Why I like being fed ads

Why? Mostly because I’m a bit lazy when it comes to shopping, a bit less lazy at booking holidays (but easily overwhelmed) and can totally lose focus and panic buy presents. Here are three examples from the last few months where Facebook ads have helped me out.

Clothes shopping

I’m not a fan of clothes shopping at the best of times, but I find online clothes shopping odious. The last year has saved me from feeling like I need to add to my wardrobe, but in the autumn the straining seams on my jeans forced me to accept I needed new, kinder trousers for the rare occasions I might need to be outside doing anything other than walking the dog. After a half-hearted skim through a few sites I was done, I don’t look like any of the people wearing them in the pictures, I never know what size I am or how long (or short) my legs are, and it’s all just a bit urgh.

It’s much easier when someone puts suggestions in front of you, and that’s exactly what should happen in the weeks after you’ve been perusing shopping sites. The trouser vendors with their digital marketing up to speed proceeded to drop ideally targeted ads into my feeds. And not just those shops who I visited in my initial search (and these are the ones which really catch my eye because they’re new).

My apathy continues though, and although I repeatedly see some very nice, affordable trousers, I’m not motivated enough to buy them. I’m not going anywhere, I’ll order them next week. This goes on for weeks, until I get the ‘urgency/scarcity’ ad which lets me know that they are now low in stock and suddenly I can’t get through the check out quick enough. A well designed (and in this case, very persistent) funnel has won this shop a new customer, and whilst the ad spend might be on the heavy side for this purchase, they now have a different relationship with me. I’m expecting emails, and even bi-annual catalogues, and whilst these will hit the bin pretty fast, they act as a reminder to me of the brand and give them the opportunity to catch my attention with something I like the look of but may not have been searching for. My lifetime value to this shop is undoubtedly higher than that one purchase (but that’s a different article).

Christmas presents

I buy roughly half of my Christmas presents in October, feel incredibly smug, and then panic buy the rest just before the big day. This year I stumbled across three excellent presents in my Facebook feed in November and triumphantly crossed the finishing line far earlier than usual.

I would never have come up with the ideas for these presents, but I’d clearly entered a few good funnels through my October searches and they saved me loads of effort. I even felt a bit guilty when my Mum thought I was SO clever for finding such a great present (it was awesome), I took the praise and never admitted it just turned up in my Facebook feed.

This particular sale would have been dead cheap to the vendor (in the context of Q4) as I saw it, wanted it, and bought it. I did feel a bit sad though when I was continually fed ads for the same product right up to Christmas. This waste of ad spend is easily solved by excluding recent customers (but that’s also another article).

Holidays

Now these are great ads to flood your feed, because nothing’s going to distract you more from your friends posts than some great travel ads, especially when you’re in the market for a holiday. We a had a much-anticipated big family city break planned for last Easter, and a few weeks ago we decided to resurrect the planning (to cheer ourselves up if nothing else – it worked!). So now, in between the posts about home schooling horrors and snow, I’m picking up lots of new ideas for our trip - saving me the time of unearthing them all.

A good funnel will not only target you effectively but hang onto you if you continue to show interest but aren’t booking, relevant dynamic product advertising will speak to you directly and ‘scarcity/urgency’ retargeting tactics at the bottom of the funnel can win you a nice deal. When a vendor has invested in advertising to you through multiple stages of a funnel they really want to see a return, so this is where the discounts and special offers start to appear.

If you’ve got your targeting right, ads should enrich your audience’s feeds, not clutter it. To find out more about how an effective funnel could work for your business, book in for a call with us.