Seeing as I’m still less than 3 months into starting Web Marketer, networking is crucial for me. Like many other industries, the marketing world is driven by human relationships. So without the ability to go and meet more people, growing my business just wouldn’t be possible.
Scaling Up
Now PPC, makes so many things scaleable. And I wondered if I could scale up my networking capabilities using my PPC skills. In the build up to the event, I went through this thought process:
“There are going to be over 5,000 people there. I can’t possibly approach them all in a day. Is there a way I could encourage people to approach me instead?”
I had an idea. And whereas an exhibitor stand would set me back anything upwards of £750, this idea would end up costing only £34.41.
It’s worth highlighting that this is an incredibly small scale test. It was always very likely that this wasn’t going to generate any results.
But it’s also worth highlighting that if we don’t try new things, we’ll never know if we’re achieving the best results. Plus running experiments is a lot of fun too!
The Idea
I decided to play a little game.
Using Facebook Ads, I’d target people attending the event and present them with an anagram to decipher.
If someone successfully deciphered the anagram, and approached me with the answer – I would write them a free Facebook Ads strategy (usually worth £500).
Seemed like an idea worth testing, so how did it do?
The Execution
4 ad variants were trialled, each linked to a Facebook Instant Experience (formerly known as Canvas) – which opens full screen on a mobile device without having to leave Facebook.
Ad variant one
The anagram itself. I figured including the anagram in the ad would make it much easier to have a crack at it on the go.
Ad variant two
Lead with the proposition. If the person seeing the ad was really interested in getting a free Facebook Ads Strategy written for them, this would be the most successful creative.
Ad variant three
My face. No-one likes seeing a picture of themselves, but I figured it would make it much easier for people to come find me once they’d cracked the anagram.
Ad variant four
The anagram, but a video. Simply to answer the question, ‘would video perform better than an image’?
The results
- 1,482 of the 5,000 people attending were reached via advertising
- The ads were viewed 2,390 times (impressions)
- 204 engagements with the ad (mostly video views) were made
- Each engagement with the ad cost £0.17
- 0 people approached me with the answer
So, whilst no-one approached me, it wasn’t a total waste of time.
Here are a few key things that made it all worthwhile:
- It’s so important to try new things – you’re never going to find gold if you don’t do any digging
- This cost a little less than £35 to try – hyper local pretty much never breaks the bank
- Everyone who engaged with the ad has been added to a retargeting audience
- Never underestimate the value of learning – I now know that video does work better than image in this instance
- Lasting value – I built a retargeting audience of anyone who engaged with the ad in the background (17p per member!)
- Next time around, I’ll tweak my learnings and go again – while testing against a different idea too
