Learn the ABCs of Facebook Ads With Margaret Vera

I personally know how time-consuming it can be to set up Facebook ads from my experience helping Meg with Freddie and Co. ads. Needless to say, our marketing team was pretty psyched when we saw first-hand how easy and effective Mailchimp’s Facebook Ad Campaigns are. So psyched, in fact, that our chief marketing officer Tom Klein decided we should sponsor a few Mailchimp customers and help them set up Facebook Ad Campaigns.

“Hurry up, Melissa,” he said. “The world needs to know now!” And with that, I was off to the races. After working with our data science team to find a local Mailchimp e-commerce customer with a connected store, we settled on Margaret Vera, a leather bags and accessories brand based here in Atlanta.

Founder Margaret “Meg” Vera Councilman is a self-taught designer who’s been working with leather for years and decided to launch her own brand in 2011. She takes pride in her genuine handcrafted leather product and is committed to manufacturing each piece in the U.S.

Meg is no stranger to digital marketing, but like any smart business owner, she’s always willing to learn more. Margaret Vera has a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, so Meg was thrilled when I told her we were giving her $1,000 in Facebook ad credits — and that our certified Facebook ad expert, Jocelyn, would help her get started.

A few days later, Jocelyn and I went to Meg’s in-home design studio to get cracking. But we couldn’t just dive right in. First we had to develop a strategy, so Jocelyn asked Meg a few questions about her business:

1. What are your advertising goals?
   To build brand awareness and find new customers.
2. Who is your target audience?
   Women ages 30 to 55 who are interested in boutiques, home decor, and handmade leather goods.
3. What products do you want to highlight?
   My bestsellers.
4. What is special about your brand and product?
   Each piece is handcrafted, made in the U.S.A., and we offer custom monogramming.
5. What other brands does your ideal customer shop?
   Madewell, J.Crew, West Elm, and Sundance Catalog.

The beauty of Facebook Ad Campaigns is that you can easily target lookalike customers, or people who share the same behaviors and interests as those customers on your Mailchimp list. That means that as long as you have an idea of your target customer, you can reach brand new audiences who are the most likely to buy your product.

We created a lookalike audience for Margaret Vera based on Meg’s Mailchimp list, and then we narrowed it down further to people who also like Madewell, J.Crew, and West Elm (all brands which Meg says her ideal customer would shop).

When it came to setting the budget, we knew we were giving Meg $1,000, but it was up to her how and when she wanted to use it. Rather than spend it all at once, she decided to start by spending $250 on an ad campaign that would run for one week.

Next it was time to set up the ad content: the image, headlines, and links. Luckily Meg had some brand new lifestyle imagery, so we all chose our favorites and helped Meg select images featuring Margaret Vera’s bestselling bags. We went with a carousel ad, which allowed Meg to showcase multiple images and introduce a variety of products to new customers. For the headline copy and descriptions, we helped Meg work in some key phrases that speak to her brand, such as “handcrafted,” “genuine leather,” and “custom monogramming.” She had told us that her primary objective was to create brand awareness for her business-to-consumer channel and drive traffic to her website, so we decided to link to the Margaret Vera homepage.

In less than 10 minutes we had Margaret Vera’s first Facebook Ad Campaign set up and ready to go. Success! Now all we had to do was wait.

Stay tuned for part 2 when we break down the results! In the meantime, check out some more advice on how to advertise on Facebook.