While the claim that you can compete against yourself in the same auction is a myth, Auction Overlap can still lead to problems. In this Shot, Jon explains what Auction Overlap is and this issues that can result.

The Pubcast is back! After a long hiatus, Jon invites John Robinson, his business manager and Backup CEO, back to the Pub with drinks in hand.

Topics discussed:

• Taking the Pubcast for granted
• The importance of trying new things
• How velocity contributes to learning
• Why you should create bad videos
• The source of motivation
• Making the cash register go ka-ching
• The similarities between baseball and business
• Swimming and learning to float

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Here's how to create a powerful video funnel with Facebook ads.

1. Publish videos regularly to Facebook and Instagram. I'm publishing one or two Reels per day.

2. Create an audience of anyone who watched 95% of any of your videos during the past 7 days. You'll need to update this audience every time you publish a new video.

3. Target this group with another video. I use an Awareness campaign with Reach optimization because this is a small group, but use what you're comfortable with.

4. Create a custom audience of those who watched 95% of THAT video during the past 21 days or so. These people watched at least one video to completion during the past 7 days AND this video. They are clearly engaged.

5. Target this group to promote your product. Once again, I use Reach, but use what you want.

Feel free to try it out!

The content creation graveyard is littered with creators who started and gave up. The beginning is the hardest part. This is how you can approach short-form video with the right frame of mind...

Some of the conversions that Facebook reports in Ads Manager never required someone to click on your ad. Here are two examples.

If you host a podcast, it really is that simple...

If someone shares your ad and the person you did not pay to reach converts, Facebook will not report it. They could, but they don't. Likewise, if you have the pixel and conversion events on your website, Facebook knows if someone who engaged with your organic post converted. Facebook could highlight that, too. So, why don't they?

One of the most common sources of confusion among advertisers is a misunderstanding of how Facebook credits an ad for a conversion. Here's a quick explanation of how that works.

A successful 2023 starts with a plan. A plan requires prioritization and grouping of similar tasks by day to be as focused as possible. Here's how you can approach it...

Do you feel disorganized and scattered? It's probably because you're winging it. Here's how you can get focused and specialized...

Some of the most popular content attempts to tell us how easy it is to accomplish some of the most difficult things. We want easy when we are unable or willing to do the hard stuff. Embrace the difficulty. That's how you'll grow!

There are a couple of updates Facebook advertisers desperately need that could drastically improve the quality and effectiveness of video views audiences.

Should you go completely broad with your Facebook ads targeting? No interests, no lookalike audiences, nothing? The strategy actually has some merit, but only for certain circumstances.

The frustrating part about short-form video is that it's not always evident that you're making an impact. If you create videos the way I do, you will rarely see direct ROI. But I was given two powerful examples recently of the impact that these videos are making.

There are countless factors that contribute to the performance of your ads -- some that you can control and some you can't. Here are 20 in under 60 seconds...

The Audience Expansion products should work, in theory. But there's one underlying problem with how they work now. And that problem could easily be solved with the addition of a very basic feature.

If you're new to TikTok, you're not ready to create ads yet. Take a step back and go through this process first...

You cannot assume that all platforms are the same. Your goals can change because people on some platforms consume content differently. Here's what I learned...

As we head into Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday shopping season generally, know that this time isn't ideal for every brand. It's possible you should consider pulling back on ads by either lowering your budget or pausing for now.

Traffic and engagement campaigns for Facebook advertising are mostly unusable. But that could instantly change if Facebook made this one option available...

You can have Facebook optimize for a high Return on Ad Spend rather than focusing on the volume of purchases. Here's how that works...

Jon is suddenly hyper-focused on creating TikTok ads-related content. Why is that? Is he abandoning Facebook? Let's get straight to the point...

The algorithm is powerful. It can do things quickly and automatically that is simply not possible to do manually. But there are times when this powerful algorithm can work against you.

Not every marketing effort needs to have the goal of making money. In fact, there are times when you should create content with the explicit purpose of providing value while expecting nothing in return. Here's why...

How do you establish your campaign budget? Don't guess. Here's a simple formula to get you thinking about the ideal amount to accomplish your goals.

If you're a slow-talker who fumbles your words and struggles to get to the point (not mentioning any names here), short-form video can seem especially intimidating. You can actually do it without changing yourself or adding pressure to keep a recording concise and clean. Here's how...

In this Pubcast Shot, Jon quickly explains the best possible setup when managing ads for clients. Stay within these guidelines. It may be more work up front, but you'll be happy you did it.

In this Pubcast Shot, Jon discusses his recent pivot towards short-form video, walking through what he did during the month of October.

In some huge news for advertisers, Meta is bringing back 28-day click attribution. This is huge for connecting conversions to our advertising efforts. Here's what you need to know.

Meta announced a restriction period for Facebook ads related to politics, elections, and social issues. In this episode, Jon discusses what that means, when it happens, what you can do, and what you can't do.

Read the related blog post here:

https://jonloomer.com/facebook-ads-restrictions-for-politics-and-social-issues-in-the-us/

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Facebook is rolling out Advantage Custom Audiences, not to be confused with Advantage Detailed Targeting and Advantage Lookalikes. Is this good? Should you use it? Well... It depends!

Read more here: https://www.jonloomer.com/facebook-advantage-custom-audiences/

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Facebook is finally rolling out Gated Content for lead ads. This is a big update that allows users to immediately access a digital download after completing a lead form. What does it mean? Who will benefit most? Jon discusses in this episode of the Pubcast.

Read his tutorial here:

https://www.jonloomer.com/facebook-lead-ads-gated-content/

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Custom metrics can be hugely valuable when the basic metrics provided in Ads Manager are ineffective at telling a complete story. With custom metrics, you can combine multiple metrics into a formula to better summarize and express what you care about most. I walk through some specific examples of how I do that here.

You can also read a blog post I wrote on this:

https://www.jonloomer.com/custom-metrics-facebook-ads-manager/

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review!

We did something different and Jon invited Luke in to discuss several important topics. During this episode they talk about:

• Facebook scams (why does this keep happening??)
• Advertisers getting shut down
• Does Facebook care about exploited weaknesses?
• Why don't these options exist?
• What's up with these weird ads coming from Facebook's Facebook page?

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If you advertise for a Special Ad Category (housing, credit, employment, politics), Special Ad Audiences are going away. Here's a breakdown regarding what this means, the dates you need to be aware of, and what to do next.

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review.

Meta has released a series of new B2B targeting options to allow you to reach business decision makers and admins of new businesses. Here's how it works.

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review!

You've likely seen a new feature that allows you to make up to three different creative optimizations of your Facebook ad. This isn't scary. It's Advantage+ Creative, and here's how it works...

If you sell a product on Amazon or another third-party site, the struggle is real with advertising. You can't remarket to people who clicked on your ad. Your optimization options aren't ideal.

But, Meta has something they could do that, while it wouldn't solve every problem for this group, it would make things better. I explain on this episode.

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If you're optimizing your Facebook ads for ThruPlay and you're getting results that are just too good to be true, they probably are. And I will be that it's related to the Audience Network Rewarded Video placement.

Here, I walk through what ThruPlay is, how I spotted a problem with my campaign, and the weaknesses of this placement and Facebook ads optimization in general.

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This episode is going to be a little (or a lot) different than most. Not about Facebook ads. This is about balancing the million and one things you're doing both in and outside of work. It's about the guilt and shame of not doing it all. And it's about forgiveness and being kind to yourself...

Meta announced several new features that are either being tested or coming soon to your lead forms. While not a ton of details were provided, there is plenty that we can talk about...

Meta announced a bunch of new features recently related to messaging and lead generation. One that got my attention was the ability to send marketing messages to people who opt-in via Messenger in Meta Business Suite. This could be really interesting...

One of the most common refrains from marketers when a feature gets taken away or a platform gets shut down is "This is why you don't build your house on rented land!" While there's certainly some thread of truth here, it's a phrase that is so misused and overused that it loses all meaning. Here's a rant...

While you can make use of the Search placement, wouldn't it be nice to be able to bid against certain search terms when people use Facebook search?

The truth is that this existed at one time, but it was a buried template that most advertisers never knew about it. But, it would be so helpful if this was brought back in some way. Let me explain...

I've complained a lot during the past year about how little advertisers know about how much their targeting audience was expanded or how many results came from the expansion of their audience when Detailed Targeting Expansion or Lookalike Expansion is on. But, what if Meta added an Expansion option to the current Breakdowns feature that allowed you to break down your results and view separate rows for your targeted audience and the expanded audience?

Previously, we discussed the need for some sort of frequency control lever when optimizing for something other than Reach. But, there could be another option that would involve creating custom audiences based on people who have seen a specific ad. This could then be used for frequency control (exclusions) and campaign planning.

One of the issues advertisers struggle with most is controlling frequency. Currently, the only way to set a frequency cap within the Auction buying type is with Reach optimization. While there's surely a reason for this, it sure would be nice to have some sort of control over frequency using other optimization options.

Facebook Podcasts still haven't been fully rolled out, and there are rumors that Meta may change course on its investment. But, the addition of a few advertising options could make Facebook Podcasting an amazing opportunity.

Right now, you can target people who have viewed your videos for a certain amount of time. And optimization can focus on those who watched at least 15 seconds of your videos. But, both targeting and optimization would improve if Meta included some very important options.

Imagine you could target all people who followed your page during the past 30 days. Maybe send them a special message or invite them to subscribe to something. That may be valuable, right? You can't do it right now.

You can use Page Engagement Audiences to target anyone who has engaged with your page or anyone who has engaged with your page's posts or ads. But, what if we could add some granularity to that targeting?

Can you imagine if Meta offered standard events for actions that reflect quality website traffic? You could then optimize for and measure quality traffic actions like viewing two pages in a session, spending at least a minute on your page, or returning for a second session. You could then even target people based on these actions.

This one enhancement would drastically change my advertising, and maybe yours. Right now, the focus is to get you the most link clicks, landing page views, or engagement at the lowest cost. But, what if you could instead optimize for quality actions that have more value?

I'm not the only one who wants this, right? Meta undoubtedly has this information. Why can't we see how many conversions resulted from someone seeing or clicking our post or ad, regardless of whether we paid to reach them? There would be some helpful ways to do this...

A week ago, I published my 150th episode in 150 days. As difficult as it was to stop, it was time. I learned a ton from those 150 episodes, and now I'm going to pivot off of what I learned. Here's what to expect in the next phase...

This is it! It's the big one! The 150th episode in 150 days. Is the streak over? What did I learn from it? I discuss what I learned, what you might apply, and what it all means...

With the announcement of Meta Advantage products, it's obvious that the trend is towards more automation. Why am I concerned about this? I have a few reasons...

Are there times when you should use Facebook lead ads with Instant Forms instead of sending people to a landing page on your website to collect a lead? I provide some thoughts...

Lately, I've started realizing more and more posts from pages that I don't follow -- that aren't ads -- in my news feed. I decided to dig deeper and perform a little experiment. Here's how my news feed breaks down and what we can learn from it...

I've actually talked before about two of the primary benefits of getting your domain verified related to Facebook ads and posts, but there are actually several more reasons to get this process completed.

I get it. There are seemingly limitless options and features when running a Facebook ads campaign. Where do you start? How do you set up your campaign? What metrics do you care about? Keep it simple...

First there was Detailed Targeting Expansion. Then Lookalike Expansion. It looks like Facebook is also considering Custom Audience Expansion. At least, I can tell you my ad account has been selected for a study to test just that.

I decided to do a Pubcast version of my 5 Facebook Ads Tips webinar, and oh... there's a story here.

Questions were raised recently about the accuracy of Facebook interests used for targeting, thanks to a NCSU study. You may start asking those questions yourself if you dig into your ad preferences to see some of the ways that advertisers can target you.

Researchers in a recent North Carolina State University study found that more than 30% of the interests Facebook connected to a user, which could be used for targeting, were inaccurate or irrelevant. In many cases, it was because the process that led Facebook to infer an interest lacked important context.

There's a ton going on in the world of Facebook and Meta advertising, so how do you stay on top of it all? There are three main things that I recommend.

There are plenty of good business reasons for merging Facebook business pages. There are also several obstacles to doing it. Some of these you can correct and some you can't.

Facebook is going to start punishing video posts that utilize "watchbait" by withholding important information, using sensationalized language, and misleading the viewer. So, why am I skeptical?

Do you use the word 'Meta' when referring to the family of apps related to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger? I've had a bit of a personal protest against the change. Here's my old man rant on why it's been so hard for me to say 'Meta.'

Earlier, I published a Shot about the basics of Meta Advantage. But, this topic deserves more attention. Here, I dig into precisely what this means -- not only now, but potentially for the future. And I have my concerns.

How much should you spend on Facebook ads? I get asked this a lot. There isn't a simple answer, but there are several factors to consider when determining how much you need to spend to get the results you want.

Facebook (or Meta) just announced that it is renaming its ad automation tools Meta Advantage. Does that mean new features and functionality are coming? What does it mean for the future of advertising optimization and automation?

One of the biggest challenges Facebook advertisers face is scaling. You can get great initial results, but either they don't last or everything collapses when you increase the budget. There are four strategies to try, depending on your business, to effectively scale.

Within custom Facebook ad reports, you can choose to have regular emails sent (daily, weekly, or monthly) with your saved report to specific members of your team. Here's how...

I've long complained about how Facebook removed the Compare Attribution feature from Ads Manager during the iOS 14+ changes of 2021. Well, it turns out that a workaround still exists -- though it's strangely buried in a way that makes little sense.

If you ever want to figure out the best creative, audience, optimization, placement, or strategy to use, a good option is Facebook's built-in A/B Test feature. Here's how it works...

Facebook is rolling out a new ads creative optimization feature called Dynamic Experiences. Here's how it works and what you need to know...

Facebook/Meta is really bad at naming stuff. There are several ad creative optimization features that have similar names or function in close to the same way. It's no wonder they're easily confused. I try to clear it up in this episode.

Web events are critical to conversion reporting, optimization, and website retargeting. Here's an introduction to how it works and what you need to know.

For more info, go to https://jonloomer.com/events-intro

Facebook lead ads have been around for a LONG time. While I don't use them exclusively for lead collection, they should be a part of every advertiser's toolbox. Here's a closer look at their advantages and disadvantages.

Multiple Text Options is a great feature to use when you aren't sure of the best text to use in the primary text, headline, and link description fields. But, there are some things to consider first.

Call extension ads are different from your typical call ads, which start a phone call as soon as you click them in the news feed. Instead, a call extension ad looks like a link ad. When clicked, it loads a page of your website. But, there's a persistent "Call" button at the bottom of the page from a mobile device. Here's how to create them...

Facebook added an option when using Dynamic Creative called Optimize Creative For Each Person. This is actually a pretty big enhancement that allows Facebook to make major edits to your ads if it's believed that a user will respond favorably to them. Check it out...

Dynamic Creative is a nice option that helps you find the best combination of assets to get you, in theory, the best possible results. But, how do you view the best performing combinations?

A consistent, motivated approach to content creation needs a spark, however small. Don't worry about perfection. Start somewhere. Create. Here's how that happened for me...

Instead of creating multiple ads or running a split test, you may instead want to turn on Dynamic Creative. Here's how it works and some things to consider...

Audience fragmentation can become an issue when running multiple ad sets with different audiences that promote ads with similar creative and setup. The result can be less efficiency with your ad spend. Luckily, you can manage this with Automated Rules.

If you advertise for clients, you surely need to get approval on ad creative before ads can go live. There are two primary ways to do this.

Back in 2021, the Attribution Setting was born. This new unified setting took the place of the Conversion Window and Attribution Window from the pre-iOS world. This works differently than it did before, and it's important to understand how this impacts your advertising.

We know that website custom audiences will shrink due to iOS opt-outs. What we don't know, because Facebook never makes it clear, is to what extent this is the case. Not to mention, they never address specific scenarios that could create loopholes or confusion related to these opt-outs.

Most advertisers understand the importance of domain verification since the rollout of iOS 14+ changes in 2021. But there is actually another reason to claim ownership of your website beyond the benefits of configuring your web events.

Oh, this was fun. In this episode of The Pubcast, I take a trip down memory lane and remember some of the things that you may have forgotten about Facebook, Facebook marketing, and Facebook ads from as long as a decade ago. Remember That??

If you've spent any time in Events Manager, you've surely received notifications from Facebook related to unrecognized domains sending events from your pixel. You can control this using a setting called Traffic Permissions.

If you've run any video ads at all, you're undoubtedly familiar with auto-play. This can be good and bad, but it ultimately complicates reporting. You're going to get a whole lot of video plays, but you lose some context on the quality of those views. You can get this back with Breakdowns by Action, which allow you to separate actions with sound on and off as well as from auto-play or clicked-to-play.

Advanced Matching is a little thing that can provide incremental improvements to your conversion attribution, optimization, and targeting. Here's what you need to know...

Automatic Events can help you set up those pesky standard events automatically (hence the name) without code. Here's how to turn them on...

Facebook has started rolling out custom formatting for ad reports, and it could be super helpful. Here's how to find out whether you have it, how it might be used, and my one big issue with it.

The ad auction is what determines who sees an ad. How do you win an auction? Your ad needs to have the highest total score, which is based on three different factors. Let's discuss...

On November 10, I published a podcast episode. I had no idea what I was starting. I'd end up going on a streak of publishing a new episode every day for 100 days (and counting).

It's kinda crazy. In this episode, I crack a bottle of red and talk about how I organized myself to do this, the different methods of tracking, how it's impacted my content development strategy, and where it's going next.