Could a viral TV interview with 127 million views teach us how to get more conversions from Facebook ads at a lower cost? In 2017 the British Channel 4 interviewed Mo Gawdat about happiness; the interview went viral with 80 million views in 11 days, making it the most-watched news clip in the history of Channel 4. As a result, the CEO of Channel 4 called Mo Gawdat, saying:   "Who are you? " Why are people interested in this happiness topic?" "This is impossible; we broadcast violence because it is what people want." Channel 4 was following the media's conventional wisdom that violenc ..read more

an older version of this article was originally published on the AdEspresso blog BetterBack is a company that appeared on the TV show Shark Tank and got an investment offer from Lori Greiner, and before that raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter. They were doing a great job on many fronts, except their Facebook ads were not profitable. Then they got in touch with AdEspresso Concierge service, and I was the one on the other side of that phone call (and of the world, for that matter). After 3 months of managing their ads, their cost per sale decreased to $28.588 while getting 1998 sales, which was ..read more

This article was originally published in French on Hootsuite blog The internet is full of advice and secret formulas for Facebook ad targeting. An ever-growing touting of strategies guarantee skyrocket conversion and cheaper Facebook ads campaigns.  Yet, a good portion of this hype around Facebook targeting simply isn’t true. Self-proclaimed “gurus” even encourage people to use Facebook ads to steal competitors’ clients…That’s just not how it works. (Spoiler alert: that’s NOT possible).  Say for a minute we were talking about food instead of targeting. If I tried a horrible mashed ..read more

an older version of this article was originally published on the AdEspresso blog In 2002 when James Caan sold the recruiting company he created, it had a turnover of around £130m (around USD 174m).  He started his business by cold calling companies and saying: “Hi, my name’s James Caan, I’m calling from Alexander Mann. We’re specialists in financial recruitment...”.  He spoke to hundreds of people, and all of them told him to get lost.  It only got better when he moved from the generic pitch to a specific angle: “I had this guy in last week, he’s at Allied Dunbar, and I think he ..read more

Facebook and Google’s cat fight about Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes makes me happy. Not because I love catfights (*GRABS POPCORN*), but because hacks I used 10 years ago (before Facebook even had a pixel to manage and optimise campaign performances) are useful again. But before I share a few tips on how to navigate those new changes, who does not love some background info? What is Facebook and Apple’s cat fight about?  Today while checking a Facebook ads account, I saw the following pop up:  How Apple's iOS 14 Release May Affect Your Ads Facebook was using strong language, talking ..read more

As a Facebook Ad specialist, I know as well as anyone that PPC campaigns can help you connect with niche targeted audiences. You can get your ad in front of almost anyone if you know how to reach them. You can think outside the box with these ad campaigns, too. You can promote your own resume, reach out to a small list of relevant clients, or even file a customer service complaint through PPC ads in order to get the needed attention.  I did this recently, running LinkedIn Ads to the managers at Turkish Airlines in hopes that they’d help me resolve a customer service issue. I got more than ..read more

Paul Hartford is a waiter who served many celebrities from Paris Hilton to Elton John throughout his career. In his book Waiter to the Rich and Shameless, he talks about how personalising wine recommendations to Johnny Depp’s taste made the difference between a modest tip and $ 2,500 tip. It makes sense that the more personalized a recommendation is, the more on-point it will be. Marketers are looking at new ways to offer more personalized content and ads to their customers, so I did an experiment using FB Flexible interest targeting to personalize ads to a user.  In this article, I’ll sh ..read more