Facebook Advertising: Design Your Advert

So, now you have your budget set, some 135 character descriptions and some type of photo that is relevant to your shop. Now it is time to start your ad. It is time to head over to  http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/

At some point before you create your ad you will have to set your payment option. You are able to use either a credit card or PayPal. The way Facebook bills is pretty random. They will wait until you have spent $10 to $18 and then bill your credit card or your PayPal account.

Step one is to determine where you will send people who click on your ad. Clicking on "Destination" will bring up a drop-down list of all the pages you have on your account. Choose the page that you want to associate with the ad.  Next choose Facebook Adverts and Facebook Adverts for pages.

Next is the Destination Tab. If you have a personalized landing page, I would suggest sending them there. (I will have an article about personalized landing pages soon) Otherwise, you should probably just send them to your wall. Title is set by Facebook and is grayed out.

Next you get to enter your body(description). Facebook says: "Use this section to further explain the product or service that your advert is about. Emphasise benefits to the user, unique qualities of your product/service and any special offers. End with a clear call-to-action that users should take if they like your advert." I would refrain from saying things like "Click Here" or "For More Information" and just stick with a nice relevant description of your shop.

That concludes the Design your Advert section and today's lesson. Tomorrow I will go through the "Targeting" section. Let me know if you have any questions.

More on Facebook Advertising

You have managed to set aside some advertising dollars. You are ready to start advertising your Facebook Fan Page, or are you. Before you start advertising you need to make sure your Facebook Fan Page is set up correctly, looks great and is engaging. Click "facebook" in the Labels section to the right will bring up several articles I have written on making sure your facebook is doing what it needs to be doing.

If you are confident, then it is time to move on to your first step. Go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising/ and click on "Create an Advert. You must be logged into your profile that your Fan Page was created from. If you are not, Facebook will give you the option to switch to it.

Once you get to the actual page where you create the advertisement, take some time to hover over each and every "?" to see what each item is. Before we move on, I would like you to write up three or four descriptions of your business using only 135 characters. That will be the length of your ad. Be creative. Be engaging. Be mysterious. Be direct. Be what you think will make people want to click on your ad.

That is all for today. I'll be back tomorrow and we'll look at what needs to be filled out to create your ad. In the meantime, I would like to know what your fan base is on your Facebook page. 

Facebook Ads For Your Etsy Shop

Before we get down to the step by step process, I would like to share a little bit of information on the best way to use Facebook advertising, or any advertising for that matter. I would like to share some of my trial and errors so that you do not have to go through the same mistakes.

First of all, you want repeat business from every customer. That is the main goal. Originally I was using Facebook Ads and Google AdWords to point people to my main website: http://www.TangledMetal.com I have nothing for sale on my site. The only way I could track my hits was Google Analytic. It is difficult at best to see who was coming back. I chalked that up to not a good use of advertising dollars.

Next thing I did was use Facebook Ads and Google AdWords pointing to my Etsy shop: http://TangledMetal.etsy.com Though I did see an increase in traffic during the time I was pointing to Etsy there was still no real way of finding out who was coming to the shop because of the ads and certainly no way of knowing if the people who bought were a direct result of the ads or not.

My last experiment was to try and get people to "Like" my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TangledMetal This concept makes the most sense of any of the previous ideas. Once someone is a fan of your Facebook page you have them. Of course they could "unLike" your page but statics show that is not very likely. Once they are a fan you can track purchases by sharing coupon codes to just your fans. It also gives you a boost because you see the number of fans growing every day.

Tomorrow I will get in the "how to's" and "step by step" of setting up Facebook Ads. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Either by comment or through email: MarketMyShop.blogger.com

Share Your Shop Today!

Yesterday was my daughter's 17th birthday. Today we are going out to celebrate! So, I will resume the Facebook ad series next week.

Today, share your shop! Make a comment with your shop name and web address. You might even give a little description too. I encourage each and every one of you to go visit a shop and favorite an item and or the entire shop.

My shop is Tangled Metal http://www.etsy.com/shop/TangledMetal I create handmade chainmail armor, jewelry and home decor. I also create steampunk jewelry using clock, pocket watch and watch parts along with hand cut copper and brass.

See you all next week. Have a GREAT weekend!

Facebook Advertising for Etsy

I have tried a few forms of advertising, from Google AdWords to buying impressions on blogs. So far, the best results have come from my Facebook Ad Campaign. In the last three months I went from just under 500 to over 1100 fans to my Facebook page. That does not seem like much but it has brought a lot of traffic to my Etsy shop and I can directly attribute several sales directly from my Facebook page.

Before I start to get into how to go about starting a Facebook Advertising Campaign let me first talk about budgeting. We all set budgets for materials, internet and tools. If you want to have a successful advertising campaign you must set a budget. My budget right now is $50 a month. That is  $600 a year. It seems like a lot but the return can be huge.

The great thing about Facebook advertising is that the fans you have are a short term and long term investment. The fan may not buy from you today or tomorrow or even this year, but one day you'll post the right picture or special and that person will buy something that pays for a full month of advertising.

So, with all of that being said, sit down and try to figure out what it will take to dedicate $50 a month for advertising. It might mean no Starbucks coffee for a few days. It might mean not renting a movie or buying a pair of shoes. Whatever you have to sacrifice today will worth every penny and more in the future. Don't even call it a sacrifice, call it a postponement.

That is all for today. Come back tomorrow with your $50 a month budget. If you cannot come up with a $50 a month budget come up with some form of steady advertising budget that you can handle and I will do my best to help you with that as well. Feel free to ask any questions you may have either as a comment or email: MarketMyShop@gmail.com

And we're back---Again.

Did you miss me?

Every now and then technical difficulties happen to us all. I think I have it all resolved now and can return to my regular daily posting.

I am still putting together some guides for all of you. In the meantime I would really like it if you would send me suggestions on what you would like to learn about. Either leave a comment here or send me an email at MarketMyShop@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you.