0:01

So you want to launch a subscription box

0:03

and don't know where to start? Girl, you

0:05

are in the right place. I'm Julie

0:08

Ball, a subscription box coach and your host

0:10

here at Subscription Box Basics, a

0:12

podcast for new and aspiring subscription

0:14

box entrepreneurs that want to avoid

0:16

overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some

0:19

pen and paper and let's have some fun! Hey,

0:23

and welcome back to Subscription Box Basics.

0:25

So glad you guys are here listening

0:27

because I have a treat for you today. My

0:29

name is Julie Ball and I am your subscription

0:32

box coach and the founder and Chief Sparkler at

0:34

Sparkle Hustle Grow. And I have my

0:36

friend Becky Burgess from Splash

0:38

Owl Media with me today.

0:40

Welcome Becky!

0:41

Hi, thanks for having me.

0:43

Yes. So guys, if you haven't met

0:45

Becky before, she is

0:47

a Facebook ads specialist

0:50

and she is the one responsible for

0:52

all the ads that you may

0:54

see from Sparkle Hustle Grow,

0:57

Subscription Box Bootcamp. And

0:59

when we hired her, this was

1:01

a big deal for us because we had

1:04

worked with a few ad agencies in the past

1:06

with some decent results. We've worked

1:08

with some other agencies in the past with

1:11

really, really, really bad

1:13

results. And then she

1:15

came onboard and just shifted

1:17

things in a very positive manner when

1:19

it came to our Facebook

1:22

ads. So I'm so excited to have her here and quick

1:24

backstory . Like many of my guests,

1:27

we originally met through the Boss

1:29

Mom group. We

1:32

were actually together at the first

1:34

Boss Mom Retreat. While

1:36

we didn't really spend much time

1:38

together, then, you know, she was

1:40

on my radar. And then years later, when

1:43

I was ready to hire, I went back to the Boss

1:45

Mom's group and was doing my little search for

1:47

Facebook ads, experts, you know, all the

1:49

keywords and Becky's name kept coming

1:51

up and I'm like, "I know Becky, I

1:53

know her. How do I know her?". So

1:56

it just goes to show you once again,

1:58

that those events that we invest in

2:00

really pan out time after

2:03

time. So anyhow, for those who haven't

2:05

met her before, Becky, you want to give a little background

2:08

so they can get to know you.

2:09

Yeah, absolutely. And

2:11

I love that you mentioned going to the events 'cause

2:13

I think that was the first time

2:16

I ever attended an event and I'm still in

2:18

contact with every single

2:20

woman that I met there. And

2:23

I love watching all the businesses

2:25

grow and we still message each other

2:27

back and forth. I love it.

2:28

Yeah. And specifically that

2:30

event, so big virtual high five to Dana

2:32

Malstaff.

2:32

Yes! So

2:35

a little bit about me. I have over

2:37

10 years of marketing experience, I worked

2:39

for different marketing and

2:42

ad agencies over the years until

2:44

I started my own agency in 2015 with

2:47

the sole purpose and goal

2:49

of I really wanted to work with

2:51

other women-own businesses and help

2:53

them grow and succeed

2:55

online. But I am

2:58

a mom and so I wanted to be home with my kids

3:01

too. And so this was just kind of a way

3:03

for me to take my passion as

3:05

well as , being a

3:07

mom of three. And I am actually a homeschooling

3:10

mom of three and we're going on our third year

3:13

of homeschooling. So very busy

3:15

household. I love the

3:17

work that I do and I love watching other

3:20

businesses grow and being part of

3:22

those teams.

3:24

Awesome! So what is it about Facebook

3:26

ads that drew you in?

3:28

Honestly, I came

3:31

from direct mail. So we started

3:33

out in direct mail and

3:35

working with primarily the home building

3:38

industry and restaurants and auto

3:40

dealerships. And Facebook ads

3:44

was very, very small

3:47

at that point. I mean they didn't even

3:49

have like an audience build out

3:51

that they have now. So when we

3:53

were getting started in it, I actually had to go

3:55

into our consumer database, pull

3:58

down a qualified list of leads

4:00

and upload them directly to Facebook and

4:02

hope that I would get at least a 20%

4:05

match rate. And so

4:08

Facebook has come a long way since then.

4:10

And I love the changes. And

4:14

I specifically specialize in Facebook ads because

4:16

Facebook is a beast. It's

4:19

constantly changing and evolving. So

4:21

the course that you may have taken a year ago is

4:24

probably outdated already.

4:27

And it just

4:29

moves so quickly and that's kind of how my mind works.

4:32

'Cause I get bored of like the same repeat

4:34

things. And so I love like, "Oh my

4:36

gosh, carousel ads are doing really well. Let's, let's test

4:38

that out". So

4:42

my minor is in visual

4:44

arts and then my major is in business

4:47

marketing. And so it's kind

4:49

of funny 'cause my brain is split 50

4:51

50. I love the design

4:53

aspect, but I love the numbers.

4:56

I love looking at data and pulling

4:58

down the reports

5:00

and going through them and making

5:03

them make sense for clients

5:05

of course. But I'm all

5:07

about the numbers and research and

5:10

all that. So I love Facebook ads because

5:12

it offers so much variety there.

5:15

I think that's fun that you said that because that's an

5:17

unusual combination that

5:19

someone likes the visual side of it, but also

5:22

likes the data crunching.

5:23

Yes.

5:23

Well, we're

5:26

glad to have people like you.

5:28

Taking those Facebook quizzes, like Which Side

5:30

of the Brain Do You ...?" And mine was like seriously,

5:33

50, 50 split right down

5:35

the middle. I was like, "Well, that makes sense".

5:36

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. And I think

5:39

you're right about Facebook ads

5:41

courses because I've taken some in the past

5:43

and I've tried to DIY

5:46

it. And while that worked really

5:48

well for being well, I wouldn't

5:50

say it really well, but that worked

5:53

good enough when I was in my early

5:55

stages of launch and things were really scrappy.

5:58

But then as I was continuing to grow, I

6:00

would hit these plateaus where I'm I know

6:03

that Facebook ads can get me to the next plateau,

6:05

but I didn't have the skillset to do it. And that's when

6:08

I leaned to people like you and listeners

6:10

fun fact, we are actually

6:12

somewhat of neighbors. You live

6:14

in Western, North Carolina as

6:17

well. So this is one of those online

6:20

friendships that we can actually get together

6:22

in real life.

6:24

Yes . And that just came about this year

6:26

because I actually lived in Austin, Texas for

6:30

years, almost eight years. And then we're

6:33

like, "You know what, we want to own land". I

6:38

want to have all of the animals. We

6:43

just had these hopes and dreams of moving

6:45

out. And I actually grew up in Florida.

6:48

We traveled up here to North

6:51

Carolina and I just fell in love. And I brought my

6:53

husband who was born and raised Texan

6:55

and he had never lived outside of the state.

6:57

And I brought him during the hottest time of the year.

6:59

And then during the coldest time of the year. I was like, "If

7:02

you like it during the two worst times

7:04

of the year, you're going to love it". And

7:06

he fell in love. He fell in love and he was, we

7:08

immediately started looking at properties and then

7:10

we found this one and we were just like "Sold,

7:12

let's move!". And we moved two weeks

7:15

before all of this shutdowns

7:17

with the pandemic. People

7:20

were like, "Did y'all have that plan ?" I was

7:22

like, "No, I mean, it just went down

7:25

and we lucked out"

7:26

Can you plan anything in 2020?

7:28

No, no, no you

7:30

can't. But well, it worked out.

7:32

I mean we were sitting pretty nice

7:35

out on a land. While our

7:40

old town in Texas,

7:42

they were just getting hit with all

7:45

the cases and everything. So no, we absolutely

7:48

love it here and it's beautiful.

7:51

And then when I was moving, Julie was

7:54

like , she goes, "Oh

7:56

my gosh, wait, where are you moving? Oh

7:58

my gosh, I live like 45 minutes away from there."

8:02

It's been really nice. There's a

8:05

lot of Boss Moms here.

8:06

There are. It's nice. And

8:09

I love having some of those online friends

8:11

translate into in real life friends. As

8:14

you know, you and I are able to get on the water. We went

8:16

stand up paddle boarding together and that kind of stuff's fun,

8:18

you know, so, okay .

8:20

I sat down.

8:21

That's fair enough. Fair enough. O

8:25

kay. Let's get into the

8:27

meat of the topic here. So

8:29

Facebook ads you specifically

8:32

work with a lot of subscription

8:34

box businesses. So guys, she

8:36

has seen a lot of data

8:39

and a lot of visuals about using

8:42

subscription box businesses and trying to promote

8:44

them. So tell us Becky what's working right

8:46

now. And this could be a whole different

8:48

conversation in a month from now or two months from

8:50

now, but what's working right now and

8:52

feel free to use Sparkle Hustle Grow examples

8:56

if you'd like.

8:56

Yeah, absolutely.

8:59

So really right now and I'm going

9:01

to kind of do this for specifically

9:04

subscription box businesses, because like Julie

9:06

said, that's where I specialize in.

9:09

And so right

9:12

now we're like in the middle of the holiday

9:14

kind of push of like planning. I

9:19

mean this year, like we mentioned, 2020

9:21

has just been crazy year.

9:24

So we've had the pandemic, we have

9:26

an election, we have the holiday

9:28

seasons getting pushed further and further up. All

9:31

the big companies that pulled back from

9:33

ad spend are just going to go crazy

9:37

right after the elections. So

9:39

what I would recommend is that October

9:42

is about list building. If you have some

9:44

kind of like giveaway or special promotion

9:47

or a way to build your email list, that

9:49

is what's gonna set you apart, having that nurtured,

9:52

warm audience to then retarget

9:54

during the holiday pushes. They're more

9:57

likely to purchase from you than

9:59

they are from thesebig companies

10:03

that have massive ad spend budgets.

10:06

So you really need to set yourself apart and

10:08

don't go for the obvious audiences.

10:11

I actually talked with one of my

10:14

Facebook ad reps recently, and I was just

10:16

picking his brain on like all of the things

10:18

going on. He goes you know,

10:21

he was telling me about the elections and

10:23

how that's really been pushing up ad spend.

10:25

So if you've been spending a lot more than

10:27

you typically have been in the past

10:30

over the past couple of months,

10:32

it's probably the elections and everything

10:34

going on right now. So I highly

10:37

recommend giveaways are just really

10:38

great to list build. It

10:41

gets people excited about your product

10:43

and your box. So list

10:45

building, and then moving into a,

10:47

a really awesome nurture sequence

10:49

on the back end , if you have a low budget for Facebook

10:53

ads and you don't have enough in there to do a retargeting

10:55

campaign. But if

10:57

you have enough wiggle room, do a retargeting campaign

10:59

and do some

11:02

sort of like Black Friday flash sale

11:04

or something like that. And I

11:07

would recommend doing that before Black Friday, because

11:09

again, that's going to be another big push for these

11:12

big companies with big budgets.

11:16

That's really good advice. And we're doing the giveaway

11:18

based off of your advice. So we are giving

11:20

away a three month subscription to Sparkle

11:22

Hustle Grow and I'm excited

11:25

about that. We're going to run that in the tail end of

11:27

October to grow that email list. And

11:29

if you guys, if you haven't done

11:31

a giveaway before there's a million

11:34

ways that you can do it. But the way that we really

11:36

like to do it is through an app or

11:38

a software called KingSumo. And

11:41

that's just happened to be our favorite one. And the reason

11:43

why we like that one is because

11:45

it has viral capabilities

11:48

to it. So for example, you

11:50

can enter to win and then you can enter

11:52

every day again. So driving

11:55

them back, keeping you top of mind. They can

11:57

earn extra entries by liking

12:00

you on Facebook or following you on Instagram.

12:02

You can earn an extra entry by watching

12:05

a video, a link so we'll put a link

12:07

to a YouTube video in there. You

12:09

can earn extra entries by sharing

12:11

with other people. And so the more

12:14

activities that you do and the more involved

12:16

someone like a consumer gets with it,

12:19

the more entries and the more chances they

12:21

have to win. So it's a great software.

12:23

That's what we typically use for both

12:26

Subscription Box Bootcamp, but also Sparkle

12:28

Hustle Grow.

12:29

Yeah and I think actually all of

12:31

my clients right now that are doing giveaways,

12:34

it's all KingSumo. And actually

12:37

AppSumo, I don't know if y'all know this.

12:40

I love, they usually do the time

12:42

deals. They have KingSumo lifetime deal

12:45

for $49 for the pro version.

12:47

That's awesome. So AppSumo is

12:49

a, what would you call it? It's like

12:51

a deal site for software,

12:54

For software, but they, you can get

12:56

lifetime access to software. That's typically

12:58

like a

13:00

month to month subscription. You

13:03

can get lifetime deals and usually they range

13:05

between like $39 and $49.

13:06

Love it .

13:08

And so I'm all about software looking for

13:12

new ones .

13:13

AppSumo probably hates it, but

13:15

I'm going to liking them to like the Groupon

13:17

for entrepreneurs.

13:17

Yes. Yes.

13:19

So if you guys like deals

13:21

on software and typically it's not,

13:23

do they, I don't know. Do they have courses and stuff too?

13:25

I always just hone in on the software.

13:28

They usually have those like free courses.

13:30

I haven't taken any through there. I mean, I've

13:33

added them to my cart and I've like went through a process,

13:35

but they're still hanging out in my AppSumo. But

13:39

yeah, 'cause I'm always curious what people are doing

13:41

and but yeah, they have a

13:43

really great deals on a lot of good software.

13:46

Yes. So you can get KingSumo on

13:49

AppSumo.

13:49

Yeah.

13:49

Okay. So

13:54

let's get back to it. So giveaways that's,

13:56

what's working. What else is working?

13:58

I know there's like a million different types

14:00

of ads and it can be so overwhelming

14:03

to choose. Should I do a static image? Should

14:05

I do a video or a carousel or, you

14:08

know, there's so many different kinds. So

14:10

what are you looking at right now? And like, what are you recommending?

14:13

The biggest thing and I mean, you know, 'cause we've been running

14:15

tests within your accounts too

14:18

. Carousel ads are amazing.

14:20

And if you could do like the continuation carousel...

14:23

Well , explain what a carousel ad is first.

14:25

So the carousel ad are multiple

14:27

images that kind of linked together, and

14:29

then they have the major call to action

14:31

at the end. So , if you've seen

14:33

some of the ones where like the graphics just

14:36

continuously go, some people do , especially

14:38

for like boxes. You could

14:43

do your flat

14:45

lay box on the first image works

14:48

extremely well if people want to

14:50

know what's in the box and then connecting with you.

14:52

I would definitely put a personal

14:54

touch on there. One

14:58

of my clients, her

15:01

subscription box is for little girls and

15:03

little princesses. And so , you know, parents

15:05

have sent in videos and

15:08

pictures of like their daughters opening

15:10

up the box and I'm like, "Let's use

15:12

that!" That organic , you

15:15

know, genuine kind of pictures

15:17

that was clearly taken by a phone instead

15:19

of a professional photographer.

15:21

And that's fine.

15:22

Yeah. Yeah.

15:26

And so you don't need

15:28

a massive budget, you don't need professional photography.

15:31

it just needs to be

15:34

a very clear , image of what

15:36

is, what they're getting and then how it

15:38

affects , you know, how it has , benefited people

15:41

in their community. I love like using

15:43

even some little like testimonial blurbs

15:46

inside of the carousel . So , maybe on

15:48

like image , for your, for like dropping

15:51

in some screenshot testimonials from your page or

15:53

something, so they can see that it

15:56

was posted on Facebook. That's

15:58

what we call social proof and you

16:00

definitely want that trickled in there.

16:02

and then anything with

16:05

movement. So you can move a movement with a

16:07

still image, you know, the carousel, it

16:09

pushes them to engage in it. So even

16:11

when they click through each of the thing , that's

16:14

engagement on your ad, and that

16:16

means that Facebook is then going to show them

16:18

that ad consistently until

16:20

they buy. And so it's engagement

16:22

on the ad.

16:24

When you're looking at a carousel ad on your phone,

16:26

you actually swipe to the left, right?

16:29

Correct.

16:30

Yeah. Yeah. if you're on Instagram and

16:32

I think the , arrows

16:35

on Facebook. I don't know,

16:38

but those apps for my phone.

16:40

Oh my gosh! So by engaging,

16:43

by swiping and looking at the next image,

16:45

Facebook is putting you into that. That's that

16:48

algorithm to say, they're engaging

16:50

with it. I didn't know that.

16:52

They're interested . So they read

16:54

more so when we have the copy

16:56

on the ad itself,

16:58

you want it to be long enough to

17:01

where they have to click that read more

17:03

because that's engagement on the ad.

17:06

See anything that's pushing that engagement,

17:08

that curiosity, that is someone who

17:11

is their interest is being spiked. So I

17:13

always like to set up the ad, like I

17:15

have my, my three pillars of a successful

17:17

Facebook ad and the

17:19

image is supposed to be eye catching.

17:21

It's supposed to stop the scroll. The

17:23

headline is supposed to peak their interest.

17:26

And then the copy is supposed to

17:28

push them to an action. The

17:31

action that you want that . So

17:33

we have it

17:36

. So I always like to break it down the ways

17:39

. So you're when you're creating

17:42

and you really hone in on

17:44

the user's experience when they are

17:46

scrolling through Facebook, what is

17:49

it that you want them to see? How are

17:53

you attracted for

17:56

me? I've tested this out. There's

17:58

like a whole like, mindset

18:01

behind, like what colors to use, how to , you know,

18:03

and so I tested out

18:05

cause Facebook put out a

18:08

report that , blues are now

18:10

converting really well in graphics. And so

18:12

I decided to test blues

18:14

with yellows and , and then

18:16

see what what's working. So anything that I see that's kind

18:19

of coming. I always like bringing these little,

18:21

little, like, you know, I

18:23

call them micro ads , these little tests,

18:25

like just throwing, you know

18:28

, $20 because I'm all about

18:30

that data. I'm fully, willing

18:34

to say bye to, you know,

18:36

some money in exchange for

18:38

the numbers. And so , and I also like to tell people

18:40

when you're setting up your ad, make sure

18:42

you're not just putting all of your art

18:45

, audience or targeting

18:47

into one audience. Break it out. So we do the

18:50

base audience and then tailor off onto

18:52

that. So you should have three

18:54

to five audiences that you're testing

18:56

whenever you're launching a

18:59

campaign , very specific and

19:01

a good audience size. This is like an

19:03

extra little nugget is to stay between a

19:06

hundred K and 1.4 million. That's

19:08

kind of like that sweet spot. The closer you

19:10

can get to that hundred K Mark, the better.

19:13

but I know like, look like audiences. They are

19:15

usually like in the 2.1

19:17

million, right?

19:18

Explain what a lookalike audiences, if any, if someone

19:20

hasn't ever done ads before, so you

19:22

create an audience and you can create that

19:25

based off of existing customers,

19:27

or you can base it off of demographics,

19:29

geographics, that type of thing. And then you

19:32

can take it one more level, right. Through a lookalike

19:34

.

19:34

Yeah. Yeah,

19:37

absolutely! So , what we did with yours , and one

19:39

of your highest performing ones is we

19:41

took down a list of , all

19:44

of your current or all of your

19:46

, subscribers that have been with you for a long

19:49

time. 'Cause you have that data. I

19:51

recommend for anyone who's pulling down an email

19:53

list and is going to upload it

19:56

and do a look like audience on that. Basically

19:58

you're telling Facebook that I want more

20:00

people that fit this, these,

20:03

these people,

20:04

Because we know they spent on your product.

20:06

Exactly.

20:06

Yeah.

20:07

They're going to have certain things in common. So it's

20:10

going to put all that together for you and

20:12

promote it more to those

20:15

specific people. Now, I will say

20:17

that , you have to have

20:19

at least 20 people on

20:24

an email list or on a

20:26

list to upload it. I would recommend having at

20:29

least a hundred get to the hundred part, cause you're going to

20:31

have more data to pull from

20:33

20 people is not enough . But that

20:37

is the minimum requirement for Facebook. but if you

20:39

have a hundred, a hundred

20:41

is a good pool , to then

20:43

say, okay, we have quite a bit of people

20:46

now let's see what, you know, what

20:48

they have in common. Is is their age,

20:50

is that they're all moms, maybe

20:52

they all follow Ellen or

20:56

the real Housewives or Target. There's

21:00

different things and Facebook's going to know and they're going to

21:02

compare all those little similarities. And

21:05

so they're all registered business owners. They're

21:08

going to find that too.

21:10

And so , yeah, I love lookalike

21:12

audiences. Nine times out of 10, those are going to be your

21:14

best audiences. You can do them on based

21:16

on your page likes too.

21:19

Now if you're beginning and you're starting out, you

21:21

don't really want to , you know

21:23

, have, you know, when you have your cousins

21:25

and your friends

21:28

liking your page, you don't really want to do a lookalike

21:30

audience on that.

21:32

What about if you're in prelaunch, could you

21:34

look at your email database and

21:36

see the people who are, have the most like

21:38

highest open rates, the people who are engaging

21:41

with your emails, could you do that?

21:42

Yeah, absolutely! And

21:44

I think , giveaways is a really great like

21:47

stepping stone because then you already know there's an

21:49

interest there. So I would definitely pull down

21:51

that list and do a lookalike audience because clearly

21:53

people who are entering the giveaway are interested

21:56

in your box. They're interested

21:58

in your product.

21:59

But that brings us to a really important point

22:01

is when it comes to giveaways, the number

22:04

one rule of giveaways is be

22:07

really specific with your prize. Something that

22:09

your exact target audience would want. So don't give

22:11

away just an Amazon or a target gift

22:14

card because everyone and their mother

22:16

and sister are going to sign up for

22:18

that. So as a quick example, if you're giving away

22:21

your box, that's going to be more

22:23

targeted. or you could even just use excess

22:25

inventory and create surprise packs. Last year, in

22:27

the whole month of October for our three

22:29

year anniversary celebration we

22:31

created I think it was like

22:34

maybe 25 or 30 surprise

22:36

packs using excess inventory. And

22:39

then we ran the giveaway all month.

22:41

Now, typically I recommend a giveaway for like

22:44

say 10 days is our

22:47

average. but this one was just like a bigger one. We wanted to really

22:49

grow our list. We, I was just, you know, using

22:51

excess inventory. So you want to make sure

22:53

that that price is going to attract

22:56

your ideal target audience.

22:58

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And

23:01

I mean, you've, you hit the nail on the head

23:03

right there. So you

23:08

really want , to be specific

23:11

on your targeting whenever you're running a giveaway to

23:13

that as well. So you

23:15

kinda know the baseline of like who you

23:17

want to attract. And then from there the people will opt in

23:19

and then I would pull down that

23:21

list once you get to a hundred and

23:23

upload it back to Facebook and do a look

23:26

alike on that and

23:28

then run another test to that audience specifically. Because I have

23:30

a feeling you're probably going to get better results

23:33

, as far as like

23:35

opt-ins and then those translating to

23:37

sales. So yeah , being very specific. Yeah. And

23:40

, I love the idea

23:42

of like reusing , inventory that you already have

23:44

it's sitting around. I actually, one of my clients were that

23:46

were doing the giveaway

23:48

for. She was like, well, you know, what should I put

23:50

in the giveaway? I was like, well, you

23:52

have excess inventory do a, the

23:55

ultimate like deluxe princess box or something like

23:57

that. Like something for the little girls

24:00

that, you know , and it's , you really don't want

24:02

to get to that hundred dollar or

24:05

more value. that hundred to $300

24:07

range is where you want to be on giveaways.

24:09

So, and it's the value, so it doesn't have to

24:12

be what you paid for. It's

24:15

the value of it.

24:16

Retail value. Yeah. Yeah. Good

24:18

point. Okay. So that was

24:20

a lot of good information about

24:22

what's working. And the

24:25

next question I want to ask is what's

24:27

not working. And I , the reason I ask this

24:29

is because part of what I like to provide

24:31

is through my journey, I've made a lot of mistakes

24:34

and I like to share those mistakes so people

24:36

can learn from them and they don't have to go through that as

24:39

well. And especially when it comes to Facebook

24:41

ads, your mistakes are going to cost you

24:44

cash. I mean, your mistakes

24:46

put money into those ads. So

24:49

what are some of the big no-nos with

24:51

Facebook ads? So people don't waste their money.

24:54

Yeah, I think , some of the biggest ones

24:56

that I see is people , boosting posts. I

24:58

do not ever

25:00

recommend that. I'm all about working

25:03

inside of ads manager. the problem with

25:05

boosting a post is you

25:07

don't have control of the data. You don't have control

25:09

over where the budget is being spent,

25:11

what audiences you're testing out. so Facebook

25:13

basically makes all those decisions for

25:15

you. You say, and I know they kind of

25:18

entice you cause they're just like it's only 20 bucks to look how

25:20

many actually reached , what if it's one click

25:23

and just you're done and

25:26

set up, but I recommend going into the backend

25:28

and what you can do if you

25:30

have a , a post on your business page is gaining

25:33

a lot of traction. What you

25:35

can do is turn it into an ad

25:37

on the back end by doing a

25:40

post engagement campaigns . So

25:43

that's the objective it's called post engagement,

25:45

and you can immediately pull it down. Then

25:47

you can test different audiences. You could do your

25:49

lookalike audiences, you can , decide

25:51

, the placement of it , how much

25:54

you want to run it for. And , and for

25:57

, you know , so you can kind

26:00

of set those parameters on the whole campaign level

26:02

versus boosting, which you

26:05

don't have control over any

26:07

of that. another thing that I see people

26:09

, doing that isn't working is

26:11

, they, they just

26:13

push out , you know,

26:16

the static images of , I don't

26:19

know, they go into like

26:21

, Facebook's like stock

26:24

photos or whatever. They just post, you know, things

26:27

like that. And that it's not

26:29

engaging. It's not giving, you know, everyone is using those.

26:31

So stand out , showcase yourself, your

26:33

brand , you know, B , B

26:35

don't be afraid to be

26:37

different. Like, are you

26:40

even had my graphic designer do some

26:42

like really cool, like cartoon mockups of like the Facebook

26:44

app on a phone. And it was just

26:46

so colorful and bright that

26:49

got me way better traction than a

26:51

woman behind a computer screen.

26:53

Wow.

26:59

Wow. Okay. And with

27:02

Canva , it's so easy to add movement now, like

27:04

you could add little sparkles or you could add

27:06

just like an arrow that's pointing and moving,

27:09

you know, it's Canva is a few

27:11

guys haven't used Canva before. It's a

27:14

free online like

27:16

desktop design software and

27:18

there's, there's upgraded versions that give you more

27:21

features. But I mean, you could

27:23

just take a picture of you or your product

27:26

and add a little bit of movement and it'll

27:28

probably do the same thing. Yeah.

27:30

It's those little movements. People

27:32

just want to see something different on their feet

27:34

. I also wouldn't go in

27:37

and start talking anything about

27:39

, you know, there's that big rush when all

27:41

the shutdowns happen with COVID that everyone

27:44

was just writing it

27:46

into their , their copy. Well, now

27:49

Facebook is just shutting down

27:51

anything COVID related. So it's like a

27:53

trigger keyword. It's a trigger keyword now. And , you

27:55

know, the CA accounts have been

27:58

disabled, things like that . And then they've

28:00

had to be reinstated cause I mean, it's,

28:02

it's not against their policies. but , it's

28:04

just kind of like , just,

28:07

just avoid it , who are coming across , your , your

28:09

ads, they're wanting to

28:12

kind of escape, they're wanting

28:14

to get away. So don't remind them about everything

28:17

that's going to solution. Yes, exactly. Exactly. and then

28:19

another thing I would say is , you

28:21

mentioned it with the

28:23

arrows. so , a lot of campaigns now are getting

28:26

, or a lot of images are

28:28

getting flagged because you can't put arrows are

28:30

pointing to the button. I use them that way to

28:32

take an action. So what I

28:34

do instead is like, if

28:37

we can do some kind of like little like sparkle thing,

28:39

that's right there on that lower corner

28:41

, of, you know, it draws their eyes down.

28:44

So

28:51

That's really good advice. And I would say too, like if

28:53

you have an opportunity, if in your

28:55

picture to choose something that

28:57

the focus is kind of towards that bottom, right.

29:00

That might draw your eyes towards there as

29:02

well.

29:03

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And

29:05

then have the call to action being very clear.

29:08

I I've, I've looked at so many ads where

29:10

I'm like, wait, what is this offer? So

29:14

you really want to make sure that it's clear , in

29:16

direct on the ad. It's like,

29:19

don't , I mean, I know we

29:21

kind of like see all the salesy terms and , you know,

29:24

click baity kind of stuff. And it

29:26

works to a certain extent, but usually when you get

29:28

on the page, it's , it's consistent. So you

29:31

need to make sure that you're , if you're saying

29:33

a lot of bounces , Oh my gosh, my ads

29:35

are getting great click through, but no one's opting in when

29:38

they come to my page, then that disconnect could be

29:41

the messaging. It could be

29:43

that well, but you said this

29:45

in your ad and now you're doing this.

29:47

and so it's just , keeping in

29:50

mind, the messaging really needs to

29:52

translate on both sides.

29:56

Yeah. And that's, that's really good advice. And before

29:59

we close it up, I want to talk about trigger keywords, because

30:01

I know that's a conversation you and I have had before.

30:04

so what are some of the other like trigger

30:07

keywords that are going to make

30:09

an ad not get approved? So like

30:12

when you create a Facebook ad, you

30:14

don't just click go and

30:16

it's automatically out there. Right. It has to

30:18

go through the algorithm or sometimes even

30:21

a manual review before it

30:23

gets approved. And I know in the past, like you have told

30:25

me things like the words , make money or

30:28

, you know, obviously

30:30

you said COVID things like that are going to

30:32

be a challenge to get approval.

30:35

Yeah. so, so yes, there,

30:37

there are , sort of, and I wish Facebook would just

30:40

like put out a list of the list

30:42

you need to avoid saying , when that

30:45

be easy. Yes . But they don't. So

30:47

basically , how I set it

30:50

up is , you, you really need to understand

30:52

that , you know, if your open

30:55

ended questions sometimes are being fired, I noticed

30:57

that recently, like past three

30:59

months, they haven't been flagged as much.

31:02

so like when you are making , an

31:04

assumption about an audience, that's a really

31:07

big , flag that gets your ads, just

31:09

, you know , disapproved. And so then another,

31:11

one's a claims health claims. And even

31:13

with when it comes to

31:16

like imagery too , cause

31:18

they do have their

31:21

bots that scan the images. So you need to

31:23

make sure you're being careful what you're putting

31:25

on there. Um,

31:29

so anything that is directed to

31:32

, lose weight in 30 days, or these

31:34

are empty promises or , work from

31:37

home, you know, things like that. so you

31:40

have to be very strategic on how you word things in

31:42

the health. And I find

31:44

most of the flags and most of

31:46

the issues and rejections happening , in the health

31:49

and wellness space, because there's just, so

31:52

the diet, the word diet

31:54

you have to kind

31:57

of , it's a given a take, you

31:59

know , 50 feet if it's going to get rejected.

32:01

I know that , but there's a , there's a lot

32:03

of censorship that's going on across the board,

32:06

even when it comes to paid advertisement, which

32:08

is why a lot of companies pull

32:10

away from it. And we were seeing the

32:12

cost per , action go way down in the

32:15

beginning , you know, half of

32:18

the year because of this . So now everyone's

32:20

kind of, you know, things are reopening

32:22

and putting, yeah. Put more money back into

32:24

advertising spent . So now

32:26

we're seeing the opposite

32:29

and now it's spiking and it

32:31

could be the season two . I mean,

32:34

yeah . So we have the elections, we have all of

32:37

these things going on. We have the

32:39

holiday season coming up. Right . And you know , people

32:41

don't know what's going on.

32:43

So , there's a lot that is happening this year

32:46

that has never happened before in previous

32:48

years, it all happening at one time.

32:50

Right.

32:54

And that all being said, Facebook ads

32:56

should not be a set it and forget it thing. This should be something

32:58

that you have your finger on the pulse

33:01

and you're watching because if there's

33:03

an ad set or an audience that is spiking,

33:05

then you can, you can pause that, you know, you have

33:08

some control over your spend, so.

33:11

Okay. So Becky, do you have any

33:13

other advice or any other closing

33:15

, you know, tips or anything

33:17

before you share your offer?

33:21

Yeah. So , really it's just about

33:23

, testing. Don't be afraid to test

33:25

different things. I know people

33:27

kind of shy away from that, but like if you do the

33:29

, CBO campaign , so that's that Stanford

33:31

, that's setting your that's budget optimization

33:36

kind of some budget optimization. So that's

33:38

where you're setting the budget at the campaign

33:40

level or campaign budget optimization instead of

33:42

in the ad , ad set

33:44

level. And what that says is I

33:47

am willing to spend this much per day

33:49

and you let Facebook take the reins

33:51

and say, you know, use , you divided out

33:53

among these different audiences and ads.

33:56

so that's, I find that that's

33:59

a really great way , for people

34:01

who aren't familiar with Facebook ads to take

34:03

ownership of their budget , and Facebook always loves when

34:05

you use their latest

34:07

features. So if you

34:09

notice that they're pushing a

34:11

feature , go ahead and give it a

34:14

test because it will typically get you a lower

34:16

cost per result because they're , they're wanting to get that

34:18

data and that feedback on the backend

34:20

. So

34:25

Very, very interesting. so

34:27

like do, as they suggest play

34:31

sometimes, sometimes again , play

34:33

nice in their sandbox and they may reward

34:35

you in yeah .

34:37

With like , dynamic , creatives. they,

34:39

that was a new feature.

34:41

And , we've been used in that , most

34:43

of the senior year . And that has , I

34:46

mean, it's almost like night and day , on

34:48

your , your cost per purchase or cost per

34:51

action. Yeah . So yeah,

34:53

I mean, just testing out

34:55

those new features that Facebook is

34:57

trying to promote

35:01

Love it. Okay. Well , this has been so much

35:03

fun to chat with you and I'm sure people had

35:05

, like, their hands are probably cramping from

35:07

all the notes that they've taken, but have

35:09

no fear of people because there's more, you

35:11

can learn from Becky. She has

35:14

a three part video series

35:16

to share with you, Becky, if you want

35:18

to tell a little bit about that and then where

35:20

they can find that. Yeah,

35:21

Absolutely. So I created this

35:24

three part video series earlier this year

35:26

, as a , for Julie specifically

35:28

in her , community. So one of

35:31

the examples in , so there's technically four

35:33

videos cause I gave you, I gave you

35:35

all a bonus because actually took someone in

35:38

her Subscription Box Bootcamp community.

35:43

And , I went into the backend

35:46

of her ads manager and showed you how to

35:48

build out the audiences. So that's

35:50

an extra little , video that's in

35:52

there, but , basically the three

35:54

part video is about the right way

35:57

to test your ads, how to write,

35:59

copy that converts and

36:01

then utilizing retargeting

36:03

campaigns. And so this is all just to a way

36:05

to, for you to maximize your Facebook

36:08

ad spend , whether you have a small budget or a large,

36:10

large budget, it really doesn't

36:12

matter. put something towards your marketing.

36:15

Awesome. And so you can find that

36:19

at SplashOwlMedia

36:22

. com/SHG we'll put that in the show

36:24

notes. I know that's a handful

36:26

, or a mouthful SplashOwlMedia.com/SHG.

36:28

Yes.

36:28

Okay. And

36:33

that's free people. So if you don't know where

36:35

to start with Facebook ads, this would be a great

36:38

place for you to start. Okay. So

36:40

Becky, where can people

36:42

find and follow you online?

36:44

Yeah, absolutely. So I , I do

36:46

have a, an online group , that

36:49

I do weekly trainings. I give

36:51

added tips , as we start, you know,

36:53

do tests on different things. I

36:55

give little nuggets and advice

36:58

and like , you know, so that's a really great

37:00

way to connect with me. and

37:03

what's the name of that group go to

37:07

Facebook.com/groups/WomenBusinessOwner. Okay . All

37:10

singular.

37:11

And we'll put that in the show notes.

37:12

Yes. And so that's where you can find me. But

37:15

, basically it's Digital Marketing

37:20

for Boss Babes is the name of it. And

37:22

we have been doing , weekly

37:24

or sorry, monthly

37:26

challenges where I kind of walk

37:28

through those steps together in

37:30

this massive, you know, five day

37:32

challenge.

37:32

Love it.

37:32

Help you, you

37:35

know, build a strategy that works for your

37:37

business.

37:37

Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing

37:39

all of that. It has been such a joy getting

37:41

to know you over this past,

37:43

like what nine, ten months, and then

37:46

just, you have been such a valuable asset to

37:48

our team at Sparkle Hustle Grow. And for that,

37:50

I want to publicly thank you so

37:52

much Becky.

37:53

Thank you, I love being

37:55

part of this team. You guys, Julie is

37:57

absolutely wonderful.

37:59

Oh, well, you're so much fun to hang out with too. So

38:01

, okay. So if you guys love

38:03

this episode, make sure you

38:05

subscribe, rate and review us. It helps

38:08

us get in front of more people to help

38:10

everybody start their own subscription

38:12

box business with the right tools, the right

38:15

tech and the right cheerleaders like

38:17

me and Becky in your corner . All

38:20

right . Thank you guys as always for joining

38:22

us on Subscription Box Basics

38:24

the podcast, and we'll see you in the next

38:27

episode. Bye guys.

38:37

[inaudible] .