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EPISODE SUMMARY: A commonly asked question is what advertising platform should a new Dropshipper start off with? In this episode, we’re going to cover exactly what Advertising platform you want to start off with and why. Whether you’re completely new to e-commerce, have been researching for months on end, or have been doing it for a while to see no results, this is a great episode for you.

Jaiden: Awesome, awesome. Welcome back to another episode here at the Launchers Academy podcast. Today, we actually have a fun, exciting topic that we want to get into, which is also more important because there are a lot of different options when it comes to its specific platform that you should run with.

But also, more importantly, marketing is going to be the end all be all whether you’re going to succeed in dropshipping, because you can’t do this organically, and no one should try to do dropshipping organically. And what I mean by that is you can’t be a salesman and try to DM people or reach out to people and get them to buy your product. It’s just not really good worth your time.

So that’s why I understand the key fundamentals of marketing are going to be super important but also understanding exactly where to start when it comes to picking out your specific marketing platform. So today’s topic we’re going to be talking about, you know, what platform you should get into and why.

So as a drop shipper, have you been around for a while here, you know, there’s a lot of different platforms, you can choose to advertise your products on, you have the TIC TOCs, you have the Snapchats, you have the YouTube, the Google, etc, etc. That’s really, at the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of brain damage. So we want to kind of really clarify and keep it really simple for you to really tell you exactly what platform to start with and why.

So I’ll let Melissa here, kick it off, you know, for you listening here, let’s talk to you know, him or her specifically, completely new don’t know which platform to start with. And also, more importantly, you know, don’t know anything about the platform. So give me some tips and advice be great, but also walking, why they should really start off with this. So if they’re completely new there, Melissa, which platform should they advertise on first? And why?

Melissa:
Absolutely. And that is one of the biggest questions that we always get asked. But the best platform that you should focus on advertising, and the only platform that you should focus on advertising when you’re first starting out is Facebook advertising and Instagram. The reason why is because Facebook and Instagram are essentially the kings of advertisement.

Why? It’s because they have so much algorithm built in a place that is able to target specifically who exactly is your ideal target audience, Facebook and Instagram, you’re able to have a lot of different filters, where you’re really able to hone in on who exactly is the age, for example, the age range that you want to target, which countries you want to be targeting. So we always say you want to focus on the core four countries, which are Canada, the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom as the core four.

And then you can really hone in on which active community or keywords you want to target. For example, if you’re selling a beauty product, you can target beautiful skin, or natural skincare products, for example. And really hone in on the niche that you’re wanting to target for your customers. You can’t really do that for any other platforms out there right now. Especially, you know, Google and Tik Tok or other big ones up you’ve asked about, and YouTube as an example, but the level of clarity and the level of refinement is not as great as Facebook. So Facebook is really the king of all advertising platforms out there.

Jaiden:
And I love that. And you brought up a great point. And something that we tell our students is why she got into Facebook and Instagram is what you kind of hit on the nail on the head there, Melissa, is that with Facebook, you’re able to really control your costs and control your audience. So we’re not saying that Google, tick tock, and LinkedIn or YouTube or all these amazing giants within its own advertising community is not great for you to start.

But when you’re completely new, and you don’t have a lot of data, you know, you haven’t been running Facebook ads or any ads for more than six months or you haven’t spent more than $50,000 in ad you want to kind of build and collect, you know, your initial data first. Really identify exactly who’s going to buy your products. And that’s where Facebook comes in. Because it’s really good for you to build that initial data. And then with the other platforms, you know, the ones that you know that is that are not Facebook and Instagram. They’re great once you do have existing data already.

For you to make more money with those platforms, you need existing data, because it’s gonna be hard for you to build initially, the data you would need in order for you to really start generating a lot of income. So Facebook and Instagram are a great starting point to build your backbone and for you, before you get started into the other advertising platform, and really kind of mitigate the amount of risk you’re going to have in terms of them to suck your money. We call it the advertising black hole.

But yeah, going back to what we tell our students is really both Facebook and Instagram, you are able to control your costs, and control your own isn’t just like Melissa said, right? You know, with Facebook, you’re able to tell them specifically how much money you want to spend, but also, hey, look, Facebook, I only want to spend x amount of dollars, but what the X amount of dollars, I’m going to spend, I only want you to target, you know, the ladies from the ages of 25 to 45. And on top of that, I only want you to show my ads for my beauty product. For example, only two people live in Canada, the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom. And on top of that, as well as not only are those people living in that specific country but that specific age.

But also more importantly, just like Melissa said, certain key interests are in communities that they engage with. And if you’re able to really be very specific with who you target, you’re going to have actually had a lot more traffic, a lot more results, and more importantly, not waste your time because you don’t want to be showcasing your beauty product to someone who only buys you know, pet products. That means absolutely no sense. Right. So you know whit that being said?

So, we understand now there, Melissa? Okay, we want to get them to start with Facebook and Instagram. That’s one part of the battle.

But now, you know, what are they going to do? What are some strategies or some things that we can point out to really help the persons listening today if they’re going to advertise on Facebook and Instagram? Or some kind of trade secrets, like we don’t want to give away too much, because I wouldn’t be fair to our students. But what are some things that we can really throw out there, to really get someone to jumpstart their Instagram and their Facebook advertising journey for their store?

Melissa:
Absolutely, one of the biggest things that you have to understand with Facebook advertising is essentially an auction place. So the more money that you’re able to spend and the better you’re able to target than the next marketer next to you, then the better you’re going to do in the Facebook advertising marketplace. That’s the number one biggest thing you have to understand.

The other thing that you have to understand is in order to actually capture data and then use this data for later on in your store. And for your additional advertisements, marketing campaigns, you have to collect data through what’s called a Facebook pixel. Setting that up is extremely important. So what I would say is just go on google, search up how to set up a Facebook pixel, and make sure that you actually set that up before you launch a single dollar on advertisements.

The reason why is a lot of students, or a lot of people before they worked with us didn’t know that they needed to set up their Facebook advertising pixel, and they started spending money, but without the pixel, you’re not really able to collect the data. So essentially, you’re spending money getting potentially some sales, but you’re not able to use that data later on to then retarget customers who let’s say, viewed your content, didn’t actually purchase, and need the additional push to actually buy your product or even, later on, talking a little bit more about advanced strategies is starting to do lookalike audiences, which essentially means you are targeting people who are the same characteristics or same interests as the people who actually bought from you.

And lookalike audiences is something that you want to get to, as you collect more data and get more sales because that is essentially the be-all-end-all. And you want to get to that stage. Because that’s really when you’re going to see see the scale in your products in your store.

Jaiden
I love that I love that. And, you know, getting people to understand, you know, the pixel part of it, you know, and going back to it, yeah, the pixel is really going to be your best friend, because that’s pretty much is going to collect data and also help you identify exactly who you know is going to buy your product.

Because other than that you don’t want to be targeting people that are not going to buy anything from you. I mean, it’s completely a waste of your time and your hard-earned dollars.

So, you know, understanding that, for someone completely starting out, let’s talk about the testing phase of Facebook, you know, there are specific things that we kind of teach our students when they’re testing their products, and just testing specifically that, like we’re not going to go through the entire, you know, the roadmap of exact strategies and things to implement, because I wouldn’t be fair to all the students we, you know, work with, but just kind of get someone you know, their wet, you know, their feet a little wet here. Let’s talk about exactly the testing phase and what we would recommend for someone as they’re advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Melissa:
Yeah, very good question. So initially as an initial marketer, when you first get started, you want to be able to actually test your products to see If there’s demand for it, and only when there’s demand for your product, which is getting a sale, within three days, we have a three-day testing rule, where we spend $5 a day on each ad set, and we run 12 different ad sets to audiences.

If you’re able to get a sale within three days, that’s when you want to continue to spend more money on this product, because it’s showing signs of potential. However, if you’re not able to get a single sale within the three days, that’s when you want to move on into another product because it shows that even though you’re testing 12 different audiences and 12 different ad sets, there is not enough demand for it to be a winning product.

Jaiden:
I love that. And you know, Melissa just brought up a great point too, you know, going back to our previous episode is, you know, the top three mistakes, or honestly, that is top 100 mistakes of dropshipping. But the top three for us. And she brought up a great point is if the product doesn’t get a purchase within that three-day rule that we’ve clearly mapped out for our students, and we’re telling here is as you’re testing your products, and three days go by, you don’t get a purchase, it’s really time for you to cut it and move on, you don’t want to be emotionally attached to your product.

That is the top three mistakes when it comes to dropshipping. So yeah, you don’t want to be emotionally attached to the product. You want to let the data speak. Because at the end of the day, right, even though you are so in love with this product, and you believe in it, it does not matter. The market does not care what you love, or like. The market only cares what they want, what they like at that current time because the market is always changing.

So really following a three-day metric, where you are testing a product and really just completely cutting it off and moving on to the next product, if it doesn’t get a purchase, that’s going to be the difference between you wasting a lot of money or being efficient with your money.

And Melissa brought up a great point here while she was talking about ad set. So if you’re completely new to Facebook and Instagram, you might not understand what ad set is. So I’m gonna kind of break it down and also kind of suggest what you should do to get more information on exactly how Facebook and Instagram work. Because you do need to be able to have a basic understanding of it. You don’t have to master it, but at least have a basic understanding because learning how to market in general just going to be you know, just going to help you tenfold regardless of whatever business you do.

So there’s three different levels here. Okay, so the first level is going to be your campaign, the second level Melissa just brought up is going to be your ad set. The third level is going to be your ad.

So a campaign is the whole overview of your objective. So think of a campaign as a body, okay, think of an ad set as the brain and think of the ad as your you know, a clothing on someone. So the whole body is a campaign, you’re setting the direction of where you want the objective to tell Facebook what to do with your money. With the ad set, that’s the brain that’s more so you know, identify exactly where you can break down who you want to target. So within the ad set of that campaign, basically you get to choose like Melissa was brought up earlier is you know, specific age, demographics, locations, and also key interests or communities you want to target. But that ad, let’s talk about what an ad is.

So Melissa, breakdown for anyone that doesn’t know how Facebook, Instagram works, you know how an ad works, and what is the purpose of an ad.

Melissa:
So an ad is essentially the creative that you are showcasing to your customer potential viewer. And when they are scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, what is going to stop them is when they see your actual ad.

So first, generally that comes with a thumbnail. And then once you actually stop scrolling, and you land on continuing to watch the ad is either a video or an image that the customer viewer is actually going to see. And the call to action really for this ad is to get them onto your landing page. So that you’re able to continue establishing why your viewer or customer should buy your product.

And from there, that’s how you’re really going to get those add-to-carts and get those sales for these products. But the ad is essentially what is going to cause your viewer or potential customer to want to click onto your link into your landing page, and then make that sale.

So when you think of it, it really is just a process for your customer to experience or a customer journey in a way for all the way from scrolling on Facebook, Instagram or just minding their own business until they see something that catches their eye which is your ad and we highly recommend video ads and probably get into that in another episode here. And from there once it actually captures their attention and their eye. They’re going to watch it through click onto your landing page. Make that purchase from then and thereon.

Jaiden:
Yeah, I love that beautiful breakdown in a nutshell. It’s the first impression that you know the ideal person or also the potential customer is going to get an impression of your product or also your brand your store. So it’s just kind of like summarising it back up again there, that campaign is going to be really the whole body, and then the ad set is going to be the brain. And then the ad is going to be the clothing.

So you know, the body is exactly what you’re telling in terms of the objective, the brain is telling specifically who you want to have it be advertised on the ad as can be clothing, it’s just like, you know, first, you know, the first thing people see on other people’s clothing, you know that your shoes, your jewelry, whatever you wear. So that’s a first impression you have of someone so think of it that way.

And the second thing I want to kind of really direct you if you’re completely new to this is you can just Google up Facebook’s ad blueprint. And that’s pretty much just Facebook’s guideline, you know, it’s a two to three minute read, it’s really important for you to kind of check that out. Because you need to understand what you need to do. And what you should not do when it comes to advertising platforms. Because Facebook’s very strict. And you the last thing you want to do as a marketer is spending, you know, absorbing amount of money and time advertising it and wake up to a disable like, it’s not fun, it is frustrating.

So really taking two to three minutes time to absorb and memorize exactly what you should do and what you should not do when it comes to advertising on their platform. So just Google up, Facebook’s ad blueprint, that’s going to be super important. Okay, so you know what that being said here, so we kind of give it a three-day rule, I really want to also help more for the, you know, the dropshippers who are newcomers and especially those that have advertiser ready, you’re getting frustrated seeing no results, and they don’t understand them. porns are really just collecting initial data and good data.

And this you know, a lot of them when they first start out, they don’t have any strategies. They’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and really just hoping things sticks and honestly guys, that’s not a strategy, right? That’s just like throwing money to Facebook, and Facebook loves when you throw money, you know at them.

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