51视频

In this episode, Richie asks Jesse for advice on advertising strategies for small business owners, and they walk through the three basic advertising methods:

• Search
• Display
• Remarketing

They also discuss the various tools to achieve those methods:

• Platforms
• Pixels
• Feeds
• Automation or DIY

Then they go deeper and mention which platforms to focus on for each objective and which work together well.

Transcript

Jesse: Happy Friday, Richie! How are you?

Richard: I鈥檓 doing great. How about yourself?

Jesse: Excellent, excellent. Excited about today. This is going to be a little bit of a different show; it鈥檚 going to be more educational. So if you鈥檙e in your car right now listening and you鈥檙e like “I don鈥檛 want education,” this one鈥檚 not for you. (laughing) But if you鈥檙e looking to learn, today we鈥檙e going to have really useful nuggets for people that are just getting started. This is going to be an introduction to e-commerce advertising. Rich, does that sound exciting? Could I do a better title? What do you think?

Richard: I love it, but I鈥檓 going to clarify something. All the shows are educational.

Jesse: Okay. Right.

Richard: I think this is going to be actually entertaining too because I get to put you on the spot today.

Jesse: OK. I like it.

Richard: A lot of people could know if they鈥檇 been listening for a while, but just for those who just started listening, I just want to remind everybody and let everybody know why Jessie is highly qualified for me to put him on the spot today. Jessie鈥檚 spent millions and millions of dollars on advertising. He started out working in an agency, and he has his own side businesses that he runs advertising towards, and he runs all the advertising for 51视频. So he has done in every capacity from being a store owner like yourselves, running it for other store owners, and now he runs it for a business that has a bunch of store owners. I think you pretty much have it covered on many levels. I think what our hardest challenge — between us because we鈥檝e been in this game for a while — is going to be reminding ourselves that this show is about momentum for these people. They鈥檙e just getting started. Some of them have been going on for a while, but they may not have advertised even yet. And we want to make sure that they鈥檙e ready for the holidays and they鈥檙e not just waiting to start right for the holidays. And although we mentioned this is holidays, this is going to be able to be evergreen. We鈥檙e going to state this in such a way for everyone that they鈥檙e listening. Next June, next April, next January. If you鈥檙e hearing this for the first time, it still applies for sure.

Jesse: The idea here is to get people started, start building their store. We all had to start somewhere, so I鈥檝e spent a lot of money with Google and Facebook, made a lot of mistakes. Seen a lot of where other people make mistakes. I鈥檓 hoping to give that expert-level view to where people are just starting out and give the right tips to get going. And yeah, this is it happens to be September right now. So this is a great time to get started for the holidays. If you listen to this later, great. This is still going to apply but because it鈥檚 September, this is the time where people are looking at their store, and like “Yeah, sales aren鈥檛 really where they want to be” or “I don鈥檛 have any traffic yet” or kind of fill in the blank. So because of that, if you listen to the podcast, we talk about a lot of different strategies, traffic strategies. So maybe you鈥檝e already done a lot of different strategies, and you鈥檙e getting a bunch of free traffic. Great. That鈥檚 awesome. Free traffic is awesome. I think for most people, it鈥檚 not鈥�

Richard: To break down where I think you鈥檙e going with that. You鈥檙e talking specifically about people creating content trying to go the SEO route. Correct me if I鈥檓 wrong, I think you believe they should be doing both, but it takes a while.

Jesse: Yes.

Richard: And it鈥檚 harder because there鈥檚 a lot of moving variables, but you can actually see results pretty darn quick with advertising.

Jesse: For sure you should always do both, and free traffic is great, but it is becoming harder. Google and Facebook control the Internet. Let鈥檚 just be honest about it. They are the gatekeepers, and they don鈥檛 really want to send you free traffic. They don鈥檛 get paid for that video.

Richard: Because by the way, listeners, they make their money from selling advertising. That is their business model. There are little things here and there they鈥檙e doing on the side. They got Oculus and Facebook. Yeah. But their main focus on revenue is advertising.

Jesse: Yes. So if you鈥檙e in the e-commerce game, you have to play by the e-commerce rules, and the rules are generally speaking鈥� There is asterix, a bunch, of course. Generally speaking, you should probably be advertising. And if you鈥檙e getting ready for the holidays and it鈥檚 September, you really want to sell something this holiday season. OK, then you should be advertising. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 going to get you going in the next 30 to 60 days.

Richard: I don鈥檛 know what it was and what we just said that sparked this, and I do not have hard stats on this, but it would not surprise me at all, based on things we鈥檝e both seen. Your organic stuff is going to get seen more too. It鈥檚 not written in anything, but if this person starts advertising a lot more, probably, you鈥檙e helping people stay on their platforms. I don鈥檛 know the exact percentages. I鈥檓 not claiming any hard stats but wouldn鈥檛 be remotely surprised if your organic content gets seen more too when you鈥檙e priming the pump with advertising.

Jesse: Yeah, those are some real conspiracy-level theory stuff there, Rich. (laughing) You鈥檙e probably going to get in trouble from somebody, but yeah.

Richard: Bring it up.

Jesse: The best way to get traffic to your site is to have traffic to your site. So once you start getting traffic, very likely you鈥檙e going to get more traffic. And how do you get traffic today? You pay for it. I just want to be real about it, and I鈥檓 not being real to try to make money for Google and Facebook. Just trying to be real to help you, the listener, because as we鈥檝e talked about in other podcasts when people downgrade, all the reasons that people put when they leave, we see them, and we see a lot of them. Sometimes it鈥檚 very helpful for us. If you give good reasons, we will eventually change what we do. We build new features to fix that. But I see a lot of the things are like “Oh, I didn鈥檛 get any sales, I don鈥檛 want to advertise, and so I didn鈥檛 get any sales.” I鈥檓 like, what did you do to try to get traffic? You don鈥檛 just open up a store and get traffic; it doesn鈥檛 work that way. If somebody told you that, they were lying to you. I never said that. You鈥檒l not see any ads that I say “Sign up, and you鈥檒l get free traffic and free sales.” It just doesn鈥檛 work that way.

Richard: Right. And just to clarify for those of you who didn鈥檛 hear the sarcasm. By no means we鈥檙e saying there is a conspiracy theory or any of that. What we鈥檙e talking about is when you put your message in front of somebody with advertising dollars, they鈥檙e going to see it. Because if you don鈥檛 get results, you won鈥檛 give them more money. And if you don鈥檛 give them more money, they don鈥檛 make money as a business. So they want you to succeed. Now how much you pay and what your margins are like, I don鈥檛 know all that stuff. That鈥檚 what you鈥檒l learn over time, whether it鈥檚 working or whether it鈥檚 not. But you鈥檒l see it more and so let鈥檚 just say and then we鈥檒l dive into it. Let鈥檚 just say you spent on advertising; you drove into your site. Well, more time on site, you potentially could actually show up in more search results, or it鈥檚 literally not even remotely conspiracy. That would joke with you a lot if you haven鈥檛 noticed, but it鈥檚 just the way we know for sure you can get people to your site, to your products is to spend money.

Jesse: Yep, I agree. And Rich, that was a bolded level there. If you want to make it and you want to make money by this holiday season, you should start advertising now. So you think that was enough tough love, Rich?

Richard: All right, let鈥檚 get started.

Jesse: We stirred the pot a little bit. All right. So let鈥檚 just talk high-level basic ways to advertise online. I鈥檓 not going to mention any names of companies now when I talk about three different methods. Break them down to search, display, and remarketing. So by search, I mean when people type in the exact keyword into a browser. Or maybe they speak that word into a device. So at some level, they鈥檙e searching for what they want. Maybe that鈥檚 research, maybe that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 looking to buy. But it鈥檚 the best signal you鈥檙e going to get. That鈥檚 the best signal. Search engines are going to get that the person who typed this in, really wants this thing, or wants to learn about this thing. Search probably is the start of the online advertising journey. So that鈥檚 search in a nutshell. That makes sense without going to all鈥�?

Richard: Totally, it did. I鈥檒l mention something here, this is not to get worried about all the information that these companies know about us, but for the most part, most people stay signed into Google. And most people stay signed in to Facebook, and those are the two main companies. We鈥檒l go over, we鈥檒l be touching bases on some other people, but 80 percent of the stuff or more is coming from these two companies. And we group Facebook and Instagram together because they鈥檙e pretty much the same company, or they are the same company even though they do different things. But since you鈥檙e logged in and you know everyone hears about A.I. and all their stuff, they鈥檙e getting information. And so if you鈥檝e been looking for other things, Jesse is going to get into how some of this stuff works. They have that information, and they鈥檙e going to know that this person鈥檚 probably trying to buy something right now and they鈥檙e going to know who to put that in front of. I just wanted to let people remember. You hear in the news, you don鈥檛 necessarily want this information to be out there, but we benefit from all these things. We benefit from being served up with the things we want. And we鈥檙e not going to get into the political side of stuff and the information, all that. What we鈥檙e really going to talk about today is how this stuff can benefit your business because these companies have information, and they know who to put these ads in front of. So let鈥檚 dive in, the first one you want to go into is a search?

Jesse: Yeah. Search. That just means that you typed in the words, you spoke the words. That鈥檚 the best intent signal that you have. If you sell products that are very easily searchable, this is probably a very good place for you to play. Really keep moving on though we鈥檙e going to come back to this obviously. All right. If you鈥檙e taking notes, number one is search. Number two is display. And by display I鈥檓 not just talking about banner ads. I鈥檓 talking about you鈥檙e letting the algorithms do the work. OK. That鈥檚 what Rich was talking about; maybe you searched for something a week ago, and all of a sudden, you start to see banner ads, or you see ads related to that a week later. It鈥檚 maybe because you searched, or maybe it鈥檚 because the algorithms have determined that you are a perfect target for that. So it鈥檚 not necessarily really a search. It might just be demographics, but it鈥檚 usually at a deeper level than just demographics. It鈥檚 not that I鈥檓 a mid-40s male, so I should be interested in that. It鈥檚 going to be way deeper. They know my favorite sports team and how many kids I have and where I live, and then it is still a demographic level like wade deeper level stuff that I probably don鈥檛 even know about myself. We鈥檙e basically letting the algorithm and choosing the audiences; we鈥檙e guiding the algorithm by letting the platforms know the audiences we want to target and the products and then letting the algorithm do the work in general. So that鈥檚 display. Number three on this is remarketing. You might say display and remarketing are kind of the same thing. I鈥檓 talking more about the level of targeting. Remarketing happens to usually be display. Usually you see an ad whether that鈥檚 a banner ad or a video or whatever. But you are targeted based on the fact that you have been to the site before. Getting back into intent, this is another higher level of intent. Anybody who has been to your website and has potentially looked at a product or interacted with your social platforms, and then they see an ad later, that鈥檚 remarketing at a very high level. And there鈥檚 a level of intent there as well. I鈥檇 much rather spend a hundred dollars advertising my products to people who have been to my website than some random person who may or may not even know what I鈥檓 advertising. It is the next level of advertising. It鈥檚 not hard at all, but just know that there are three different ways to advertise. Break that down again; there鈥檚 search, that means they typed in or spoken some words that show strong intent. Display is you鈥檙e letting the algorithms choose the intent. And then remarketing is they have definitely been to your website or social profile or whatever, and we鈥檙e showing ads based on that interaction.

Richard: That鈥檚 fantastic. I love it, simple, to the point where we鈥檙e keeping it at those three basic ways to do your online advertising.

Jesse: And I didn鈥檛 mention any platforms there either, these are just concepts.

Richard: We鈥檒l dive into each of those a little more here in a little bit. But we are trying to keep it at its basic level. Let鈥檚 say what are some of the platforms, and what are some of the tools? Again, at the basic level because they鈥檙e just getting started. We鈥檇 rather them use mostly free tools and things that are accessible for nominal or free. So leave that up to you, and what are those basic tools that they can do, and then we鈥檒l dive in deeper.

Jesse: Yep. All right. So this is more like the definitions or the glossary here. Platforms are the advertising platforms. That鈥檚 Google, Facebook. Instagram, again I鈥檓 going to say, is the same as Facebook. Then it could be Pinterest; it could be Snapchat. It could be any of the different platforms where you鈥檙e going to put your credit card in to pay them advertising. So those are platforms. The next thing we want to talk about is pixels. For some reason, a pixel is a scary word for people. Pixels are just the mechanism that the platforms use to track. If you鈥檙e using Facebook, there鈥檚 a Facebook pixel, and that just means that there鈥檚 a little tiny piece of code that鈥檚 on your website. When somebody visits your site, your Facebook account knows it, and knows whether they purchased or what pages they visited. Same with Google, Pinterest, Snapchat. Everybody has a pixel, and they鈥檙e extremely easy to install. So that鈥檚 why I said people are scared about this word. “Oh my god, pixels, I don鈥檛 know what that is.” It鈥檚 just a tiny piece of code. It鈥檚 on your website that helps you track. And in 51视频, generally speaking, you just click a button to say, “Install this pixel.” That doesn鈥檛 cover all the cases. But in general, if you want to work with these platforms, it鈥檚 very easy to install a pixel. Probably means clicking a button to say “Install” or placing a little bit of code.

Richard: In a worst-case scenario use the chat feature in 51视频.

Jesse: Talk to the support and say: “How do I get this pixel? I heard a podcast where Jesse and Rich were talking about pixels. How do I install my Facebook pixel?” They鈥檒l help you. It鈥檚 simple, don鈥檛 let this be a blocker for you. Go use chat, install the pixel. All right. The next tool is product feeds. This is a little bit harder, but again, I鈥檓 going to say pretty easy. Product feeds, it takes your product catalog, the picture, the price, the description, the name of your product, and puts it into essentially an Excel file. It鈥檚 not really an Excel file but puts it into a file that the platforms can then read. Then they can use this for just better advertising in general.

Richard: To your point, correct me if I鈥檓 wrong. This is the work you鈥檝e already done. And now what you鈥檙e referring to when you say it鈥檚 going to take a little bit of work, it鈥檚 really just going to take a little bit of work in the beginning. Once you get these feeds working, it鈥檚 already in there; you鈥檙e done, and then it鈥檚 set it and forget it.

Richard: Yeah. Let鈥檚 say you use some other platform. They might be hard. With 51视频, it鈥檚 going to be easy. I鈥檓 laughing here, the smiling one. But we鈥檝e built all this stuff in, so you just look for the section, you click it, you say: “I want a Google product feed, I want a Facebook product feed.” And then you can even use those feeds for other platforms as well. Product feeds help the platforms know the exact products you have rather than your URL. URLs are always nice, but having the product feed is even better. Again, talk to support if you want a little bit of help. You don鈥檛 need this right away, but you鈥檙e going to need this eventually. Keep that in mind. That product feeds. It鈥檚 basically the list of all your products and information fed to the platforms. All right. So, the last tool. A lot of the things we鈥檙e going to talk about, there are automated options. We have automated Facebook advertising, automated Google advertising, automated Google Shopping. A lot of this stuff is automated, and it鈥檚 also available to DIY. You want to do it yourself, great. We have all the same tools there. So automated or DIY, just know there are probably both options, and depending on where you鈥檙e coming from, you may want to choose one or the other. All right. We have mentioned the platforms. Let鈥檚 get into it. The big one here is obviously Google. Google is the king of search. This is how they were built. They basically have monetized every single word in the world. When you go to Google and you type stuff in, that again shows the best intent. If you have a store where your products fit, where they could be easily be searched. This is probably the place where I would start. We can go to a couple of examples. Now, if you listened to a bunch of podcasts, we鈥檒l bring up some previous topics. So pancake spatulas, we鈥檝e been using that lately. If you have a pancake spatula, people are typing in the word “pancake spatula,” you鈥檙e going to spit out. Here鈥檚 an ad for pancake spatulas. They obviously want this. They鈥檙e probably not researching it. Similarly, you know some of the other products we鈥檝e mentioned. Let鈥檚 see; we had CakeSafe on. This was quite a while back, but basically, it鈥檚 a box that helps you store a cake so you can ship it either in the mail or go on a plane or whatever.

Richard: A unique thing about that, literally at least monthly if not weekly, that one pops up, it still blows my mind that not only is that a business but it鈥檚 a flourishing business. And they鈥檙e doing quite well, and they use advertising too.

Jesse: Absolutely. Yes, if you鈥檙e listening, there鈥檚 a business out there with several employees, it sells a box that stores cakes. It鈥檚 awesome. Your niche is probably not as small as you think. Now when people search the term like “how do I safely ship my cake across the country,” what鈥檚 best for you to show up there? Do you want a text ad that is kind of traditional Google? Or is it better for there to be a picture with a price right below it? That鈥檚 Google Shopping. Depending on your product, you may want one or the other. So with CakeSafe, it鈥檚 a hard concept to understand. You probably want to show the picture. I see it鈥檚 a Plexiglas thing. It鈥檚 got a little rod through there. I can see how that would keep my cake safe, so perfect. You鈥檙e going to want to focus on the Google Shopping ads. If your product is maybe not as visual. So we had Kissed by a Bee on. What they make is all-natural creams. That鈥檚 good for curing eczema. So it鈥檚 a cream, and it鈥檚 in a jar. Is that visual? I don鈥檛 know. Probably not. I mean, it might work visually, but a text ad might be better because then you can mention it鈥檚 all-natural. Cure your eczema, blah blah blah, all-natural, organic. A text ad probably works better for that type of product. For you listening, where does your product fit in, I don鈥檛 know. You have to make that call. Is it a more visual product where the picture and the price does the selling on its own, or do you need a little more explanation, and a text ad might be better? That鈥檚 up to you. The answer is, probably, you should do both. I don鈥檛 know why you wouldn鈥檛 do both. But you can do either, you can do both, but the text ads are regular like Google ads. They used to be called Google AdWords; now it just Google ads. Google Shopping is an image ad. Both of those need a pixel. To use the Google Shopping ads, you need the product feeds that we talked about previously. So just tying it together here, I feel like a professor here. I feel like I need a chalkboard, or a whiteboard or something here. But anyway, so that鈥檚 a little bit tying that together. Rich, I won鈥檛 go too deep on search. But did that make sense? Do you think there is any more color I want to add to search and Google search specifically?

Richard: No, that鈥檚 fantastic. I think it is at the base level. What you鈥檙e saying is search is an active process where someone鈥檚 trying to go out and find something. And display is more passive. And having these product feeds that can get displayed in front of people, back to your comment with Google Shopping and or text ads, probably should be doing both there too. But overall, it is perfect on search. Again, we鈥檙e trying to keep this were things you could actually use and do and apply and get momentum for the holidays or any time you鈥檙e listening to this. But all of these will go a lot deeper on, but we鈥檙e not trying to paralyze you. We鈥檙e trying to get you to say: “Wow, this sounds pretty easy, and I should probably do this because it is pretty easy.”

Jesse: It is pretty easy.

Richard: And you should be doing this, especially with 51视频. It鈥檚 easy.

Jesse: Yeah. So it鈥檚 super easy. If your products specifically fit in the search world where there鈥檚 a word that describes your product, it鈥檚 very specific. And people look for it on the Internet. You鈥檙e going to want to start here on Google and search. So we didn鈥檛 mention there are a couple of other platforms there you can use Bing as well. I would 100% start on Google, and then once you get it going in Google, there鈥檚 a function in Bing to import everything over from Google into Bing. So Bing can be easy. It just doesn鈥檛 have the market share; it鈥檚 maybe 10 or 15 percent of the size of Google. There鈥檚 also this big company called Amazon, which is also very important for search. Again if you鈥檙e starting out, I would be very cautious here. But if you鈥檙e getting going a little bit, a lot of time there鈥檚 great intent on Amazon. If people go and search on Amazon, they鈥檙e buyers; they鈥檙e ready to buy. As you get a little bit more advanced, there are advertising options on Amazon, as well. Anyway, that search there is both automated options, you can find them in the Control Panel. The 51视频 Control Panel, so we can automate search. We can automate the text ads. There are DIY options as well where you can set these up yourself. I will say Google鈥檚 done a pretty good job of their onboarding process. They walk you through it pretty well. And if you start spending money, you can call them now, and they will actually help you set this stuff up, and the reps are quite a bit better than it used to be. So anyway, if you鈥檙e doing it yourself, you鈥檙e not totally on it on your own. Google will help you out with that. That鈥檚 search. There are books written about it. We did that in about five minutes. Now we鈥檙e going to go on to the main display area, and this is Facebook and Instagram. Again we鈥檙e saying Facebook and Instagram essentially are the same thing because when you advertise on Facebook and Instagram, it鈥檚 the exact same place to advertise. It鈥檚 the Facebook Business Manager. So you do need a Facebook Business Manager account. It鈥檚 very easy to set that up. But in general, when we talk about display, this is again the algorithm is choosing who sees your ad. Rich, you were talking before, when you鈥檙e searching in Google, it鈥檚 an active process. Are you active on Facebook? Are you killing time?

Richard: Yeah. For the most part, luckily, I don鈥檛 do that too much and mostly try to do ads for something on there too. When you鈥檙e on Facebook at its base level and or Instagram. And there are exceptions to every rule we鈥檙e talking about here. But for the most part, you鈥檙e looking to do some research or find something or learn more about something on Google. You鈥檙e usually trying to find out what鈥檚 going on with your friends or your family, going on in the world, and it鈥檚 really a little more passive, and you鈥檙e discovering things on Facebook.

Jesse: When you鈥檙e thinking about advertising on Facebook and Instagram, realize that you鈥檙e probably interrupting somebody, so they鈥檙e looking at pictures of kids and dogs and the latest news things. You鈥檙e getting in the way of them. You don鈥檛 want to be as direct. “Buy now” is probably not the message you want to have on Facebook and Instagram. Think about the advertising you want to have is more like a post to a friend. You want to provide some information. And when you鈥檙e on Facebook, pictures and videos are way more important. This is not just a text-only world in there. If you have kids or you have pets, whatever, you pick up your phone, you push the record button, and you have little videos and little pictures. This is how you should look at your advertising on Facebook and Instagram as well. You need videos, you need pictures, and you need to be a little bit more of a soft sell. So you鈥檙e not going for the sale right away, you鈥檙e going for “Hey, look at me. Did you know I鈥檓 out there? This is something that you might be interested in.” And how do we know they might be interested in it? This is the algorithm here. We are letting the Facebook algorithm takeover here, and by the way, it鈥檚 pretty powerful. I don鈥檛 need to get into crazy conspiracy theories here. Like they know stuff about you that you don鈥檛 even know about yourself. But as you鈥檝e got to get started. The big but here is that it takes data for Facebook to figure it out. You can鈥檛 just launch one day. And like Kissed by a Bee. They have eczema cream. Can鈥檛 just say find me people that want to buy eczema cream. You have to start feeding data into it. So that means you are doing posts about, “Hey, here鈥檚 a customer that had success with this product.” “Here鈥檚 a quiz, or here鈥檚 a question that maybe you can answer.” And eventually, Facebook starts to see, OK, here are the people that are engaging with this. And they鈥檝e also engaged with these other sites. S they have these things. It鈥檚 called “lookalike.” They know if you start feeding data about people that engage with your posts in your ads. Other people there would also be interested in it. It doesn鈥檛 happen from day one. But eventually, you feed the data to Facebook; it will find other people that are likely to buy your product. So that鈥檚 again where you want to interest them. Don鈥檛 go too much on the hard sell. But then let the algorithm take over. Rich, any more color on the display side?

Richard: No, I think that just comes back to a little couple of comments earlier that you want to put these pixels in. But to your point, with the data, if you don鈥檛 have these pixels and they can鈥檛 do this work, and also goes back to why they know so much and how you can take advantage of how much they know. To my comment earlier, most people aren鈥檛 signing out of these things. So when you鈥檙e signed into Google and you鈥檙e signed into Facebook and you鈥檙e going around, you鈥檙e doing all this stuff. When you have all those basic tools set up, they鈥檙e learning more about you. And again, this isn鈥檛 to be scary. This is what they鈥檙e doing with your customers, too. It鈥檚 a bit of network effect. The more data you have, the better decisions you have. You don鈥檛 have a lot of data. It鈥檚 hard to make a decision. So, yeah, I love watching where you鈥檙e going.

Jesse: I鈥檒l add to that. Forgot about this part. We talked about getting the pixel installed. So Facebook knows that people have been to your site. But the most important data ever for an e-commerce store owner is, “Did they buy?” So the Facebook pixel allows Facebook to know that they bought, and it takes data. If one person buys, that鈥檚 not a good enough signal for Facebook to find people like that one person. But if 50 people buy, a hundred people buy, Facebook starts to see: “OK, one hundred people bought, and they fit these certain qualifications.” Again, it鈥檚 not just age and sex and income level. It鈥檚 way deeper than that. It鈥檚 these people who have been to these other sites on the Internet, or they have engaged with these other Facebook pages. You need to start feeding the data, so it鈥檚 not just they visited, but that they bought.

Richard: It鈥檚 interesting you bring that up because I don鈥檛 want to go too deep on this. I don鈥檛 want to be like, “What what are you even talking about?” It started with “Hey, let鈥檚 super niche down and tell Facebook exactly who we want to target this into.” And I鈥檝e heard multiple people, myself included, that are actually getting sometimes better results by not narrowing down too much and letting Facebook figure that out for you because they have all that data. And for us to think we can use our minds and crunch our numbers in our mind faster and better than they can. I don鈥檛 know. So try it a little bit both ways.

Jesse: Yes, very much so. So, yeah, there still is this very detailed target, and they can remove some because of the scandals, they got a little too creepy for people. So they鈥檝e removed some of that. But the data is still there, and they still know. They know more than you do. Anyway, getting back to feed the data, feed the algorithm, they鈥檙e now getting back to who should be on Facebook. It鈥檚 probably everybody should be on Facebook at some level for advertising. But the better candidates are people that maybe search doesn鈥檛 work for you. We talked about if you have products that search is great for, then yes. You have a very specific product that there鈥檙e keywords that are associated with it, that鈥檚 obvious. That search is good for you. Facebook is better for people that they don鈥檛 know what they鈥檙e looking for your product. They don鈥檛 know that it exists, but it serves their particular needs, and they can be identified in that way. So, for example, going back to a previous guest, again, we had a Heroic Kid. We had Joe from Heroic Kid. He had very specific products for his son, who has type 1 diabetes. And it鈥檚 like the little patches and things for his toys. Right. So it鈥檚 very specific. But are you searching for that? No. You don鈥檛 really know that it exists. So you wouldn鈥檛 be searching for. “I want an insulin pack for a stuffed animal.” You would never search for that because you would think, why would this ever exist? But on Facebook, it鈥檚 a different story because there would be people that have interacted with groups, Facebook groups for type 1 diabetes or children with type 1 diabetes and how to parents. There are relatives that are looking for information related to that.

Richard: Plus, it鈥檚 probably a really good one for sharing because here it is. They have this, and you put it up as an ad, but then somebody in there that鈥檚 part of that group sees that also and shares it because they know someone in their family that lives in Kentucky and they have it. Whatever, I鈥檓 making the places and times, but you get it. It鈥檚 a highly potentially shareable one too because it鈥檚 a feel-good story. And it鈥檚 funny as we鈥檙e talking about this. Although I love getting this information to people, it just reminds me, the more you bring up the 51视频 merchants. It鈥檚 just man, I really, really want to get into helping. It鈥檚 part of what we love doing so much as helping them. So for those of you that are listening to, please, I don鈥檛 have to derail this. But keep filling out that form. Keep calling in. Keep letting us know. We love working specifically with all these different companies like Kissed by a Bee, and Heroic Kid, and CakeSafe. Just really diving in and seeing how that can help them. I don鈥檛 know; maybe we鈥檒l even remarket to people who鈥檝e listened to and apply these techniques to the podcast too.

Jesse: It鈥檚 very likely. It鈥檚 very likely you鈥檙e being remarketed to right now. Everybody, don鈥檛 creep out over that.

Richard: Just learn.

Jesse: Just learn. And yes. The reason we鈥檙e given those examples is you need to think about your product. Is it better for Facebook? Because there鈥檚 probably a certain group of people that would be interested in it. It can鈥檛 be like I sell toilet paper. That doesn鈥檛 work. That鈥檚 everybody. Or it has to be very specific and targeted in the Facebook world where even if you don鈥檛 know how to target, Facebook might know how. Google鈥檚 more again search. It can be both. Just knowing that maybe where you want to start depends on your products, which would they be better for. All right. Going back to number three on our little imaginary outline here is remarketing. Again, we talked about remarketing. That鈥檚 they鈥檝e been to your site. They鈥檝e interacted with you in some way. You鈥檙e now going to show them that ad again. How do you do remarketing? Well, Facebook and Google both have remarketing products. So, again, it depends. I would do remarketing on both because then you鈥檙e hitting them where they鈥檙e living. Maybe Google remarketing can be better wherever they are on the Internet. They鈥檙e going to be seeing your ads. Facebook is for people that are living mostly on Facebook and Instagram. They鈥檙e going to see your ads on Facebook and Instagram feed. Both are important. I don鈥檛 know which one is more important. It depends. Right. And then going back to that鈥檚 the concept of remarketing. But the actual medium of it is you can do general banners that are more descriptive of your whole website or a whole business. You want to cover a lot of bases. For example, Kissed by a Bee. You want to say this is a natural, organic cure for eczema. And they have other products. Actually, that鈥檚 a bad example. You want to just say: “Hey, we鈥檙e a natural products company. Here鈥檚 our story.” Same with Heroic Kid: “Hey, we鈥檙e here to help serve the children that have type 1 type diabetes.” And maybe there鈥檚 a picture of the product, picture of the kids smiling. You can do that by way of a video. Facebook, you can create a video that can be marketed. On the Google world, you鈥檙e gonna be creating the video, it鈥檚 going to get popped into YouTube, and that will be remarketed. So those are both remarketing. You can start with more of a general. “Hey, remember me? We鈥檙e awesome. Here鈥檚 our story.” That鈥檚 a general remarketing. Being more specific is dynamic remarketing. Going back to the top of the list here, we talked about product feeds. If you have sent your product feeds to Google and Facebook, which again is super easy, you can now remarket the exact product that they viewed, actually specifically if they did not buy it. They鈥檙e going to start seeing this exact product in price both on the Google side, which is basically the entire Internet. When you鈥檙e just looking at websites or in the Facebook-Instagram world where you鈥檙e on Facebook and Instagram on your phone, and in both cases, they鈥檙e going to see the exact product they were at. I think there is this; they call it the seven touches, Rich, which I believe has been debunked a little bit. But people don鈥檛 just see your product and buy it right away. Like 99 percent of the people were going to see a product, and then they bolt. So you have to鈥� You don鈥檛 have to, but I strongly recommend you should do remarking. If you spend money to get people to your site or you get them there, whatever method it is, 99 percent of the people are not going to buy. That鈥檚 a fact. Deal with it. How do you get more than that 1 percent? Remarketing.

Richard: Yep. Well, it鈥檚 funny. I have no idea how this got to my mind, but we鈥檙e both parents. As parents, we don鈥檛 spend advertising dollars, but we need to remarket over and over every day. How many times have you told your children a particular thing, and they don鈥檛 buy the first time? Yes. And you got to say it again. And you got to say it again. Got to say it again. And eventually, they buy. Right. And so, again, I know that鈥檚 a strange analogy, but I鈥檓 sure you get the point. It鈥檚 not everybody gets it. Sometimes it鈥檚 just as simple as they鈥檝e heard it again. Sometimes they didn鈥檛 buy because they were looking at work the first time. And the boss came in and they closed it down. Other times their significant other just came home, and they want to see their family, and they shut the computer. We don鈥檛 know all those reasons. So remarketing is really just about knowing that at some point in time, there was some form of interest, and they might just need to hear it again.

Jesse: Yeah. And by the way, if you鈥檝e used the Internet, if you ever looked at your phone, you鈥檙e being remarketed to all the time. So when you like “I was looking at this last week, and I see it on my feed,” yeah, that鈥檚 remarketing. That鈥檚 the other companies they鈥檙e setting up. If you鈥檙e not using that tool, you鈥檙e not really giving yourself a good shot at making it on the store. And this is the whole goal why you鈥檙e listening to the podcast; you鈥檙e trying to get your store successful. So use remarketing.

Richard: Yeah, and not only that, just to keep adding on to this. I remember we鈥檝e been doing this for a while. Gosh, I don鈥檛 even want count the years right now. But remember when it first started, it wasn鈥檛 necessarily creepy as much as it was fascinating. You literally thought this company must be huge. You鈥檇 go, and you鈥檇 look at something, and then you would see it over there, and you go to another site. You鈥檇 see it there, and you like, “What the heck, man?” And then it was like forced serendipity. Like you just think that it鈥檚 destined to buy this thing, but you don鈥檛 realize it鈥檚 following you. There are people for the first time having that feeling again right now.

Jesse: For sure. For sure. And I think that to your point of, it makes these companies look bigger. It will make your company look bigger, and it legitimizes you. I鈥檝e been doing this for a long time. If I don鈥檛 get remarketed to, I鈥檓 a little worried; maybe this company is not worth it? Am I actually going to get the delivery of this product? This is a basic tool that you should be using. I don鈥檛 know. I guess I鈥檓 making this my soapbox here. But you could skip the other things we talked about and then do remarketing. Do remarketing. I thought I was convincing enough. (laughing) Yeah. Do remarketing. All of the options we talked about, they鈥檙e all great. They can all work independently. So yes, you can use remarketing alone. You can use search alone. You can use display. But they all work better when you do them all together. There鈥檚 like a multiplier effect here. If you are paying for a search and that 99% of the people are not going to buy, why wouldn鈥檛 you do remarketing? Or if you鈥檙e going to do a search. Now, this person is pixelled, not just by Google; they鈥檙e also pixelled by Facebook. So now, when they鈥檙e on Facebook, there鈥檚 another intent signal for display, so we鈥檙e trying it together to get to this intent. Now Facebook knows this person is more likely to buy this product, and they might show that whether it鈥檚 remarketing or not. Yeah. Then, of course, remarketing always plugs all the holes. So however they got to your site, they will probably get caught up in your remarketing funnel. That鈥檚 called remarketing funnel. It鈥檚 like a catch-up. You can make a lot of mistakes with whatever you鈥檙e doing with your business. But if you have remarketing on, it catches, it鈥檚 like that the net, I guess.

Richard: Yeah. To add on to what you鈥檙e saying there too about this multiplier effect, it goes back to where we were joking conspiracy theory. If you spend more money, they鈥檒l show up your other content. At its basic level, the reason why it will is perfectly stated in what Jesse鈥檚 talking about with remarketing. They might have come to your site because you have a blog about how to cook pancakes, and they read the blog, and now you can use advertising to remarket to that person and show them your pancake spatula. They may or may not buy it right then, but because you had that pixel in because you did this collective work, you can actually get that same multiplier effect. You can bring them back to your site and maybe they don鈥檛 buy that time again. But maybe now they go back to the blog, and they read some of that other stuff you鈥檝e been doing. On past episodes where we鈥檙e talking about content creation and doing all these other things. But to keep it in context here, that remarketing pixel and your ability to remarket to those people is incredible for sure.

Jesse: And and to go a little bit deeper on that. The reason why we want to do these altogether is feeding the algorithms. The Facebook algorithm needs to know numbers. It doesn鈥檛 work when you just send five visitors to a page. It needs 50 visitors, 100, 500 visitors. So if you鈥檙e feeding a bunch of traffic to a page, Facebook starts to see: “Oh, okay, all these people are on this page.” Now I know who likes pancakes spatulas. I didn鈥檛 realize there was a thing. But if you keep feeding all this traffic to one page and a couple of people buy, the algorithm starts to figure out. “OK. Got it.” We know, and there鈥檚 this little hidden signal here that you won鈥檛 know. You don鈥檛 need to know it. You just need to know that Facebook will start delivering those visors. And Google has similar mechanisms. In the recent reason, I say they all work together. I don鈥檛 like to say, come on, do Google in October and then turn it off. And then I do Facebook in November and then turn it off and then do remarketing in December. No, do them all together because there鈥檚 a multiplier effect at work here. They all work. They don鈥檛 necessarily work together, but they work together. (laughing) I don鈥檛 know. Again, poor description from the professor here. All right. I鈥檒l work on that.

Richard: It works. It鈥檚 worth we鈥檙e throwing a lot. We鈥檙e trying to remind them at its base level what it is. Just do this; take action. The more data they get, the better. The more you do this, the more data you鈥檙e going to get, and you鈥檙e going to get better at it. And again, this one we are titling it that it鈥檚 for the holidays, but it鈥檚 mostly a momentum play. We just want you to get started so that you can get that data, and this truly can be applied anytime, though. It鈥檚 one of those things. I don鈥檛 know why this is coming to mind. But what鈥檚 the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago. What鈥檚 the next best time? Today. You probably should have started doing advertising a while ago. Yeah, but no matter what, start doing advertising today.

Jesse: Yep. And the other reason why you start is you鈥檙e going to make some mistakes. You鈥檙e going to make a video that you think is awesome, and it鈥檚 going to describe your product perfectly, and it won鈥檛 work. Or you鈥檙e going to do an ad that you think has the best text in. It describes your unique selling proposition. And then you鈥檙e going to look at the stats, and you鈥檒l be like, “Man, I spend like 300 hours in this. I have one sale, my products only $50.” You will make mistakes. And now you鈥檝e learned from that. And then you try different, and you try different videos. I鈥檝e decreased that cost per sale number. You can鈥檛 improve unless you make mistakes, and you can鈥檛 make mistakes unless you start. So you have to start. You just have to start. Don鈥檛 wait. Don鈥檛 listen as a podcast and say like, “Yeah, maybe in January.” No, just start now. Don鈥檛 spend more than you can. Don鈥檛 be dumb. Don鈥檛 be crazy here and spend all your money. Just spend what you can and learn from that and rinse, repeat, and try to improve each step along the way. All right, so talked about starting, talked about the insights, Richie. I mean, I hope I didn鈥檛 scare anybody here. What else do we got for them? Anything else?

Richard: No. I think this has been fantastic. I mean, for the most part, our goal of this episode is to get merchants started advertising and get ready for the holidays. I really want just to remind them. At this basic level, advertising is broken into three categories: search, display and remarketing. And they should be using that 80/20 rule we talked about, and we covered lots of different businesses, Pinterest, YouTube, all that stuff. But just use Google and Facebook to get those results, and you will see results.

Jesse: All right. Rich, what鈥檚 the best time to get started?

Richard: Right now.

Jesse: All right. I love it. All right, everybody, get out there. Make it happen!