Saffire Blog

Facebook’s Power Editor Gets an Upgrade

Here at Saffire, we love using Facebook’s Power Editor! This tool is especially helpful when creating a large number of ads, like for an event or social media campaign. The Power Editor enables advertisers to save time by creating ads in bulk as well as mass-editing their ads and posts across all campaigns, accounts and … Continue reading “Facebook’s Power Editor Gets an Upgrade”

Here at Saffire, we love using Facebook’s Power Editor! This tool is especially helpful when creating a large number of ads, like for an event or social media campaign. The Power Editor enables advertisers to save time by creating ads in bulk as well as mass-editing their ads and posts across all campaigns, accounts and pages. This tool will save you time and allows you to be more accurate than Ads Manager.

If you currently use Power Editor, you might have already known that it recently got a MUCH needed update. It now has some brand new features as well as old ones that now appear in different places. Don’t panic! The Power Editor’s design has changed quite a bit, but still functions the same. You will be a pro in now time as you just play around with the Editor.

Side Navigation

Let’s talk about the changes made. The navigation items on are now on top, displayed for easy access. The new side navigation display icons represent the campaign, ad sets and ad groups. When you click any of these levels, you’ll get all of the information on the right-hand side. You’re no longer going to see a list of campaigns, ad sets and ads on the left; so it is important to use the filtering.

Editing

One of the biggest changes in the new Power Editor is that it now has more room to show lists of campaigns, ad sets and ads. You’ll no longer see a separator between the list and the editing pane. Whether you’re creating or editing a campaign, ad set or ad, the next view will look the same. If you want to edit a campaign, just click on the pencil image on the right. The editing pane will fly out from right to left and take over the majority of your screen. Once you’re done, just click on the pencil again and the editing pane will close. For you Saffire users, this is very similar to the way that we have editing set up!

Search

The Search feature at the top left-hand corner is used to filter the list by Campaign Name, Ad Set Name, Ad Name, Campaign ID, Ad Set ID, Ad ID or Tag. You can also use the Filters drop-down menu to narrow down the list. The filtering options are categorized in the dropdown menu. Once you click on any of the options, the selected filter will appear on the right (some filters will require you to choose a variable). This feature will come in handy if you have lots of ads.

Reporting

Power Editor also has a place for all of your saved reports. To get there, click on the Reporting link at the top of the page and you’ll be able to see your scheduled reports. The list will show sample reports from Facebook as well as the custom reports that you’ve created. It also lets you generate a report while viewing a filtered campaign list under Manage Ads.

Keep in mind that trying out the new version of Power Editor will not affect anyone else who currently works on your ad account. You also have the option switch back to the older version if you’re not comfortable. All you need to do to see the old version is click on the Help drop-down at the top right-hand corner and choose “Use older version of Power Editor.”

Video Marketing for the Masses

The mere thought of a need to create a “video campaign” scares even the savviest of marketers. “Someone spare me if I had to be featured in a video!” or “I have no idea how to film videos nice enough for marketing campaigns!” they think. According to Vidyard, “The play button is the most compelling … Continue reading “Video Marketing for the Masses”

According to Vidyard, “The play button is the most compelling call to action on the web.” The video marketing pioneer just may be right—even I myself am more likely to click and watch a video than just read a bunch of text. Also, wouldn’t YOU want someone to hang out on your website for the duration of a full one- to two-minute video? 55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on your website. Think about what you can show someone in a video in two minutes versus what they could read in 15 seconds. The difference is staggering.

Creating videos to promote your brand doesn’t have to be scary! 2015 has been said to be the “year of video marketing”, so you are right on trend if you start planning now. Think about all of your marketing goals for this year. Where can you incorporate video marketing? Planning is the first step to success. If you don’t actively plan to include videos when appropriate, it will always be a “tomorrow” project.. Incorporate video marketing in to your strategies you already have in place. Use a calendar, and set goal dates for your videos to launch.

Also, make sure to incorporate videos in to your social media plan. Have you noticed lately on Facebook, how videos automatically play when you scroll by on the newsfeed? Make sure your first few seconds are super compelling since your customers are somewhat forced to watch that part as they are browsing. If the first few seconds of your video are interesting enough, people will stop scrolling long enough to watch the rest.

Once you have posted videos to your social media, make sure to go back and post them on your website too. Your website is where you earn revenue—so make sure to place videos near buying opportunities. If you sell tickets to an event on your website, make sure someone can watch a video about that event, that’s really close in proximity to the buy button. If you are trying to get facility rentals, place videos of your facilities near the rental form. If you’re selling a destination, place videos near the bed and breakfast links or attraction tickets buttons. People who watch a video on your website are up to 12 times more likely to make a purchase or complete another call to action, such as signing up for your email list, so make it easy for your customers to make the transition from videos to dollars in your pocket!

Finally, don’t get stuck on the length of your videos. If you end up with promo spots that only last 15-30 seconds, it’s totally fine! Remember, people have a really short attention span on the web, and if your videos are long, you may not actually get viewers to watch to the end. Think about Vine—an entire social media network (with 40 million users) comprised of videos that last a maximum of six seconds. 1.5 billion of these six-second videos are watched daily as of this January.

A video marketer doesn’t have to be a professional videographer. We all are almost always carrying a video camera—our smart phones! Think about small ways you can start incorporating video marketing in to your strategy, and watch your plans lead to “ACTION!”

You’ve Got to Pin it to Win it!

Seriously Saffire, another Social Media site we have to maintain? Yes! With 70 million users and 28% of online US adults using the site, it is definitely worth pinning for a few minutes a day! Do you know what the fastest growing demographic on Pinterest is? Men! Currently, 79% of users are female with only … Continue reading “You’ve Got to Pin it to Win it!”

Seriously Saffire, another Social Media site we have to maintain? Yes! With 70 million users and 28% of online US adults using the site, it is definitely worth pinning for a few minutes a day!

Do you know what the fastest growing demographic on Pinterest is? Men! Currently, 79% of users are female with only 21% male. But when you consider that in 2014 the number of men using Pinterest doubled and there are now more men using the site than read Sports Illustrated and GQ combined, Pinterest is quickly breaking free of the stereotypical recipe and interior design rapport. Pinterest recently announced a change to its site’s search settings, which will now filter search results based on whether you’re interested in products for men or for women. By introducing these new search filters, Pinterest shows its devotion to diversifying its customer base.

In late 2013, Pinterest introduced one of its best features: Place Pins! If you are a destination marketing organization (DMO), Place Pins provides users with great, rich information about your destination in a map format. Place Pins allows for more context and information for travelers and requires minimal effort from a DMO. Below is an example from two different Pure Michigan’s boards which shows how much more interactive a destination post can be when placed on a map.

If you are planning an event, one of the best ways to get pinners involved is to easily collect photos from attendees! The Pinterest mobile app allows event attendees to pin photos from their mobile devices. At some point during the event, invite attendees to contribute to a collaborator board (i.e. a board named 25^th Annual Saffire Valley Rodeo) and you have a real-time, crowd-sourced photo album! To make it even more successful, you can even turn this board into a contest and give prizes to the pinner with the most repinned photos.

If your organization does not have a Pinterest yet and need help getting started, check out our tips on creating a successful Pinterest page: Click Here! Let us know what Pinterest strategies you use and what has been successful for your organization!

FACEBOOK BUSINESS MANAGER IN A NUTSHELL – Guest Blog from Jen Smith Social

Finally, Facebook’s new secret tool is finally out! Facebook recently announced the launch of Business Manager, a tool that helps brands, app developers and agencies manage accounts, Pages, apps and permissions all in one platform. MANAGE FACEBOOK EASILY Business Manager simplifies Facebook advertising efforts by integrating all aspects of Facebook marketing into one easy-to-use tool. … Continue reading “FACEBOOK BUSINESS MANAGER IN A NUTSHELL – Guest Blog from Jen Smith Social”

Finally, Facebook’s new secret tool is finally out!

Facebook recently announced the launch of Business Manager, a tool that helps brands, app developers and agencies manage accounts, Pages, apps and permissions all in one platform.

MANAGE FACEBOOK EASILY

Business Manager simplifies Facebook advertising efforts by integrating all aspects of Facebook marketing into one easy-to-use tool. This is useful for users who manage their own marketing or on behalf of a brand. For example, if the user is part of an in-house marketing team or their own personal business.

This tool also takes Facebook to a more professional level, since it separates personal from business experience. While people can use a personal email and login to access ad accounts and Pages for management, you won’t need to friend other team members at work just to collaborate. Business Manager allows you to also get notifications using a work email instead of personal address. BONUS: You wont need to switch from your personal account to “use as page” whenever you need to work on your ad campaigns.

BUSINESS MANAGER TOP FEATURES

1. View Pages, ad accounts, apps and permissions linked to your brand

2. Add people on your team who can access campaign assets and collaborate on tasks.

3. Manage external partners, like agencies or Preferred Marketing Developers (PMDs), that are integrated to your Pages, ad accounts and apps

4. For professional advertisers, you can organize all of your clients’ Pages, ad accounts and apps permissions, as well as collaboration permissions.

5. With Business Manager, you’re in total control of all aspects of your Facebook business advertising. You can add, delete and manage ad campaign accounts linked to your business

As well as add or remove permissions to employees and external partners for your ad accounts, apps and Pages.

The tool is very intuitive and designed to help users without a technical background work efficiently. With just a few clicks, it reduces time spent on setting up and managing pages in addition to campaigns. Team members and partners can easily view and organize what’s going on behind the scenes of a Facebook account. I highly recommend taking a few minutes to check out the tool for yourself to see if your business can benefits from features.

Right now Business Manager is only available to select users in the US. Facebook plans for a full roll-out internationally over the next couple of weeks.

To learn more or to get started, you can visit business.facebook.com.

So what do you think? Will you use Business Manager? Do you have access to Facebook Business Manager yet?
Leave a comment below!

* Images from Facebook for Business

Saffire would like to thank Jen Smith with Jen Smith Social for this great guest blog!

Promo Code Palooza

Promo codes:Customers love them, so using promo codes as a part of your marketing strategy can be very lucrative! With technology, media and entertainment fighting for everyone’s attention, sometimes a small discount is the necessary push to seal the deal. In the event, venue, and destination industries, the product is all about the experience. We know that everyone loves a deal, but many are reluctant to discount tickets. Using promo codes as part of your marketing strategy is actually very lucrative and allows you to sell more advanced tickets. Below are a few of the strategies that you can implement.

Social Media:

Using social media outlets is a great way to push out your marketing message and your promo code. Make sure to post visually-appealing graphics to ALL of your social media outlets. Remember, in order to reach your audience on social media most effectively, you will need to pay for social media advertising. (See our article: All Gain, No Pain: Eliminate Guesswork on Facebook Ads)

Traditional Media Outlets:

Many events have partnerships with local radio stations, television stations, and newspapers. Make sure and use the “old-school” but still very successful forms of advertising to push your promo code.

Email Blasts:

Reward your fans that have subscribed to your email marketing by offering them an exclusive discount. This is a great place to promote advanced ticket sales. Email marketing is actually one of the quickest and cheapest ways to provoke online purchasing. In fact, when customers were asked what factors lead to mobile purchases, 56% said email. Not to mention, there are three times more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. (See our article: Email Marketing (Still) isn’t Dead! )

The Sponsored Promo Code:

This is a great way to still receive full price for your tickets if you’re worried about giving a discount with a promo code! Try to get someone to sponsor any promo codes that you offer. Reach out to local retailers, restaurants, and even big companies (i.e. Coca-Cola) and have them sponsor the discounted amount.

You and the sponsor can decide what outlets this code will be advertised through (social media, television, print, etc.) The selling point to your sponsor is that they can set the promo code as anything they want, in order to drive brand and product recognition (i.e. Promo code = Coca-Cola). You can also advertise for a sponsor by placing a custom description in the purchaser’s cart (i.e. Enjoy a Coke at the Fair!) after the promo code has been added to an online order. Finally, after the ticket has been purchased, you can even place sponsor branding on print at home tickets (i.e. Coca-Cola logo) where a promo code was applied.

Measuring success:

We often say, “If you’re not measuring your marketing, you’re not marketing!” A great way to measure the success of your promo code marketing efforts is to use different codes on different outlets. Slightly change the code that will identify where that code was advertised. For example:

Embrace the promo code! We hope this has given you some great ideas to start a promo code campaign along with how to get someone else to pay for the offered discount!

Online Marketing Trends to Prevent the Budgeting Blues

For many organizations, September 30th marked the day that the 2014 fiscal year rolled over; whether you are new to the industry or a seasoned professional, planning your budget for the new fiscal year can be rather stressful! As an event, venue or destination, (DMO) it is your responsibility to bring in visitors to your local … Continue reading “Online Marketing Trends to Prevent the Budgeting Blues”

For many organizations, September 30^th marked the day that the 2014 fiscal year rolled over; whether you are new to the industry or a seasoned professional, planning your budget for the new fiscal year can be rather stressful! As an event, venue or destination, (DMO) it is your responsibility to bring in visitors to your local community by successfully marketing your brand and product. Knowing where to effectively place budget dollars can be challenging with all the new platforms and technology available today. We all know that a strong online marketing mix is a must but with new technology being introduced daily, how do you know where to focus your efforts and invest? Have no fear: Saffire is here to provide a closer look into what marketers are focusing on in 2014 – 2015!

Website, website, website. We cannot stress the importance of this enough. In today’s technology-driven environment, it is crucial to carry a strong online presence to keep your clients informed, entertained and engaged. Bottom line: the lack of a beautiful, interactive website results in lost revenue for your organization (through ticket sales or tax revenue). If you have an inadequate presence, people quickly move on to the next organization with a website that can easily close the sale. These sites have to be easily accessible on all platforms (mobile and web) and must be dynamic sites. DMO’s have spent more than $39 million on website and mobile app development in the last three years and that number continues to grow on an annual basis (The Destination Marketing Landscape: The Role of DMOs). Along with increased presence usually comes increased staff as more than three-quarters of DMO’s use a Content Management System (CMS) and almost half have at least one staff person devoted to website content management (abouttourism.wordpress.com). Here at Saffire, we know that content management can be time consuming and that is why we created a CMS system that cuts down the time devoted to editing on other CMS platforms.

#socialmedia. Social media websites continue to implement new and innovative advertising strategies that organizations can utilize to reach their audiences. With these new strategies comes an increase of the “pay to play” marketing style that many social media sites have adopted. It is now estimated that only 3% of your Facebook followers will see your posts if you do not pay for advertising. As the social media marketing game changes and grows more complex for marketers, many organizations plan to increase their social media efforts in 2015. Many of these organizations have at least one full-time employee dedicated to creating an existence through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. In 2014, it was forecasted that 40% of DMO’s in the $10-25K budget level plan on expanding their social media team (Destinationmarketing.org).

Below is a detailed breakdown from fredericogonzalo.com presenting how a social media budget is allocated in a typical DMO. As you can see, paid promotion through tweets and Facebook ads is highly important to leaders in this industry.

Social media has also been proven to drive sales and attendance for all types of events that your organization might plan or host. Your social media presence allows attendees or visitors to bond before, during and after an event of vacation by connecting with others who have the same interests in your product. Music festival attendees are a prime example, as 65% tweet or post to their social networks during a live concert, 56% upload photos of the event and 31% write reviews of their experience (New Trends Impacting Festivals and Consumer Events).

The social media marketing game is not rigged and research shows that it is worth the investment. As part of the Social Commerce Report for Festivals and Consumer Conventions, Eventbrite calculated the value of social media sharing in terms of awareness and ticket sales. The study found that Facebook shares were worth about $4.15 in future ticket sales and generated 15 views of the event’s ticketing page. Twitter drives nearly 28 event page views, or almost 2 times the number of views than Facebook and $2.18 per tweeted share (eventbrite.com/festivals).

For more information about Facebook Advertising, please see our blog post: 5 Steps to Help Your Event, Venue or Destination Take Off With Facebook Advertising.

Get your name out there. Online advertising is an excellent way to reach your audience on both a local and international level. In fact, more and more organizations are beginning to market to local, national, and international visitors, primarily using online advertising campaigns. Online advertising produces immediate and traceable results, allowing organizations to save time and cut costs in comparison to traditional marketing (radio, TV and print), which tends to be more expensive. Banner ads, e-blasts, newsletters and digital campaigns through third party agencies are examples of popular ways to gain exposure and generate your brand to possible attendees or visitors.

Of the online marketing tools, email marketing is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to get attendees to purchase tickets and travelers to book hotel rooms. Using a mass email marketing tool like Saffire Mail or Constant Contact is an easy, low cost way to send an email blast! For a more in depth look at email marketing, please see our previous blog post, Email Marketing (Still) Isn’t Dead.

Email Marketing (still) Isn’t Dead!

So you’ve probably heard us say something about the importance of email marketing—and we promise it’s not dead! Email marketing is actually one of the quickest and cheapest ways to provoke online purchasing. In fact, when customers were asked what factors lead to mobile purchases, 56% said email. Not to mention, there are three times more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. Some of you might be thinking “okay we get it, but what now?” Whether you’re a pro or starting from square one, here are some guidelines that will help you come up with killer campaigns!

Look into a mass marketing tool. Seriously, it helps. Some of you have tens of thousands of contacts and no easy way to reach them. That’s where mass marketing tools like SaffireMail or Constant Contact come in handy. They allow you to market to your audience in a creative, efficient way while also allowing you to track the results of your campaigns. While we’re on the subject, tracking results is HUGELY important because it lets you know what’s working and with whom. Your customers’ behavior is telling you something–make sure you’re listening!
Come up with a plan. “Email marketing plan” might sound intimidating, but it actually has some very simple steps that can fuel your online success.
- Step 1: Define your purpose. Do you want to increase attendance at a concert? Cool! Do you want to make sure everyone’s aware of a date change? That’s cool too! Whatever your purpose may be, go into your email marketing with clear goals in mind so that you can minimize confusion and maximize results.
- Step 2: Define your readers. Come up with a target audience–a group that you really want to reach out to. This might change depending on the type of event or the time of year, but by targeting your content to a certain audience, you increase your chances of engagement.
- Step 3: Determine your content. Think about what you want your readers to get out of what they’re reading and the action you want them to take because of your email. Focus on making sure that your content stays on track with provoking that action. Business Consultant, Faith Popcorn, said it best when she said “consumers crave recognition of their individuality.” Your content needs to speak to the individual in order to increase your chances of getting results, so do your best to make each person in that audience feel as though the message was tailor-made for them.
- Step 4: Determine your frequency. This is another thing that might change depending on the nature of your event or the time of year. For example, some fairs or rodeos have one major event for the entire year. Their email marketing frequency would obviously increase as their event date approaches, we would even go so far as to recommend a Daily Highlights Email. The important thing to remember here is that you have to be aware of what works best for you and your audience by paying attention to results. And remember, NEVER sacrifice quality for quantity.
Treat your readers like VIPs. There’s a reason that we put an email sign up option on every page of our sites, because we want to entice those visitors who are willing to trust us with their email address. Don’t break that trust by spamming them with non-stop promo emails or irrelevant information. You want to make your readers feel like they’re benefiting from being a subscriber. This means providing them with exclusive new deals or info, things that will keep them happy and loyal.

When it comes to email marketing, keep yourself in mind. What do you hate seeing in your own inbox? What entices you enough to make you click? Chances are that if you hate something, so will your audience. So in order to break through all of the marketing and ad clutter that consumers are bombarded with everyday, you need to show them that you understand them as a consumer and as a fan. Your audience wants to hear from you, so give them something worth reading!

Online Superstitions – BUSTED!

It’s Friday the 13th so we wanted to go through our top 5 online misconceptions we hear and discredit them where they stand! We want you to feel comfortable online and put to rest any fears you may have that keep you from moving forward in this ever-changing digital world. 5. All web browsers are … Continue reading “Online Superstitions – BUSTED!”

5. All web browsers are created equal – NO WAY! It’s clear to us that Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are top notch! Make your online experience easier and ditch Internet Explorer as it is the most victimized browser out there.

4. It’s dangerous to make a purchase on my mobile device – WRONG! It’s totally safe- just keep these tips in mind:

Look for the padlock symbol at the top of the page next to the website’s name (like above) when you’re purchasing in a browser. If you don’t see it, DON’T buy it. This icon let’s you know the site is encrypted (information that has been coded so that only authorized parties can actually read it).
Use an app! Apps generally provide a much easier purchasing process for you while keeping your privacy a priority. Sites like Ebay and Amazon have apps that are user-friendly AND safe!
41% of smartphone owners have made a purchase on mobile – so we know that online security will continue to grow for mobile ecommerce. (Does this stat make you think twice about your customer? Maybe you should sell your tickets online this year!)

3. Facebook advertising is too expensive – we’ve seen success with just $3 a day committed to Facebook advertising! Less than $100 a month can give you more reach and interaction with your customers on social media – Americans spend an average of 127 minutes per day in their mobile apps!

2. Online banking is a risky idea – actually your personal information is just as vulnerable offline as it is online. Due to the fact that banks use encryption software and test their security in real-world scenarios, your account info is VERY secure and safe to be handled over the internet. However, a few checks you can give yourself before banking are:

Are you on a secure network? NEVER type in passwords or bank account numbers while on a public Wi-Fi (like at Starbucks), this includes making purchases with your credit card on ANY website over a wireless network that you don’t know. Even on mobile, your wireless provider’s network (like 3G, 4G and LTE) will be safer than free wi-fi.
Just like using your mobile device to make a purchase, check for the “s” in the beginning of the URL (https://www.saffireevents.com) and a padlock icon in your browser when on a website (sometimes there will be a green bar or green URL – these are very safe).

1. Yeah we have a website, that’s all we need – NOT TRUE! Just because your website exists doesn’t mean people are finding it

Be sure your site is listed on MULTIPLE search engines. Add keywords and descriptions to the important pages of your website within your admin tool (or have your web provider update this).
Cross market! Send people to your website from your social media – hyperlinking is very easy with Facebook and convenient tools like bit.ly help you shrink the length of a URL so they fit nicely in a tweet on Twitter.
Your website needs to be UP-TO-DATE! Leaving last year’s dates or irrelevant content on your website all year long is NOT the way to keep your customers engaged and trusting your website. Refreshing your homepage with new and exciting images will keep folks coming back for more too, instead of leaving your site immediately.

5 Steps to Help Your Event, Venue or Destination Take Off With Facebook Advertising

If you’ve seen one of our many presentations in 2014, you’ve probably heard us mention the importance of Facebook advertising. In September, Facebook made a change to its algorithm, drastically reducing the reach of business posts. In December, they did it again and now only an estimated 3% of your followers will see your posts … Continue reading “5 Steps to Help Your Event, Venue or Destination Take Off With Facebook Advertising”

If you’ve seen one of our many presentations in 2014, you’ve probably heard us mention the importance of Facebook advertising. In September, Facebook made a change to its algorithm, drastically reducing the reach of business posts. In December, they did it again and now only an estimated 3% of your followers will see your posts if you don’t advertise. With that in mind, we’ve put together our top 5 basic steps to get started with Facebook advertising.

Step 1 – Ads Manager & Power Editor: When you’re first getting started with Facebook advertising it’s sometimes hard to find where to begin. Once you’ve accessed the “Ads Manager” page it will show as a link on your Facebook “Home” page on the left side navigation, but for your first entry point you can start by clicking on this link: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/. If you manage several business pages, you’ll want to make sure you have your Account dropdown in the top left corner set to the correct account. The “Ads Manager” is where you’ll set up your billing information, your users who are allowed access to your ads, and where you’ll access your reports. Once you have the billing information set up, you can click on “Power Editor” to actually start building your audiences and campaigns. Each time you go into the Power Editor you will want to click the “Download to Power Editor” button to ensure you’re working with the latest data.

Step 2 – Audience: Once you’re in the Power Editor, you’ll want to start building some audiences to target your ads to. There are 3 different types of audiences you can create. The first is a Target Group that allows you to select different user demographics that match the demographics of your audience. If you’re a venue or event you may want to set up a target group that lives within a 50 mile radius, and is “interested in” a specific performer coming to your stage, or sponsors supporting your events, or local media outlets. If you’re a destination, you may want to target a different city or state that you know travels to your area frequently, along with a specific age group, or parents of children in a specific age group. You can also create target groups of people who “Like” your page and their friends. There are a ton of options here so we recommend you explore the possibilities. The 2nd type of audience is a Custom Audience. This is a spreadsheet of email addresses that you’ve collected for your newsletter, volunteers, sponsors, board members, etc. that you can upload to Facebook and it will search for Facebook accounts tied to that email list. You can also create a custom audience of people who visit your website. The 3rd audience type is a Lookalike Audience which Facebook creates based off the demographics of your uploaded Custom Audience, and matches those demographics to other Facebook users with similar likes, interests, ages and locations.

Step 3 – Campaigns, Ad Sets & Ads: Now that you have your audiences set up, you can start creating those ads. There are 3 levels of ad creation. The top level is the Campaign. The Campaign is where you set the Objective of a group of ads. The ad objectives range from increasing engagement with your posts (generating more likes, shares and comments on a specific post), to increasing page likes (the number of people who are following your business page), to increasing website conversions (actually getting users to click through to your website and make a purchase). The Ad Set is the middle level of a group of ads and is where you set your budget and the start and end date for the group. Important tip: Please note that Facebook defaults your ad set to run continuously with no end date and with a $10 daily budget. You can edit this amount and add an end date if you would like. We’ve seen success with budgets as low as $3/day. You can have multiple ad sets within a campaign which helps you budget different amounts to different groups of ads. The bottom layer is the Ad itself. You can make an ad out of any of the following: a post that is already live, a post that is scheduled to go live in the future, or an unpublished post that doesn’t actually show on your business page but does show on your audience’s wall. You can have many ads within an ad set, and this allows you to create an ad for each audience using the same content for each or possibly different content depending on your needs. When you create the ad you need to set the name and select the post on the first tab, set the audience on the second tab and set the “Optimization & Pricing” on the third tab. I typically use the Optimized CPM option to allow Facebook to determine the best mix of how to spend my set budget between my ads within an ad set.

Step 4: Create an editorial calendar and budget for your Facebook advertising that will help you determine how much you will be spending throughout the year. Consider ramping up your budget in the weeks leading up to tickets going on sale and while tickets are on sale, and then lowering it during your off-season. Your editorial calendar should reflect milestone dates for your venue, event or destination as well as for your surrounding community and national holidays and events so your posts can be relevant to what your fans are already paying attention to. Consider scheduling contests and promotions to garner excitement and use that as an opportunity to spend additional advertising budget on posts that your audience will be most excited about. Whether you’re spending a dollar a day or $50 a day, you’ll be guaranteeing that more people will see your posts than if you do not advertise at all.

Step 5: Practice makes perfect and this is a format that will likely take a bit of trial and error. If you’re looking at the reporting during a campaign and realizing that a target audience isn’t responding, think about what needs to change for that audience to work better. Adjust your settings and keep moving forward. If you notice that posts with images or promotions get better traction than posts without those things, then do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.

With over 1 billion monthly active users, Facebook is space that cannot be ignored, but you simply won’t be seen without spending some advertising dollars there!

Remove Internet Explorer- Your Mom Would Do It!

At least—I think your mom would remove Explorer if you asked her nicely! My mom did. Why you ask? Frankly, there are lots of reasons. Some of them are a tad bit geeky (NERD ALERT!) but I promise your life will be better without it! You may have heard about the Internet Explorer bug, where … Continue reading “Remove Internet Explorer- Your Mom Would Do It!”

You may have heard about the Internet Explorer bug, where your browser lets a hacker control your computer. If you’re using Explorer and you click on the wrong link, your computer could be taken over! Yikes! How do you avoid this? Just don’t use Internet Explorer. Microsoft claims they’ve fixed this problem, but others say they’re still having issues. Why take that chance? (My mom gets viruses on her computer like it’s her hobby. We vaccinated by removing Explorer.) Why do hackers target Explorer? For better or worse, it remains one of the most popular tools to surf the web and has been for a long time. Hackers see it as the most valuable use of their time to target IE.
IE version 11 now has something called “Enterprise Mode”, where the browser can automatically switch back to version 8 so that websites not built to handle later versions won’t break. (To me, Enterprise Mode reminds me of Star Trek. “Beam me up Scotty!”) In any case, a convincing thought for many is that their browser shouldn’t need something that reverts them to an older version in the first place. I think most of us don’t take the time to open up another browser to check to see if that’s the problem when a website doesn’t load. We may as well start where we have the best chance of seeing a website as it’s intended, which is in a completely different browser.
My mom revels in the day she got her iPhone. She’s still learning to use it, but she told me the other day that when she went to a website in Google Chrome on her phone, and then went to the same page in Chrome from her iPad, the web address auto-filled before she could even finish typing in the address. Cool right, Mom? It’s because you’re using a great internet browser! Internet Explorer doesn’t have these same multi-device syncing capabilities. By using Explorer, you can severely limit yourself on several options like this without even realizing what you’re missing.

The moral of the story is that the best use of Internet Explorer is to download a new internet browser. If you are ready to download a new browser now, we recommend Google Chrome or Firefox. Both are free and can have you browsing better in minutes!