Planning Content for 2024: My Go-To Advice

Planning Content for 2024: My Go-To Advice

by | Nov 20, 2023 | How To, Strategy

It’s (almost) the end of the year, and you know what that means… It’s time to plan a new one. (!!!)

Personally, I love the feeling of a new year. The fresh slate makes a huge difference to me, and I always enjoy everything from the goal-setting and business plans to the Christmas leftovers and cold weather. And, while I am always interested in a resolution-planning type of blog post (love that content, as long as it’s realistic!), I wanted to share some of my go-to tips for planning CONTENT for 2024 — especially as it pertains to ads, courses, and launches.

Are you ready?! Here are my favorite tips to take with you as you plan your content:

  1. Think through your approach:

How do YOU want to approach your launches and corresponding content this year? This matters. For instance, some of our clients have monthly promotion plans for launches 6 months in advance and it’s sooo helpful to plan and prep for… vs. some clients who are like “I think I want to launch this course next month.

There’s not a right answer here — it’s just YOURS! But if you’re a planner, keep that into consideration. And if you’re not a planner, make sure you do leave holes in your general year map to account for time.

  1. Dedicate some time to scaffolding out your year:

It can be really hard to sell courses this time of year (besides Black Friday & Cyber Monday), so consider taking the time to plan for next year instead! Some of our clients use sticky notes on a wall and some of them do team brainstorming sessions — so find something like that that works for you. It can also be super helpful to designate people to specific planning areas to divide and conquer, but I’d always recommend spending time coming up with overarching goals and KPIs first.

  1. Analyze your last year of marketing:

The key to continuing to succeed lies in continually analyzing your data — and that’s extra true with marketing, ads, and launches. Take the time to pull stats, put together learnings, and rethink your marketing strategy as you plan. This way, you’ll know you’re on the right track (or the wrong one), and you’ll also be able to stay strategic. 

Wondering what to revisit? Each year, a lot of our clients — and US! — pay special attention to any changes in target markets, overall focuses (have your market share, positioning, or offerings changed?), and goals for the following year.

4: Get back down to the basics:
So often, we forget about the very basic pieces of our business — but I want to encourage you to come back to those as you plan. Are your vision statements, mission statements, and values still the same? Are you HAPPY with where business has taken you in the last year? Are there any glaring issues you need to think about? Zoom out a bit and focus on the basics like that — and you’ll be amazed at how obvious your priorities become.

5: What kind of content do you want to focus on?

When you’re planning content for the following year, it’s important to know where you want your direction to lie. Are you going to focus heavily on social media and short-form video? Do you want to write long, SEO-heavy blogs? Do you want to try out user-generated content? Do you want to record a podcast? Consider this in your planning, and then think about ways that you can mix, match, and reuse throughout the year.

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Those are just a few of my tips — but I am always down to share more like this! Let me know if you have any must-includes, and then holler at me if you’d like to see more of this type of content. I’m here for it!

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Your Ads Must: The Facebook Ads Method

Your Ads Must: The Facebook Ads Method

by | Nov 14, 2023 | How To, Strategy

I have to ask you, my friend: what is your #1 business goal? And I mean #1 — if you could have nothing else, no other goal — what would it be?

Actually, before you answer… let me guess. My guess: PREDICTABLE, SCALABLE income. Specifically, predictable, scalable income *alongside* a method for consistently attracting qualified leads and bringing in dream clients.

Sounds pretty freakin’ cool, right?!

Well, you’re in the right place — because my course, the Facebook Ads Method, shows you exactly how to reach that goal.

Inside of the (newly refreshed!) curriculum, I’ll show you how, exactly, you can harness your profit potential — there’s a ton! — by giving you the tools, lessons, and knowledge you need to be your own Facebook ads manager.

(All for a heck of a lot less than actually hiring a Facebook ads manager, k?!)

Why do I need the Facebook Ads Method?

If you’re wondering why the heck you need a course on Facebook ads, lemme paint a picture for you. I want you to imagine that you have time with your family and friends, sans distraction and sans ANY worry about your business or your income. Imagine that you have time to create new offerings, to work on your business instead of in it, and enjoy what you’ve worked for. Imagine that you’re generating leads, daily, that point to the people you WANT to work with. 

Pretty fun to imagine it, huh? Well, it’s POSSIBLE. More than possible, in fact — but infinitely, and easily, reachable. The secret is learning how to run Facebook ads as the solid, dependable system that they can be — and knowing how they work so that you can get the most out of any investment you make in running them.

And I — a Facebook ads manager who regularly gets killer results for my 7-figure clients — want to teach you how to do it inside of the Facebook Ads Method. After you complete the curriculum, you’ll have results like:

  • A consistent system for getting hundreds or thousands of people registered for your next webinar
  • Feeling like your business works for you, instead of you working for it
  • Building your email list automatically and rapidly
  • Feeling CONFIDENT in your business again
  • Scaling a huge tribe of brand evangelists
  • Reaching qualified leads and converting them into sales
  • …and so much more!

Boom.

Find more details here.

Here’s what you get inside of the Facebook Ads Method

Inside of the Facebook Ads Method, you’ll get:

  • Module 1: Access to the top strategies I’ve used to get my 7-figure clients huge ROI and I’ll show you how to apply those strategies to your own business. 
  • Module 2: A full technology overview of what you need to know to set yourself up for success.
  • Module 3: Learn the art and science behind successful ads with evvvverything you need to know about ad strategy and funnels.
  • Module 4: Walk through what makes successful ad campaigns by looking at real-life ads and funnels.
  • Module 5: Learn the language of Facebook ads and figure out the ins and outs of the Ads Manager, reporting, tracking, analytics, and scaling.

Plus, you’ll get these bonuses:

  • FB Ads Guide to Opt-In Pages: How to Create a High-Converting Landing Page ($397 value)
  • Ads Manager Checklist & Reference Guide ($297 value)
  • Your FB Ads Budget Guide: How to Calculate Your Ads Budget Based on Your Goals ($197 value)

You ready? Learn even more here (and register).

I can’t wait to have you in there. 🙂

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8 Reels Ideas for Small Business Owners

8 Reels Ideas for Small Business Owners

by | Nov 8, 2023 | How To, Strategy

You guys… we’re in a Reels WORLD these days.

 

(Really, we’re in a short-form video world these days.)

 

In fact, statistics actually show that 73% of consumers prefer watching those types of videos, that short-form video ad revenue will cross $10 billion, and that they receive 2.5X more engagement than long-form ones.

 

Basically, you have to get on the short-form video train… especially when it comes to ads.

 

Here’s the thing, though: I know you’re busy, and I know that coming up with new ideas for video content seems like the absolute LAST thing that should be on your list of priorities. Plus, it’s hard to come up with ideas. 

 

I get it. So let me give you some Reels ideas!

 

8 Reels ideas for your small business

When you’re creating Reels or other pieces of short-form video content for your business, there are a few things you’ll want to remember. First, keep it short (under a minute is great, but under 45 seconds is even better). Second, show off your face! Let viewers peek inside your brain, and remember to give them a look inside your business. It works!

 

Here are some ideas:

 

  1. Office tours: Give viewers an inside look into the place where your magic is made (bonus points if you create commissionable links for things they might want for themselves).
  2. Lifestyle content: Some of the most engaging content you can ever create is lifestyle-related, whether it’s showing your post-work wind-down routine with kids (hiii, balance!) or even sharing a quick rundown of the sheet pan meal you swear by on heavy meeting days.
  3. Community-focused videos: Leaning on community is a huge gamechanger for businesses and brands, and this goes for you and your Reels, too! Show everything from testimonials to retreat recaps to Zoom screenshares on Reels and encourage your viewers and followers to get in on the action.
  4. Trending audio: Trending audio on Reels (and on TikTok) creates a fun, strategic blank canvas that you can really create good things on. I love utilizing these trending audios for everything from testimonials and sales to funny moments and inside looks.
  5. BTS content: People love getting a peek behind the curtain, and it can create a really effective way for you to entice them into working with you — so try it out! I always recommend showing things like the BTS of building your course, showing the scenes behind a photoshoot, and sharing the vulnerable moments when you want to, too.
  6. Real life: Have a blooper or a real-life scenario? Make it into a Reel! Whether it’s an entrepreneur moment gone wrong — we’ve all forgotten to put the mug under the Keurig — or a showcase behind your daily schedule, show it off!
  7. Pictures: Wanna make Reels content as easy as possible? Use pictures and text on images to make a quick-moving carousel or fun visual effect. It’s simple and so, so effective.
  8. Deep dive with screenshares: Have a course or a product that you’d love to give more details on (or show a tutorial for)? Create a Reel with your screenshares! Psst… another really fun way to do this is showing a BTS screenshare, too (for instance, a time-lapse of your time on Adobe Illustrator or of a blog post you’re writing).

 

Those are some of my favorite abstract ideas. Most importantly, have FUN! Here is some wonderful inspo from some clients, just take a look through their IG!

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Pinterest Ads: What We’ve Learned

Pinterest Ads: What We’ve Learned

by | Sep 12, 2023 | How To, Strategy

Soooo, I’ve made it ZERO secret that I love Pinterest.

 

Home decor, recipes, travel inspo… ah, you name it and Pinterest has it. It’s the best.

 

This year, we’ve really been digging into Pinterest as an ad platform for our clients — and to BIG results. See, while Pinterest has had a pretty big allowance for ads already, we hadn’t really made much leeway or tested too much within it.

 

We’ve changed that big-time recently, and now advertise on Pinterest consistently for our clients.

 

And, guess what? If you’re not on Pinterest already running ads, you need to be. You really, really do. It’s such a great platform for driving traffic to your launches/landing pages and for growing your audience — and while there’s a lot to learn, there’s also a lot to gain.

 

So, if you’re ready to jump into Pinterest as an ads platform BUT you’re still feeling a little hesitant about it, we’ve got you covered. Here’s what we’ve learned about running ads on Pinterest.

 

Pinterest Ads: What We’ve Learned

 

First up, remember: Pinterest ads are a long game. If you’re already running ads on Facebook/Instagram, you might be used to a shorter learning phase and turnaround than you’ll get with Pinterest — which does not necessarily matter in the long run, but is super important to know in the short term. See, on FB/IG, it really just takes hours (depending on budget) to complete the learning phase on an ad so that you can re-optimize if necessary. 

 

However, on Pinterest, the learning phase is a lot closer to 2 weeks. It’s why we’ll always recommend giving Pinterest ads more time to work (don’t pull them off platform or make changes too early)!

 

Next, remember that keyword testing on Pinterest will make you successful. Many Pinterest users utilize the platform like a search engine (as opposed to FB/IG), so remembering that when creating ads can make a huge difference. Instead of linking people straight to a checkout page, focus on creating and advertising with content that educates, that has search value, and that will keep potential clients or customers exploring. 

 

You can do this by educating with context and visuals — specifically, images with words linking to value-rich content — and remembering that many Pinterest users are typically on the exploratory stage of the user journey in the first place. Focus on the fact that Pinterest is a visual platform, and lean into that!

 

And then, finally, remember this: diversifying your strategy is so, so, so, so key to success. If you’ve been playing the FB/IG ads game for years and you’re a little unsure of Pinterest, just trust me: nothing but good can come from knowing and understanding your benchmarks on different platforms — you never know what magic you might encounter!

 

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If you’re a 7-figure business owner looking to launch a Pinterest ads strategy, get in touch! And, if you’re just here for their resources, stick around — we’ve got lots more coming.

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Are FB Custom Conversions Back?!

Are FB Custom Conversions Back?!

by | Aug 22, 2023 | Facebook™ Ads, How To, Strategy

Back in the day, Facebook looked a LOOOOT different than it does these days.

Was it better? Not in every way, no.

But in some ways? YEP — specifically with these things called custom conversions — which you could utilize for ALL your various offers.

See, here’s an example: for instance, you could create a custom conversion, and use it for a specific purchase confirmation page URL. You could name it “The FB Ads Method Purchasers,” and then instead of optimizing your campaign for any ol’ “purchase,” you could optimize it for that exact course purchaser. That way, Facebook could gain traffic for THAT course.

It was fantastic. However, as things do on Facebook, it changed. The iOS update and privacy changes meant that the events Facebook allowed you to prioritize were a lot less than usual (you could only choose 8 — including “lead,” “purchases,” “page views,” “add to cart,” etc) and, in a sense, made custom conversions obsolete (you could still use them but they reeeealllly didn’t work). So, everyone had to optimize for one of the broad events, meaning, you could only see that A purchase was made, not WHAT was purchased. When you’re doing a lot of sales, it was hard to report accurately and tell what was selling well. 

But, guess what? FB custom conversions are (partially) back!

 

How to create custom conversions on Facebook

While there are still some limitations (which we’ll jump into a bit), you can create the custom conversions of days past! With these, you’ll be able to think strategically for *your* funnel and where you want to track people — and you can create these conversions to do just that. Here’s exactly how to do it from our pals at Facebook!

 

However, here’s what to keep in mind

While we use these custom conversions, we don’t use them how we used to. Instead, we now use custom conversions for a different data point in our reporting. With these custom conversions, you’ll be able to really analyze traffic and make better, more data-informed decisions. This is super, super helpful if you have multiple offers and you’re trying to either see where people are going or what you should put your budget towards.

But, like I said, these changes are still kiiinda in flux. So, it is not (in any way) perfect however, they are continuing to work on this and make it better.

And, here’s the thing: while you may not be able to utilize custom conversions in the same way you used to be able to, you CAN utilize custom conversions to be data-focused…

…and data-focused is the best, most strategic way to build trust with your audience and even your clients.

So, definitely set up custom conversions for all of the events in your funnel that you want to be able to see/track. For example, if our funnel is: ads > webinar > retargeting ads > sales page, we would set up a custom conversion for the webinar thank you page (so it will track anyone who signed up for the webinar) and also set up a custom conversion for the sales thank you page if possible. This way, if I have multiple offers, I can see how many people registered for the webinar (via that custom conversion) AND how many people purchased that specific offer (again, via the custom conversion I set up), instead of seeing a generic “purchase” and not knowing WHAT was purchased. 

I LOVE custom conversions because, although, sales are great…I always want to see WHAT was sold. 

What say you? Have you brought back custom conversions in your ads manager? I’d love to hear?

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Pinterest Conversions: Your 411 Guide to Analytics

Pinterest Conversions: Your 411 Guide to Analytics

by | Aug 10, 2023 | Strategy

There’s one thing we’re absolutely, positively sure of: there’s no point in running ad campaigns if you aren’t paying attention to your campaign’s analytics.

No point at all.

But, to be honest, analytics can be CONFUSING. *chugs iced coffee nervously*

We know this, firsthand — especially if it’s in an ad platform you may not be as familiar with, like Pinterest. Here’s the thing though: it’s our job to get to the bottom of making the most of analytics on EVERY platform, Pinterest included.

Duh. 🙂 

Step 1: Get your tags in order

Facebook has the pixel. Pinterest has the Pin tag. To get the most out of your campaigns, you’ll need to install your tag and make sure you have the correct event. The Pinterest tag (which is just a piece of code you add to your site) is the only way you can really see the true effectiveness of your ads and start getting the right insights.

 You can find directions on installing the Pinterest tag here and then adding event codes here — so do those first, and then make sure you have the right tags in the right places:

  • Opt in thank-you pages: Lead tags
  • Purchase confirmation pages: Checkout tags
  • Cart pages: Add to cart tags

Step 2: Pinterest analytics you need to pay attention to

One of the best things about Pinterest analytics is that there’s a LOT to see. These aren’t wimpy analytics at all — they’re incredibly helpful ones, and the platform is packed with pretty much anything you want to take a look at. However, in my opinion, there are so many that the platform can be a leeeettle noisy. To keep it simple, I would focus on these Pinterest metrics:

  • Results (based on campaign objective)
  • Cost per results (based on campaign objective)
  • Total conversions (Lead)
  • Total CPA (Lead)
  • Total conversions (Add to cart)
  • Total conversions (Checkout)
  • Total CPA (Checkout)
  • Total order value (Checkout)
  • Total ROAS (Checkout)
  • Paid CTR

Step 3: Create a custom report!

Now that you have your tag installed and know what analytics to consistently look for, you can make life reeeeeaaal easy on yourself — and get monthly reports automatically generated and sent to you (!!!)

Here’s how:

It’s super easy — and it’s such a game-changer. We’d definitely recommend automating this (just makes it simpler for all involved), but it’s up to you. Then, to really be the most efficient ads-runner ever, take a few key points! We always like to look at the results from the month, dig into what went well, dive into what could be better, and pull out top performers and creative insights, too.

And, there you have it! Your ultimate Pinterest conversion guide — now, get after it!

 

 

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New Ideas for Ad Graphics

New Ideas for Ad Graphics

by | Aug 2, 2023 | Facebook™ Ads, Launching, Strategy

If there’s one thing we can all agree on in the world of course launches and Facebook ads, it’s that it can be really easy for everything to start looking the same. And, let’s be honest: this makes sense! It’s hard to constantly reinvent the wheel — we get it.

 

Here’s the thing, though: making sure that everything *doesn’t* look the same is really a key part of running successful ads. See, if all of your ads look and sound the same, your audience is going to get fatigued… and quickly. Often, this is why we see once top-performing ads become low performers, and it’s why we have to work so intentionally not to fatigue offers with our clients’ audiences.

 

So, what do you do, you ask? Well, you’re in the right place pals — because as usual, my team has you covered.

 

The trick to ad graphics and course graphics

If you’ve been here awhile, you’re probably going to guess what I’m about to say here. The trick to ad graphics and course graphics is testing multiple versions — and testing those multiple versions consistently to inform NEW strategies and NEW tests.

Say that five times fast.

But, truly: testing new versions of ads, their creative (graphics, copy, targeting, naming, you name it), and their reach is truly the best tool you have in your toolbox for avoiding ad fatigue and making sure that you’re reaching the right number of people with your ads. Plus, if you’re consistently testing new versions of captions, graphics, and audiences, you start to get a feel and a read on what your audience tends to like — and you can use those well-performing tests as formulas for different ads. This helps you shake up your ads — and avoid fatigue — while taking a lot of the pressure off of your team to endlessly create.

 

Need some new ideas for ad graphics and course graphics?

Over here, we’re always knee-deep in a course launch or similar launch for our clients — which means that we’re constantly needing to up the ante through tests and versioning over here. Luckily for us (and for you!), we’ve learned a LOT through all of that testing and versioning, and we’ve been embracing the results with some new ideas for ad and course graphics:

Gifs, please!:

Audiences love any type of creative that moves and engages them, and any type of ad with video or movement tends to perform really well — so try a gif! We’ve been doing this a lot with carousel-type posts. Instead of utilizing the traditional photo carousel, turn it into a gif. Voila!

Face or no face?:

We’ve been testing a lot of different versions of graphics both with AND without the course creator, and have seen really good results from both. To shake it up with your audience, create 2 versions of every graphic — one with your face and one without — and see which tends to perform better with what audience.

Keep in mind, for Pinterest ads and colder audiences, you want your logo on the image for that brand recognition. Sometimes your brand IS your face, where you’re easily recognizable to your audience because they know you. Try adding your name (or your logo!) instead of your face!

 

Numbers on images:

Humans react well when they see results and measurements (shocker…) and this goes for ads, too — so try out text on your ad images with numbers to quantify your offer. For example, call your offer something like “ the course with the 10,000-person waitlist,” “the guide to 10xing your traffic,” or “42 lessons, 6 live sessions, 6+ months of content.” This is a really helpful way for your audience to start seeing how your course could help them instantly, and is also a good way to appeal to that logic-filled side of their brains.

See, in all honesty, it all comes back down to testing. Try new things, test them out, and reap the rewards — it’s that simple.

 

You’ve got this!

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Double Your Efforts with an Evergreen Webinar

Double Your Efforts with an Evergreen Webinar

by | Jul 24, 2023 | Facebook™ Ads, How To, Launching, Strategy

So, it’s absolutely zero secret that every single one of us loves a successful launch.

I mean, obviously.

But guess what’s better than a successful launch, friend?! Evergreen sales, baby. After all, launch money is great — but continual, passive sales puts the icing on the cake (and the candles, too). 

And, guess what? There’s a simple way to get you there: create an evergreen webinar.

Lemme explain.

How can I double my efforts with an evergreen webinar?

Setting up an evergreen webinar funnel after a launch — or, hey, even without one, if you want to generate passive product income — is truly one of the best tools you have in your toolbox to create constant leads and sales. By digging into the things your audience wants to see and aligning it with the work you do, you can truly create a goldmine of people who want to learn and buy from you — and then, you can direct them organically to a sales page, a booking link, or a product page… time and time again.

What do I need to create a successful evergreen webinar?

The secret to a successful evergreen webinar is simple: make it timely (for instance, what’s a topic that aligns with your latest launch or product? What’s a hot topic in your niche that people want to know about?), and then engineer it to have a strong CTA at the end. This CTA can be to buy your product at a discount,  or it can be funnelling them into an email sequence that builds on your webinar topic and leads them to purchase.

Ready to create your own? Here’s your checklist:

  • Webinar content
  • CTA options (we love to test!)
  • Ad creative
  • Sales page or other lead capture
  • Strong email funnel

 

What if my webinar funnel isn’t working?

Underperforming webinar funnels are sometimes par for the course, but they’re also diagnosable — and you can quickly transform an underperforming funnel into a thriving one. 

First, start by diving into your ad campaign’s analytics — are people clicking? If not, adjust the targeting and creative. 

Then, move on to the landing page. Are people opting in? If not, adjust your copy and make sure it’s enticing and aligned with your ad’s messaging. 

Then, go to the webinar. Are people hearing your offer? Likely, if your funnel is underperforming, this is where it starts — because people are falling off. Instead of scrapping your entire funnel and campaign, try re-recording your webinar. Include the offer earlier, pack it with more value, and make the beginning stronger so that people are hooked from the jump.

After you’ve locked down your webinar, look into your emails. Are people opening your emails? Are they clicking? If not, you either need a stronger offer or a stronger email sequence.  If you’re unsure of what needs to be changed, it’s a great time to poll your audience. 🙂 

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Whether you’re building a new evergreen webinar funnel or trying to strengthen an existing one, trust me on this: if you do this right, it can totally change the game for your sales.

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The 411 on Dynamic Creative

The 411 on Dynamic Creative

by | Jul 6, 2023 | Facebook™ Ads, How To, Strategy

If you’ve been around the Facebook ad world for even, like, 5 minutes… you know the term “ad creative.” Basically, you hear it again and again — because these images, captions, videos, and graphics form the visual cornerstone of all things ads.

Plus, if you test your creative the right way, you’ve unlocked a gold mine.

But, guess what? There’s a lot more to creative than just, well, creative. Typical, huh?

Enter: dynamic creative.

What’s dynamic creative?

Dynamic creative is a newer Facebook feature that automatically mixes up your ad creative to serve different audiences. This was built to avoid the same audience seeing the same creative mix time and time again in your ads — and designed to help you continually test which creative mixes work the best with your unique audience.

When you have dynamic creative turned on in the Ads Manager, Facebook will continue to adjust your ads and create different variations — while all the time learning from the different variations, impressions, and performances. It can be immensely helpful for testing, and it also typically leads to a better cost per lead.

Here’s the thing, though: dynamic creative has its pros, but it also has its cons. Often, the optimizations end up not making a ton of sense — so sometimes, you’ll get cut off text or cropped images. This is because we typically run square images (1080px by 1080px) and story images (1080px by 1920px), and good ol’ Facebook might swap these on someone’s feed.

Should I use dynamic creative in my ads?

So, here’s the thing: dynamic creative is definitely worth trying, and Facebook will encourage you to use it. It can lead to a significantly lower cost per lead, and it can help you test. However, we’ve seen just as much success from breaking out ads the traditional way with Facebook — AKA, testing our separate versions of ad creative on our own.

Also, it is a personal choice. For obvious reasons, some of our clients care about their image and how they show up on your feed. Depending on how FB wants to crop an image, it might cut off some all-important text, and the ad isn’t as compelling, or just doesn’t make sense. On the flip side, some of our clients don’t mind. They’d rather have the lower cost per lead and let FB do its thing. The FB algorithm picks up on the winning combination fairly quickly, which will help optimize the campaign.

To decide which you’d like to use, I’d recommend, well… TESTING (my favorite word!) both of these in your own ads. Try out dynamic creative, but keep an eye on things like image text and variations — because it might get a little funky, which you (and your clients) probably won’t love. Alternatively, try testing different versions of your creative (our go-to practice over here at System Envy).

Want to give dynamic creative a try?

Go for it! Just proceed with caution if you’re particular about your creative. 😉 To try it out, go to the ad set tab right above the budget section and toggle the switch to on! You’ll then be prompted in the ads tab to upload all of your image versions, copy and headline versions into ONE ad. And FB will do the rest!

 

Looking for more ad tips and insights? Stay plugged into the System Envy blog — my team and I will be diving into all things ads over here, as usual.

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Your Guide to Advertising on TikTok vs. FB/IG

Your Guide to Advertising on TikTok vs. FB/IG

by | Jun 2, 2023 | Facebook™ Ads, How To, Strategy

To say that TikTok has become a HUGE FREAKIN’ DEAL is a bit of an understatement.

There are over a billion active users on the platform (!!!), users spend an average of 95 minutes per day on the app, and it’s become a thriving spot for people to grow huge numbers and followings.

Basically, it can be a goldmine in a lot of ways.

We’ve been knee-deep in learning the TT ads platform for the last year over here at System Envy, and we’ve been diving into the ways that our clients and readers can make big money via advertising on the platform.

Here’s the thing, though: when it comes to ads, there are some big-time differences that you need to understand, especially when compared to Facebook and Instagram ads.

You curious? Let’s dive into the pros and cons of TikTok advertising vs. Meta advertising (AKA, Instagram and Facebook).

First things first… understanding this about TikTok is key:

When new platforms launch — especially super popular ones — it’s human nature to want to start advertising on them… and quickly. However, it’s always, always going to be a better practice to do your due diligence on the platform in question — especially since no platform is the same.

TikTok is no different there.

See, here’s the thing: Facebook and Instagram are known quantities in the ad world. While we see big algorithm changes on the platforms from time to time, the way people behave on both of these platforms has stayed fairly consistent for years now. When it comes to TikTok, though, we have a different beast.

Unlike the Meta platforms you’re likely more familiar with, TikTok is really more of a discovery platform (think: Pinterest-esque). The users on TikTok are likely familiar with being advertised to on Facebook and Instagram, but they’re certainly not expecting that type of advertisement when they scroll down their For You Pages. To create ads that actually make an impact, you have to understand this — and, in turn, create entertaining, engaging, short, and snappy videos that feel in line with the type of content they’re already expecting from TikTok.

This is why we always, always recommend that you spend a nice chunk of time in a research and discovery phase before advertising on TikTok. What is your ideal audience looking at? What are the kinds of things that attract their attention? Repel it? This matters.

Now, for the PROS of advertising on TikTok (and, uh… the cons)

We advertise on TikTok for quite a few of our clients, and we definitely foresee continuing to do so in the future. However, just like with annnyyyy advertising platform (trust us… any of ‘em), there are pros and cons.

Pros of advertising on TikTok

So advertising on TikTok is pretty freakin’ effective (makes sense, huh?), and we’ve actually seen a cost-per-lead that’s competitive with FB and IG ads. Plus, there are a few benefits to TikTok advertising that we really love.

First, you can set up events in TikTok with your URL, which is super handy. For instance, on FB or IG, you have to set up an event by adding a pixel tag to your website code — and even though FB/IG has an event set up tool, TikTok is a lot more seamless for this. It’s so, so easy, and gives more authority to the ads team to set up the code.

Next up in our fave pro of TikTok is a SUPER efficient feature that lets you reply to allll ad comments… which is so nice. You can filter, select certain ad groups, and find out info about the comment (for example, you can see whether the comment is positive or negative, and you can even see if it contains a question). Meta has nothing like this, and it’s SO freakin’ helpful for organizing comment moderation when you have multiple campaigns running.

Cons of advertising on TikTok

Nowwww, with pros come cons. ‘Tis life. And, in our opinion, TikTok kinda has a big con: the difficulty of setting up audiences. Basically, TikTok doesn’t let you set up audiences in the same way FB/IG does (with matching email addresses and names), which is a pretty big bummer. 

It only allows you to upload Apple IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) or GAID (Google Advertising ID) IDs, which isn’t available from most email marketing software — making it pretty much impossible to set up custom audience lists and lookalike audiences. This is a huge con, since creating those types of audiences is a really big marketing tool… and one we find highly successful for our clients. They perform really well, and make a pretty stark difference.

Apparently, TikTok is working on this (whoohoo!), but for now, it’s a massive limitation on targeting capabilities. Whomp, whomp.

So… should you advertise on TikTok?

Short answer? Yes, you should advertise on TikTok.

Long answer? You should advertise on TikTok in conjunction with FB/IG ads, and not on its own — at least, not right now. By diversifying your ads, you’ll be able to reach more people AND take advantage of things like custom audiences on the Meta platforms.

Have more q’s about this? We’re your team, always — just let us know!

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