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October 2018 How to Advertise Your Business Through Google and Facebook Advertising your small business sounds scary but it really is not. There are a number of ways to advertise, including signs, billboards, radio, television, Google and Facebook. Digital advertising platforms like Facebook and Google are relatively new, powerful ways to advertise that also put the power in the hands of small business owners. While you may have to hire a consultant to make a television ad or a billboard, then negotiate the rate for its display, all that power is right at your fingertips on your personal computer when it comes to digital advertising. NASE SelfInformed 2 October 2018 Google Ads (formerly AdWords) Google Ads include both the ads that you see above and below on Google searches, and some display ads. The ads on search results pages are called search engine marketing (SEM) ads and are targeted based on search keywords, location, language and device (PC, smartphone and tablet). They can be highly effective for local businesses like lawyers, plumbers, electricians, florists, restaurants and more. However, they can also be effective for eCommerce businesses and niche businesses like ultralight plane kit builders, for example. Google Ads do generally require investing in setting up a website, however. Facebook Ads Facebook ads can appear in the Facebook news feed, on the sidebar, on Instagram, and a number of places now as well. They can be highly targeted with options including gender, interests, location (down to a mile), people who like your Facebook page, friends of people who like your Facebook page, and more. Facebook ads are a great place for small business owners looking to dip their feet into digital advertising and boosting posts still allows you to advertise your products and services without investing in setting up a website. two means the same person has seen the ad twice. This can often be capped to a number to prevent the same person from seeing the same ad too many times. CTR CTR is the click through rate of an advertisement. This is based on impressions divided by clicks. A higher CTR generally means better performance and translates into a lower cost for each click. Key Digital Advertising Terminology CPC (PPC) Digital advertising has its own set of terminology which can seem confusing at first. Do not worry — most of the terms are fairly simple, each digital marketing platform offers explanations, and a simple web search can provide all the information you need if you still have questions. These are some of the most common terms: CPC stands for cost per click and describes how much each click on your running advertisement costs. A lower CPC means your ads cost less per click. This is generally a good thing, but only if the ads are still being shown to relevant customers that are interested in your product or service. CPC is sometimes described as PPC, which means pay per click, a way of describing how the ads are billed. Good targeting and good ad copy (the written text that makes up an advertisement) are essential for a good CPC. Impression An impression in digital advertising is each time someone views an advertisement. The same person can see the same ad multiple times, counting as multiple impressions. CPM Frequency CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions (or mille, which means one thousand in Latin). Whereas CPC ads are charged by the click, CPM ads charge by the impression or view. Each time an ad is The number of times the same person sees the same advertisement. A frequency of one means someone has seen an ad one time. A frequency of NASE SelfInformed 3 October 2018 viewed, that counts as an impression. As with CPC ads, the better the targeting and the better the ad copy, the lower the CPM. Most digital advertising platforms can bill you either way. ROI RPM Lead ROI stands for return on investment and is a measurement of how profitable an activity is for a business. RPM stands for revenue-per-thousand-impressions. This can be difficult to calculate, especially when a business’s website traffic is low. However, let us say a digital advertising campaign drove a thousand visits to a small business’s website that resulted in a thousand page views or views of pages on the site. Those thousand visits result in fifty calls to the business inquiring about their services. Of those fifty calls, ten resulted in sales. To calculate RPM, the estimated revenue is divided by the number of page views, which is first divided by one thousand. Website RPM = A lead is a contact with a potential customer. For example, each time someone calls a business to inquire about their service counts as a lead. The filling out of contact information in a form for the same purpose also counts as a lead. Even an in-store visit counts as a lead. Call to Action (CTA) Calls to action are prompts for an immediate action by a potential customer. Examples are “Call Now,” “Signup Here,” “Buy Now,” or “Email Us Here.” Every good website needs clearly defined calls to action for potential customers to initiate the sales process. Estimated Revenue Conversion Number of Page Views ÷ 1000 Conversions are the successful completions of calls to action and are intended to create customers. Examples of a conversion include an inquiry call from a potential customer, an email signup for a newsletter, a purchase on an eCommerce website or even a visit to a physical store. RPV RPV stands for revenue-per-thousand-visits. This is often a better number for small business owners to focus on than RPM, unless their business is a digital publication that relies on-page display advertising to generate revenue. Website RPV = NASE SelfInformed Landing Page A landing page is a specially designed page on a website that has a clearly defined call to action. Customers are sent to landing pages from digital advertisements. A landing page should clearly define what products or services your business offers and then a call to action to initiate the sales process, ultimately resulting in some type of conversion or sale. Estimated Revenue Number of Page Visits ÷ 1000 4 October 2018 How to Start Google Ads this to manual later. If your manual bid is too low, your ad will either end up lower in search results or not be displayed at all. You can setup a Google Ads account at https://ads.google.com. The setup process only takes around half an hour. Google will charge your debit or credit card. The steps to setup a Google Ads account and create your first ad are as follows: Write Your Ad This is fairly straightforward and Google displays a mockup of what the ad will look like. You want your ad to stand out from the others but not be misleading. Clearly explain your product or service. Decide How Much to Spend Google lets you set a daily max spend for your advertisements. Start very small. $1-$10 per day is fine. A large budget will only waste money at first as you learn how everything works, how to target your customers, and what advertisements work best for your customers. You can always increase this later, once you start to see results. Enter Your Business and Billing Information Google uses this to charge you. It is also important to set the correct time zone for reporting purposes. Google also occasionally offers advertising credits via email and many website hosting companies offer them with new accounts. Choose a Target Audience Start the Campaign and Track Performance LOCATIONS This is where your knowledge of your customers comes in handy. If you have a local business, you will want to make sure you are only targeting customers in your area. The default is the United States and Canada, but you can set it to whatever country or city you want to target. After you go through all the steps, it is time to start tracking performance. Google offers some performance tracking information in its advertising dashboard, but you should also link the ad account to your Google Analytics account. That option is in Google Analytics settings. This lets you see how much each visit costs, where on your website they go, and if they complete any conversions, which can be tracked as “goals.” NETWORKS The options here are search (which must always be selected) and display. Display ads appear on websites that Google thinks match the keywords you set. For example, if someone is reading an article on a blog that talks about model trains and your ads relate to model trains, Google would serve your ads on the website if it has the appropriate ad units setup on its pages. After you go through all the steps, it is time to start tracking performance KEYWORDS These are the words that trigger your advertisement when people search for them through Google. Keyword research is important. Google also shows the monthly search volume for your selected locations and keywords. Set Your Bid There are two options here: automatic and manual. I recommend starting with automatic to get a feel for how much your CPC will be. You can always set NASE SelfInformed 5 October 2018 How to Start Facebook Ads create a Facebook Ad account, enter your billing information, and then you will be presented with a number of options to boost posts, create new posts to boost, or promote links to your website. There are quite a few options in Facebook Ad Manager compared to Google Ads. As with boosted posts, it is important to start with a small budget and scale as you start to see profitable results. Make sure your targeting information is correct. You can spend all the money in the world and still not get a sale if you are targeting the wrong customers. Facebook offers two ways to advertise: boosting posts that are on your page and Facebook Ad Manager. Ad Manager offers many more options and is recommended if you have time to dive into it. I recommend starting with boosted posts and seeing how they perform. Boosted Posts To create a boosted post, first create a post on your Facebook page. There is a “Boost Post” button that appears in the lower right hand side of the post when viewed on a PC. The steps are straightforward and include total budget, delivery options and targeting. You will be prompted to enter your billing information after you have setup your ad. Start small. Measure performance. Repeat. Tracking the Performance of a Digital Advertising Campaign The easiest way to track the performance of a digital advertising campaign and the overall performance of a business’s website and/or smartphone app is through Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that can tell you where every visit to your website comes from. Another important tool is Google Search Console, which focuses on how your website interacts with searches on Google. Facebook Ad Manager Facebook Ad Manager is accessible through clicking “Manage Ads” in the menu opened by clicking the downward facing arrow in the upper right hand corner of Facebook when on a PC. You will have to Besides these two tools from Google, Facebook’s Ad Manager reporting tools is invaluable for ads running on that platform. A simple Google Sheets spreadsheet can be used to organize daily spend versus RPM or RPV metrics, leads generated per day, and other metrics. Pay attention to metrics like CPC and conversions. It does not make sense to spend $10 to generate a conversion if your profit margin before advertising is less than that. Both Google and Facebook offer training in the form of Google Ads Certification and Facebook Blueprint. Google’s training is free though Facebook’s can be audited for free as well. Another invaluable training Google offers is Google Analytics Certification, which is also free. Once you have setup and run your first Google Ads or Facebook Ads campaign, calculate the performance. Did the ads generate any conversions or sales? Were you able to accurately determine the ROI? Did you target your potential customers to the best of your ability? Do you need to perform market research to better target your potential customers? Digital advertising should always have a clear result and a positive ROI. Happy advertising! NASE SelfInformed 6 October 2018 N ! ew Member Benefits Visit NASE.org to learn more about the following benefits! APPLY FOR A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT GRANT FROM THE NASE WORTH UP TO $4,000! DESIGNED TO HELP ADDRESS A SPECIFIC BUSINESS NEED. Need $4,000 To Help Your Business Grow? Login and apply for an NASE Growth Grant Today! You could receive up to $4,000 for your small business through the NASE Growth Grants program. To be eligible for an NASE grant, you must: ƒƒ Be an NASE Member in good standing ƒƒ Demonstrate a business need that could be fulfilled by the grant Since 2006, the NASE has awarded nearly $1,000,000 to members just like you through the Growth Grants® program by providing small business grants. ƒƒ Provide a detailed explanation of how you will use the grant proceeds ƒƒ Show how the grant will improve your business growth and success Grants can be used for marketing, advertising, hiring employees, expanding facilities and other specific business needs. ƒƒ Offer supporting documentation such as a résumé and business plan Want to know more or see some of the recent recipients? Click here Get answers, advice, and tips from our team of professional experts. Ask a question online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To help you grow your business, we offer the following experts. Taxes, Business Strategy, Business Law, Marketing 101, Health Care Reform, Finance/Accounting, Marketing/Advertising, Real Estate, Information Technology, B2B Leads, Social Media and Database Management. The NASE Member Directory is the NextBizThing.com! Your listing is free with your NASE membership! SEARCH – REVIEW – CONNECT You can also upload your logo, profile picture, create photo albums, promote your listing via social media, offer coupons and get free leads. NASE SelfInformed 7 October 2018 Let’s Get Social! Connect with NASE on our social platforms As an NASE member, you are the driving force for what we do. Promoting self-employment and providing as many self-employed people as possible with our wide variety of benefits is something we do every day. But is it something you do? A great way for you to show your support for the NASE is to Like, Join and Follow us on our social media channels to help spread awareness. If you haven’t taken the time already, we invite you to do so now with the links to our social media below: Facebook Twitter NASE Minute LinkedIn Instagram Pinterest Google Plus NASE Blog HuffPost YouTube WANT TO BE FEATURED? We are always looking for NASE Members to feature in our monthly spotlights. If you want free publicity for your business and you are an NASE Member, we can help you promote your business! Simply fill out our “Get Publicity!” form here, and you and your business could be featured in an NASE publication, like our monthly member e-newsletter, SelfInformed. Fill out the information in our Publicity form so an NASE representative can reach out to discuss featuring you and your business next! Get Publicity NASE SelfInformed 8 October 2018 National Women’s Small Business Month & H.R. 5050 This month is National Women’s Small Business Month and we are proud to celebrate and honor the nearly 11 million woman-owned businesses in the U.S., which is 38 percent of all businesses, supporting nearly nine million jobs and generating annual revenues of $1.6 trillion. Women business owners are a force of nature! It is no surprise that National Women’s Business Month coincides with the passage of the historic H.R. 5050, The Women’s Business Ownership Act, and signed into law by President Reagan in 1988. The Act was created to address the needs of women in business by giving women entrepreneurs better recognition, additional resources, and by eliminating discriminatory lending practices by banks that favored male business owners over female. Two crucial pieces of H.R. 5050: One it, required that the U.S. Census Bureau include C corporations when presenting data on women-owned firms. Prior to the inclusion of this data, statistics for women business owners were not accurate and diminished the vital contribution women were making in the business world. And two, eliminated all individual state laws that required women to have a male relative sign a business loan. NASE is proud and honored to celebrate the 30th anniversary of H.R. 5050 and we look forward to supporting initiatives that highlight the importance of all entrepreneurs and the significant contributions they make to their communities and country!  Katie Vlietstra is NASE’s Vice President for Government Relations and Public Affairs; You can contact her at- NASE SelfInformed 9 October 2018