Each month, we feature a guest blog post with success stories and other great information and advice we think thriving local businesses would care about. This month’s post comes from Adam Greenbaum, CEO of Greenbaum Digital.
As of December 31, 2015, there were 1.59 billion monthly active users on Facebook. 1.44 billion of those users accessed the site through a mobile device. Now that you know what we’re working with, let’s talk about next steps.
You need a plan. We’re competing with millions of other companies (and competitors) for the likes, clicks, comments, and attention of those 1.59 billion people. Facebook isn’t cheap so it’s smart to do your due diligence when launching new advertising. Today, I’m going to teach you how to become the greatest spy in digital marketing history, thus, taking insights from your competition and using it against them.
Today, you’re an undercover agent.
If your competitors are smart, they’re retargeting their advertising to people that go to their site along with other variables to display ads online. Go be their best customer – head to the website, click around, you can even join their email list. Voila! You’ve infiltrated them. Now, if they’re retargeting visitors to their site, email subscribers, or people that viewed a certain section of their site, you’ve covered all three.
Now, go to Facebook. If they’re good, and they will be, you’ll see their ad in your newsfeed.
[For the example photo I use, I can assure you that this brand is NOT a competitor of ours and I have not been to their site. However, this will serve the same purpose.]
Follow the click path illustrated below and Facebook will actually give you insights into how this particular ad is being targeted.
As you can see, this ad is targeting people that are age 20-55 and have similar interests as their current customers. This means that they’ve taken their email list of customers, uploaded as an audience to Facebook, and created a lookalike audience based on certain demographics to target me. Take the time to check all ads served to you on Facebook and you’ll start to learn how the best advertisers target their ads. More importantly, you’ll see exactly what your competition is doing.
Now that you have insights into what you’re competition is doing, test new ads and find ways to expand upon the target audience they’ve built. Perhaps it wasn’t as sophisticated as you thought? Perhaps they’re targeting a market that you never considered? Either way, you now have the information on what they’re doing.
Launch new ads, enjoy record sales, take your martini shaken, not stirred. The name’s Baum, Greenbaum.
(Originally posted at www.greenbaumdigital.com)
Adam Greenbaum is an award-winning digital marketer with experience ranging from a boutique advertising agency to a national travel website, and everything in between. Most digital marketers pride themselves on specializing in one particular aspect of marketing – social media, web design, analytics, email marketing, search engine marketing – Adam specializes in all of it. A true data nerd, Adam lives to beat the previous month’s numbers, every single month. Adam can often be found roaming Denver with his Boston Terriers and his camera. He’s also an avid fan of the Broncos, Avalanche, Nuggets, Rockies, Oklahoma Football, and UNLV Basketball.