Holiday Shopping Season Is an Awful Time to Reach New People

You are advertising during the busiest time of the year. The prices are 2 times bigger than they were in summer. Yet you continue to advertise to people who don't know you and don't trust you. To people who will need to see multiple ads from you before they consider buying.

It doesn't matter if you're offering a 70% discount. The customer's route of Awareness ➡️ Engagement ➡️ Conversion is still true. A discount can shorten the time a person needs from awareness to conversion, but it won’t eliminate the first two steps altogether.

So who should you show your ads to?

To the people who know you and are almost ready to buy. Those who know your brand and are engaging with it. Or those who have previously bought from you.

Stop wasting money and use the audiences you've built beforehand.

If you want to reach people who haven’t bought from you before, these are the audiences most likely to contain them:

📍Business page visitors on Facebook or Instagram

📍Those who engaged with your post

📍Your website visitors

📍People who visited your physical location

📍People who watched a part or your entire video

If your strategy is to reactivate old buyers or reach those on the brink of buying - use these audiences instead:

📍Product page viewers

📍Everyone who added your items to cart

📍Past buyers

📍Your email subscribers

But wait, where are the lookalikes? Lookalikes are great, but they are as cold as any interest based audience is. You should get them through the awareness and engagement stages as any interest based audience.

Here’s how to create these audiences

1. Start by going to your Facebook Business Manager or Ads Manager

2. Select Audiences via the top menu

3. Click Create Audience in the top left and select Custom Audience

4. Select the Custom Audience you want to create

5. And then the people to create it from

Don’t worry if the size won’t show, that’s a privacy precaution by Facebook.

Can’t find specific events in the drop-down when trying to create a website visitor audience?

Check your pixel. To do so, start with the Pixel Helper browser plugin. It will check if your pixel and standard events are set up as you want. If something looks off - consult this help article by Facebook for setting up the Standard Events.

Your pixel is working and audiences are set up. Ready to go?

Almost, but before you go, think about your creative. You are advertising during the busiest time of the year. Will your ad cut through the noise in the News Feed?

You can’t be 100% sure, but you can move in the right direction by honestly answering this question: Would you stop or keep scrolling if your ad appeared in your Facebook News Feed?

P.S. Want to be sure you didn't miss anything with your ads? Here's a 5 minute checklist you can go through to avoid losing your money. Click here to download.

P.P.S. Social media is just one of the channels you can use. If you have a mailing list of your past customers - treat them well. Send them at least 3 emails: the sneak peek a day before, email as the promotions begin and a few hours before they end. And yet again - stand out. The inbox will be crowded.