Facebook PPC: Why It Has Savvy Marketers Drooling All Over Themselves

by Adam Kreitman

Where are the greatest opportunities in online advertising right now? My votes are for local search, video marketing and then the one opportunity that dwarfs all others:

Facebook PPC (Pay Per Click).

As the social media explosion continues, Facebook reigns supreme. The numbers are staggering:

Over 400 million users. 260 Billion pageviews a month. 1 in 4 US Internet pageviews are on Facebook. FB users average 7 hours per month on the site.

As impressive as the numbers are, the true power of Facebook advertising lies in its database of demographics.

You know all those questions Facebook asked you when you first signed up? Where you went to school, what your hobbies are, are you single, engaged or married, what’s your favorite book/movie/music, etc.

This is all under the guise of helping you connect with “friends” on Facebook. And, yes, it’s very effective at doing that. But the demographic information that Facebook has accumulated in the process is a goldmine for marketers.

This data is unparalleled. There has never been a more complete and accurate collection of demographic information for such a large group ever made available to advertisers. And you can take advantage of it today using Facebook’s PPC advertising platform.

Here are some of the ways you can target Facebook users:

1. Location (Country, State, City)
2. Gender
3. Age
4. Education (College Grad, In College, High School)
5. Workplace
6. Relationship (Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, Married)
7. Language
8. Birthday
9. Keyword (this is where things really get interesting – think book titles, Facebook fan pages, TV shows, political causes, etc.)

The true power of Facebook PPC is in combining different demographic data to drill down and run ads to a highly targeted group of individuals who are your ideal prospects.

Here are a few examples:

1. Imagine you own a restaurant in St. Louis. These are some of the options available to you with Facebook pay per click.

  • If you want to attract more of the “Foodies” crowd, you can target a campaign to people in St. Louis who indicate they’re fans of the Food Network and/or specific cookbooks and/or celebrity chefs and/or some of your competitors’ restaurants.
  • Is your restaurant near Boeing? Run ads that promote a lunch special to people whose profiles indicate they work for Boeing and live in St. Louis.
  • Target people in St. Louis on their birthdays to offer a special discount.
  • Say your restaurant is near Washington University and you want to target the college crowd. No problem. Simply target people who indicate they are “in college” at Wash U to reach that key young demographic (this is a great option whether you’re a restaurant or any business targeting the college crowd).

2. Let’s sell your restaurant and open up a jewelry store. You can run ads promoting engagement rings targeted to men who indicate they are “in a relationship.” You can also run ads promoting wedding rings to men and women who indicate they are engaged.

3. Now say your jewelry business was a huge success and you’ve sold it for a tidy profit (congratulations!) and now you want to share all the keen business insights you’ve learned from running your restaurant and jewelry store. Use keyword targeting to promote your book, coaching program, online video training course, etc. to get your ads seen by people who indicate an interest in entrepreneurship and/or are fans of “The E-Myth Revisited” and/or “The Apprentice” and/or major(ed) in Business and/or the sky’s the limit.

Hopefully this gives you a taste of what’s possible with Facebook PPC and what makes it so extremely powerful. The possibilities are mind-blowing, but it gets even better…

Right now there are relatively few advertisers taking advantage of this FB advertising opportunity. The competition is not nearly as fierce as it is on Google these days and the costs per click are generally much lower.

(Speaking of Google, while Facebook’s advertising platform is not so complex as Google’s AdWords platform, a familiarity with running a PPC campaign on Google AdWords will go a long way toward success with Facebook PPC. Particularly, an understanding of testing ads and landing pages, tracking results and key metrics as well as the ability to craft a persuasive pay per click ad is as essential on Facebook as it is on Google.)

How long it takes before more advertisers see the opportunity and send click costs on Facebook soaring, I have no idea. What I do know is that the big Internet marketing gurus have just started to catch on and are drooling over the possibilities of Facebook pay per click. And once the big guns get in the game, it usually means others will soon follow in droves – cluttering the competitive landscape and driving up bid prices.

With a potent combination of 400+ million users, unparalleled demographic targeting capabilities and a (currently) relatively low level of competition, Facebook PPC is an extremely compelling opportunity for small business owners.

Especially if you know the demographics of the ideal prospects you’re trying to reach, take advantage of this opportunity while the gettin’s good!

And if you need help setting up a Facebook PPC campaign or consulting to help you accelerate your learning curve, my St. Louis Internet Marketing firm can help.

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7 Reasons To Use WordPress for Your Small Business’ Website

by Adam Kreitman

It’s been bothering me for some time now.

More and more clients and prospects have been expressing their frustrations with their websites.

The story usually goes something like this: They pay a web developer thousands of dollars to build a basic site with custom coding (or try to improve the website they already have) and they’re upset with the results. Then they feel stuck with a site they can’t stand and can’t even change because it’d cost too much. What’s more, they feel trapped by the programmer/designer who they have to rely on to make even the simplest changes to the site.

Now don’t get me wrong, my purpose is not to blast web designers. There are plenty of excellent, professional web designers around who provide a very valuable service.

However, many small business owners are just in need a basic, clean and professional looking site that’s easy to update and maintain and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Fortunately, just such an option exists.

If you haven’t met already, allow me to introduce you to WordPress.

Originally a software package used primarily for blogging, WordPress has become an amazingly robust Content Management System that small business owners can use to easily create professional looking websites for their businesses.

Here are 7 reasons WordPress may be the perfect option for your small business’ website:

1. It’s FREE. Simply go to WordPress.org and you can download the software – for free! The only thing you’ll have to pay for is hosting (which you’ll have to do for pretty much any business website). The good news is there are a number of quality hosting companies where you can host your WordPress site for just $5 – $10 per month. And many of them offer an option called Fantastico (at no additional charge) that lets you install WordPress in just a few clicks without having to download the software. Which leads us to reason 2 for using WordPress . . .

2. Ease of Use. Besides being easy to install, WordPress is very easy to use. Sure, if you’re technically challenged, there will be a learning curve in using WordPress. But there are plenty of tutorials around on the web to help you. And once you get the hang of things it’s quite easy to add or update content – it’s basically like using a word processing program like Microsoft Word. You don’t need to have a programming bone in your body to successfully maintain a WordPress site.

3. Themes. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of themes available for WordPress. A theme is basically a template that changes the look and feel of your WordPress site (a theme can also alter the behind-the-scenes options to make WordPress even easier to customize and use). Some of these themes are free, others you have to pay for. You can also have a custom theme designed so your site meets your exact specifications.

Using themes you can pretty much get whatever look and feel you want for your WordPress site. And if you get tired of one theme, simply install another and you can instantly and completely change the look of your site – without having to touch the core content already on the site.

4. Plugins. A plugin is a piece of software you can add to your WordPress site that enhances the functionality of WordPress. There are plugins that help with your site’s search engine optimization, improve site security, fight spam, design a contact form, add e-commerce functionality, etc. And the best part is most of these plugins are free!

5. Search Engine Optimization. The search engines LOVE WordPress sites. Add a few SEO-friendly plugins and then you’ll really be in good shape.

6. Support. WordPress is an extremely popular and commonly used piece of software. There are thousands of people available to help you if you have problems. Whether it’s asking for help in a forum or hiring a WordPress pro, a solution to whatever issue you may have is not far away.

7. Freedom. When you host your own WordPress site, you’re in control. You can easily edit content, add new pages or posts to your site, switch hosts, etc. yourself. If you hire someone to do these things for you and decide you’re not happy with them, there are plenty of other fish in the WordPress design/programming/support sea.

There are certainly situations where having a custom designed website done by a qualified professional makes a lot of sense. However, for many small business owners that just need a basic site and/or blog, I’d look no further than WordPress. It’s tough to beat it’s combination of price, flexiblity and functionality.

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The 8 Best Places to Eavesdrop in the Social Media World to Gain a Competitive Advantage

by Adam Kreitman

What’s the most important, yet underutilized social media strategy?

We answered that question in the last blog post – it’s listening.

Here are the 8 best social spots, in no particular order, where you can listen to prospects, customers, critics, and competitors:

1. Twitter Search. Twitter has a search function where you can enter names, keywords and phrases to monitor. Perform a search and you’ll end up with a stream of realtime results for the term you enter.

2. Blogs. Find the blogs from thought leaders in your industry. Don’t just read the blogs, but read the comments section. Often you’ll learn much more there than from the original posts.

3. Facebook Pages. Do a search on Facebook and look for pages related to your industry. Become a fan of the active ones and see what people are sharing and talking about.

4. Social news sites. Sites like Digg, Propeller and Reddit allow users to submit snippets of stories, blog posts and other content from around the web that they find notable or interesting. Take a peak at categories on those sites related to your industry and see what people are talking about.

5. Social bookmarking sites. These are sites like StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and Mixx that allow users to bookmark their favorite web pages. Similar to social news sites, check out the categories related to your industry and see what’s getting bookmarked and commented on.

6. Shopping and eCommerce sites. Know all those reviews that people put on sites like Amazon about the products they purchase? The information in them can be a goldmine for business owners.

7. Social video and photo sharing sites. Depending on your industry, sites like Flickr and YouTube can provide valuable information as well.

8. Question and Answer sites. People pose questions on all sorts of topics on sites like Yahoo! Answers, LinkedIn Answers, and WikiAnswers. And they get all sorts of answers in return. These sites are a good place to find out what sorts of questions people have related to your area of expertise and what kind of answers they’re getting.

One last tip to leave you with. You can significantly cut down the amount of time required to listen in on all these places by using Google Alerts and an RSS reader like Google Reader.

What social media spots do you like to stop by and listen to the conversations taking place? Let me know in the comment section below…

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The Most Underutilized, Yet Most Important, Social Media Strategy

by Adam Kreitman

I’ll admit it. I’m still a social media skeptic.

Just yesterday I was watching a video of an Internet marketing expert who I admire in which he said being on Facebook and Twitter is now mandatory for businesses.

I disagree. There are many businesses, small and large, who can and are doing very well without jumping into the world of social media, thank you very much.

Having said that, I do believe that when used smartly, social media can certainly be a great tool for small business owners.

Of all the ways you can use social media, however, I think there’s one that trumps all the others. I believe it’s the most important, yet underutilized social media strategy out there.

What is it?

Listen.

That’s it. Just listen.

Listen to your prospects.
Listen to your customers.
Listen to your competitors.
Listen to your critics.
Listen to your fans.
Listen to your industry leaders.

Social media makes it very easy to keep track of what’s being said about you, your company, your competitors, your industry, etc.

Use that to your advantage to address any complaints circulating about your business from unhappy customers.

Listen in on the conversations your prospects are having to gain key insights into what makes them tick (which is immensely important to understand when it comes to effectively marketing your business).

Keep track of your competitors’ products, services, pricing, customers complaints/praise, offers, etc. to learn what they’re doing well that you can incorporate and improve upon and what they’re not doing well that presents an opportunity for you to gain a competitive advantage.

This is no different than in the offline world (Shameless Plug Alert: You can discover why the secret to marketing online is offline by downloading my free report located at the top of the right sidebar on this page). You gain much greater knowledge and insight about how to improve your business from listening as opposed to talking.

Social media tools just let you to listen to a greater number of people and with greater ease than ever before.

In my next post, I’ll share seven of the best social media spots on the web for listening.

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YouTube Secrets: How to Get Viewers From YouTube To Your Website

by Adam Kreitman

It’s surprising that this tip should fall under that category of YouTube secrets. Yet, the majority of small business owners who post videos on YouTube fail to take this simple step that can increase the flow of traffic from their YouTube videos to their websites.

When you post a video to YouTube, you have the opportunity to add a description to your video. A snippet of this description will be displayed to the right of your video on YouTube as well as in the video search results on the site. Most people do take the time to enter some sort of description in this box. (As a side note, make sure you write a compelling, keyword rich description of your video.  This helps your video’s ranking in the search results).

But, here’s the little secret that many small business owners miss:

You can insert active links to your web site, or pages within your website, in this description. And the best part is that you don’t have to know any HTML code to do it!

Simply enter the URL you want to include, starting with “http://” and YouTube will automatically turn that into an active link when  your video is posted.

A few recommendations I have on this YouTube secret:

1. Put two links in your description. Make one the very first thing people see in the description so they’re sure to see it when watching your video on YouTube. Then put one more as the very last thing included in your description. You may even want to add a call to action with this second link along the lines of “For much more on this topic, visit http://OurFreakingAwesomeWebsite.com”.

2. If possible, send people to a page on your website that has your keyword in the URL. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “dog training” send people to “http://www.SeeSpotRun.com/dogtraining.html.” Any time you can get your keyword in the description, it will help with your video’s ranking in the search engine.

Web surfers are lazy. Anything you can do to make it easier for them to get to your website, the better off you are. So don’t make people have to take the effort to remember the URL you mention in your video and type it into their browser. Simply put clickable links to your website in your YouTube video descriptions that will get them to your site with almost no effort at all (on your part or theirs!).

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WordPress Problems: Check Your WordPress Blog Sidebars In Internet Explorer Right Now!

by Adam Kreitman

If you’re using WordPress for your website or blog, this post is for you.

I’ve seen this problem twice in the last 24 hours and don’t know how many WordPress users this could be affecting so I thought I’d try to get the word out.

I never use Internet Explorer (IE) web browser, so never bother to look at my blog there. But the other day I was making some changes and thought I’d check it out in IE.  To my surprise, the content in my sidebars was nowhere to be found. It was visible when viewing my site in Chrome, Firefox and Flock, but not IE.

I did a little bit of research and it looks like this is not too uncommon a problem. It’s caused when some extra code somehow ends up in the body of one of your blog posts. After doing some digging around I found an easy fix. This fix came in handy today when I was at a client site looking at their blog in IE, and lo and behold, no content was visible in the sidebars.

So how can you tell if you have the problem and what is the fix I used on my site and my client’s site?

To tell if you have the problem, open Internet Explorer and go to the home page of your your WordPress blog/website (in the two cases I saw this happen the sidebars were only missing on the home page, not the pages for individual posts).

Can you see the content that’s supposed to be in your WordPress blog’s sidebars? If so, you’re good and can leave now.

If you can’t, here’s what to do (this fix worked in the two instances I saw this problem, though I don’t know if it will work for everyone):

First, scroll down to the very bottom of your site’s home page. Chances are you’ll see the headline of one of your blog posts but the body of the post is missing.

If that’s the case, go to the Edit Post section of your WordPress site’s admin area and find the post that was cut off on your home page.

Click on that post to edit it and then click on the “HTML” tab when the post is in edit mode. There is likely a whole bunch of code there that makes no sense to you.

To get rid of it, go back to the “Visual” tab in edit post mode, select all the text from the post and copy it. Then go back to the “HTML” tab and delete everything. Lastly, go back to the “Visual” tab and paste the text of blog post that you just copied there.

All that’s left to do at this point is save the post and then visit your homepage again in IE and your sidebar content should be visible again!

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6 Ways to Overcome Click Inertia

by Adam Kreitman

A few months ago I introduced a concept I call Click Inertia.

Click Inertia is the resistance that your prospects have to moving their index finger just that few hundreths of an inch to click on your ad, blog post, email, link, video, etc.

It’s the biggest obstacle to your online marketing success because clicks make the web go ’round.

Here are 6 ways you can get your prospects to overcome Click Inertia:

  1. Be Somebody. Do people know who you are? Have you made a name for yourself in your given niche? If so, that name recognition will go a long way to getting people to click on your links. If they’re familiar with you, and better yet, know you, like you, and trust you, they are much more likely to click on your links than if they don’t know you from, well, Adam!
  2. Tell a Story. People love a good story. An affinity for stories is ingrained in the human brain so being a gifted storyteller is a huge plus for an online marketer. If you can weave your message into an intriguing storyline, watch the clicks come flooding in.
  3. Write Great Headlines. How can you not click on an article with the headline “8 Ways to Make Your Message More Spreadable Than Syphillis in a Slovakian Steamroom?” This gem is from my approachable friend Scott who writes some of the most intriguing, and clickable, headlines you’ll ever see. Writing powerful, attention grabbing headlines is a surefire recipe for overcoming Click Inertia.
  4. Make a Strong Offer. Study some of the great direct marketers like Claude Hopkins, Eugene Schwartz, or Dan Kennedy and learn how to craft a powerful offer. Place a strong, compelling offer in front of the right audience and they’ll be like moths to a flame (in the sense that they’ll be very attracted to your offer and click on it as opposed to flying to their firery deaths!).
  5. Provide Value. Can you provide genuinely valuable information to your prospects? Can you help them solve their most pressing issues? Can you improve their lives in some way? Do that, and do that on a regular basis, and watch your prospects resistance to clicking on your emails, videos, blog posts melt away.
  6. Eye-Catching Images. I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but what I do know is using eye-catching photos or pictures (especially in your banner ads) makes a huge difference in whether or not your prospects will notice them and, more importantly, click on them.

Do you have any other ways to overcome Click Inertia? Please share them in the comment section below.

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The 4-Letter Word Missing From Most Social Media Strategies That Dooms Them to Failure

by Adam Kreitman

Small business owners are rushing to the promised land of social media to save their recession ravaged businesses.

They’re frantically signing up for Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and other social media sites because they’re being told they have to be there. And social media experts are making a fortune selling the “secrets” to getting tons of Twitter followers and Facebook Fans/Friends and on and on.

But most of the small business owners flocking to social media are not going to make one penny from their efforts. The reason is because most social media plans leave out one absolutely critical piece of the money-making puzzle.

This piece of the puzzle is a four letter word that seems to get fouler and fouler to most of the population with each passing year. The mere suggestion of it makes most social media experts shudder in their tweets.

What is this vulgar word?

Sell.

Yep, I said it. Sell.

If you want to make money, you have to sell. Whether it’s on the phone, face to face, in print or in the world of the Internet and social media, to make money you have to sell.

Sell yourself.
Sell your products.
Sell your services.

Last year, there was a huge infoproduct launch online about how to make money with social media. The promotions teased prospects with headlines along the lines of “Discover the Secrets of How I Got 4 Bazillion Twitter Followers in 11 Months.”

What I found interesting about the launch of this product about making money from social, however, is that they didn’t actually make money from social media. All the heavy selling was done using time tested direct marketing principles that were delivered using email autoresponders and landing pages with video sales letters and long copy sales letters.

No doubt that using social media and, perhaps more importantly, building a large email list, led to the success of this launch. But the money was made because of the more traditional direct marketing and sales principles that were used.

Yes, you can use social media to connect with customers and prospects. You can use social media to build relationships. You can use social media to get people to know, like and trust you.

But at the end of the day, if you want to make money (and that’s at least part of the reason you’re in business in the first place, right?!),  you have to offer something that satisfies a need in a marketplace, you have to know how to craft an offer, and you have to SELL.

[One last note:  if the thought of selling makes your skin crawl, you don't (and shouldn't) have to sell in an unethical, sleezy kind of way. My friend Gill is an expert in helping people sell with honesty and integrity.]

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The Secret of the Tactical Triangle

by Adam Kreitman

When it comes to the world of Internet marketing gurus, there are very few I trust and fewer that I follow on a regular basis.

One of the exceptions to that rule is Perry Marshall. He built his reputation as an AdWords expert, but he also provides some phenominal insights in many other areas of marketing. His newsletter is the only one that I’m willing to pay for on a regular basis.

In his latest newsletter, he described a concept called the “Tactical Triangle.” This concept breaks marketing down into three core areas: Traffic, Conversion and Economics.

I read the article a few times because it’s a very powerful concept. However, instead of trying to explain it here, I’ll let you hear it directly from Perry himself because he’s made a good chunk of that article available on his blog. You can read it by clicking here.

It’s definitely worth a look if you do any sort of marketing online or offline.

Note: The link above is an affiliate link. It’s free to read the article, however, if you decide you’d like to buy something from Perry Marshall in the future (which I have done a few times because I think his stuff is that good), I will get a commission from your purchase.

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The Single Biggest Challenge You Have To Overcome When Marketing Online

by Adam Kreitman

It’s the simplest of movements. And one that takes almost no effort at all.

I’m talking about moving your index finger a few hundreths of an inch to click the button on your mouse (or click the touch pad on your laptop).

Yet this simple task is your biggest obstacle to success in online marketing.

The problem is not that the task itself is any more difficult for your prospects to perform than it is for you. The problem is your prospect’s resistance to doing it.

Overcoming this resistance is something I’ve dubbed “Click Inertia” and it is your single biggest challenge as an online marketer.

The dictionary definition of inertia is the “resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change.” And that’s precisely what you’re up against on your blog, website, social media sites, etc. when it comes to getting people to click.

Your online marketing success in dependent on getting prospects to get past their inertia and click on your email, pay per click ad, search engine listing, video, local business listing, affiliate link, Buy Now button, become your fan on Facebook, etc.

Bottom line is clicks make the web go round and for you to make a sale online takes at least one click, or more likely, a bunch of them.

This challenge of overcoming click inertia is one that’s getting more difficult by that day as the amount content, good and bad, competing for your prospects attention expands at a exponential pace.

So your #1 job as an Internet marketer is to give prospects a real compelling reason to get past their Click Inertia and move their finger than few hundreths of an inch.

How do you do that? Answering that very question will be the topic of my next blog post.

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