PSPINC Official Company Blog

What Goes into an Effective Marketing Plan?

May

9

There can be a lot that goes into marketing for a business. And it can be overwhelming. But having an overarching marketing plan to do so makes it much easier. It’ll outline what needs to be done and what the intended results will be, not just to your marketing team, but to the entire sales team. You might have some initial ideas of what you want to do to market your product, service, and overall brand. But they might not be the best idea. Or it might be a good idea that could use some improvements that a plan could provide.

A marketing plan, for the rest of the sales team, presents an overhead look at your ideas professionally. For the marketing team, it serves as an organized outline for people to fill in throughout the process. But while every brand and plan will undoubtedly be different, there are still fundamental parts of every marketing plan: research, objectives, a strategy statement, a buyer persona, a customer journey, tactics, and mockups. And having them in your marketing plan will help marketers ensure they’re prepared.

Initial Steps

Every marketing plan starts with research. Regardless of your business's industry, it’s constantly changing and evolving. And you’re expected to change with it. More than that, research also helps you as a marketer get a better idea of the company’s overall identity and what you can highlight in a marketing campaign. And it’s important to point out that you may not have discovered this information without doing research to find it.

That research can also include creating a customer persona and journey, which will give you a better understanding of who your customers are and how they interact with your brand. And it’ll make it easier to create your objectives and strategy statement. As we’ve discussed before on this blog, your marketing objectives are essentially like your goals. And remember to use the SMART acronym when you create them. And a strategy statement encompasses those goals into a single statement, one that will guide your overall marketing efforts for your campaign moving forward.

Tactics & Mockups

three people crowded around a long desk with one woman sitting and showing something on a tablet to everyone else

Once you’ve completed the initial steps, it’ll be easier to determine how to achieve the goals you’ve set for your marketing team for your overall campaign. In marketing, tactics are strategic actions that directly correspond to your objectives. And your strategy statement will help guide you in the right direction when it comes to your content. Depending on what you want to achieve during your marketing campaign, tactics can range from search engine optimization, social media marketing, and email marketing, among other things. And to make it easier, creating mockups, or visual representations of what your final product will look like, will help you later when it’s time to prepare assets.

Overall, there are multiple steps in constructing an effective marketing plan. For marketers, having one in place helps immensely in better organizing your marketing ideas for your campaign. For everyone else at the company, it gives them a good idea of what you plan to accomplish and how. And that can be very powerful because often, your marketing team isn’t in charge of how much the company can spend on marketing efforts. The more people know about what you plan to do with the money they give you, the more likely they’ll be open to an increased budget. So, a marketing plan isn’t just a way to organize your thoughts as a marketer, it also serves as a proof of concept for the rest of your team. If you're looking for more marketing help for your small business, contact our marketing professionals at PSPINC. We'd be happy to help!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #goals #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingideas #marketingplan #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #mockup #objectives #sales #smallbusiness #smartobjectives #socialmedia #strategy #tactics

Marketing Objectives and a Strategy Statement

May

2

The elements of a good marketing plan include two things: marketing objectives and a marketing strategy. Many people mistake an objective and a strategy as being the same thing, when, in fact, they are not. An objective is a more specific path to take to achieve your business goals. Examples include increasing brand awareness or increasing a certain perception about your product or overall company. A strategy, however, should encompass your objectives and steer your overall plan in the right direction. And constructing a strong strategy statement helps you do that.

For example, if you own a small business, you’ll likely want to increase its overall brand awareness. But your marketing plan still needs a focus. The best way to figure out what to focus on for your marketing plan is to research. What is it about your company that makes it different from others on the market? What part of your product or overall company do you want more people to know about? That’s where you should start.

SMART Objectives

When creating your marketing objects, a helpful acronym you can use is SMART. It stands for specific, measurable, attainable, reliable, and timely. Every business has goals in mind, but when you create SMART objectives, it narrows down your focus and guides you toward those goals. Without them, you’ll have goals without any clear direction or tasks going forward. And it’s hard to accomplish a goal if you don’t know where to start or how to achieve that goal. Creating a SMART objective means determining a more specific goal in mind, one that will focus on growing your brand on a single platform, like Instagram or your website. It means using specified but practical numbers and setting a definitive deadline for yourself.

For example, maybe you want to increase your brand awareness by increasing your overall website traffic. To determine a realistic number to grow by, look at the average amount of traffic on your website and base your objective on that. When looking at how to achieve that goal, marketing tactics could include improving your site’s search engine optimization (SEO), growing your social profiles, increasing email subscribers, or other avenues. For example, if you average around 120 users a day and determine that your site has poor overall SEO, you can strive to increase your average daily user count by 10% by making technical SEO fixes, which would also increase your site's organic search engine results page (SERP) ranking. If you're looking for tips on how to grow your social media pages, check out our new YouTube video.

A Marketing Strategy

Being equipped with those objectives makes forming a strategy that much easier. While your marketing objectives give you a clear set of steps for you to take to achieve your overall goal, your strategy statement will help inform them. It’s easy to say you want to grow your business online, even with specific goals in mind. But it still requires a sense of direction. How will you encourage users to subscribe to your email newsletter or follow you on Instagram? That’s where your strategy statement can help you. To construct one, it’s best to think about what makes your business unique or what you want potential customers to know more about. The question you really need to answer is: why should a customer choose your company over another? And what benefit can you leverage as a smaller company?

Whatever it is, use that to construct your strategy statement. For example, if you’re a smaller airline company looking to promote your family plans and overall safety, your strategy statement could be: “Fly with us, North America’s safest choice for family-friendly travel”. So, while people may use marketing objectives and a strategy statement interchangeably sometimes, they are different. They each help to inform the other and work together to help give marketers a clear direction in their overall marketing campaigns. And it’ll help you market your business moving forward. If you need any marketing help for your small business, reach out to our marketing experts here at PSPINC.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #email #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingobjectives #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #sales #smallbusiness #smartobjectives #strategy #strategystatement #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 164 “Marketing with Audio”

Apr

20

Using audio in marketing has only gotten popular over the past few years. Catchy jingles, sponsored podcasts, audiobooks, and other audio advertising methods. And there’s a good reason for this: people are more likely to remember something with audio, especially music. So, when you use audio in your marketing plan, it’s that much more effective.

The goal of marketing isn’t just to get people to buy your product, but it’s also to keep your products and your brand in the back of customers’ minds. That way, the next time they think of something related to what you’re selling, they’ll think of your brand, making it more likely they’ll buy from you. That’s why we created Click It Audio, which gives businesses an easy way to add audio to their marketing efforts. Embed an audio file onto your site or add an audio QR code on your product packaging and business cards. Get started for free or upgrade to our Standard plan at just $9.91/month.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webtools

Create an Effective Marketing Strategy with a SWOT Analysis

Apr

4

The key to a successful marketing campaign is an effective marketing strategy. But it’s hard to put one together if you don’t assess where the company currently stands. One of the most important parts of marketing is research. After all, you can’t market for a company without knowing anything about what the company does, how it operates, what it sells, and how it compares to others on the market. The best way to start the research process is with a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT analysis also referred to as a situation analysis, stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It looks at what the company excels at, where it could improve, and where they stand amongst the competition while helping identify ways it could improve. It gives marketers a basic outline of the company, which will lead them to conduct further research on not only the company but also its competitors and their industry.

How to Create a SWOT Analysis

a woman standing in front of a white board with a swot analysis drawn on the board

Research should always be at the start of every marketing process. A SWOT analysis just makes it easier to organize that research. There’s basic information like a company’s name, history, among others. Then, you can look into identifying what makes this company different than others. What are the best parts of this company and where can they improve? It’s through this research that you’ll get a better idea of what the industry looks like as a whole and where this company fits in.

Creating the SWOT analysis after that is simple; instead of writing it all out in a report, draw out a two-by-two table, labeling each quadrant with Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Then, as your research progresses, fill them out with the appropriate data. It’s that easy. While this won’t be everything you need to know before creating an effective marketing plan, it will, at the very least, give you a good start. A SWOT analysis tells you what issues you should address and how the business can grow, all of which will only strengthen your overall marketing strategy and plan moving forward.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingonline #marketingresearch #marketingtips #research #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #swot #swotanalysis #tech #technology

Everything You Need to Know About the Potential TikTok Ban

Mar

28

TikTok is a short-form video-sharing app geared mostly toward Gen-Z. Content on the platform ranges from cooking videos to funny animal clips to practically anything you could think of. According to Business of Apps, as of January 2023, TikTok had almost two billion monthly active users globally. And this doesn’t even include users from China since the app uses a different name there. As of just last week, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, boasted that TikTok now has 150 million active monthly users in the U.S. alone. But this claim also comes amongst talks over a potential ban of the app.

TikTok’s Data Security Concerns

close-up of the settings app in the iOS interface

The app, while popular, poses privacy and data security practices for one big reason: TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has ties to China. Other countries worldwide, including the U.S., have banned the app altogether or restricted its use in certain cases. For example, India placed a ban on not only TikTok but also other Chinese-owned apps like WeChat, and Pakistan banned the app at least four times. While the U.S., Canada, and Taiwan haven’t officially banned the app, government-issued devices only have restricted access to TikTok. However, there isn’t currently any hard proof of these privacy concerns; it’s more of a concern for what China could do with TikTok’s users’ data in the future.

To counteract this potential, the U.S. government created the RESTRICT Act. This bipartisan bill, in short, allows the secretary of Commerce to ban apps that pose a risk to U.S. national security. It doesn’t explicitly name TikTok, but it covers companies owned not only by China, but also by Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. Last week, Chew faced congress to answer questions they had over TikTok's data concerns. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to change the status quo as many representatives didn't seem to know much about how the app works. While this bill exists, U.S. lawmakers, including President Biden, aren’t pushing to ban the app. Instead, they’d much prefer it if a U.S.-owned company acquired ByteDance, removing its ties to China.

How Advertisers Are Responding

two women having a meeting in the office

Despite the uncertainty about the app’s future, advertisers are sticking with TikTok and are largely unfazed by it. Privacy and data security concerns on social media are nothing new to marketers. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is still a formidable force in the social media market today. Especially for marketers, as Facebook’s ad business has only gotten stronger since. So, it’s safe to say they were able to walk away mostly unscathed from the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2015. So, with this example in mind, marketers know the privacy issue concerns will eventually die down.

Marketers have experienced this wave of security concerns for social media in the past, only to see it ultimately pass. So, for now, advertisers are sticking with TikTok and keeping their ad spend on the platform. And for marketers who have employed a TikTok-first approach, they’re sticking with it, despite the threat of a ban. TikTok, for better or for worse, delivers droves of the Gen-Z audience, making it an attractive marketing platform. So, as far as advertisers are concerned, TikTok is here to stay.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertisers #advertising #app #branding #business #businesstips #cybersecurity #data #datasecurity #marketers #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingnews #marketingtips #security #smallbusiness #socialmedia #therestrictact #tiktok

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 160 “Email Marketing Compared to Other Marketing Tactics”

Mar

23

One of the most effective marketing tactics today is email. With so many advancements in technology today, email still delivers the highest return on investment (ROI) compared to other marketing tactics. According to Omnisend, the average return per dollar spent on email marketing is $40. While social media and paid search are popular efforts, email marketing still delivers the best results. Why? Because everyone uses email. So, if anything, it makes it much more likely people will at least see your content whereas being seen on paid search and social media is determined by many other factors that are mostly out of your control.

The best way to ensure your email marketing campaign is successful is by having a definitive goal set in mind, testing email broadcasts, making emails visually appealing, tracking how well it performs and adjusting over time. And that’s exactly why we built NewsMAIL, our email marketing tool that makes it easy for businesses to easily create effective email marketing campaigns. Get started at just $20/month or take a look at some of our prepaid plans.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #email #google #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsmail #pspinc #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

What is Web Development?

Mar

7

Web development refers to all actions required to build, maintain, and manage a website. There are three types of web development: front-end, back-end, and full-stack. Front-end development is the clint-facing side of the website, app, or digital product, and refers to everything users will see and interact with. This usually entails designing the site and developers use their knowledge of HTML, CSS, and sometimes JavaScript to do so.

Back-end development refers to everything that happens behind the scenes, ensuring a site works the way it’s supposed to. This usually includes creating a site’s basic framework, like database interactions, server, network, and hosting configuration, and business logic. To do so, back-end developers use their knowledge of server-side programming languages, which include PHP, Ruby, and Python. Lastly, full-stack development combines knowledge and tasks from front-end and back-end development, so full-stack developers usually take on more leadership roles on projects.

Steps in the Web Development Process

1. Acquire a domain name

Domain names are the unique URLs users will type into their browser windows to get to a website. Good domain names can be hard to come by, so doing this step first helps lower the chances someone else will snatch the one you want first. But the name of your domain will also heavily influence the overall design of the site.

2. Form a plan

If you’re building a website for a client, the planning steps include meeting with said client and figuring out what they need. Even if they’re not entirely sure what they’ll need, as the developer, you’ll need to determine the site’s overall purpose and goals. That will then help inform the kinds of content that will be on the site and how it’ll be arranged.

3. Create a mockup

To give you and your client a better representation of what the site will look like, create a mockup. This will generally start with a wireframe, which is a two-dimensional skeletal outline of a webpage or app. And it’ll also involve creating a sitemap, which lists files on your site to help search engines like Google crawl and index your site’s context. In addition, you may also need to create a prototype that takes the mockup a step further to show how the site will function.

4. Research your client’s target audience

Learning more about who the website’s meant for will give you a better idea of what content will be on the page. And that will then help inform how the site should look. Again, the site’s overall design should appeal to the client’s audience, encouraging them to take action like purchasing a product or staying on the site longer.

5. Build the back-end

Back-end developers will start by building the back-end of the homepage first and move on to the other pages by creating a “shell”, which front-end developers will later fill with content. During this step, developers will add functional elements like contact forms and shopping carts and make sure they work properly.

6. Build the front-end

Working on the front end of the website will focus more on the design aspect of the site and will include some basic coding using HTML and CSS, as well as JavaScript, if needed.

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

7. Test your site features

To ensure everything works the way it’s supposed to on your site, test your site features. This will prevent users from coming to your site and clicking on a broken link or encountering other issues. Another thing to look out for is seeing how different the site may look on different devices and different browsers.

8. Launch your site

After finishing the development phases, it’s time to launch your site!

9. Promote your site

While having a site is a great first step, no one will come to your site if no one knows it exists. That’s where promotion comes in, which you or the client could do in-house or outsource marketing work to an outside agency like PSPINC. Web development work doesn’t always involve a lot of marketing, but it’s important to remember that the site you’ve built and the marketing work it’ll take to promote that site directly correlate; the site needs to stand up on its own once the marketing team leads users to the site. A good marketing strategy will bring users to the site, but the site and its offering will determine if users stay and convert.

10. Monitor your site

Lastly, your web development duties may also involve monitoring the site, which includes checking website traffic, adjusting content to better optimize the site, and updating content as needed as time goes on.

If you’re looking for custom development, custom design, or even marketing services for your business, reach out for a free consultation on our website so we can work together to find the right solution for you and your business.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #website #websites

What is Location-Based Marketing?

Feb

21

Within the last few years, personalization has become a higher priority in marketing efforts, as many customers expect it on some level nowadays. In fact, a 2021 report from Mckinsey & Company found that 78% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand more than once if they personalize their marketing efforts. They also found in that same study that 70% of consumers not only expect personalization but are also frustrated when they don’t find it. As a result, 62% of consumers in 2022 reported a brand would lose their loyalty if they don’t get a personalized experience, an increase of 17% according to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization Report.

It could be as simple as referring to users’ first names in an email or customer support call or as complicated as targeting and retargeting users that would most likely be interested in what you have to offer them based on their search history. For companies with physical storefronts, one personalization marketing effort could include location-based marketing. As the name suggests, location-based marketing targets potential customers based on their physical location to capture potential customers at the right place at the right time with the right message.

Types of Location-Based Marketing

There are five different types of location-based marketing:

1. Geotargeting

Geotargeting targets users based on IP addresses, usually connected to a potential customer’s mobile device. The most popular example is Google’s search results. For example, if you search for “grocery store”, Google will use your device’s IP address to show you results of grocery stores currently near you.

2. Geofencing

Instead of IP addresses, geofencing uses GPS technology to target users. Once a target customer crosses a pre-defined border, they receive a message via a text message or push notification on their device. This is an ideal method for advertisers looking to target people in a specific area in real-time, getting potential customers right when it matters.

3. Beaconing

This approach uses beacons, or radio transmitters that emit signals towards a specific position. Advertisers place these beacons in a specific spot to connect with devices connected to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to target users. Once these users enter a designated area, it’ll signal to the beacon and users will get an in-app or email notification. Unlike geofencing, users have to opt-in and enable Bluetooth for advertisers to send content to their device, which personalizes the experience for users while also respecting their potential privacy concerns.

4. Mobile Targeting

Mobile targeting refers to ad platforms like Google Ads that let advertisers target users directly based on their mobile devices. While Google Ads can target users based on a variety of different devices, including desktop, tablet, or mobile, we’ve found that mobile users generally make up a large portion of overall users on Google’s display network.

5. Geoconquesting

Geo-conquesting, while it uses GPS technology like geofencing, aims at diverting potential customers from your competitors. It works just like geofencing except instead of creating a border around your storefront, geo-conquesting consists of setting up a perimeter around your competitor’s location.

For example, Burger King used this method to their advantage in 2018 when they promoted their app to people who were within 600 feet of a McDonald’s store. For those customers, Burger King not only promoted their app, but also advertised a limited offer for a one-cent Whopper.

For businesses, especially those with physical locations, looking to further personalize their marketing efforts, you may want to look into location-based marketing tactics. And for those looking for more digital marketing help, we have plenty of experts who’d be happy to help!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ipaddress #location #locationbasedmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #personalization #sales #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 155 “Google Ads”

Feb

16

The biggest ad network today on a global scale is Google, which makes sense because it’s also the most popular search engine. But the fact that the Google Display Network (Google’s advertising network) reaches over 90% of worldwide internet users isn’t the only reason advertisers love it so much. It’s also the fact that Google Ads can fit with almost any budget. And Google specifically designed its algorithm to help marketers accomplish their marketing objectives.

For a small business, Google Ads is arguably the best way to increase brand awareness. Google’s Display Network reaches over one billion users every month, which is a testament to how much potential reach your ads could have. An effective Google ad campaign is highly dependent on two things: overall budget and effective ad copy and graphics. But striking the right balance between the two isn’t a skill every small business owner has. That’s why we offer marketing services to those who could use a little more help with their marketing strategy. And that, of course, includes helping you create an effective paid ad campaign on Google.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #google #googleads #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

How to Set Up a Facebook Ad

Feb

7

One of the easiest ways to increase visibility online as a small business is through paid ads. As we’ve mentioned before, organic social posts have a limited reach. One of the easiest and most affordable paid advertising options is Facebook ads.

Facebook makes it easy for marketers to create and run ads. After logging into Facebook, you’ll find the Meta (Facebook’s parent company) Business Suite on the left navigation bar, which is where you’ll be able to set up, monitor, and review your Facebook Ads. After opening Meta Business Suite, you can start by clicking on Ads on the left-hand side after selecting the Facebook page you’d like to run ads from. Then, click on Create Ad in the top-right corner. From there, you have three different options:

From There, You Can:

meta business suite create ad screenshot

Create Automated Ads

Facebook offers this option to make it easier for beginners, as it adjusts over time based on its algorithm. However, automated ads don't give marketers as much control over their ads to make them as specific as they might like them to be.

Boost Existing Content

If you already have a well-performing social post on either Facebook on Instagram, this option lets you boost that post. Boosting essentially helps that post be seen by more people, increasing the likelihood that users will take whatever action you'd like them to, whether it's engaging with the post or clicking on a link.

Start a New Ad Campaign

This option lets you choose a specific goal that you'd like your marketing campaign to accomplish. To start, you'll choose a goal, which could be:

· Getting more website visitors.

· Promoting your post.

· Promoting your business locally.

· Getting more leads.

· Getting more messages.

From there, you'll input the information to create the ad, which could include targeting options, ad copy, images, ad scheduling and duration, placements, and payment information. Then, clicking on "Promote now" will start your ad campaign.

Monitor Your Ads

meta business suite ads summary screenshot

After setting up your ad campaign, you can continually monitor it as it runs as well as after it ends. To see how your ads are performing, check Ads Summary, which is the default screen you'll see when clicking on Ads on the left navigation bar. From there, you'll see the Advertising Summary, Recent ads, Recommendations, and Audience sections.

The Advertising Summary shows you:

Overall reach: the number of people who saw your ad. This, however, doesn’t include multiple views from the same people.

Post engagement: the number of engagements people made involving your ad. This could include liking, commenting, sharing, or clicking on the link included in your ad.

Link clicks: the number of clicks your ad received.

Page likes: the number of likes your Facebook page gained because of your ad.

Recent ads will show you your most recent ad campaigns, with the option to view all ads if you’d like to see how a past ad performed. Recommendations, as the name suggests, show suggestions Facebook recommends to help you improve your overall ads. And lastly, Audience gives you more insight into your audience, i.e. your Facebook page followers and those who interacted with your past posts and/or ads. That information includes demographic data like age, gender, and location as well as where your ads were placed.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

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PSPINC Official Company Blog

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What Goes into an Effective Marketing Plan?

Initial Steps

Tactics & Mockups

Marketing Objectives and a Strategy Statement

SMART Objectives

A Marketing Strategy

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 164 “Marketing with Audio”

Create an Effective Marketing Strategy with a SWOT Analysis

How to Create a SWOT Analysis

Everything You Need to Know About the Potential TikTok Ban

TikTok’s Data Security Concerns

How Advertisers Are Responding

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 160 “Email Marketing Compared to Other Marketing Tactics”

What is Web Development?

Steps in the Web Development Process

What is Location-Based Marketing?

Types of Location-Based Marketing

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 155 “Google Ads”

How to Set Up a Facebook Ad

From There, You Can:

Monitor Your Ads

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latest comments

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Initial Steps

Tactics & Mockups

People Who Wowed This Post

SMART Objectives

A Marketing Strategy

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

How to Create a SWOT Analysis

People Who Wowed This Post

TikTok’s Data Security Concerns

How Advertisers Are Responding

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

Steps in the Web Development Process

People Who Wowed This Post

Types of Location-Based Marketing

People Who Wowed This Post

People Who Wowed This Post

From There, You Can:

Monitor Your Ads

People Who Wowed This Post

introduction

bloguru friends

calendar

latest comments

hashtags

history