If you’ve never run Facebook ads before, perhaps have tinkered a few times with the blue Boost button, or maybe even attempted building a couple ads inside Ads Manager with little to no success, this Facebook Ads Crash Course blog post is for you. While Facebook ads is a HUGE, in-depth topic that takes several months and running a lot of ad campaigns to really get a handle on, I also know that there are plenty of small business owners and independent professionals out there who are searching for the basics on running a Facebook ads campaign on their own. You might have questions like…where do ..read more

As 2020 was winding down and news broke about Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 changes as it related to Facebook, its pixel tracking capabilities, and what that meant for advertisers, Facebook began encouraging Business Page admins to verify their website domain(s) inside their Business Managers. Facebook said that domain verification was important if A. You want to have authority over which conversion events are eligible for your domain, and B. Your email domain doesn’t match your website domain, and C. You want to manage editing permissions for your ads. You can read more about this here. In this pos ..read more

Google Analytics is a free and comprehensive website analytics tool available to anyone with a website, regardless of what specific website platform/CMS you use for your small business site. On top of gathering website visitor data like how many unique visitors come to your site each month, how long they stay on your site, how many pages they typically visit, and what led them to your website, you can enhance your online marketing by setting up Google goals, connecting your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account, and connecting your Search Console account to your Google Analytics ..read more

The internet, websites, and social media can be wonderful things. From a small business stand point, these tools provide an easy, effective, and economical way to establish and grow businesses, and advertise to reach potential customers. But the flip side of that ease, effectiveness, and low cost is the tremendous opportunity available for people out to scam others out of money. That’s what’s been happening to countless customers of at least 3 nearly-identical Shopify stores since July 2020. Thanks to 3 domain purchases through GoDaddy, multiple Shopify stores, and lots of Facebook and Instagr ..read more

As a small business owner trying to understand and harness the power of SEO, you may be wanting to break it down into more manageable chunks. What do you need to do on your website to improve your SEO? What about off your website…are there other activities you can complete to improve your SEO? In short, there are several steps to optimizing your website for organic search results as well as several activities that take place off of your website that also directly impact those organic search rankings. Typically, I recommend focusing on optimizing your small business website first since your web ..read more

You have a website for your small business, have started to learn about the benefits of optimizing your pages for search, have gained an understanding of the basics of SEO, and are ready to begin your website SEO project. So, how exactly do you begin with that SEO work? What types of things do you need to prepare before you SEO your small business website? Let’s take a look at what you need to plan, decide, and have prepared ahead of beginning the SEO work on your small business website. 6 Things to Prepare Before you SEO your Small Business Website Solid, useful content – Before you optimiz ..read more

Clicking on the blue Boost button located in the bottom corner of published Facebook Business Page posts is a fast way to advertise that newly-published content. Up until recently, the differences between advertising using the Boost button and creating an ad inside Ads Manager, were vast. Yes, creating ads inside Ads Manager still provides you with an optimal advertiser’s experience, but Facebook has finally improved the usefulness of Boosts and eliminated some of the negatives associated with using it. Let’s take a look at the improvements Facebook made to its Boost feature. Facebook Boost I ..read more

Facebook Business Manager is an interface that allows you as a business owner to manage your Facebook Business Page, Facebook Ads account, and Instagram account, and the people who work on those properties with you. Business Manager can be confusing; it’s one of the most popular topics for questions that we get. We gathered up the top most common questions and misunderstandings about Facebook Business Manager and using it, for this post. Here are 8 thing to know about Facebook Business Manager.   8 Things to Know about Facebook Business Manager Business Manager was created with agencies ..read more

Facebook advertisers are required to designate a new campaign as a Special Ad Category campaign if it falls under any of these 4 classifications: Housing, Employment, Credit, or Politics. We’ve previously discussed Housing, Employment and Credit ads in our Special Ad Category blog post written before political and election ads were added to this Special Ad Category list. Housing, Employment, and Credit ads have limited targeting options whereas Social Issues, Elections, or Politics ads require the advertisers to become authorized to run those ads and require use of a disclaimer. Let’s take a c ..read more

If you’re a small business owner with a social media strategy already in place, you might think that you’ve got all your online marketing plans covered. But social media and online marketing are not the same things. In fact, social media is only one part of your overall online marketing strategy. So along with the reasons why you need a social media strategy for your small business, you also really need to think more broadly and make a plan for your online marketing strategy as well. Let’s take a look at the 5 reasons why you need an online marketing strategy for your small business. Why you ..read more