The main attraction of Google Ads is access to people who are already searching for what you offer. The post you’re about to read is a guide to business owners ready to advertise with Google but unsure where to start.

This is a guide for business owners ready to advertise with Google but unsure where to start.

One thing first: if you can, go with a professional to do your Google Ads. Why? Too many things can go wrong. The mistakes will follow you for life (not kidding)! However, if you are willing to accept those risks, by all means DIY.

Stop! Is your business related to examples below?

According to Google Ads Policies concerning dangerous products, the businesses selling, promoting, offering free of charge, or otherwise associating with the products below, are not allowed to run Google Ads. The shortlist includes:

• Tobacco
• Vaping products
• Recreational drugs
• Weapons, explosives, guns (except gun safety parts)
• Counterfeit goods
• and more. Please check the full list.

Unfortunately, a lot of legitimate products and services that for all intents and purposes do not fall into the categories above, are also prohibited. The most notable example of that is CBD oil.

Please understand that if your product or service is not allowed, there is nothing you can do. No matter how backward you think Google policies are, it’s up to Google to decide what goes on the restricted list.

Do not run ads if your product is on the list. You are risking a lifetime Google ban by doing so!

Restricted products?

There is also a list of restricted products and services that may be advertised on Google, but with limitations. These include:

• Adult content
• Alcohol
• Gambling
• Healthcare and medicine
• Copyrighted content
• Political content
• Financial services including investment and cryptocurrency

If your business sector aligns with one of the categories above, I highly recommend you to hire an experienced Google Ads specialist to manage your campaigns.

If your business is in the clear, let’s dive right in!

Google Ads: Basic Setup

Create a Google Ads account

Creating a Google Ads account is really easy, so I won’t bore you with a step-by-step process. All you need to do is to visit ads.google.com and follow the instructions.

Important here is to check if you actually already have a Google Ads account. If you do, creating a duplicate could jeopardize both of them as only one account is allowed as per Google Terms of Service.

To check, go to ads.google.com, click “Sign in” and choose your main Google account from the list (if you have multiple). You will be redirected to the account setup page if you don’t have Google Ads set up. You will see a Google Ads dashboard if you already do.

I recommend checking each Google account you may have. We are trying hard to play by Google’s rules here!

Once your account is created or you’ve logged in, be sure to fill out your business information (possible tax credits at tax time!) and enter your credit card details. Wait a little bit for your new account to be automatically verified and you’re good to go!

What about Google Ads “extensions”?

Ad extensions are handy bits of additional information that can be shown together with your ad, free. They don’t count against the precious real estate of your ads’ headlines or descriptions and as such are really valuable. Google loves them as well because users click on extensions often (clicks = $$ for Google).

Extensions can be set up to be reusable from campaign to campaign. You can always go back to edit them if needed. For each new account I manage, I like initiating a new campaign right away, but not to run it – I just want to get to the extension setup part!

When it comes to extensions, you have a choice of adding them at the ad group, campaign, or account level:

• Extensions added at the ad group level will only be applied to the ad group and nowhere else.
• Campaign-level extensions will be applied to all ads, both existing and future, within a specific campaign.
• Account-level extensions, you guessed it, apply to the entirety of your account. I like these the most because these are the ones you set and forget.

At the account level, I recommend including only the extensions that deal with your general business information that doesn’t change very often. Examples include your location, phone number, website links etc.

Common types of extensions

The most common extensions that you’re likely to need are as follows:

• Callout extensions – short and specific descriptions of business or products, like “Free returns” and “24/7 Customer Support”.
• Sitelink extensions – links to specific sections of your website, like Services or Contact Us.
• Call extensions – your phone number so people can call you directly from the ad.
• Location extensions – your business location where people should visit.
• Structured snippet extensions – a list of values with a Google-defined header, such as Amenities, Service Catalog, Styles, Types, and more.

Less common but possibly useful depending on your business offering:

• Price extensions display pricing for your products right in the ad.
• App extensions prompt users to download your app.
• Lead form extensions collect lead information from prospects. An active link to your Privacy Policy is required.

Please note that message extensions have been discontinued as of January 2020 and it is no longer possible to create them.

Campaign structure: The difference between Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Ads

Wait, wait. I keep mentioning “ad groups” this and “ad level” that. What does it mean?

A lot of Google Ads newbies struggle with understanding the ad campaign structure, and I totally get that.

The difference is worth discussing in detail because most online ad platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) follow a similar framework. So let’s take a look at Campaign, Ad Group, and Ad in Google Ads.

At the campaign level, you define its budget, duration, geographic boundaries, targeted languages, placements, and more. Think of it as a big box that holds all the needed parts for your campaign to run.

At the ad group level, you select keywords and key phrases to target specific Google searches. Each ad group will hold one or more ads – actual little adverts that appear to your prospective customers.

Finally, at the ad level, you design each advert individually. This is where you write headlines and descriptions, include the link to the landing page, and get creative while adhering to Google’s editorial rules.

The BEST way to structure your Google Ads campaign

Here’s my best advice regarding structuring your campaign. Following the proposed way will keep your campaigns organized and easy to edit. You will edit your campaign a lot as it runs, so it’s key to keep things tidy!

One product/service offering = 1 campaign

Let’s say you run an artisanal candle-making business. Don’t lump your handmade candles with online candle-making workshops. The audiences looking for each are different, so you will need to tailor your approach, keywords, and wording differently as well. Run separate campaigns for each distinct product or service you have.

One topic of keywords per ad group

Each ad group within the campaign will target slightly different groups within your target audience. Sticking with the candle-making example, you may want to target people looking to purchase handmade gifts within your shipping area and also target searches specifically mentioning handmade candles, perhaps even different types of such (soy, hand-decorated, hand poured, vegan etc).

Separating the above into different ad groups will make keyword research and management much easier. It will also ensure that you laser-target the wording of each ad to reflect precisely what the target audience is searching for. Therefore…

Minimum two ad groups per campaign

I’ll bet $10 that your product or service is multi-faceted and the way it’s described has nuance too. So, the way you word your ads will have lots of variation! You will want to have at least two ad groups to account for different ways your customers talk and think about your product. Perhaps even three or four!

At least three ad variations per ad group

It’s a pain in the butt to come up with multiple ads for the same topic. But, you need room for experiment. The only way to know which ad would resonate with your customers the most and thus perform the best is to create several versions of it and run them all.

Put in the time to create at least two expanded text ads plus one responsive search ad per ad group. This means three ads per ad group. So if you have two ad groups, six ad variations in total.

Tip: When I optimize my clients’ campaigns, that’s the bare minimum I always start with. Later on, I add more variations of expanded text ads and play with responsive search ad headlines and descriptions.

If this looks like a lot of work to set up, well yes, it is. But you need only to do the heavy lifting once per campaign! Plus, it gets easier with practice. I promise.

Your first Google Ads Campaign 👶

Enough theory! Here is some concrete and practical advice on how you can go about creating your first Google Ad campaign.

First, I have to state the obvious: every business is different, so every ad campaign will be too. Your mileage will vary. What’s described below are the best practices that I apply when setting up campaigns for small businesses like yours.

Campaign-level settings

Based on your campaign goal, you will be presented with several choices. Make the choice carefully as Google will use this to optimize your campaign delivery. Some settings you can manage later; some are baked in.

Hover on any of them to see more information that could help you choose.

Let’s say we are going with Website traffic. The second step is to decide where potential visitors to your website will see your ads. Here, quite a few options are available as well:

I recommend selecting Search. You will have the ability to add Display to your campaign also, so that your text ads will appear on other websites partnered with Google, not just the search results page.

Pay attention now!

Don’t neglect to click the Show more settings link. This is where you will be defining campaign start and end dates. Leave these be and Google will start running your campaign immediately and do so indefinitely. You don’t want that! It’s important to control your spending, especially on your first campaign.

Define the geographical boundaries of where your ads will be shown. Here, it is so dependent on your business type and what you offer that it’s almost impossible to give general advice. Do what makes sense for your goals.

For example, if you are a local brick-and-mortar, certainly go with your city/town or even neighbourhood (you can use postal codes as targeting!). If you are an online service that hypothetically could serve clients worldwide, choose the countries/markets you’re most interested in.

When it comes to a recommended daily budget for Google Ads, it’s even more difficult to give concrete advice without knowing your business specifics. It’s fine to go low to test the waters. But, if you are in a very competitive market, you may see very minimal results that won’t give you a clear path towards optimizing your ads to actually generate business.

If you are still looking for a figure:

The absolute minimum I can recommend for test runs is $10-15 per day for small businesses and to run ads for at least three weeks (two at the very, very minimum). This means that you must be ready to commit at least $300 initially and budget $500 monthly. Again, at the very least. You can optimize your campaigns to get the most bang for your buck, but optimization is only possible with realtime data. No one gets it right right off the bat.

Ad group-level settings

Moving on to the most import part of your campaign – keywords. Remember, you are adding at least two keyword groups, each containing closely related keywords.

Keep each list between 10 and 25 keywords. Any less, and you are likely forgetting something. Any more – you are casting your net too wide.

If you’re stuck for ideas, use the keyword suggestion tool on the right. Simply click a plus sign to add.

Ad-level settings

Now it’s time for you to create the little adverts that will bring in new business!

Each ad contains the following necessary elements:

• Final URL of your landing page
• Three (3) headlines, each up to 30 characters long
• Two (2) descriptions, each up to 90 characters long

These character limits are quite restrictive, so you will need to get creative. Be precise and descriptive. Avoid being sensationalist, using ALL CAPS or exclamation marks! There are times to be clever or cute in your ad copy, but in general, I’d recommend sticking to a neutral, business-casual tone.

As you can see, Google recommends the same minimum number of ads as I do – two text ads and one responsive search ad. Take the time to create them for each ad group you have. It will give you lots to work with as your ad campaign progresses.

Google Ads FAQ

How often should I check on my campaigns?

I log in to check up on my clients’ campaigns every two to three days. But! This is only in the beginning when I need to monitor the search terms for my clients’ campaigns very closely. All this is to ensure they aren’t paying for clicks on search terms that make no sense.

Irrelevant, nonsensical and unrelated terms go into the Negative Keywords list (select irrelevant keywords, click Add as Negative Keyword, add to Campaign-level) which are terms for which your ads won’t show.

In terms of making big, important changes to the campaigns, like tweaking ad copy, adding more ad variations or disabling under-performing ones, you need to be patient and give your campaign at least two weeks (the bare minimum) and better up to 4 weeks to see any patterns.

Don’t leave your campaign running unattended for more than a month at a time. I bet you are too budget-aware for that, but I still need to remind people.

Should I use automated Recommendations?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is still yes but you should review them carefully. For example, if you can’t (or won’t) set up conversion tracking, you will need to ignore the persistent recommendation to do so.

Another common recommendation that doesn’t make any sense to apply is the keywords Google thinks could work for your campaign, but are too generic or simply irrelevant for you.

The main point is: always review everything before applying!

Are my Google Ads effective?

Ah, the question for the ages: how do I know that’s I’m getting my money’s worth with Google Ads? How do I know that my campaigns are working?

It’s also an entirely reasonable one to ask!

The vast majority of Google Ads blog posts on the internet all start with the same advice: set goals and define what success looks like. That’s good, but not very helpful. You’re a business. You need to sell. Google Ads needs to help you sell, preferably at the lowest cost possible. If they are helping, then it works.

Google Ads need to help you sell. If they are helping, then it works.

It doesn’t always mean that a Google Ads click equals a sale. Let’s look at examples.

Scenario 1. Google Ads generates you leads

Let’s say Google Ads clicks bring you contact form submissions or phone calls from potential customers, each of whom is really high value. Each customer who converts brings in significant revenue. This means that each click may have a significant cost in absolute terms (let’s say $20 per click) but be a drop in the bucket if the lead becomes a $50,000 contract.

Are you receiving high-quality leads from Google Ads? Does a percentage of them convert into paying customers? Then your Google Ads are working. You may do optimization work to bring the costs down and make your ads even more effective, sure, but they are not a waste already.

Scenario 2. Google Ads generates you traffic

Perhaps you use Google Ads to boost your website traffic that converts to sales at volume (e-commerce is a great example). Each individual click has low individual value, but brings enough awareness to increase overall sales.

If you achieve a low click cost that allows you to generate enough traffic for your budget to boost sales, then your Google Ads are working.

Further optimization may come from exploring different campaign placements, checking out Shopping Ads and more.

Scenario 3. Google Ads generates brand awareness via retargeting

An ethically questionable, but entirely plausible scenario. If you use Google Ads to generate visits to your website, you have the ability to retarget your website’s recent audience later (with appropriate tracking codes in place).

Seeing your ad for the second or the third time has the potential to build more powerful brand recognition, so customers will be more likely to remember you at the time of purchase. Do your returning visitors convert better than new visitors? Then your Google Ads are working.

Ready, steady, go!

I hope all of the above has been useful to you when building your Google Ads campaigns. The platform is complex, no doubt, and is outright scary for a newbie. Good on you for trying it out yourself!

Of course, if you ever feel stuck, you know how to find me 😉.

The post Small Business Owner’s Guide to Google Ads: The 2020 Edition appeared first on SMM Headquarters.

In the first week of the pandemic closures in Toronto, I lost all of my clients. Every single one. The circumstances were somewhat different, but the underlying reason was the same: their business models were vulnerable to the absence of foot traffic, and the marketing budget was the first to go. I could understand and sympathize as a business owner, but I also relied on the same businesses to make *my* business work. Losing income was scary, alienating and left me feeling cornered.

I’m sure this feels familiar to you too. Small business owners are the hardest-hit by the pandemic. Non-essential retail is bust. Restaurants can’t afford exorbitant rents. Small businesses are the first to go. Statistically speaking, yours may easily be one of them.

It’s natural to be asking, “What now?”. As a marketer, I know that the most important question is actually, “What’s next?” The way your business adapts and hopefully survives the 2020 coronavirus will have everything to do with how you do business and market your company once the world opens back up. The point of this article is not only to provide tips on how to survive right now but also on what to be ready for once it’s over.

TL;DR: Skip to The Future to see how your marketing will be different once the pandemic ends.

The Now

We have an incredible lifeline at our disposal that today, more than ever, can be the difference between our businesses’ survival and death.

The Internet.

Online presence and smart engagement are more important than ever. As consumers, we have all been on the receiving end of hundreds of newsletters and social media posts by businesses we may have forgotten existed. Whether their messages were heartfelt, cheesy or tone-deaf, they all did one thing right. They harnessed their existing platforms to stay connected, find ways to survive, and build more connections on the way.

When the shutdowns in Toronto began in earnest, nothing should have changed for me on the surface. I’m used to working from home, after all! But the anxiety about lost business, the constant news updates, the worry about loved ones were new. Not going to lie: I struggled. I was not being productive. I spent hours on Twitter.

It didn’t feel right to publish SMM Headquarters’ social posts and articles as if it was business as usual. It was impossible to pretend I didn’t need time and space to process what was happening. I had an inkling that I could channel this vulnerability into producing something informative that would rely on my usual marketing expertise but also address the fact that a pandemic was on and the world was not OK.

Here is what I did in mid-March:

• Hastily wrote and published a short recommendations list on crisis communications for small businesses;
• Made several Instagram posts that indicated I was taking a break yet still staying connected;
• Started offering free marketing consultations to anyone who wanted them. Mainly small businesses, yes, because this is whom I serve and this is who was the hardest-hit, but I happily accepted bookings from other people too. It was all about connection. And it worked.

While my business has always been run mostly online, a lot of small businesses aren’t. This pandemic is teaching us all how to transition to the internet as the primary selling, servicing and working tool.

1. Digital-first

Non-essential businesses have to go 100% digital-first. With offices, retail shops, cafes, gyms, studios closed, businesses have to communicate, serve and deliver goods using the internet. Businesses have to make money over the internet. Brick-and-mortar businesses feel this the most acutely. Those with no prior online presence are in the sink-or-swim, adapt-or-die kind of situation.

2. Delivery-first

Switching to delivery-first was the first step for many food and beverage businesses serving the public in Toronto once restaurants weren’t allowed to offer dine-in service. Food and grocery delivery exploded. The pandemic propelled many family-owned, independent stores to launch online stores with delivery options. Many restaurants kept busy with takeout and delivery, albeit at diminished volumes.

As Martin Zechel, the chef and co-partner at Pearl Diver, a beloved oyster bar and seafood restaurant on Adelaide St E in Toronto, notes, delivery is not a solution for each and every restaurant out there. He cites setup costs, high delivery commissions charged by popular services, and, most importantly, the specifics of what makes Pearl Diver so popular:

We are very much a “live” restaurant. I think the thing that initially gets people in the door more than anything else are the oysters and that is just not a practical food for delivery.

Martin Zechel, Chef and Partner at Pearl Diver

However, if delivery is a viable route for your business, the pandemic only underlined the need to get in on it already.

3. E-commerce first

Directly connected to the point above, the switch to e-commerce worldwide has been unprecedented. E-commerce stores in France saw spikes in traffic no one could have predicted pre-COVID. The leading all-in-one e-commerce platform Shopify is hiring because they can’t keep up with the flow of new store owners signing up.

The reason? Offering even just gift cards online could mean the difference between life and death for businesses with no foot traffic. (In fact, selling gift cards is the number one tip on the Shopify blog for boosting short-term retail revenues.)

Here’s Martin again, providing insider information on how gift cards helped him and Pearl Diver:

[We] initiated some gift card sales on our social media platforms and then established an online gift card store. I think the personal sales of gift cards on the phone was great. We got to touch base in a very personal way with our customers and they got to show their love and support by taking a leap of faith and buying our cards.

Martin Zechel, Chef and Partner at Pearl Diver

Businesses with an inventory to sell that are already set up as an online store are at a huge advantage right now, but it doesn’t mean other businesses cannot catch up. The most important thing is to get on it.

4. Less marketing spend?

The time for penny-pinching is now, so, as usual, marketing gets the short end of the stick. Businesses are cutting their marketing spend, especially when it comes to digital marketing.

Yet we both know that now the exact opposite should be happening. The businesses succeeding right now are going all-in on their marketing, and I don’t mean ads, giant spend or anything crazy:

• Lots of social media activity!
• Lots of value (free classes, discounts, offers, charitable donations)
• Affordable shipping rates and/or lowered shipping minimums
• High-quality product photography
• Fun contests and giveaways.

These businesses are heeding the three principles of the above: digital-first, delivery-first, e-commerce-first. They add value, are constantly in touch with their customers, and utilize social media to impressive results.

How local businesses are succeeding during the pandemic shutdowns

Lindy Hop Revolution began filming dance lessons for mini-online courses shortly after the pandemic began. They offer do-at-your-own-pace online courses for many dance levels, with May sign-ups in full swing! 🕺

Ascari Hospitality Group launched a weekly for-pick-up care package of delicious groceries that sells out weekly.

Bandit Brewery threw all of its resources into beer delivery that gradually expanded to cover all of Toronto and now parts of Mississauga too. They sell out of beer on the regular!

Pilot Coffee Roasters lowered their free delivery minimums to be able to serve coffee lovers who normally buy small bags of coffee beans in-store.

Not being an insider for these businesses, I cannot comment on whether all of the above is making enough of a difference for their bottom line. The key here is that they are trying, adapting, and getting a positive response from customers. Still going strong 💪

Will they survive? Remains to be seen. But they stand more of a chance than others who went quiet. Because it’s the businesses I stopped hearing from that concern me the most. The businesses that haven’t tried anything at all.

Surviving is Key

You probably know what I am getting at already, but in case the examples above didn’t drive the point home, survival right now is key.

The time to adapt is now. There is no waiting. You might be afraid to fail, but failure is 100% guaranteed if you do nothing right now.

How, you may ask. I got you with some tips!

1. Social media is your friend

Yes, yes, you’ve heard it before, social media is where you should be. If your business has taken a while to get on board, now is the time – and it’s okay to admit you’re late to the party!

Better late than never: the world is literally living online, all the while striving for connection, so provide it, while building rapport with your customers who miss you.

First steps on social media: A guide for small business owners

Post about the challenges COVID-19 brought to you, but more importantly, post about how you’re dealing with them. Offer your products and services in such a way as to respect safety and social distancing (more on that below). Ask your customers for input! Solicit ideas, feedback and see how you can work with it. You will be surprised at what you learn.

2. Create an online store

Whether you offer tangible goods or not, you will benefit from creating an online store. Why? Because you want to give your customers an easy way to give you money. As simple as that. Make it super-duper-easy for them to support you and trust me, many will.

The online store is there mainly for customer convenience as we had to create very specific times to call at first to reach us for a mail-out card. Now they can be purchased anytime. We took in some money and put it towards our rent and outstanding bills.

Martin Zechel, Chef and Partner at Pearl Diver

Shopify is one of the obvious choices for novice e-commerce operators. It has generous COVID-related perks and discounts. It also understands the needs of beginners and addresses them with a variety of free courses.

You can save money by playing with other setups (say, WordPress + WooCommerce, or paid appointments on Calendly with Stripe), but if you’d rather not get technical, look for an e-commerce platform that would do the heavy lifting for you.

3. Sell and provide value

What do you sell online?

The answer is obvious for some small businesses and far from obvious for others.

If you have tangible goods, great! Your challenge is marketing them online and figuring out shipping or delivery.

If you sell services, think about how you can deliver them remotely. Perhaps you can do the same thing that Lindy Hop Revolution did, and take your service offering online.

Perhaps, you are a consulting business like me, in which case, your challenge is shifting to video conferencing and booking business remotely.

If your business relies on hands-on expertise (literally), you can pivot slightly to start teaching people to do some things themselves. Offer paid webinars or online classes on the subject to complement the free content.

The bottom line: no matter what you do, offer paid options for your customers to support you. You have to provide value, yes, but you need to ensure they can pay you back if they want to. Again, many will, and that will make a difference even post-pandemic.

When I lost all of my clients, I had to swallow whatever anxiety I had and reach out to folks I work with occasionally to see if they had any projects on the horizon. I was frank about the fact that I needed it. Lo and behold: some of the leads came through and yielded short-term projects that I’ll probably write about in my 2020 year-end blog post!

In line with the principle of getting my services online, I *finally* set up the SMM Headquarters website to accept consulting call bookings with a real-time schedule. Several prospects have already used it!

Big win.

4. Give back to the community

The COVID-19 pandemic is a big crisis. Unprecedented. And while staying alive is the first priority of a business, helping others around you should be priority number two. Put your mask on before helping others etc.

However! If you’re in a position to support other businesses, community services, volunteer teams, DO IT. Financially or otherwise, do it. Think about the customers who offered to make a donation for your livestreamed free webinar and be that customer for someone else.

I offer free marketing consults to businesses. Free, no strings attached. I try to make it very clear that it’s not a sales call or a prospecting exercise, but a sincere attempt to pass on some of my expertise. I wish more businesses took advantage of the offer!

On a personal level, I also keep a spreadsheet of businesses I donated to or plan to donate, buy a gift card or service. It’s private, of course, but it exists to remind me that I am in a position to support others right now. (Also helps me keep track of what I spend online!)

5. Experiment. Don’t be afraid!

Here’s a good thing, if there ever was one in times of disaster like COVID-19: no one expects you to be perfect. There is a lot of goodwill around, especially for businesses that are actively and positively engaging the community. This means that your customers are way more forgiving.

Let it be your call to move fast, experiment and maybe even break things a little. Your customers will understand. There is a dang pandemic going on, after all.

You can try offering a product or service that doesn’t work and then ditch it completely.

You can try offering a product or service that doesn’t work and then modify it to work:

Take Pilot Coffee Roasters from an example above. They offered to grind their beans in any way a customer would want. Weeks later, they were swamped with orders and couldn’t maintain their grinding standards, so they established one grind level for all, no exceptions. Were some customers disappointed? Sure. Did they complain? Not really. Pilot continues delivering amazing coffee to its devotees.

You can iron kinks as you go, like I did! When putting booking links on the website, I screwed some of them up and didn’t notice until a client pointed it out. How embarrassing. Did it cost me? Maybe. Did I flog myself over it for weeks? No. Link issues happen. Glad I caught them on time. Ish.

While trying all of the above, keep in mind…

• When the world is back to business, you are likely to have less competition because not all businesses will survive.
• The online services you start right now can and WILL complement your main business when the pandemic ends. Even if it’s something you didn’t do right (or think you got wrong), the learning process was there, getting you ready to continue the digital journey of your business. The hunger for digital-first will not end. I promise.
• Today, right now, is the best time to double down on your best practices. My business’s values have always been overcommunication, overdelivery, and flexibility. I never wait for a client to contact me first to ask how things are going, because I’m on it before they think it (yes, I’m proud of that!). If things aren’t great, I brainstorm solutions to offer before they find out there is a problem.
• You can do the same. If you anticipate issues, tell your audience about them. If something isn’t working, communicate. Apologize if you feel you need to and keep trying.
• It goes without saying that treating your employees well should be always one of the best practices. Take care of your people the best you can and they will help you adapt.
• Do not slash your marketing budget completely, for goodness sake. If you don’t have one, now is the time to at least start thinking about it, learning Google Ads at least. If you do have one, throw it at expanding your reach and closing sales right now, to help your business’s bottom line. Once the pandemic is over, you will be ready.

The Future

Okay, no one knows what the future holds. This pandemic will be over eventually, and even though we don’t know when that might be, it will happen.

Here are my five predictions on how the world will emerge from the pandemic and what it means for marketing, specifically small business marketing.

1. A lot of small businesses will not bounce back.

Time and again we brought this up. Many businesses are already folding. Many will fold soon.

2. Survivors have all adapted or pivoted.

Those who survived will have survived because they kept their customers and their business going. End of story. Whether they did it by adapting, pivoting or both, the world changed and they did alongside it.

3. E-commerce is here to stay.

In-person shopping will return very slowly, so e-commerce will continue to be a business-sustaining practice. It can become one of the revenue streams that you can grow and nourish at a manageable pace.

4. Digital-first is here to stay.

Truer than even e-commerce, digital-first will continue to be the mantra. With more resources allocated to marketing, online ads will be more popular than ever.

In fact, I see this already. Prospects reach out about Google Ads. I see a lot more meaningful advertising on Facebook. This is call for me to use this time to try out new things and continue learning.

5. The customers will remember who helped and who didn’t in a time of need.

Remember that part about giving back to the community and putting your best foot forward? Businesses small and big will reap what they’ve sown, both good and bad.

Companies forced employees to come into the office instead of working from home. Small business owners participated in anti-quarantine protests. A certain ticket seller attempted to pocket the refunds from concertgoers.

At the same time, countless others extended a helping hand, fundraised, volunteered, campaigned, supported their staff.

Both of the above are newsworthy. People who buy stuff from you will remember the good and the bad. I personally want to make sure my business is remembered as being one of the helpers. And so should you.

In closing

The uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic is tough. It is especially tough on small businesses operating on thin margins and relying on revenue channels that have been cut short or eliminated during quarantine.

If your business is to survive (and I hope it will!), you are already adapting to the best of your ability and making use of many opportunities the internet offers. Digital marketing has never been more important, so keep trying and learning. Check out my guide to Facebook, ideas on getting started with Twitter and pointers not to get banned by Google Ads.

Then take what you’ve built along the way (an online store, a new product, super-strong customer loyalty) to survive and then strive in the post-pandemic world.

I wish you perseverance and the best of luck 💜

The post The Future of Marketing After COVID-19: How the Pandemic is Changing Small Businesses appeared first on SMM Headquarters.

It was disorienting even then. No cover photos, no custom URLs, absolutely no post boosts. There was a WALL. And thumbs up icons for likes. The very idea of having a page for a private company, not a celebrity or a soccer club, was new!

Today, every business needs to be on Facebook, but small business owners feel just as lost as I did back in 2011. The platform keeps evolving at a lightning speed. Do you feel like you can’t keep up so you delay getting started? I sure do know the feeling.

Odds are your competitors are on Facebook. If you still have not jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, you’ve probably been plagued by equal parts FOMO and arguing that your business does not need it 🤔

Do small businesses need social media anyway?

The truth is, yes. For branding. Trust. Recognition. A platform to share. These are valuable things that social media presence provides for businesses of all sizes, even those with no deep pockets.

Yes, there are considerations on how to choose a social media platform. Yes, your target audience may not be hanging out on Facebook exclusively. But if your business needs a social media plan of action, Facebook, being the largest and the most versatile of platforms, is an obvious choice to get you started.

There are a couple of reasons why Facebook, in particular, is good for business.

• It offers you opportunities to build a beautiful communications stream with a narrative that you control.
• It gives your customers an easy way to reach you that may be less stressful for them ☎️
• An active Facebook page shows prospective customers that your business is active and striving, so visiting your page may seal the deal. (This has been demonstrated time and again with my clients — the number of inquiries and calls shot up after they revived their Facebook pages.)
• Brand building will accelerate. If your business is new, brand evolution is inevitable and posting on Facebook may help.
• You will get to know your customers. Connect with them; learn about them; serve them better as a result.

But only if you put in the work! 💪

Getting Started with the Basics

Facebook business page set up is straightforward. Remember a few things:

• You need to have a personal Facebook profile to create a business page.
• Your name will not be shown anywhere in connection to the page unless you choose to add yourself as a Team Member.
• You do not need a second profile “for business purposes” — that’s against Facebook Community Standards.
• Do not use your profile to promote your business, as very useful marketing functionality such as Facebook Insights is available only to pages.

Detailed instructions on how to complete the setup of your Facebook business page are here.

All done? Great! Now you need to come up with a plan.

Kate Smalley, a marketing communications consultant specializing in fintech and finance (not the easiest industries to market!) does not mince words about going in blind.

Posting into the ether doesn’t work.

You need to start by thinking through what your page is for… [and] who it’s for.

Kate Smalley, www.katesmalley.com

Having an idea of what you want to say and to which audience is enough at the very beginning. But do sketch it out once your page is created, so you aren’t posting random things just for the sake of “Social Media Presence”.

Posting on Facebook

Posting on Facebook is easy (sometimes too easy), but there are a couple of differences between posting as yourself on your personal feed and as your business on your business page.

All posts will be attributed to the page by default. It means that you should decide in advance on the language and tone you are going to use when putting updates onto your page. More specifically, settle on “I” vs “we” and stick to it.

Posting on Facebook as a beginner may seem intimidating because of all the post options and buttons available to you. Depending on your business type, you will use some of the features more than others. Attaching photos and videos, tagging products, adding a message button and a poll are among the most highly used functions for business owners getting started with their Facebook pages. 👇

Here is the full list for reference.

• Photo/Video — attaches a photo or video to the post. You can add multiples.
• Feeling/Activity — automatically ads a line “Feeling/Doing XYZ” to the post, like “Feeling determined”.
• Tag Product — available if you have an e-commerce store connected to your Facebook page, allowing you to tag products you sell in the post.
• Support Nonprofit — adds a donation button.
• Advertise Your Business — opens up options to boost the post.
• Get Messages — adds a neat “Send message” button below your post.
• Check in — adds the chosen location to your post.
• Poll — allows you to create a simple 2-option poll within your post.
• Watch party — gives you an option to host a screening of a publicly available video and for viewers to add comments as they watch.

Post Drafts and Scheduling

Posting as a page, you also have an option to schedule or save your post to drafts. Drafts are great for seeing how different media (photos, galleries, videos, maps) will look with the post — in fact, I recommend always saving your posts to draft first to make sure they look their best.

Scheduling is highly useful when you want to space out your communications. Learning how to schedule is one of the first skills you may want to master on Facebook, according to Emily Hessney Lynch, a social media strategist and the founder of digital agency Serve Me the Sky Digital:

Early on I learned scheduling content in advance & having a plan is important. Otherwise you’ll post weaker content on the fly or forget to post.

Emily Hessney Lynch, Serve Me the Sky

Notice how Emily mentions having a plan as well? Yes, that’s not going to change. Planning ahead will serve you well. I don’t make the rules.

Facebook Insights

Once you get the hang of publishing updates to the page and start accumulating some followers, turn your attention to Facebook Insights — it has valuable data on how your page is doing and how you can make it better.

Key metrics are all given space on the Insights dashboard:

• Page views, previews, likes, followers;
• Post reach and story reach;
• Post engagements;
• Recommendations (previously Reviews);
• Responsiveness of your page to messages.

Each of the metrics above can be explored in more depth in its own tab in Facebook Insights. As a Facebook beginner, you may find yourself visiting the tab for Posts the most often, because it shows you the performance of each post compared to all the others you’ve recently made. This helps you make decisions on which post types to prioritize.

Video used to be cited as the best performing medium on Facebook, however, it’s not all black and white. You may find that your page followers engage more with photos or click on relevant links more often.

But how do I grow my page to get to know my audience? — you may ask. Where do I get this audience?

Marketing Your Page on Facebook

Marketing on Facebook isn’t as easy as some blog posts would lead you to believe. And the truth is, depending on your line of business, it may be significantly harder or, rarely, significantly easier to grow your following.

When I first started marketing on Facebook for my then-company, it was as easy as inviting my friends to like the page and ask them to share a few posts. Post reach was in double digits. Photos did the trick. We, marketers, loved it… until it was over.

Depending on your line of business, it may be significantly harder or, rarely, significantly easier to grow your following.

Facebook doesn’t like organic reach very much anymore because they want your advertising dollars. “Pay to play” is a common phrase when describing Facebook today. If you do not want to pay, you will have to be very patient and consistent with your efforts. (If you do want to pay, then know what you’re paying for and probably don’t pay for vanity numbers like page followers, mmkay?)

One of my clients is a travel guide and for them, it is so easy to grow it’s ridiculous. Because who doesn’t like a nice photo of a beach or a mountain shot in their timeline? Page likes practically fall on them. Post shares are a regular thing.

On the other hand, another client with a health practice has to fight tooth and nail for each new follower. They run promos, give out freebies, engage in Facebook groups. It is all good effort for them that builds brand recognition, but it’s not EASY.

Is a travel website an inherently better business than a health centre? Of course not. It’s just the nature of Facebook marketing. Your business is unique and so your mileage will vary. You will succeed if you put in the effort, but this effort may take a while. So make sure it counts!

#1: Focus on being useful

Make it your motto to create a meaningful info channel for your customers. Forget the number of likes and follows — focus on being useful.

Check out these great examples below 👇

#2: Continuous engagement is key

Settle on a posting schedule, just like Emily suggests above. Make sure you have enough content and/or creativity to deliver week after week, month after month. If you skip a day on an occasional week, it’s fine, but don’t go weeks without posts — maintain your presence.

Monitor Insights for post ideas to diversify your content. Experiment with image galleries, collages, simple polls or even contests.

#3: Join Facebook groups

Search for relevant groups to join as your page. Since some groups now allow pages to join as members, engaging participants in other groups is now easier.

FB groups are a great option if they make sense for your biz! Good way to build community.

Emily Hessney Lynch, www.servemethesky.com

When participating in groups, do not, and I repeat, do not make it about your business at all, unless directly asked. This is not fun for others. Focus on providing information, advice or praise. Monitor the groups continuously and be patient.

#4 Monitor page messages

Reply to your page messages as quickly as you can. A high response rate delivered quickly enough will activate the green badge of response time that will encourage people to reach out to your page.

#5 Play nice

Does it even need to be said?

• Do not steal content or assets.
• Avoid repost without permission (Facebook post shares are okay since they credit the creator).
• Never use images you have no rights to use (plenty of high-quality stock is now free).
• Do not air grievances with customers in your posts — that’s gross and unprofessional no matter how in the wrong they are.

And just keep going. You got this.

What Next?

Now that you have all you need to know to absolutely nail it on Facebook for your business, it is time to put it into practice! And once you do, don’t be surprised when you start wondering if you should get on board with Facebook Ads too… and Business Manager… The journey is neverending.

Thanks for reading!

The post Facebook for Small Business: A 2019 Starter Guide appeared first on SMM Headquarters.

In the previous installments of Social Media Marketing 101, we have gone through ways to establish your initial strategy and also covered the major social networks your small business may want to be on.

Now it is time to look at each one of them in detail. Let’s start with Facebook!

Facebook Basics

Facebook is big, bigger than any other social network out there. Unless you want to advertise, it is completely free t use. Anyone over 13 years old anywhere in the world may register on Facebook.

Here is the personal information you will need to provide to get started:

• your first and last name,
• a valid email address,
• date of birth,
• gender.

Once you register, you will be able to make all of these details as private or as public as you wish.

Everyone registered on Facebook has a personal profile. On the other hand, businesses on Facebook are represented by Pages or by Groups (more on that later).

Are you thinking, “May I create a business page without a personal Facebook account?”

Unfortunately, the answer is no. You cannot create any type of business presence on Facebook without registering a personal profile first. This used to be possible, but no longer.

Note that you also should not create an additional personal account to run a page. Facebook frowns on duplicate accounts and may suspend both without warning.

Even though you must have a profile, you do not have to use it actively in order to create and run pages. Your name will not be associated with your business page in any way. The names of page admins/contributors are not public and cannot be seen by anyone except admins and contributors themselves.

Facebook for Business: A Page or a Group?

Facebook Pages

Pages are official brand/business profiles on Facebook. They function similarly to personal profiles: they have a profile picture, a cover photo, pertinent business information and contact details. Admins and visitors may post updates, upload photos and videos to the Page.

A few things that set pages apart from personal profiles:

• A page is public by default. Admins may restrict access to it by age and by country (allowing/not allowing visitors from certain countries ).
• Anyone, excluding those restricted by admins, may like and follow a page.
• By default, anyone can publish to the page and upload photos/videos. Admins may restrict that ability by requiring post moderation prior to publishing. Visitors’ posts appear in a separate column on the right, making them less visible on the page.
• Visitors may review a page unless the admin turns that ability off.

Go to Page Settings to change any of the options above.

Facebook Groups

Groups are community- and discussion-oriented, so all participants’ posts carry equal weight on the main feed. Admins and moderators are in charge of groups, which may be public, private or secret.

• Public groups are visible in search and anyone may browse their contents.
• Private groups are also visible in search, but post-viewing is restricted to group members. Anyone may request to join the group; a moderator or an existing group member (depending on settings) will have to approve the request.
• Secret groups do not show up in Facebook search. Only existing members may add new members to the group, which may or may not be subject to admin/moderator approval.

Facebook Groups are an interesting beast. They are wonderful for building an online community of like-minded participants and for encouraging conversation. They are rarely a great choice for a brand to represent itself on Facebook.

Small businesses should be represented by a Facebook page, not a Facebook group. Small businesses should also never be represented by a personal profile instead of a page. Do not turn your personal profile into a profile for your business.

Setting up a Facebook Page

This actually couldn’t be simpler! Wherever you are on Facebook, you can look to the very right corner of the screen and click the little triangular arrow.

From the pop-down menu that appears, choose “Create Page” and follow Facebook’s prompts.

Everything from then on should be about your business, not yourself, so you should choose a page category and fill in all the information according to what represents your business best.

Upload your profile picture (your business logo is a great choice) and choose a cover photo. Profiles pictures work best in the square format. The recommended dimensions for cover photos are 851 by 315 pixels, but you may upload a bigger image and reposition it as you wish.

To edit any of the Page sections, click on the three dots under the page cover photo and go to Edit Page Info.

Invite your friends from your personal profile to get the first likes on your Page. It is easy: click on the three dots under the page cover photo and go to Invite Friends. You can select people to invite individually.

Facebook Page Best Practices

Do:

• Fill in the sections of your Page as much as possible. Write the business story, describe your products or services, indicate the year you founded the company.
• Choose a profile picture and a cover photo that represent your brand the best. Your logo should be present somewhere on the page. Cover photos may be a bit more creative to allow you to stand out.
• Provide ample contact details, including your phone number (very important!), your website, and a physical address if you are a local business.
• Post regularly: nothing looks worse than an abandoned Facebook Page!
• Invite your friends to like your Page. Some of them are already looking for what you offer and others will be happy to support you by liking the page. Get that like count started!

Don’t:

• Turn your personal Facebook profile into a business “profile”.
• Create another personal account for business purposes if you are already on Facebook.
• Post personal photos, status updates or videos on your business page. Keep it professional.

Try it out!

Facebook is such a robust platform that you can read volumes and volumes about it and still have something surprising left to discover. This post outlined the very basics of starting up on Facebook. As a small business owner, you will find that you can get a hang of the basics very quickly – you just need to start!

What Facebook functionality should we cover next? Let us know in the comments! ?

The post Social Media Marketing 101: Facebook Basics appeared first on SMM Headquarters.