In May 2017 Facebook rolled out a pretty epic update to the pixel – epic because it was a massive power play and showed just how intent the platform is to improving advertising, the user experience as well as encroach on the search engine/Google sphere.

You may have noticed Facebook Microdata already, and perhaps thought nothing much of it. I’m talking about Microdata and a new automatic event called “SubscribedButtonClick”.

In this post I’m going to walk you through the former a little deeper, what it is and how to start the process of getting yours optimised properly in 2020.

WHAT’S FACEBOOK MICRODATA

When using the Pixel Helper Tool, you may notice a new field called “Microdata” that triggers when the pixel loads on the site (see below).

This is essentially allowing Facebook to gain way more information in terms of what users are doing on your site, what they’re looking at, and how well your site is performing.

Facebook Microdata does this by looking at the markup data – essentially SEO information on the pages to discern that your site is about Barbecues (for example) and this particular visitor is very interested in this product (based on how they engage with the page).

Why should you care?

Facebook Microdata is actually pretty scary/intense/and amazing all in one.

What this is now allowing Facebook to do is to spot people most likely to perform the desired action and optimise advertising campaigns accordingly.

Facebook Microdata is also allowing you to tap into competitor traffic in a way!

Here’s an example:

Using the BBQ example above, if I am on a competitor website checking BBQs and you decide to run ads for your BBQ sale, Facebook will now know to show your ads to me as I am a very “hot” prospect and have shown interest in this type of product.

Likewise, let’s say I purchased the BBQ on that competitor site – well if you’re selling BBQ tongs or cleaning products, again Facebook will now have the data to tell it to show your ads to me as I am a likely customer.

In this sense, this VERY MUCH replicates the “search” function of Google.  Whereby Google targets ads to individuals already deep in the consideration phase of a marketing funnel.

Facebook was always able to do this type of ad targeting/optimisation – but not to this extent.  This is what Facebook microdata is enabling us to tap into.

Powerful stuff.

SCHEMA & OPENGRAPH

So what’s the difference between Schema and OpenGraph?

OpenGraph is what Facebook uses and Schema is a Google identifier that helps search engines to identify the category or property type of your site’s content.  Facebook taps into both of these so you’ll want to make sure they’re both installed correctly.

If you see a little box icon next to “Schema” this means it is NOT installed on the site or landing page in question.

TIP – pitch this as an up-sell to clients.  It will be highly beneficial for them to have this and drastically improve their FB campaigns.

HOW DO I SET IT UP

You’ll probably (like 97%) need a web developer to help you with this – especially if you’re not comfortable editing the CMS of your site. Try a find a dev that is ideally familiar or specialises in SEO – as they will understand Schema.

Step #1: Head to Structured Data Markup Helper

https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/?email=true

Step #2: Add in the URL in question and select “Start Tagging”

Step #3:  Start tagging your site

Step #4: Add all the Highlighted markup to your page’s HTML

Step #5: Click “Finish”

GOING DEEPER WITH SCHEMA

I’m posting this because I can remember, when I was at the starting point of shifting from freelancer to agency owner – right when I had cracked the system on how to onboard clients and was suddenly needing to hire a team FAST – thinking to myself – crap, WHO do I need to hire?

Just like everything else in the FB ads world – they don’t teach you this stuff in school!

Below are the five people you’ll need on your team in order to run a very effective/efficient and highly lucrative agency. With these five critical players, you should be able to build a $100,000/mth business. 

PLEASE REMEMBER: DON’T hire your team until you know how to onboard the clients and have consistent revenues. I made the mistake of taking out a bank loan to fund my team the first time around and it nearly took me under (if you want to check out how to scale properly, view the live training I ran)

CRITICAL TEAM MEMBER #1:  Your Account Manager

This person is usually the first one you will hire internally.  Why?  Because they will relieve you from the work you are  most likely dreading the most and that is consuming most of your time:looking after your clients!

Some of the tasks of the Account Manager include:

• answering emails & phone calls
• reporting (monthly or weekly)
• client meetings
• upselling/crosselling

In short – their role and how they are KPI’d is in maintaining retention of your accounts – basically keeping clients happy 😉

CRITICAL TEAM MEMBER #2:  Your Facebook Ads Specialist

While you would think this role is one of the most critical and important ones in your business,and it’s usually the first role most people hire for – the reality is that your FB marketer is usually the LAST person you would hire internally, simply as – with the right processes in place – it’s relatively easy to outsource this role.

Typically you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who is an expert at the tactical side as well as on the creative side (copy etc),especially if you are recruiting internally.

CRITICAL TEAM MEMBER #3:  Your Funnel/Integrations Specialist

With the exception of brand awareness type campaigns, success on Facebook will generally always involve funnels and integrations.  You know the stuff:

• connecting lead ads to client’s CRM
• ensuring SMS notifications are triggered
• ensuring landing pages convert where they need to
• and so much more!

This role is a pretty key role in your FB ads agency, if you can find one that already knows the FB ads side, even better but they are normally freelancers themselves doing their own thing (and can therefore be difficult to hire internally).

CRITICAL TEAM MEMBER #4:  Your Operations Manager

The glue that holds the team together.  Your Operations Manager will typically be the last hire (until you bring on a CEO or Managing Director to complete replace yourself if that’s what you’re after) and is what we free your time from your business!

Some of the tasks include:

• managing the team
• ensuring KPI’s are being met and targets are on track
• building processes to support the team and client results

CRITICAL TEAM MEMBER #5:  Your Content Marketer

Adding text to videos, gifs, and graphic images usually requires someone adept in the Adobe Suite or other program.  If you’re lucky enough your FB Specialist will have this creative and copy skills, but don’t count on it (typically, FB Marketers that are great at the data and analytics side aren’t so flash on the copy/creative side).

Your Content Marketer pulls together visuals and copy based on the client’s branding and assists in the ads and funnel builds.

_____

With the above team structure, you should easily be able to hit $100,000/mth in revenues (NOTE: this assumes you hired the right people and that they are all preforming well).

Check out the live training I ran on how to bring in that much revenue into your agency – click here: https://www.facebook.com/socialuplab/videos/1722795361064407/

Bots vs Email – An Analysis of Three Different Campaigns & Results

Being in the digital marketing space for a while, I’m used to new features, trends and technologies and the sheer panic that comes every time something new rolls out and the desire to become competent enough so to not become redundant – I think if you’re in the FB ads or digital marketing space you would have experienced this as well at some stage.

But bots are a bit different.

Otherwise known as “chatbots”, bots are essentially software technologies that automate tasks and enable almost human-like interactions.  Tech giants like Microsoft and Google  are all chomping at the bit to make waves in this space, and a recent study unveiled that nearly 180 bot startups have attracted over $24 BILLION in funding to date.

And – of course – Facebook is paving the way with Messenger, its open API allowing companies like ChatFuel and ManyChat to build software that allow use to use the platform as part of our sales funnels.

Bots, bots, bots, everywhere you look there’s a bot.

They’re pretty awesome, and novel – a combination that usually results in lucrative marketing ROI.

But do they actually work?

I mean, how do they actually stack up against the reigning king of email….

I decided to find out.

THE TEST

Before you read on, I wish to stress that this is a test done over three campaigns across three different businesses. it’s definitely NOT the most scientific or robust of testing as my audiences and the products I sell may of course result if wildly different results to what you might get.

But in my case – what I’m interested is if bots actually do improve conversion rates and results for my clients and for my own businesses.

THE BUSINESSES

I ran the split test on three different products, these “guinea pigs” were:

– FB ads management (lead gen campaign)
– The Academy (a webinar training funnel)
– Real Estate (lead gen campaign)

THE FUNNEL

Each product was funnelled through the same way

FB Ad > Messenger Bot > Bot Sequence

It’s importan to note here that one of the very big drawbacks of using bots is the inability to retarget users (you can create a Custom Audience of those that messaged your page but this will target EVERYONE that messaged your page within a specific timeframe, not just those in that specific funnel).  And while the open rates for bots are very high (as you’ll see below) – this severely limited results.

THE TOOLS

I tested and tried the following tools to build these campaigns (these are not affiliate links, just what I used, I’m sure there’s better stuff out there as well although my personal preference was Chatfuel)

• ManyChat
• Chatfuel
• FB Ad Account
• Email CRM

THE CAMPAIGNS

I tested over $35,000 across the three different funnels – this was split between the standard landing page funnel and the bot funnel and the test was run for a period of two months.

I was almost 1000% sure that the bots were going to win out – the engagement on the ad posts using the bots was phenomenal… but I was wrong.

THE FINDINGS

Here’s what excited me most about this test. My target audience IS Facebook/social media marketers. I am literally targeting the one subset of the population that technically should be extremely receptive to bots. And – in fact – they WERE! The bot uptake was massive, but the backend conversion rates didn’t even come close to email.

The second campaign

The third campaign

While the bot open rates and click through rates were on average higher than email respectively, email sequence won the day for every single funnel and business when it came to the ultimate and most important figure – cost per lead.

The backend conversion rates didn’t even come close to email. I can see why…

This really surprised me to be honest. But after thinking about it I could sort of see why.

The front end uptake is high – but back end conversions are weaker…remind you of something?

Lead ads.

Lead ads are notorious for “cheap leads” in the FB ad world.  They’re actually not cheap leads, they’re just harder to convert.

Why?

One explanation is the popular “foot in the door” theory, otherwise known as the “small yes”. The principle is this: Start by asking someone for something small. If they comply with your first small request, they will be more likely to respond to your next and bigger request.

But lead ads and bots are almost TOO easy. They require minimal effort from the lead – leading to a great user experience, but a not so great sales pipeline. On the other hand, landing pages where a user needs to push a button then fill in their details is a slightly bigger commitment, and it seems that this slight increase in commitment makes the world of difference.

A Variation to Be Careful Of…

There are some factors which could have tainted the results.  I did not run the campaigns at the same time, one was paused whilst the other was live. So because it’s over different months, one could argue that this alone would cause variances and skews.

Email stats (above)

Bot stats (above)

Effortless isn’t always great news for sales funnels.

 Lead ads and bots are almost TOO easy.

I’ve since turned off my bot funnels and scaled up my standard funnels – I’ll test it out again in a month or two and will update this post accordingly.

I’m in NO WAY saying bots aren’t good.  This was literally a test run over three businesses and three funnels -and while a lot of budget was spent here, it’s really not the most robust of tests. Likewise, the bot results weren’t actually bad, on the contrary they were quite good – so if I was looking to scale en masse I would have used this strategy.

So while I can’t conclusively say that bots aren’t better than email what I can say without a shadow of a doubt from this test is that EMAIL IS NOT DEAD – far from it infact!

Have you tested the two against each other, what were your results?

The word oCPM is getting thrown around a lot these days, but few understand the actual meaning – or rather – the implications of what this stands for and how to leverage it in campaigns.

For those of you who haven’t come across the terms before:

oCPM: optimised cost per thousand miles/impressions

CPM: cost per thousand impressions

oCPM vs CPM – THE SIMPLE EXPLANATION

Facebook can either choose to optimise ads for impressions (CPM) or optimise for a specific action.

Here’s how it works in practice: Facebook KNOWS that certain people in your audience will be more likely to perform on action over another.  This includes retargeting/warm audiences.

It knows this because it’s reading your emails, it’s following your online searches and behaviours, it’s seeing all your content and interactions through Facebook, it’s even listening to your actual conversation via Messenger! 

It has a lot of data on you.

It knows if you are in the Consideration phase of a marketing funnel, or the Acquisition phase – it knows the difference between you wanting to book a trip overseas and just looking for trips overseas or if you’re just an avid travel content junkie.

The easiest way to think of this is to compare it to Google Adwords. Google allows you to run display ads (blanket marketing) or to target people based on search (people in the consideration phase of the funnel)* (big props to Tom Hiscocks for this analogy!)

…Think of it like this 

Facebook is pretty much the same – it can feed your ad out to replicate a blanket display marketing approach OR show your ad to those most likely to perform action (search).  The latter is part of the algorithm called Expected Action.

The main difference here is that – unlike Google where you need to run one or the other (Search or Display), Facebook will switch between the two automatically and can also be controlled manually by you.

CPM is therefore blanket marketing – Facebook will try and get the best CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

oCPM is leveraging Facebook’s data brain to optimise your campaigns for an action you want.  The CPM will typically be more expensive here, however, results for that specific action will typically be more effective.

How do I Know If I’m Using oCPM?  

With the exception of Brand Awareness and Reach campaigns – every campaign objective has the ability to use oCPM.

The above illustrated the campaign objectives that allow for optimised cost per mile (oCPM).

When you are using one of these objectives – at your ad set level, you can select between CPM and oCPM by selecting the conversion event or link clicks.

oCPM = Link Clicks or Conversion ad set delivery optimisation 

CPM = impression or reach ad set delivery optimisation 

oCPM vs CPM – WHICH ONE SHOULD I CHOOSE? 

Facebook recommends that you use oCPM where possible.  While your CPM will typically be more expensive here, your results will be improved.

However, below is a general graph/guideline on the strategic application of oCPM vs CPM.

Using CPM is typically done in situations where: 

• Your ads are stalling (i.e: you are losing in the auction process)
• You need mass awareness/reach – popular with brands
• You’re CPM is costing you way too much (again: you’re losing in auction process – read more on why here)

In the above, you’ll notice that Link Clicks is also counted as oCPM – this is because it’s still optimising for a specific action (Link Clicks).

oCPM vs CPM – FINAL NOTE  

oCPM simply means bidding for an OPTIMISED ACTION on Facebook.  It’s using Facebook data to improve our results.  CPM simply means bidding for impressions.

Got any questions of oCPM vs CPM?  Pop ’em below of joining me in the Facebook ad Hacks group.