#075: How to Boost Your Business with Digital Ads with Jessica Gleim & Amy Christie

In today's world, as a blogger or creative entrepreneur, you need a creative marketing strategy to get your site found. In this episode, we're talking about how digital advertising can boost your business (even if you don't sell anything).  Today I am interviewing Jessica Gleim and Amy Christie, the co-founders of Flairst Creative Collective. These women are digital marketers who know their stuff! Why Is Online Advertising So Powerful?  People today spend more time on digital devices than ever before.  Being able to take advantage of that, and market to people who are already on different platforms just makes sense.  Digital marketing is also powerful because we have never been able to micro-track people in the way that we can now. We can choose who we want to show our ads to.  Google, Pinterest, Facebook, etc… all have their own ad platforms, and those ad platforms are all tools in your toolbox to help you reach people.  Ads Without Product to Sell  Even if you don't have a product you are selling, sponsors and brands want to work with people who have good traffic coming to their site.  Using digital ads will increase your traffic and make more people aware of your brand.  This will bring you more money from the ads on your site and, more importantly, you'll have higher metrics to share with brands. Conversion From Ad to Sales  If you sell a product, even if it is a cheaper product, you should run ads as well.  If you have an eBook that you are selling for $6.99 and can run an ad for 75 cents, all the rest is just residual income. Figure out what it would cost you to get the conversion from ad to sale.  Your cheaper products could lead to the customer ultimately buying your larger and more expensive products.  DIY-ing Your Digital Marketing There is a lot of testing involved in digital marketing but most marketers have to be budget-conscious.  You don't have to spend a lot to learn how to use digital ads for your site.  Here are the steps Jessica and Amy laid out for us: Start with the top of your funnel - the cold traffic you are trying to bring into your website. Build a small campaign - try a few different creatives (ads) on a few different audiences.  Let your campaign run for a couple of weeks - find out which audience responded to which creative.  Using Facebook Campaigns Jessica and Amy used Facebook campaigns to send traffic to MiloTree. They started with cold audiences to try and get pixeled (which is Facebook's version of Google analytics).  The pixel allows them to learn more about the audience that is visiting our site. The number one mistake people make when running Facebook ads is not optimizing their ads correctly.  You have to know what the objective of your ad is.  The objective of the Facebook campaigns for MiloTree is both awareness and traffic. They want to draw attention to MiloTree and then send them to the site.  Because you put time, work, and money into your ads, it is not enough to just raise awareness. There have to be conversions to make it worth it! Tracking The Funnel  Another benefit of digital marketing is the ability to keep track of the people in your funnel.  Through the Facebook pixel, you will know when anyone in your funnel fills out your opt-in, completes a purchase, or if someone abandons their cart on your site.  There are a few things you need to understand when setting up digital ads: The objective of your ads The customer buying cycle What the stages of your funnel should be How to build ad campaigns within your Facebook manager Becoming Confident in Digital Marketing  Everyone is spending time on a digital device at some point during their day.  There is so much content and so much competition in almost every industry that it is sometimes hard to maintain your SEO strategy and ranking.  If you are coming into this with a new idea or a fresh take on something, it can be hard with the current algorithms to show up.  This is why paid advertising is so important.  Jessica and Amy want entrepreneurs and business owners to feel confident that they can convert customers using these ad platforms successfully, as it continues to get harder to rank organically.  They will be coming out with a course soon to help you create your own digital ad funnels, so learn more at Flairst Creative Collective. What Type of Online Entrepreneur is MiloTree Right For? Are you serious about growing your online business (advanced beginner and above)? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more? Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by converting your visitors into email subscribers and social media followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! Timestamp Intro  10:35  Why Is Online Advertising So Powerful?  12:20  Ads Without Products to Sell  15:33  Conversion From Ad to Sales  21:45 DIY-ing Your Digital Marketing 25:46 Using Facebook Campaigns  34:40 Tracking The Funnel  40:16 Becoming Confident in Digital Marketing  Read the podcast transcript HERE: TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS Digital marketing is powerful because it allows you to market your business on multiple platforms as well as track the audience who sees your ads. Even if you don't have a product to sell, digital ads bring traffic to your site which increases the metrics that brands want to see in order to offer you sponsored campaigns. You don't have to spend a ton of money when you're starting out; most online entrepreneurs are very budget-conscious. The #1 problem with running ads is not having a clear objective when you start and therefore wasting a bunch of money.