about your new content not other people’s content. Create killer content to attract and engage with your followers on a personal level.

Pinterest and Instagram

Pinterest was created by Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra. It was launched on December 2009. On the other hand, Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. On October 2010, the trendy app was launched.

Here are the guidelines in using these apps as a promotional tool:

If you will be publishing your content in Pinterest, pin your content in a relevant pin board. On the other hand, here’s how you can use Instagram to promote your business.

According to metrics:

● Pinterest is for your middle-aged or older audience
● Instagram if for your teen audience

For both social platforms, you’ll want to post notable images from behind-the-scenes, how-to or regular articles. Turning your articles to an inspirational quote is a good idea. I encourage you to also try other formats when posting on pinterest or instagram.

Google +

Google plus was launched on June 2011. It has a lot of features, it has the ability to post pictures, you could even update your status, and many more.

Guidelines using Google Plus:

The good thing about Google Plus is that, it allows you to post long updates. It lets you choose whether to post the full blog to your company profile or a custom long intro attached with a link to the latest content.

You could also post your content in your Google communities but it depends on the quality of your content. But make sure that you’ll be posting your highest quality piece or you could post a content that you know your audience could perform well.

Conclusion:

Social media accounts vary, adjust to the guidelines if you want to do it your own way. Always keep in mind that nothing is perfect there will always be a trial and error in every step. Through trial and error you would know what type of content best promotes your business and at the same time best fits your followers’ taste. Content that’s unique and relevant are the ones that go viral.

The post How to Boost Your Content with Social Media appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.

We have evolved into a society where real-time communication has become our way to surviving this fast-paced, techno-infused life. We are a digital, social and mobile generation. According to Flurry statistics, mobile usage grows 76% year over year. Lifestyle, productivity, social, fitness and travel rank accordingly.

Other than Facebook (as the leading social network), Twitter placing second, is considered to be one of the best channels to grow and expand your network including your business. So, if you have not yet considered incorporating Twitter to your marketing strategy, it’s about time to look into it. If you’re skeptical, this article will show you 5 definite ways you can boost your business with Twitter’s Tweet Chat.

What is Twitter chat or Tweet Chat? It is platform allowing real-time discussion on various niche topics using hashtags where people join to share and learn knowledge and expertise in their business.

• Prospect leads and expand network – One unique and effective way of achieving this is by holding an event where you can bring people together to engage, learn and build stronger ties and deeper relationships. Not all businesses are able to hold an event or seminar but every business can host a Twitter chat.

To hold a successful Twitter chat (connecting your business to your potential market), you need to choose a niche topic that’s relevant to the voice of your audience.

For instance, HubSpot holds weekly Twitter chats that talk about the science and data of inbound marketing. Through this, webinars on inbound marketing are hosted (this makes an awesome lead generation tool) for the business. According to Cybranding hastag metrics “Hashtagify”, #scichat makes an average of 12 million impressions per week. How awesome is that?

As host, you can be sure to gain a multitude of new followers each time you hold the chat. As your chat becomes popular, your business will grow with it too.

• Establish authority – Social media is a common platform where brand and businesses use to leverage authority in their niche and in the eyes of their customers. What’s a surefire way to boost make your presence known? Guest and be proactive in answering questions or providing insights in your area of expertise.

So you’re interested in joining a Twitter chat, how do you get invited to participate? Again, the key is to actively participate in Twitter chats and get to know the host the chat, connect with the host and tweet him or her on a regular basis. Becoming known as a valuable resource in the Twitter chat will ultimately drive you to become an authority.

If you want to step up and stand out, simply send the host an email and tell the host about your interest to guest chat. With the aim to generate leads online, make sure to update and optimize your Twitter profile before building your way into authority. For instance, if you are a social media specialist, make sure to add a link to your website or service page, book or product.

Sometimes (unexpectedly), you not only generate leads but also get offers to collaborate and be part of something bigger especially when they find you knowledgeable in your topic.

• Connect on a personal level – As an active contributor in a Twitter chat, you have the opportunity to share your knowledge to customers and even colleagues. The more you participate, the more relationships you build the more you get recognized in your industry.
Each time you partake in a Twitter chat and contribute valuable advice and comments, you’ll gain new followers, generate leads for your business as people in and around your industry connect with you, so make sure your Twitter profile is designed and used to its full potential. The aim of your profile is to let people learn about you and your business.

• Stay informed – Not everything about Twitter chat involves your business. It could be an educational experience for you too. As spectator, your objective is to discover Twitter chats where you can find a gold mine of professionals and experts in your niche. Marketing specialists, for instance, find educational opportunities in this Twitter chat list.

• Promote your business – If you find a particular Twitter chat that attracts and engages your target market, it would be smart for you to connect with the host of the chat about sponsoring. Sponsorship packages depends on the Twitter chat niche you’re interested in however in general they include several of the following opportunities:

o Mention of your business as the sponsor during the Twitter or when recapping
o Promotion of services and/ products as the chat is hosted
o Position business as featured guest of the chat that gives way for you to work with that host on questions that amplify and market your business
o Advertise on websites or banners devoted to Twitter chats

**To find sponsorship opportunities relevant to your niche, Google search Twitter chat sponsorships.

In Conclusion

The beauty of Twitter chats: With hundreds of applicable niche topics touching every phase of your business, including some of the most reputable leaders in the industry hosting these chats, getting involved in it is a sure fire way to leverage your personal brand and business.

Remember that before deciding to partake a Twitter chat as guest or host, make sure to find and observe a chat within your niche so you know how it flows.

There are several and varied Twitter chats happening on a daily basis and you can spot them on this Twitter chat schedule from Tweet Reports or by simply searching Google for a keyword + Twitter chat.

If you are already involved in a Twitter chat, what are the benefits it provides your business?

The post How to Boost Your Brand and Business with Twitter Chats appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.

How is Instagram helpful to your business? With more than 150m users and a continuously multiplying number on a global scale, this image and web video social free-sharing platform can significantly increase your brand or business’ online presence.

Unlike Facebook or Twitter (two of the most on demand social platforms to date), Instagram does not cater to one-niche services, product or business, does not have built-in visibility or metrics, or paid ad options. People enjoy using Instagram because it’s:

• Simple and user-friendly – Instagram enables users to customize photos creating artistic masterpieces with a personal touch. From the app, you can link and share posts to other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and email – automatically.

• Visual story-telling with no ad pop ups – Both technology and experience allow people to establish online presence through visual storytelling that gives room to creativity and continuity than most platforms.

• Suits people’s needs to a T – Combining the best of both worlds (mobile and photo sharing) to come up with a unique platform that offers real value to web based businesses. Personal or company brands can take advantage of these two, in one action.

Get started with Instagram by simply signing up for a free account (if you have a Twitter account, we suggest using the same name as your Twitter handle), add a profile photo (brand logo) and a link to your website and don’t forget your account to Facebook – let your network know they can follow you there!

It’s an easy set-up but utilizing Instagram can be confusing to some. So whether you’re new to this or have some knowledge about it, you can still learn a few tips and tricks to getting the most out of Instagram:

Create posts that

• Display your products – It could be the whole product line or a specific selection. Hashtagging your images is an important part of the sharing process. By using #keyword people will be able to find or identify whatever they are looking for – be it a product, service, answer or brand.

• Map out the process – Share the world step by step photos of the manufacturing process or how. People appreciate transparency.

• Let people take a peep into “behind-the-scenes” scene – People are naturally curious so bring able to give them a glimpse into actions that take place behind the business is always a good way to make your audience have a feel of say, an event, a class, a photo shoot session.

• Show before-and-after results – This strategy helps people who are involved in fashion, beauty and interior design or building industries. Make a collage of before and after images to showcase your skills.

• Showcase your workstation – Build a personal connection by showing your audience where the magic happens.

• Share your world – If you’re attending a conference, event or workshop let people have a feel of that experience through image story-telling.

• Introduce your people – Reveal the fun and creative vibe of your workforce and how they put into good use your product or service.

• Throw an Instagram contest and give out rewards– Offer freebies, discounts or incentives and ask your followers to part take, tag a friend and even possibly share the reward. It always keeps the ball rolling!

Captivate and engage the audience

• Use relevant and appropriate hashtags –Hashtags are the key element to going viral. How to use a hashtag effectively? #keyword – could be a word or phrase anything you think that would help people find your product, service, business and even your personal brand. Limit using 5 hashtags to a photo post.

• Involve your customers – Tell your customers or loyal fan base to take photos of them showing off a product they purchased from you or the result of your services using a specific hashtag so that when people type it in, they automatically find a collection of photos. If you’re on the ecommerce business, provide a link to the product page.

• Reach out – Respond to comment, requests and questions by following, commenting or liking back.

• Cross-channel publish content– Publish a post on several social media platforms and link your Instagram account.

• Ask for feedback – Businesses or companies succeed because their customers help them so. One of the best ways is to ask your customers feedback: What do you like best about our products or services? How can we be of better service to you? People outside your business see the good and bad points. This will help you reassess and make right the wrong.

• Throw promotions – Give your customer the opportunity to gain a free product, opportunity or experience and don’t forget to hashtag. You’ll be surprised how your follower base multiply exponentially by this tactic.

Measure Success

No online business succeeds without metrics. Metrics is relevant to helping you determine where your business is and where it’s going.

• Track and measure hashtags – Get valuable information on your campaign.

• Account reporting – Learn more about your followers and how the tricks of the trade impact the success of both your network and business.

• Measure competition – Find out how your campaign positioned you in other companies. Find out how you can stay ahead of the game.

In conclusion, as the old saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words” As it still very much stands true, with Instagram, one picture could mean a thousand likes and shares! In addition to that, Instagram 15-second short, video clips make the sharing experience all the more fun and exciting!
Are you using Instagram yet? Tell us how you’re using Instagram to promote your business!

The post How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Business appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.

Metrics help identify patterns, trends, problem areas and forecast successes. Before making major decisions, startups consult their metrics. However, with millions of websites out there, tracking growth and competition on the web can be a real challenge.

Thanks to Google Analytics, collecting and analyzing data, monitoring and managing a site is made easier. This powerful, free tool is meant to clarify and shed light to businesses or Internet marketers by providing insight from keywords, design elements to any bit of information needed to improve online presence.

Newbies get a lot of sleepless nights trying to figure Google Analytics out. If you’re one of them and feel dumbfounded or your website has been walking in the dark for some time now, it’s time to be enlightened. Here’s our guide to the basics of Google Analytics:

Google Analytics Home

Once you have your Google Analytics account set up, the next step is to embed the code on your website.

Establish a profile for the website that you’d like to monitor and manage and the step-by-step process will automatically generate a script that you can copy/paste. If you’re using blogging platforms like Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress or a content management system you only need to install the code once to your theme or template.

If your website is custom-built, you’ll need to manually embed the code on each page or get help from your web developer to assist you with it.

Copy and paste the code from Analytics to just above the <head/> tag in your page or template. Embedding this code will not affect your site’s visual appearance.

What Metrics can do for you

 After successfully connecting your website to Google Analytics, click “View Report” on the initial screen. This will redirect you to the main dashboard. In the left column, you’ll find different types of data Google Analytics provides:

• Visitors – This tells you how many people come to view your website including location, language, how often they visit, and the browser or computer they log in from to get to your site.
• Traffic Sources –From here, you are able to trace which keywords direct people to your site and which sites link to your webpage.
• Content – This tab provides information into specific pages on your site. It can tell you what type of posts are most popular and help give answers as to how people enter and exit your site.
• Goals – In this tab, you’ll find relevant information and significant data on desired actions from users, registrations, purchases and download hits.
• Ecommerce – This tab is only useful if you’re selling products online as it displays all inventory and merchandise information.

These tabs mainly provide insights about certain divisions of your website, including top content, audience engagement and loyalty.

Whatever data you choose to monitor depends on the concerns you have for your site. For example, if your site is heavy on text like a news site, regularly update with keyword searches to help boost your online presence.

The key to easing in with Google Analytics is figuring out where you would like to focus on most.

Setting up the dashboard

The Google Analytics dashboard will provide you a visual outlook of a summary report to your site’s data. If you wish to customize the dashboard with whichever reports you want seen upfront, just go to the left column, click on the type of report to display and click “add to dashboard”. You may also position reports on the dashboard by dragging and dropping or even deleting whichever you choose.

You can dig in deeper into information established by hitting “View Report” located underneath the report graphic on your dashboard. A full report on your chosen topic will pop up.

Adjusting the Calendar

Before analyzing information from your reports, don’t forget to tweak the date range found in the upper right hand corner. Note that it defaults to a month long range, ending the day before the day you’re viewing the report. For instance, on March 3, the timeline for the report would be from Feb 3 to March 2.) Hit on the date range box and a calendar will appear. You have the option to adjust it to track or monitor data on a daily, weekly, quarterly, or whatever time frame that works best for you.

If you’d like to compare reports from 2 weeks ago to last week or whatever time frame, just click “Comparison” underneath the date range tab. A second calendar will pop up for you to adjust the time periods you want to consider.

Data Reports and Graphs

You will discover that most of the reports in Google Analytics such as page views and conversion rates are presented in linear graphs with the topic and date range chosen. Hovering your mouse over the dots will allow you to see measurements for that day, week or hour.

If you want to change the metric you wish to see, you may do so by simply clicking the tab above the graph on the left. You will then be presented with the option to compare two reports against each other. You can also compare against the site average. This is especially helpful if you’ve established objectives, as you can compare conversion goals to site activities.

Just below the graph, you’ll see more information displayed with summaries and scorecards showcasing overall metrics including pages per visit and time on site. A detailed metric report can be found in a table below. You can choose to see the report in a pie chart or bar graph by hitting on the icons just above the and to the right of the scorecards. You also have the option to make the data more accurate through the “Find Source” box and just type in the keyword relevant to your search.

If you’re skeptical about a certain measurement term, hit the question mark icon next to it and an explanation box will appear.

Sharing Reports

You’ll find an email icon at the top of the reports. You may send the report immediately, set or preschedule reports to send or if you’re presenting the report, export it as PDF (Google Analytics recommends this best), XML CSV or TSV file.

With the help of our Google Analytics guide, by this time you are able to find out for yourself if this tool is something you would prefer to live with or live without. The question is – how do you intend to make your online presence grow and survive? Tell us your thoughts!

The post Walking in the dark without website analytics? appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.

Why Do I Need To Use Google+?

Google wants you to. Social networks are a multi-billion (trillion?) dollar a year industry, and Google wants in the action. The search engine is putting heavy emphasis on growing the network by allowing it to affect search results.

The power the network is having on search results can be summed up in the following scenario:

You own a crossfit gym and you’re looking for some marketing tips. So, like everyone else, you head to Google and search for ‘crossfit marketing’. If you aren’t in any of My Circles on Google+ you see the following results:

The article shows up in the third spot – not too bad.

However, if you’re in one of my ‘Circles’ on Google+, the same search would yield the following results:

Not only does the search result move up to #1, but a Google+ post I did shows up on the first page of results as well. This means that even if your blog post is completely un-optimized, your Google+ post will still show up on the first page of search results!

So now that I’ve sold you on Google+, let’s get started on setting up your profile.

Upload a Profile Picture

I always recommend using the same picture that you use for Facebook and Twitter accounts. Make sure the picture is a clear cut head shot, because it will show up as your Google Authorship photo in search results as well.

Fill Out Your Profile

What are you using Google+ for? Make sure that your profile does a good job encapsulating not only who you are as a person, but incorporates your business into it as well. Don’t go overboard and spam people with sales-e lines, but make sure that if someone were to stumble across your post that they could figure out how to get in touch with you.

Share an Update

I like to keep a 50/50 rule when sharing updates: 50% work related and 50% personal. I live in Miami so I like to post pictures of the beach, palm trees, etc. – anything to water down the rest of my posts.

You generally want to share with everyone – ‘Public’, ‘Your Circles’ and ‘Extended Circles’. Doing so ensures that your posts get shown to the maximum amount of people.

Create Some Circles

Building Circles can be a challenging feat to most Google+ beginners and this is where people usually exit the network and head back to Facebook. The problem with Google+ is it doesn’t have the same following as a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram – it’s kind of just there. This means that there are millions of people on the network, but no one really uses it.

What you will often see are skeleton profiles that were set up and abandoned. You’re probably not going to find your friends on Google+ and interact with them like you would on a Facebook or Twitter. The key is to find other active Google+ users and Circle them.

How do you find them? Circle shares. Simply go to the search and type in the hashtag #circleshare. What comes up is thousands of people who are looking to grow their Circles as well. Simply add them to your Circles and they will almost certainly add you back (as long as you keep your profile updated).

+1 Posts

+1, +1 +1!

Another great way to build a following is to +1 your own posts and others’. The best way to do so is to head to the search and type in a keyword related to your business. Realtors are very active on Google+ so I like to interact with them.

Simply type ‘realtors’ into the search and then click ‘communities’. Google+ Communities are a great way to interact with like-minded people, build your following and even solicit some services (ever so carefully). Go through the community and leave a +1 on posts and some scattered comments as well. Doing so will help drive traffic back to your profile and build active Circles.

Google+ Is Not Facebook

As I mentioned earlier, Google+ is not Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even LinkedIn. As of right now the network is a weird combination of Facebook and LinkedIn – it’s full of people who understand the importance of the network, but don’t really get any enjoyment from using it.

I can’t promise that you’re going to enjoy using Google+ because honestly, I don’t. What I can promise you is that giving just 5 minutes of your attention each day will pay off in the long run for your business.

The post How To Get Started With Google+ appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.

It doesn’t matter if you are a real estate broker, agent or property manager — you need to connect with ideal prospects to keep your business thriving.

Establish Your Site as a Valuable One

There are a lot of real estate sites out there that don’t focus on quality. Their content is poor, their blogs thin, and they repeat information that homeowners and buyers already know. Devote some time out of each day to craft high-quality posts and web content pieces. Taking your time goes a long way — your readers will notice the difference.

Remember That Leads Are Buyers

You are working to attract buyers, not just an endless list of leads. Make sure you have a campaign that attracts reliable, interested parties and not just a large list of people not interested in buying or selling. It is too easy to spend time and money creating a list of people that want free stuff — and these aren’t the leads that help your business grow.

Connect With Other Industry Professionals

As a real estate agent, you have connections to other related professionals — home inspectors, lenders, appraisers, etc. Network with these groups of professionals and do some cross-marketing. You can advertise for them, they advertise for you. Also, discuss creating a lead referral system. For example, a lender receives a lead about a potential homebuyer, but the home buyer doesn’t have an agent. He refers that lead you and you have not only a personal referral, but an interested party.

Upgrade Your Site’s SEO

SEO or search engine optimization, is an untapped gem for gaining more real estate leads. When people cannot find your website, they can’t learn about what you have to offer. Revamping your website and blog’s SEO can increase your organic traffic and give you a higher potential for hot leads. The rules regarding SEO have changed a lot over the past few years. Therefore, it is best to hire an expert to fix any SEO issues you might have and help develop a new optimization strategy based on the rules for today’s search engine.

There are plenty of ways to increase real estate leads. While you might be tempted to buy leads outright, this isn’t a reliable method for keeping your business afloat. You lose money during the purchase and if you buy leads from a company that shares their lists, your competition could have already gotten to those leads days before you even bought them. Your best and most profitable way to increase leads is by taking the simple, yet practical steps to help potential customers find you.

The post Increasing Your Real Estate Leads appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.

Facebook ads should play an essential part of your businesses marketing plan for a few reasons:

1. They’re cost effective. If you can successfully target your customers and create an engaging post that isn’t obtrusive, you can get extremely cheap and high converting traffic.
2. Targeting. Facebook is a data warehouse – think about how much information you’ve put on Facebook over the years! They store all of it and allow advertisers to target their audience.
3. Retargeting. Facebook has a feature called ‘custom audiences’ that allows you to upload a list of emails or Facebook user ids to show ads. This is extremely effective for re-marketing offers to your existing customer base.
4. They’re different than Google Ads. When we pitch Facebook ads to clients the number one response is “we tried Google Ads, they didn’t work for us”. Facebook ads serve a different purpose than Google Ads and shouldn’t be viewed as an ‘either/or’ situation. Understanding the difference is crucial to every marketing strategy, and I will cover that in depth later in this post.

So let’s get into setting up your first campaign.

First and foremost, never run paid traffic to a website. Let me repeat that – NEVER RUN PAID TRAFFIC TO A WEBSITE (especially from Facebook!).

Why?

People have short attention spans. If you’re lucky enough to divert their attention you don’t want to send them to a website with a ton of information – they’ll get lost, forget why they came and leave.

You should always run Facebook ads to a landing page that captures their information for you to contact them at your convenience.

Now that I covered that, we can get into setting up your first ad!

Step One: The Goal

I like to start with the end goal and work backwards. Why are you running these ads (please don’t say “to make money”)! The goal of your ad should be to gather information on people who are interested in your business. If someone clicks on your ad, they’re interested. You want to know who they are and how your business can help them.  Let me give you a few examples of various businesses I’ve worked with and their end goals:

1. Crossfit Gym –> Sell gym memberships -> Gather email addresses
2. Real Estate Agent –> High-end home sales –> Gather phone numbers / mailing address
3. Coupon Website –> Traffic to site –> Gather email addresses for newsletter

Once you have your end goal in mind, you can move on to the next step.

Step Two: The Offer

10 years ago people would click on anything. These days, people are a much more hesitant to click on ads, let alone give you their personal contact information. In order to get this prized information, you have to incentivize them.

Keep in mind, the more information you want, the more interested that person has to be. I know I personally NEVER give out my cell phone number unless it is a service I am really looking for. I will however, give out my email address for much less.

1. Crossfit Gym –> Email address for free week pass
2. Real Estate Agent –> Phone and mailing address for free set of wine glasses (to qualified buyers)
3. Coupon Website –> Email address for exclusive coupon offers

Step Three: The Landing Page & Sales Funnel

This is an extremely important step that many advertisers overlook. Landing page optimization is a science in itself, and when you’re spending money for traffic you want to make sure you are gathering information from as many people as possible. The theory behind this is anyone who clicks on your ad (or comes to your website) has some interest in your business and you want to know who they are. Whether they’re buyers at this point isn’t overly important; once you have their information in your sales funnel you can convince them to be buyers.

Building a landing page is easy and there are a number of websites out there that have pre-created templates for you to choose from. Most of them offer a free month trial, and an affordable monthly subscription after that. I highly recommend you check out one of the following for your business (we’ve used both):

• Unbounce
• Lead Pages

Both of these companies offer you the ability to host the landing page on your domain for no extra cost. In addition, they offer the option to send opt ins to an auto responder email marketing campaign. No matter what your industry you should have an email list and you should be sending out consistent updates to your subscribers. The following companies offer low monthly fees to use their platforms:

• Aweber
• Mail Chimp
• Drip

I don’t want to get into too much detail about landing pages and email marketing in this post, as I want to focus on how your business can set up Facebook ads. However, landing pages and email marketing play an integral role in the process of running any sort of paid traffic so I highly recommend you sign up for one of the providers listed above.

Step 4: Create Your Ad

Create Users/Enter Payment Info

The first step in creating an ad is setting up your advertising account. The process is extremely easy and all you need is an active Facebook account and PayPal or Credit Card. If you are creating an account for your business, make sure to input your company information since it may be needed to set up invoicing.

You can get started by visiting this URL: facebook.com/ads/manage/. In order to create an ad Facebook will prompt you to set up a funding source to pay for the ad spend. To do so click “Billing” on the left hand menu and then “Funding Source”.

Click “Add new funding source” button on the top right and input your payment information.

Then click “Settings” on the left menu. From here you can manage your personal/company information and VAT number for invoicing if you’re a business. You can also manage the permissions on the account if you want multiple people to have access to the campaigns.Now that you have your payment information in place, we can create your first ad!

Create Ad

You will use the same URL (facebook.com/ads/manage/) as before to create all of your ads (Note: you can also access the ad platform by clicking in the upper right hand corner of your homepage).

The first thing you’ll notice when you get into the platform are the 8 different ad campaign types. For the purpose of this beginner article, I am only going to focus on the “Clicks to Website” ad campaign.

Select that option and enter the URL of the landing page you created. Then click “Continue”.You will then enter the ad campaign platform. On this screen you will enter everything you need to create your ad.

Select an Image

The first part is selecting an image for your campaign. Facebook allows you to upload up to 6 images for your ad. If you choose to upload more than 1, Facebook will automatically create 6 different ads and split test to see which image gets the highest click-through rate. If you’re a beginner, I recommend you take advantage of this feature and upload 6 different images to get a good feel for what your audience responds to.   

Choose Ad Type

Your next step is to select the ad type for your campaign. If you don’t have a Facebook fan page set up for your business, than you will only be able to run a “Right Column” ad (the small ads that appear on the right hand side of your home feed).

If you have a Facebook fan page you can run “News Feed Ads” – these are the ads that appear in your audiences home feed. I personally only use News Feed ads because they appear larger and more noticeable that Right Column ads. However, depending on your business and niche Right Column ads can be extremely effective. I suggest you run both Right Column and News Feed ads to see which works best for your business.  Writing Your Ad

Copywriting is a science in itself and I highly recommend you do your research on how to craft good ad copy. However, the only way to truly master the craft is practice. Here are a few simple pointers to get you started:

Headline: You’re given only 25 characters to create a headline that will grab your audience’s attention. I generally use a question that addresses a general pain point for my target audience or I sneak in the offer (discussed above):

• Want More Traffic?
• Out of Shape?
• Struggling To Find Good Leads?
• Attention Lawyers!
• Claim Your FREE Wine Set

Text: This is what shows up under your headline (you’re given 90 characters). Here you are given a short platform to convince your audience to click. You’re going to want to make sure you communicate your offer (your incentive to click) and most importantly to make sure you have a clear call-to-action (CTA), such as:

• Get It Now
• Click Now
• Click Here
• Claim Now

Believe it or not, countless studies show that ads with no CTA have a much lower click-through-rate (CTR) than ads that do. Your ad needs to be direct and tell your audience exactly what it is you want them to do.

Targeting

Facebook has been collecting data from people for the past 10 years – as an advertiser you can use this data to target people’s interests. Targeting is an extremely important part of your ad and this is where most beginners struggle. Try not to get overwhelmed with the amount of information they provide and keep your target consumer in mind at all times.Demographics and location

Location: Target your audience by country, state/province, city and zip code.

Demographics: Target your audience by age and gender.

Interests

Interest targeting allows you to target your ideal audience based on their interests that they have shared on their Facebook timelines. Some of these include hobbies, movies, music, education, job titles, pages they ‘like’ and groups they belong to.

Categories

Category targeting allows you to more easily reach your intended audience. Your ad will be shown to people who have included information in their Facebook Timelines and liked Pages that are relevant to that category.

Connections

• You can use connections targeting to show your ad only to people who have a connection with you, such as people who have liked your Page.
• You can use connections targeting for any Page, group, event or app you’re the admin of, even if it’s not what you’re advertising.
• Click on advanced connection targeting under Connections in the targeting section and type the name of your Facebook Page, group, event or app.

Advanced Targeting

If you’re a beginner I don’t want you to worry about advanced targeting options, but for the purpose of this post I do want to cover them quickly. Advanced targeting tools have the capabilities to help you reach people that are connected to you outside Facebook and who are similar to your best customers.

• Custom audiences: Securely upload a contact list of people you’d like to reach and target your Facebook Ads to these customers.
• Lookalike audiences: Find people who are similar to your best customers.
• Facebook Exchange: Reach people on Facebook who have expressed an interest in your business based on specific actions they’ve taken online, such as visiting your website.

Again, don’t get overwhelmed with targeting. Simply put yourself in the mind of your ideal customer: what they like, their age, location, etc. and you can create an effective target audience.

Setting Your Budget and Bid Type

The last part of your ad set up is creating a budget for the campaign, duration and how you will bid on the ads.

Whether you’re a beginner or expert, I always set the budget at $10 a day. You need at least $10 to get enough data to make a decision if the ad is effective or not. You can also set a start and end date – unless you’re running an ad for an offer with an expiration date, I like to let my ads run indefinitely. Finally, the bid type. There are 2 options for you to choose from:

1. CPC – cost per click.
2. CPM – cost per thousand impressions.

Both of these options allow you to bid manually or let Facebook optimize for you. As a beginner, I suggest you select CPC and let Facebook automatically bid for you. If you have a good ad that is getting a lot of clicks, this section is somewhat irrelevant.Step 5: Monitor & Optimize

Your Facebook ads are going to require a lot of love and attention at first. If you’re a small business on a budget, you don’t want to waste any money on ads that don’t drive sales. In order to make sure you are seeing a return from your ad spend, you have to keep an eye on what is working and what isn’t. The best way to do this is split testing.

Split testing is the process of running multiple ads that are all the same except for 1 tweak to each. The ad that performs the best out of the bunch is the winner and that ad should then be split tested for another factor. The following is how I like to split test my ads:

1. Image: I create 3 identical ads with 3 different pictures.
2. Copy: I take the ad with the highest CTR from before and tweak the headline and text.
3. Targeting: I take the winner from before and change the demographic.
4. Bidding: I take the best demographic and split test CPM vs CPC.
5. Landing Page: Once I have the best performing ad, I split test 3 landing pages to maximize opt ins.

This process generally takes a week and I recommend you spend at least $10 for each split test. You have to make sure you are pushing enough traffic to really get a feel for what works.

Although this process is time consuming, once you have a few ads that work you can set them on auto pilot. Facebook ads will play an integral role in your lead generation process and with the right care and attention can pay massive dividends for your business.

You can find Ryan on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram as well.

The post Facebook Ads For Small Business: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on First Page SEO Internet Marketing.