PPCChat | Questions From The PPCChat Community | 21st April 2020

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This week’s PPCChat session was hosted by Julie F Bacchini who shared expert questions regarding the best strategy for rebuilding client base, Tips for B2B lead gen targeting in Facebook, Tips for viewing multiple conversions in Facebook Ads and more with the PPC community.

 

Q1: Many #ppcchat freelancers have lost clients and will have to re-build their client bases. What is your best strategy for getting clients? (Specifics.)  @stevegibsonppc

 

For us, it’s been content generation. We’ve developed free content pieces to help grow our newsletter which we’ll be starting to promote soon! @adwordsgirl

Referral partners! Closed 2 new clients in the last month, and both came from referral partners. Try to find partners in adjacent industries (PR, TV Advertising, Creative, etc) and offer referral fees. @CJSlattery

There is no quick answer here. Building your network of contacts both in the industry and in related industries (SEO, web dev, etc.). Can help. Doing white label work for other agencies. Researching who might need help and seeing if you can get an intro. @NeptuneMoon

Reputation management! Make sure that while you’re filling your funnel, you ask partners – current and former – to share their experience working with you. It could lead to a referral, or just a testimonial for a totally new relationship. @JuliaVyse

REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS REFERRALS @markpgus

Is there any kind of theme to the work you’ve been doing over the past 2 years that you can put into an offer or package for a specific industry or type of business? @NeptuneMoon

1st I would be proactive with my current clients, next I would followup with pas prospective clients I turned away- sometimes because they weren’t ready (needing a functional website). Then reconnecting with other biz relationships. @ynotweb

I know this may be easier said than done, but try to get NON-LOCAL/SMB deals. They are always the worst so I’ve tried to avoid them. They’re quick to cancel. These times are different for them, but still…. quick to cancel holds true. @markpgus

I agree with @adwordsgirl. Helpful content is the best way to reach people right now. This has been our focus. Some low hanging fruit would be to reach out to any past clients that you had a good relationship with. They will appreciate you checking up on them. @Mark_from_MKTG

Can you pivot yourself? when clients don’t have funds to advertise, you need to offer something to new partners. can you offer something you hadn’t thought of? It’s easy to get tunnel vision in a panic. try to think differently just as your clients need to. @JuliaVyse

I also want to mention that REFERRALS COME FROM REAL NETWORKING. Invest in relationships. Spend time with others. Provide value. Have a relationship. Referrals are the result of actual work which just happens to be fun for me. @markpgus

I’ve helped a friend of mine in a pinch with something that hasn’t been in my wheelhouse in a while. I’m glad that it worked out. @IamNextSTEPH

My best strategy for building clients is to ask clients for referrals. @lchasse

Team up with agencies and brands to offer independent contract services. @JonKagan

Not necessarily for sales. We’ve done a lot of reaching out to contacts we haven’t reached out a while to see how they’re doing and open a dialogue. If it comes up naturally. Great. At the very least it’s a mental break from day to day. @360vardi

 

Q2: Do you have any tips for B2B lead gen targeting in FB? (Starting initial targeting, optimization, set up, type of ads, etc…)? @360vardi

 

For B2B interest targeting sucks in FB. Lean into machine learning in the algorithm. Lookalikes and broad audiences with cost caps are. You must have previous success/history through your pixel though! @markpgus

Speaking my language! We have found that image ads do best – simple and encourage leads. Use lookalikes from previous converters. Test test test. We’ve had some very successful FB lead gen ad campaigns. @Mel66

In the interest targeting world, use HHI if you’re able (not in Canada) and look for interests like Founder, Entrepreneur, Owner. People will tell you what’s important to them, if you listen. @JuliaVyse

Use Facebook’s best weapon – lookalikes for B2B. Upload your customer list and make LALs. Retarget traffic from your web site on FB (assuming you have a good set up to figure out which page visits make sense for this). @NeptuneMoon

One of my top FB B2B lead gen strategies for monthly budgets 5k+ is to target people with relevant job titles or a lookalike with a high-intent content offer and minimal form fields and then remarket to those leads with a BoFu offer such as a demo request. @Mark_from_MKTG

 

Q3: Curious if anyone has played with Video Builder yet? From @JanineSEM

 

I haven’t, but I’m curious. @JuliaVyse

No, I haven’t. But definitely interested. What does it do? @mindswanppc

No, not yet. @adwordsgirl

Have not played with it yet. @CJSlattery

Haven’t tried video builder. Our clients always give us the final footage. @heyglenns

Negative. @ericdfarmer remember our YouTube director guy they sent out once hahahahahaha. @markpgus

Haven’t tried it yet, but it’s on my list. @SEMFlem

My clients deliver completed videos, so we’d try it as a test if it came up, but it’s not high on the list at the moment. I suspect this will change as production budgets adjust with revenue. @JuliaVyse

I’ve been using Promos dot com to create videos. It works but it’s not the best option. @RyBen3

 

Q3.1: Are you using something else instead for video creation? @NeptuneMoon

 

When I do make videos I use Camtasia. @lchasse

Video Builder is actually pretty impressive. I’ve done 40+ videos for clients on it. What it produces, as long as you have the right assets, is solid. Cons: lack of control of font size (but lots of fonts to pick from) and music is a bit meh. @nikkijumpfly

 

Q4: Tips for viewing multiple conversions in Facebook Ads? @Mel66

 

It’s a bit of a chore. Set your custom conversions in a column set and save it. In some cases you actually need separate campaigns with different goals to make this work. @JuliaVyse

I’m not exactly clear on this? Pull in multiple columns and have the results column last so you know what the optimization was for??? @markpgus

If you have goals set up in Google, as long as your Facebook ads have source codes, you can view the impact on each goal for your ads within analytics. @lchasse

I usually don’t look at conversion data within FB Ads because it rarely matches backend conversion data (CRM, POS, etc.). I build custom dashboards in Google DataStudio or Google Sheets that reliably combine FB performance metrics and actual conversion data. @Mark_from_MKTG

This can be a pain to set up and maintain especially if you don’t have a data integration tool, but for me, it’s worth it to have a custom view of reliable campaign performance. @Mark_from_MKTG

 

Q5: In a lot of categories, average CPC should be lower because of reduced demand, right? How do we take advantage (do far, it doesn’t seem as easy as it sounds)? @jondenunzio

 

I’d say that if you’re leveraging automated bidding strategies still, you probably can’t really. Have a client that shouldn’t be in an impacted industry have CPCs up 20%(!) for no reason. One of the big downsides of automated strategies. @CJSlattery

It’s very difficult right now. CPCs are down and in some cases, demand is very high! so there’s an argument towards investing more right now – buy low, sell high you know? – but if you don’t have the funds, you don’t have the funds. @JuliaVyse

I wish we were seeing lower CPCs. I’m seeing higher in lots of places… We don’t have clients in one set industry, so I’m seeing this in lots of places/categories. Also seeing it regardless of bid strategy – from eCPC to manual CPC to Smart Bidding. Just doesn’t seem to matter. @nikkijumpfly

I just had a call this morning with a client with 40% lower CPCs right now and subsequently 38% higher revenue vs. last year. I have been in begging clients to spend more, because of the huge returns we are seeing. A lot of brands panicked and pulled spend. @lchasse

Yes, I’ve been experiencing lower CPCs but I’ve also been experiencing lower conversion rates. I’ve been trying to focus on driving similar traffic numbers at a lower costs while increasing investment in remarketing to mitigate conversion losses. @Mark_from_MKTG

Target impression share opportunity. @JonKagan

This is a difficult one cause where we are seeing lower CPC in PPC we are also seeing lower volume. Meaning under-spend. I will say that you should still keep on top of the quality of ads and not drop in being competitive with how you do things. Customers notice. @mindswanppc

Not only does retargeting go with the lower CPC trend but in a tight budget climate, client receptivity to spending on warm audience is better than a cold one. @heyglenns

 

Q6: Facebook lookalike stacks – are you using them (see image for example)? What is performance like? @RyBen3

 

I have NEVER seen this before! doesn’t the 5% include the previous 4? someone tells me all about this pls. @JuliaVyse

Nope. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before. Super curious to find out what the results are like for it though. @adwordsgirl

I’ve seen success and failure with this for a while. It’s hit or miss. The logic on why it works is larger audience size. Instead of a single 1%, you are running 3x that audience size and FB works well with that. If it works for you it’s an indication to go BROAD IMO. @markpgus

There is a sphere of DTC twitter that is really great, but every new trend usually has a principal behind WHY it works. I don’t buy into the weekly FB voodoo that DTC twitter spins. That tactic has been around and has worked before. @markpgus

 

Q7: What do you all think about Facebook backing off of the forced CBO? @NeptuneMoon

 

I don’t do Facebook (yet) but just sounds similar to Google relaxing the rules they were going to put in place regarding being a Partner. i.e. Tactics to keep people spending on the platform despite the pandemic. But how abt when the worst of a pandemic is over? @mindswanppc

twitter.com/NeptuneMoon/st… @adwordsgirl

I am THRILLED that this is not happening. @NeptuneMoon

On one hand… It’s nice. On the other hand, I wish everyone was forced so I would have a competitive advantage using it exclusively for so long. @markpgus

 

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