Saturday, February 26, 2011

Finding Your Targets

I've received requests, and many super nice emails, inquiring how to find good targets. I'll do my best to explain what I did, but I'm no expert - all I know is what worked for me, so here goes...

**Know your Competitors!  You know better then anyone else what you sell.  Use that information to choose your competitors. Where do you believe your customers would also shop?  For example, many people who shop at Nordstrom's would also shop at Sax Fifth Avenue.  If you sell baby items, enter in Babies R Us, if you sell graphic tees, enter in Zazzle or PalmerCash.  If you are not sure, then do a Facebook search.  I had one shop that sold hand-painted tote bags ask me who to enter as a competitor.  I went to the Facebook search, typed in 'hand painted totes,' but I didn't get much so I tried just 'tote bags.' This gave me a bit more, so I looked  for which page had the most fans and chose that one. Which leads to the second tip...

**Pick Winners!  When doing a search, you may come across a shop that is perfect as your competition, but they only have 11 fans. Don't even bother.  Choose pages with many fans so you will reach the most people.  Also, many interests will have several fan pages.  A quick page search will reveal which one has the most fans, thus, which one to choose.  For example, I may enter 'Etsy' for one of my 'likes and interests,' but there are several Etsy fan pages.  I will see which one is the most popular and pick that page.  Remember, it's all a numbers game and you want to win.

***Stand Out in the Crowd  When you pick your photo, remember, your ad will probably be shown in the bottom corner - so you want to catch some eyes!  Think bright colors, bold images, and basically things that will draw the eye down to your ad.  If you choose a light pink photo of a necklace against a white background, it may not get seen.  Remember, you are fighting for fans, and fighting against other ads (you will be in a group of about four or five other ads).  How will YOURS stick out?  A great tool is the 'preview on page' button.  You can see what your ad will look like on a page.  I highly suggest trying this out.  See if you would notice your ad or not. How well does it stand out?  Does it draw your eye down? If not, rethink your image. Also, you don't have to use a product photo. I've had success with other images that I think relate to my overall look or feel.  As long as it's relevant, you're good!

**Think Outside the Shop!  Don't just think of other stores to enter in for 'likes and interests,' you can choose TV shows, music, celebrities, popular websites, anything.  For example, I add in 'tattoos' and 'True Blood' for my interest targets. It's a safe bet that my customers will like tattoos since I sell many tattoo inspired items. I also know True Blood will be good one to pick because on the right side of my page (under 'recommended pages') it tells me how many of my fans like certain pages, and if many of my current fans like something, it's probable many future ones will too. As you gain fans, you will have better information on this. I also enter in Kat Von D as a target interest because she is relevant to tattoos and she has a similar style to my shop; basically, I can see my customers liking her.

**Know Your Customers!  We all know choosing likes and interests are important for targeting, but what about age? Location? Relationship status? Well, again, you know your customers best, use that knowledge.  If you sell dresses or baby items - target women.  If you sell trendy, magazine inspired items - target younger people.  Think about your typical customer and enter in targets that fit that profile.  You may be hesitant as you see the targeted audience dwindling, but don't worry - this goes back to wanting a high CTR that I discussed in the last post.  I would think as long as you're over a couple hundred thousand, you're ok.  You will probably be in the millions actually.

**Take Facebook's Suggestions!  After you type in some 'likes and interests,' Facebook will suggest some pages to you (below the grey box).  When I see these, I will open another tab and do a search for the suggested pages I think may be a fit and check if any of them have lots of fans.  I will also type in a word and see what pages it thinks I'm going to type. I will do a search on those too.  For example, if enter in 'Steampunk' for an interest, a whole list of pages with 'Steampunk' for the first word will pop up in the prediction text. If any are a good match, I may add it- but only if it fits with my shop aesthetic.  Don't just add things that are sort of like you're shop. This will waste money and lower your CTR.  You want to target people who will possibly buy from you.

Here is an example of what a possible ad I could run would look like:

Destination: Ballyhoo Jewelry
Type: Facebook Ads
Destination Tab: My Etsy or Default - wherever you want people to land
Body: Follow Ballyhoo for Steampunk and tattoo inspired jewelry! 20% off for Facebook Fans!
Location: US, UK, Australia
Age: 18-33
Demographics: Women
Likes & Interests: Toofast, Hot Topic, Tattoos, Kat Von D, True Blood, Etsy, Punk Rock, Rockabilly,        
                            Zombies, Sourpuss Clothing
Connections: Only people NOT already connected to Ballyhoo Jewelry
Interested in: All
Relationship Status: All
Education: All

1 comment:

  1. Love your examples which are very helpful and really get your point across. I "get" what you're saying. Thank you again for all the tips!

    ReplyDelete