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Author: Claire Winslow Brown

How to Choose a TikTok Shop Agency: Beyond the GMV

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

A TikTok Shop agency should connect four kinds of work: shop operations, affiliate creators, shoppable content, and paid promotion. When choosing a partner, ask who owns each part, how the full program is priced, and how the team distinguishes sales from profitable growth.

A pitch built around a big gross merchandise value (GMV) number is a starting point. Before hiring anyone, you need to know what it cost to produce those sales and what the agency actually did.

What should a TikTok Shop agency handle?

“Full service” is only useful if the proposal spells it out. Ask for a responsibility list covering:

  • Shop setup and listings: Catalog accuracy, product pages, integrations, and launch readiness.
  • Creator operations: Recruitment, sample coordination, briefs, follow-up, and performance reviews.
  • Content: Strategy, seller videos, creator assets, and usage permissions. Clarify who supplies or produces each asset and whether production is included or priced separately.
  • Paid promotion: Campaign setup, eligible content, budget decisions, and measurement.
  • Seller operations: Inventory, fulfillment, returns, customer service, and account-health responsibilities.

Some tasks may stay with your team or fulfillment partner. That is fine. What matters is knowing who will notice a problem and who will fix it. An agency cannot market its way out of repeated stockouts or inaccurate listings.

If you are deciding between creator-only support and broader channel ownership, compare a TikTok Shop creator agency with full-service management before you evaluate proposals.

Ask how the agency uses GMV Max ads

TikTok’s current guidance makes GMV Max the default supported campaign type for new Shop-destination campaigns. A proposal should explain how GMV Max ads fit the plan, including the product campaign type (Product GMV Max) and, where relevant to the agreed scope, LIVE GMV Max. It should distinguish campaign types from the places and formats in which an ad appears. See TikTok’s campaign migration guidance.

There is an equally important reporting question. TikTok states that Product GMV Max attributes orders for advertised products from organic content and affiliates as well as paid activity. The dashboard number should not be presented as proof that advertising alone caused every order. Read TikTok’s Product GMV Max explanation.

Ask: “Which sales enter this report, and what evidence would tell us whether additional ad spend is producing additional business?” A useful answer separates platform attribution, total shop performance, and the uncertainty around incremental sales.

Before launch, ask: “What creative evidence would justify paid promotion, which permissions must be in place, and what would cause you to delay or pause the campaign?” The answer should connect creative testing, authorized assets, inventory, and an agreed budget. Our Spark Ads launch brief makes those approvals and responsibilities concrete.

Evaluate the creator program as an operating process

A large creator list is not the same as a productive affiliate program. Ask the agency to walk through the path from outreach to a usable video to a sale.

Track creators contacted, accepted collaborations, samples sent, published content, authorized assets, orders, and refunds. These steps reveal where the process is getting stuck. If plenty of samples go out but little content comes back, recruiting more creators may simply increase the loss.

For brands managing samples in-house, our TikTok Shop sample-tracking worksheet is a DIY starting point, not a BPM client reporting deliverable. It separates samples still within their posting window from overdue orders and shows how to calculate the cost of samples that produce content.

Confirm the collaboration type and its posting requirements. Seller-approved free samples carry platform obligations, but actual follow-through still needs tracking. A sample does not automatically grant permission to reuse the creator’s content. Ask how the team confirms permissions before paid promotion.

Look at contribution, not just GMV

GMV describes sales activity under the platform’s definition. It is not the amount your business keeps. Build a separate view of net sales and costs using your actual settlement and operating data.

Consider this hypothetical order: $40 in net sales, $12 in product costs, $5 in fulfillment and shipping, and $8 in platform charges, commissions, and a returns allowance. You have $15 left before media spend, samples, management, other overhead, and profit. These are illustrative amounts, not TikTok’s fee schedule or BPM pricing.

If acquiring that order consumes $14 in media, the remaining dollar has a lot of work to do. Ask how an agency would respond before agreeing to a growth target. Our guide to profitable e-commerce ROAS explains the underlying margin math, although GMV Max reporting must be interpreted using its own definitions.

Compare the complete scope and cost

Request separate lines for management, media, samples and shipping, creative production, creator compensation, and tools. Ask which costs are fixed, which vary with sales, and which require advance approval.

Before comparing proposals, map your full TikTok Shop launch budget, including samples, content, fulfillment, and paid promotion.

A percentage-based fee or retainer does not establish quality on its own. The more useful question is whether the agreement makes responsibilities, incentives, and budget decisions easy to understand. Read our agency cost guide for a broader framework, then request a TikTok Shop-specific scope.

Ask for evidence that matches your challenge

Request a Shop-specific example with dates, a starting point, spend, creator costs, and the agency’s role. A successful TikTok awareness campaign is not automatically evidence of operating a profitable Shop.

For every result, ask what changed in promotions, inventory, product mix, and returns. Confidential client names are understandable; an unexplained percentage is still hard to evaluate. Our case-study evaluation checklist gives you questions to bring to the call.

A TikTok Shop case study with the reporting context

Flower Shop’s Shop GMV grew 138% from June to August 2026. The June 1–September 24 period report records 290 creators who posted and 406 videos. Our Flower Shop TikTok Shop case study shows the dated growth results, BPM’s role, and the difference between total Shop sales and incremental ad returns. Use that level of context when comparing agency results.

What should happen first?

If you have not launched yet, use our TikTok Shop launch-readiness checklist to review product fit, economics, content, and operating responsibilities before comparing agency proposals.

Before scaling, expect an audit, a responsibility map, a product-level cost model, and an initial creator and content plan. Then agree on a limited test, the evidence needed to evaluate it, and the conditions for stopping or expanding.

Best Practice Media’s TikTok Shop services cover setup, affiliate program management, content strategy, and paid promotion using eligible affiliate and seller content. BPM-produced creative is available as an additional service. Bring your product catalog, margins, inventory plan, and current Shop results to a strategy conversation so the discussion starts with your business.

See how BPM connects these pieces in our TikTok Shop overview deck (PDF). You can view and share it without an email signup.

What Is a Good ROAS for E-Commerce? Calculate Your Target

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

A good ROAS for e-commerce is a return that covers your advertising costs and leaves enough contribution for agency fees, creative, overhead, and your profit goal. The right target depends on your product margins and customer mix. A 4X ROAS can be workable for one brand and too low for another.

Start by calculating your break-even ROAS, then work backward from the dollars you need to keep. The examples and worksheet below show how to set that target without borrowing another brand’s benchmark. If you want to run the numbers alongside the guide, use BPM’s break-even ROAS calculator.

What is a good ROAS, and what does it measure?

ROAS = revenue attributed to advertising ÷ advertising spend.

If a platform attributes $30,000 in revenue to $10,000 in ads, the reported ROAS is 3.0. That does not mean the business made $20,000 in profit. Product costs, fulfillment, fees, returns, creative, and management still need to be paid.

Always name the revenue source and attribution window when reporting ROAS. A platform’s attributed sales and your store’s total sales are different measures. Do not add revenue attributed by multiple platforms and assume every purchase is unique. If the reports disagree with store orders, use our duplicate-purchase tracking checklist to separate duplicated events from overlapping attribution.

How to calculate break-even ROAS

First, calculate contribution margin before ads: net sales minus variable costs, divided by net sales. Variable costs can include product costs, payment processing, fulfillment, shipping subsidies, and an allowance for returns. Use consistent definitions and avoid counting the same cost twice.

Advertising break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ contribution margin before ads.

For example, suppose an order generates $100 in net sales and has $60 in variable costs. That leaves $40 before advertising, or a 40% contribution margin. Dividing 1 by 0.40 gives a 2.5 ROAS.

At 2.5 ROAS, all $40 is consumed by media cost. Nothing remains from that order for agency fees, creative, overhead, or profit. This is an advertising break-even calculation, not a whole-business profit target.

Break-even ROAS at different contribution margins

These examples assume revenue and costs use the same basis. Enter 40% as 0.40 in the formula. They cover media cost only, before management, creative, overhead, and profit:

  • 20% contribution margin: 1 ÷ 0.20 = 5.0X break-even ROAS.
  • 30% contribution margin: 1 ÷ 0.30 = 3.33X break-even ROAS, rounded.
  • 40% contribution margin: 1 ÷ 0.40 = 2.5X break-even ROAS.
  • 50% contribution margin: 1 ÷ 0.50 = 2.0X break-even ROAS.

If contribution before ads is zero or negative, a positive advertising budget cannot make that first order profitable on these assumptions. Revisit the offer, costs, or a separately evidenced repeat-purchase plan.

Set a profitable ROAS target from the dollars you need

Continuing that hypothetical example, suppose you allocate $5 per order to agency and creative costs and want to keep $10 as contribution toward overhead and profit. Your allowable media cost is now $25: $40 minus $5 minus $10. The corresponding target is $100 divided by $25, or 4.0 ROAS.

The $10 is not necessarily net profit; overhead still has to come out of it. And the $5 allocation changes if order volume changes. Revisit those assumptions as you scale.

  • Higher margin: More room to pay for acquisition.
  • Heavier discounts or returns: Less room, even if the platform revenue number looks strong.
  • Higher creative or management costs: More acquisition expense to cover beyond media.
  • Different product mix: A different blended margin, even at the same revenue.

Use our product-selection worksheet to compare which products can support acquisition costs before allocating the budget.

A ROAS worksheet you can copy

Use one product or a consistent order mix. Fill in these lines with your own figures:

  1. Net revenue per order: after discounts and expected refunds, excluding tax collected for remittance.
  2. Variable order costs: product, fulfillment, payment fees, shipping support, and any other applicable selling costs. Avoid subtracting a refund twice.
  3. Contribution before ads: line 1 minus line 2.
  4. Management and creative allocation: the amount per order you plan to cover, using a realistic order volume.
  5. Required contribution after those costs: the amount reserved for overhead and your profit goal.
  6. Allowable media cost per order: line 3 minus lines 4 and 5.
  7. Planning target ROAS: line 1 divided by line 6, when line 6 is positive.

For the $100 example above, the worksheet yields $40 before ads, $5 for management and creative, and $10 to retain: $25 available for media and a 4.0X target. This is a planning calculation, not a promise that a platform can acquire every order at that cost.

Match the revenue basis to your reporting before comparing the target with a dashboard. A target calculated from net sales can be misleading when the platform records gross order value including amounts you do not retain. Google’s target ROAS guidance expresses the return as a percentage: 4.0X is 400%. A bidding target remains distinct from the profit your business actually records.

Why another brand’s ROAS is not your benchmark

Best Practice Media’s Pip Pop Post case study reports a 3.36 ROAS while managed ad spend grew 14X in just over a year. That is evidence about a particular engagement, not a universal profitability threshold.

The public case study does not provide the brand’s full cost structure or an attribution window. You cannot use its ROAS alone to infer net profit or predict what your store should achieve.

A more useful question is whether your agency can explain performance against your economics, using consistent measurement as budgets change.

Separate new customers from existing customers

An account can show a strong blended ROAS while relying heavily on people who already know the brand. Review new-customer acquisition cost and returning-customer revenue alongside the platform number.

Use our ecommerce CAC worksheet to document which costs belong in the numerator and which customers belong in the denominator.

Repeat purchases can justify a longer payback period, but use observed customer cohorts and contribution after costs. A projected lifetime value is not cash available to pay this month’s bills.

Where budget and data allow, incrementality tests can help investigate how many sales advertising actually caused. Attribution assigns credit; it does not, by itself, prove causation.

Use our financial transparency checklist for agencies and clients to agree on the cost inputs, information-sharing boundaries, and review process behind your targets.

Is 4X ROAS good for your e-commerce brand?

In the hypothetical 40%-margin example, 4X leaves room for the specified management, creative, and retained-contribution amounts. At a 20% contribution margin, 4X would not cover media cost on the same revenue basis: the advertising break-even point is 5X. Judge the ratio against your own costs before increasing spend.

Also separate branded and nonbranded search where relevant. A strong combined return can hide an acquisition campaign that does not meet its target.

A practical scorecard for your next agency call

  1. Platform ROAS, with the attribution settings stated.
  2. Store revenue and total media spend for the same dates.
  3. Contribution margin assumptions, including promotions and returns.
  4. New-customer acquisition cost and customer mix.
  5. Total acquisition costs, including management and creative.
  6. Cash-flow constraints and the next decision: increase, hold, reduce, or test.

Use our marketing efficiency ratio worksheet to reconcile store revenue with media-only and fully loaded marketing costs before the meeting.

At Best Practice Media, we use retainer-based pricing rather than a percentage of ad spend. Our fee does not automatically rise when your media budget does. That supports a straightforward conversation about whether additional spend makes sense.

Explore our paid social services, or use our agency selection guide to bring better questions to your next conversation.

ChatGPT Ads for E-Commerce: Is Your Brand Ready to Test?

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

ChatGPT ads may be worth testing when your brand is eligible, you have a clear offer and landing page, and you can measure the outcome within a defined budget. The right starting point is a small business question—not a claim that a new platform will automatically produce cheaper customers.

A useful question might be: can this channel introduce a specific product to new buyers at an acquisition cost our margins can support?

Advertising documentation reviewed October 6, 2026. Confirm account access and supported options before committing a budget.

How to check access to ChatGPT Ads Manager

Start with OpenAI’s official advertising page and its advertiser signup link. OpenAI documents Ads Manager, a measurement pixel, and a Conversions API. The existence of those tools does not establish that your business can immediately activate a campaign.

Before production begins, confirm who owns the ad account, whether the advertiser and proposed products are eligible, which locations the account supports, and whether measurement can be configured. OpenAI’s targeting documentation says account availability and campaign mode can impose restrictions. A supported country code alone is not proof of access.

Use the settings available in your own account and the current platform guidance. If access or approval is unresolved, make that a launch dependency with an owner and a deadline. Avoid paying for a full creative rollout before the campaign can run.

Buying an ad does not buy an organic recommendation

OpenAI says ads are separate from ChatGPT’s answers and do not influence them. An ad placement is also not an endorsement by OpenAI. That distinction should be clear in both your strategy and any agency proposal. See OpenAI’s explanation of answer independence.

Treat paid acquisition and organic AI visibility as separate workstreams. One concerns a paid campaign and its results. The other concerns whether people can find credible information about your business and whether AI answers accurately reference it.

If an agency promises that buying ChatGPT ads will make the assistant rank your brand first, ask it to substantiate that promise against the platform’s documentation.

Choose one buying situation to test

Start with a product and a specific customer problem. For example, an online store selling travel organizers could test an offer built around keeping a carry-on organized. Its landing page should show the compartments, dimensions, price, delivery terms, and the practical difference from an ordinary pouch.

This is a creative and offer hypothesis, not a claim that advertisers can target a particular person’s private conversation. OpenAI says advertisers do not receive users’ chats or personal conversation histories.

Use the targeting and campaign controls actually available in your account. Keep a record of the audience assumptions, creative, offer, and destination so you can interpret the results later.

Make the landing page do the explaining

A curious click is not a sale. The landing page needs to answer the questions that matter before a purchase:

  • Who is the product for, and what problem does it solve?
  • What does it cost, including relevant delivery charges?
  • What makes the product different?
  • What evidence supports the claims?
  • What are the delivery, return, and support terms?

Send traffic to a focused product or category page when that best matches the ad. A homepage with six unrelated offers makes the next decision harder.

How much should you budget for a ChatGPT ads test?

Separate the platform’s minimum from the budget needed to answer your business question. OpenAI’s bidding and budget documentation says daily minimums depend on account currency. Its dollar amounts are illustrative examples, so do not treat an example campaign as a published minimum or a recommended test budget.

Confirm the applicable minimum and buying options in your account, then price media, creative, management, and tracking work separately. A minimum that lets a campaign run may still produce too few purchases for a useful decision.

Set the spending limit and business outcome before launch. For an e-commerce test, that might be purchases evaluated against contribution margin, with new-customer share reviewed separately where your data allows.

Include creative and management costs when evaluating the whole program. Our profitable ROAS guide explains why platform revenue alone cannot establish profitability.

Check tracking with a test conversion, use consistent campaign tagging, and document attribution settings. Compare platform reports with store data. A discrepancy is a question to investigate, not a reason to pick whichever number looks better.

Avoid setting a success rule that relies on one unusually large order. Agree on the evidence needed to continue, revise, or stop. Low purchase volume can make a result inconclusive even when a dashboard shows an attractive average.

What should you measure before increasing spend?

OpenAI’s measurement documentation supports conversion events sent from your site’s server as well as pixel-based measurement. Confirm the implementation and event you will use before launch. Use an authorized test purchase and verify the expected value, currency, and event count.

Keep paid campaign tags distinguishable from unpaid ChatGPT referrals in analytics. When purchase counts disagree, our conversion-duplication checklist helps distinguish repeated events from several platforms claiming the same order.

State whether reported conversions followed clicks or ad views, and record the attribution window and reporting time basis. OpenAI’s reporting guidance supports separate click-through and view-through results. Changing those settings changes credited outcomes; it does not change the orders your store actually received.

Write the funding decision before launching the test

A test brief can fit on one page. Fill in these six lines before the first dollar goes out:

  1. The question: which product, buyer situation, and offer are we testing?
  2. The spending limit: what can we commit to media, creative, management, and measurement separately?
  3. The outcome: which completed action matters, and what acquisition cost can the product economics support?
  4. The evidence: which platform report and store or CRM record will we reconcile, using what dates and attribution settings?
  5. The decision: what would justify continuing, changing the offer, or stopping? Allow an inconclusive result when the sample is too small.
  6. The owner: who checks tracking, approves spending changes, and makes the final call?

OpenAI’s advertising reporting documentation distinguishes delivery and cost metrics from attributed conversions and purchase value. An unavailable metric is not zero. Confirm which reports your account supports, and keep platform-attributed sales separate from a claim that the campaign caused additional sales.

If clicks arrive but purchases do not, use our ad-versus-landing-page diagnostic guide before assigning blame. The offer, traffic, page, and measurement all deserve a check. For unpaid AI discovery, use the separate GEO measurement framework.

When is your brand ready to test ChatGPT ads?

  • Ready for a bounded test: access and eligibility are confirmed, the offer and purchase path work, measurement is verified, and a named owner can enforce the spending limit.
  • Prepare first: tracking, product explanation, landing-page quality, or approval responsibilities remain unresolved.
  • Wait: account access is unavailable, the product cannot support the acquisition cost, or the required investment would displace more important work.

This is a planning framework, not a platform eligibility rule. A campaign can meet technical requirements and still be a poor investment for the business.

What should you ask a ChatGPT ads agency?

Our ChatGPT ads management service explains how BPM handles readiness, creative, campaign management, and measurement, with retainer-based fees and a defined test budget.

  1. Have you run this type of campaign, and what can you show us?
  2. Which parts of the proposal are verified capabilities versus planned experiments?
  3. Who will confirm access, eligibility, and measurement before launch?
  4. What is the total test cost, including work beyond media?
  5. How will you distinguish paid results from organic ChatGPT referrals?
  6. What would make you recommend stopping?

A new channel can be worth exploring without becoming your largest budget line. Start with a clear hypothesis, protect the measurement, and let the results determine the next investment.

For help evaluating where a new test fits into your broader e-commerce acquisition plan, talk with Best Practice Media. You can also read our agency evaluation guide for questions about budgets, creative, and accountability.

How to Evaluate an Agency’s E-Commerce Case Studies

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

To evaluate an e-commerce agency case study, look past the headline result. Check the starting point, measurement period, spend level, attribution method, and work the agency actually performed. Then ask whether the example is relevant to your business.

A big percentage can get your attention. It should also start a conversation. “ROAS increased 25%” tells you something useful, but it does not tell you the starting ROAS, the brand’s margins, or whether the result is likely to carry over to your store.

1. Start with the problem, not the percentage

Was the brand struggling with tracking, creative fatigue, a weak offer, inconsistent campaigns, or an inability to scale? A case study is more useful when it shows that the agency understood the constraint before changing the account.

Look for a connection between the diagnosis and the work. If tracking was unreliable, what changed before the team started making budget decisions? If creative was the bottleneck, what new ideas were tested?

Be cautious when the entire explanation is “we optimized.” You want enough detail to understand the agency’s judgment.

2. Ask what the result is being compared with

A 25% increase is a relative change, not an absolute result. For example, increasing ROAS from 2.0 to 2.5 is a 25% improvement. Increasing it from 4.0 to 5.0 is also a 25% improvement. Those outcomes can mean very different things for a business.

Ask for the starting value, the end value, the comparison dates, and any major promotions or seasonal differences. If the client cannot share exact figures publicly, ask what context can be discussed privately.

3. Read spend and efficiency together

Maintaining efficiency while spending substantially more is a different achievement from improving efficiency after cutting most of the budget. Neither is automatically the wrong decision. They solve different problems.

Best Practice Media’s Drip EZ case study reports a 430% increase in ad spend alongside a 25% improvement in ROAS, a 43% increase in click-through rate, and a 15% reduction in cost per purchase. Those paired measures give more context than the ROAS improvement alone.

The public page does not specify the comparison dates or attribution window. A buyer should ask about those before treating the figures as a forecast.

4. Check which metric actually improved

  • Click-through rate: Did more people click? That is useful creative feedback, but it does not establish profitability.
  • Cost per purchase: Did acquisition become less expensive under the stated measurement method?
  • ROAS: How much revenue was attributed relative to media spend?
  • Contribution or profit: What remained after the relevant costs?
  • New-customer growth: Did the business acquire more first-time buyers, or mainly reach returning customers?

Do not let a click metric quietly stand in for a business outcome. Ask how the reported metric connects with what you need the engagement to achieve.

5. Separate documented facts from assumptions

Our Cacao case study reports a 34% ROAS improvement while spend increased by more than 100%. It describes creative work around a premium gifting product and purchase-focused optimization.

That supports a discussion about relevant experience with luxury e-commerce. It does not establish the client’s net profit, prove that one specific creative change caused the entire result, or promise the same outcome for another brand.

A credible agency should be comfortable making those distinctions about its own work.

6. Look for a relevant challenge, not an identical product

An agency does not need a case study for your exact product to be a fit. Similar economics and constraints can be more useful than a matching category.

Consider average order value, repeat-purchase behavior, sales cycle, creative requirements, budget, seasonality, and inventory. A team that understands premium gifting may have relevant experience for another considered purchase, even if the product is different.

Ask: “Which parts of this approach would carry over to us, and which would you change?” The answer reveals more than a familiar logo.

A short checklist for the sales call

  1. What were the baseline, dates, and spend levels?
  2. Which data source and attribution settings produced the results?
  3. What did the agency do, and what did the client or other partners do?
  4. What did not work, and how did the plan change?
  5. Which details are not available in the public case study?
  6. Why is this engagement relevant to our business?

Use case studies as evidence to investigate, not a substitute for that conversation. For a broader evaluation framework, read how to choose a paid social agency for e-commerce. You can also explore Best Practice Media’s paid social services to see how the work is structured.

What Should Your First 90 Days With a Paid Social Agency Look Like?

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

Your first 90 days with a paid social agency should establish reliable measurement, produce a focused testing plan, and turn the results into clear budget and creative decisions. A sensible sequence is to learn and validate in month one, test in month two, and refine in month three.

This is a planning framework, not a promise that every account will be ready to scale on day 91. Access delays, budget, conversion volume, production timelines, and your store’s starting point all affect the pace.

If you’re still managing the transition, use our paid media agency handover checklist before removing the outgoing team’s access.

Before kickoff: bring the business context

Your agency needs more than an Ads Manager login. Share your margins, best-selling products, inventory constraints, promotional calendar, customer insights, and previous creative. Explain what success means for the business and which tradeoffs you can afford.

Keep ownership of your business assets and grant the access needed for the work. Confirm who owns approvals, who can fix tracking or site issues, and how quickly creative feedback can happen. A campaign can wait days for a ten-minute decision if those responsibilities are unclear. Use our client and agency handoff checklist to assign those responsibilities before launch.

Days 1–30: understand the account and establish the baseline

The first month should answer two questions: what is happening, and how confidently can we measure it?

  • Review campaign history, audiences, offers, creative, and landing pages.
  • Check purchase events, product feeds, and relevant tracking connections.
  • Compare platform reporting with store data and document differences.
  • Agree on primary business measures and the attribution settings used in reports.
  • Identify the most important constraints and build an initial testing backlog.

Useful deliverables include a baseline report, a prioritized audit, a measurement plan, and a creative brief. You should know what the agency will change first and why.

Best Practice Media’s Pip Pop Post case study describes inconsistent conversion tracking and fragmented campaigns as starting problems. Establishing a stronger tracking foundation was part of the work before scaling. That is a useful reminder that the first task is not always spending more.

Days 31–60: run focused tests

The second phase should turn the diagnosis into experiments. Each test needs a question: does a product demonstration address a buying objection? Does a different offer improve the economics? Does a landing-page change reduce friction?

Make the creative ideas meaningfully different. A new background color is not the same as a new reason to buy. Test concepts rooted in customer needs, objections, use cases, and product benefits.

Agree on the budget and evidence needed to evaluate a test. Low-volume accounts may need longer observation periods. Avoid calling a winner after a handful of purchases or changing several major variables without a way to interpret the outcome.

Useful deliverables include a test log, new creative, clear observations, and the next round of decisions. The report should explain what the team learned, including what did not work.

Days 61–90: refine the plan and decide what earns more budget

By the third phase, the agency should be able to explain which approaches deserve further investment, which need revision, and which should stop. “More budget” is one possible decision, not the required conclusion.

  • Compare performance with the original baseline using consistent definitions.
  • Check whether margin, customer mix, promotions, or inventory changed.
  • Develop new variations of promising creative ideas.
  • Review the pace of creative production and approvals.
  • Set the next quarter’s priorities, budget assumptions, and open questions.

If results are weak, you should get a diagnosis and a specific response. If results are strong, you should get a reasoned plan for testing additional spend against inventory, cash, and margin limits without assuming efficiency will stay unchanged.

What should happen throughout all three months?

Agree on a communication rhythm at kickoff. That might include a short weekly working update and a deeper monthly review, depending on the engagement. The important part is a predictable place for decisions, blockers, and accountability.

A useful update answers: what changed, what happened, what remains uncertain, and what we are doing next. A dashboard is helpful, but it cannot replace those explanations.

What if the first 90 days are not profitable?

Ask whether the gap was anticipated, what evidence has been gathered, and what would need to change. Compare the actual investment with the agreed testing budget and payback expectations. Do not keep spending indefinitely because an account is supposedly “still learning.”

At the same time, avoid treating a calendar deadline as proof that a sound test failed. Judge the work against the starting point, available data, and agreed decision rules.

What to agree on before you sign

Ask for the onboarding steps, scope, deliverables, reporting cadence, approval responsibilities, and approach to budget changes. Best Practice Media’s paid social services span strategy, creative, tracking, testing, and campaign management; the proposal should identify the work included in your engagement.

Still comparing partners? Our guide to choosing a paid social agency for e-commerce covers the questions to ask about margins, measurement, creative, and accountability.

Meta AI Advertising: Why Advantage+ Changes Everything | BPM

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

The Future of Meta Advertising: Why AI-Powered Campaigns Are Changing Everything (And What It Means for Your Business)

The landscape of Meta advertising has fundamentally changed. If you’re still thinking about Facebook and Instagram ads the way you did even two years ago, you’re already behind.

Here’s what’s happening—and more importantly, what it means for your business.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Shift: From Manual Control to AI Orchestration

Meta has been quietly but aggressively moving toward what I call

“AI-first advertising.” The platform’s Advantage+ suite represents a fundamental shift in how campaigns work:

Old Model (Pre-2024):

Advertisers manually select audiences

Target specific demographics and interests

Control placements and bidding strategies

Optimize based on gut feeling and experience

 

New Model (2024-2025):

AI explores audiences beyond your selections

Your targeting becomes “suggestions” for the algorithm

Automated placement and bid optimization

Machine learning finds patterns humans can’t see

Here’s the thing: This isn’t just an incremental improvement. It’s a complete philosophical shift from human-driven to AI-driven campaign management.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why Meta Made This Change (And Why It Matters to You)

Three forces converged to make this inevitable:

1. Privacy Changes Killed Traditional Targeting

iOS 14+ privacy updates eliminated much of the tracking that made precise audience targeting possible. Meta’s response? Build AI that doesn’t need precise targeting—it finds your customers through behavioral patterns instead.

2. Complexity Exceeded Human Capability

Modern Meta campaigns optimize across:

10+ placement options

Dozens of creative variants

Real-time bidding adjustments

Cross-device user journeys

Dynamic audience signals

No human can process this at scale. AI can.

3. Performance Demands Increased

Your competitors are using AI. If you’re manually optimizing campaigns, you’re bringing a knife to a gunfight. Meta’s data shows Advantage+ campaigns typically outperform manual campaigns by 20-30%.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What This Means for Your Business: The Good and The Challenging

The Upside: Better Performance Potential

AI finds audiences you’d never consider – We’ve seen Advantage+ campaigns convert customers that would have been excluded by traditional targeting. The algorithm identifies patterns in behavior that humans simply can’t detect.

Real-time optimization at scale – While you sleep, the AI is testing creative combinations, adjusting bids, and optimizing placements across millions of auctions.

Future-proof against platform changes – New placement? Algorithm updates? Privacy regulations? AI adapts automatically without manual intervention.

 

The Challenge: Success Requires New Inputs

Creative volume becomes critical – AI needs fuel. Advantage+ can test up to 150 creative combinations. If you’re only producing 2-3 ad variants per month, you’re starving the algorithm.

Data quality is everything – Your Conversion API setup, event tracking, and conversion values directly impact AI performance. Garbage in, garbage out.

Less control, more trust – You won’t see exactly who’s being targeted or why certain decisions were made. Success requires trusting the data over your intuition.

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The Question Every Business Leader Should Be Asking

“If AI can run campaigns automatically, do I still need marketing expertise?”

Here’s the answer: You need it more than ever—but the expertise has changed.

Think of it this way: Self-driving cars still need:

Route planning (where are we going?)

Fuel (what powers the vehicle?)

Maintenance (what happens when something breaks?)

Monitoring (is this actually working?)

AI-powered advertising is the same.

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What “Good” Looks Like in the AI Era

Successful Meta advertising in 2025 isn’t about campaign management—it’s about AI performance architecture.

This means:

1. Creative Strategy & Production

Old Approach: Create one ad, run it until it stops working

New Approach: Develop systematic creative testing frameworks with constant refresh

You need:

Multiple hooks and angles tested simultaneously

Video and static creative in various formats

Continuous production pipeline, not one-off campaigns

Partnership with creators and content producers

 

2. Conversion Infrastructure

Old Approach: Basic pixel tracking

New Approach: Advanced server-side tracking, enhanced conversions, value optimization

You need:

Proper Conversion API implementation (not just pixel)

Value-based event tracking

Clean, accurate conversion data

CRM integration for lifetime value signals

 

3. Strategic Oversight

Old Approach: Daily optimization adjustments

New Approach: Interpreting AI performance, diagnosing issues, making strategic pivots

You need:

Understanding when AI is learning vs. when it’s failing

Knowing when to let campaigns run vs. when to intervene

Interpreting black-box results into business insights

Strategic planning that AI can’t do (positioning, offers, seasonality)

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The Businesses That Win vs. The Businesses That Struggle

After managing hundreds of Advantage+ campaigns, here’s the pattern we’ve observed:

Advantage+ Works Brilliantly For: 

E-commerce with product catalogs – AI loves variety and data

Established brands with conversion history – AI needs data to learn

Businesses with strong creative resources – Feed the algorithm

Companies that trust data over opinions – Let AI explore

Scaling proven offers – AI finds new customer segments

 

Advantage+ Struggles With:

Brand new businesses – Not enough conversion data for learning

Complex B2B with long sales cycles – AI optimizes for short-term signals

Small local businesses – Audiences may be too narrow

Limited creative production – Can’t feed the algorithm enough variants

Businesses requiring targeting transparency – “Trust the AI” doesn’t work

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Three Strategic Questions to Ask Right Now

1. “Do we have the creative velocity to compete?”

If your competitor is testing 50 creative variants and you’re testing 3, who do you think wins? AI can only optimize what you give it.

Action: Audit your content production capability. Can you produce 10+ ad variants per month? If not, that’s your bottleneck.

 

2. “Is our conversion tracking actually working?”

Most businesses think their tracking is fine. Most businesses are wrong. If your Conversion API isn’t properly implemented, AI is flying blind.

Action: Run a tracking audit. Test purchases, leads, and key events. Verify data matches between Meta and your analytics.

 

3. “Are we positioned for AI-era competition?”

Your competitors are using these tools. If they’re feeding Meta’s AI better creative, better data, and better strategic inputs, they win—even if their product is worse.

Action: Benchmark your Meta performance against industry standards. If you’re not using Advantage+, you’re likely falling behind.

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The Bottom Line

Meta’s shift to AI-powered advertising isn’t coming—it’s already here.

The question isn’t whether to embrace it. The question is whether you have the infrastructure to succeed with it:

Creative production systems

Advanced conversion tracking

Strategic expertise to guide AI

Commitment to testing and learning

 

The businesses that figure this out first will dominate their markets.

The businesses that ignore it will wonder why their ads stopped working.

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What We’re Seeing

At Best Practice Media, we’ve been deep in Advantage+ campaigns for the past 18 months. Here’s what we’ve learned:

Clients who embrace AI-first strategies see 20-40% improvement in ROAS

Creative production is now 50% of campaign success (vs. 20% two years ago)

Proper Conversion API setup can make or break performance

The “learning phase” is real—businesses need patience for AI to optimize

Strategic oversight matters more than ever (knowing when to intervene)

The agencies and businesses winning right now aren’t the ones fighting the AI revolution—they’re the ones learning to architect performance systems around it.

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Ready to Talk Strategy?

If you’re running Meta ads and haven’t thought about these questions, let’s talk. The gap between AI-optimized campaigns and manual campaigns is only getting wider.

The cost of waiting is measured in lost customers and wasted ad spend.

Drop a comment or send me a message. Happy to share what’s working (and what’s not) in the AI era of Meta advertising.

What’s your experience with Advantage+ campaigns? Are you seeing better performance, or struggling with the lack of control? Let’s discuss in the comments.

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About Best Practice Media

We’re a digital marketing agency specializing in AI-powered Meta advertising strategies. We help businesses architect performance systems that maximize Meta’s machine learning capabilities through superior creative, data infrastructure, and strategic oversight.

#MetaAds #FacebookAdvertising #InstagramAds #DigitalMarketing #AIAdvertising #PerformanceMarketing #EcommerceGrowth #MarketingStrategy

Why ‘Poor’ Ad Scores Don’t Mean Poor Performance (And Why You Shouldn’t Panic)

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

If you’ve ever logged into Google or Meta Ads and seen a bright red warning that your campaign performance is Poor or Below Average, you might have felt a twinge of panic. But take a deep breath: these ratings are not a reflection of your actual results or our agency’s performance. They’re automated, algorithm-driven suggestions that often benefit the platform more than the advertiser.

What These Scores Actually Measure

Both Google and Meta use internal scoring systems to rank how “optimized” your campaigns are. You might see these labeled as:

Quality Score (Google)

Optimization Score (Google)

Account Quality / Opportunity Score (Meta)

These scores take into account factors like:

Ad relevance

Expected click-through rate (CTR)

Landing page experience

Account history

How many of the platform’s “recommended” features you’re using

But here’s the catch: the formulas behind these scores are proprietary and opaque. Even experienced media buyers don’t know exactly how they’re calculated or weighted. What we do know is that the scores are designed to nudge advertisers toward using more of the platform’s automated features – and often, toward spending more money.

 

Why You Shouldn’t Panic When You See “Poor”

A low score doesn’t mean your ads aren’t working. It means the platform believes it could make your ads “better” – usually by adding more automation or expanding your targeting. In many cases, these recommendations would actually undermine your campaign strategy or waste budget.

“Google will often say things like ‘poor performance’ to try to get you to opt into features that give it more control over the ads (and therefore, you and us less control). For example, it wants us to add a bunch of keywords that we know are irrelevant to our current goals. So it is trying to get us to spend more money to opt into those features. Please don’t put a lot of stock in those ratings – we are actively adjusting the ads to make sure they’re working as intended.”

— Kalina Perkins, Media Buyer at Best Practice Media

In other words: a low score doesn’t mean failure. It means the platform disagrees with your strategy – often because it can’t monetize your efficiency.

 

Why Platforms Use These Scores

Let’s be blunt: these scores are part performance metric, part sales pitch. They serve to:

Encourage adoption of automated bidding or targeting features

Increase advertiser budgets under the guise of “improving” campaigns

Create a sense of urgency and dependency on the platform’s tools

Independent advertisers and PPC experts have noted that these “optimization” nudges often benefit the platform far more than the advertiser.

“They put up a ‘New recommendation’ that we PAY THEM MORE to raise our score back up… like a scare tactic.”

— Advertiser on Reddit

 

What Actually Matters

At Best Practice Media, we focus on business performance, not arbitrary platform metrics. Here are the metrics that matter:

Conversions / Leads — Real-world actions and sales. We optimize to increase conversion volume and quality.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) — Measures efficiency. We work to lower CPA while maintaining lead quality.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) — Ties spend to revenue. We track every dollar spent vs. earned.

Conversion Rate (Post-Click) — Reflects funnel and landing page performance. We test creative, copy, and UX to improve this.

Trend Data — Reveals long-term performance. We monitor weekly and monthly improvements, not one-day fluctuations.

These metrics are tied directly to your growth – not to Google’s or Meta’s.

 

How We Handle ‘Poor’ Scores Behind the Scenes

When a campaign shows a low score, here’s what we actually do:

Investigate, not react. We treat scores as signals to review – not commands.

Analyze underlying factors. We look at CTR, relevance, and landing page experience to identify true areas of improvement.

Test intentionally. We may test platform suggestions – but only if they align with your goals and data.

Communicate transparently. If you see a low score, we’ll explain what it means and what we’re doing about it.

Stay focused on results. We prioritize performance metrics that drive your business – not vanity grades from an algorithm.

 

The Bottom Line

When you see a “Poor” score, it’s not a crisis – it’s just the platform asking for more control. Our job is to make sure you stay in control of your ad dollars and that every click drives real results.

A low platform score doesn’t mean poor performance. It means you’re optimizing for your business, not their bottom line.

Next Steps for Clients:
If you see a low rating and are concerned, reach out to your BPM media buyer. We’ll walk you through what it means in context and show you the metrics that actually matter.

Why You Might See an Ad You Didn’t Approve

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

How Meta’s AI tools override creative without warning—and what we’re doing about it

Meta has rolled out a growing set of AI tools that can rewrite ad headlines, generate product images, and create videos using your brand assets. These features are promoted as optional, but they are often turned on automatically. In many cases, media buyers do not choose to enable them. Meta applies them silently.

Even if we manually turn them off, they can be reactivated later.

This is causing confusion, especially when a client sees an ad they did not approve. This post explains what is happening, why it keeps happening, and how we’re protecting brand integrity across every account.

What Meta Is Doing

Meta has introduced a set of creative automation tools across its ad platform. These include:

  • – Automatically written headlines and descriptions
  • – AI-generated product photos with new backgrounds or lighting
  • – Auto-created videos from still images and catalog content
  • – Suggested text changes during campaign setup

You will see these most often in Advantage+ Shopping, App, and Catalog campaigns. They may also appear in existing campaigns that were set up before these features were available.

Here’s the key issue: many of these tools are enabled without notification. If we do not check each box during setup, Meta will begin applying changes to your ad creative on its own.

You Didn’t Approve It. Neither Did We.

When you see an ad that doesn’t sound like your brand or looks off, your first question is usually: “Who made this?” In most cases, the answer is Meta.

We have seen live ads with AI-generated headlines that were never submitted. We have found product photos that were altered automatically. These are not manual errors. They are system defaults.

Media buyers are not notified when these features are activated. Clients are not notified when they go live.

Even when we turn them off, Meta may turn them back on later. This happens without a prompt. It may also happen retroactively in older campaigns that were launched before these features existed.

We check for this constantly. But unless every campaign is audited weekly, these updates can slip in.

What This Means for Brand Safety

Most of our clients care deeply about how their brand appears in the world. That includes voice, tone, product presentation, and visual design. AI-generated creative often disregards those standards.

We have seen headlines that contradict messaging strategy. We have seen product images that look mismatched. We have even seen entire ads built from assets we never approved.

This is not just a performance problem. It is a trust problem.

What We’re Doing About It

We now audit every new campaign for AI creative settings. In most cases, we disable:

  • – Auto-generated text and headlines
  • – Product image and video creation
  • – Suggested copy changes

We also retroactively check older campaigns, including those that may have inherited AI tools after the fact.

When necessary, we document every variation running in the account so clients can see what has been published.

We flag anything that does not match your original creative for review and removal.

We are doing this because Meta does not make these changes visible by default.

Why This Blog Post Exists

This post is meant to clarify what happens when an ad appears that you never approved. It is not a mistake by your media buyer. It is a platform-wide shift toward automation that bypasses manual control.

When this happens, the right response is not blame. The right response is awareness and prevention.

We are holding the line. We are keeping your ads clean, consistent, and on-brand. If anything looks off, we will catch it and correct it.

What You Can Do

If you ever see an ad that surprises you, send it our way. We will confirm what happened and fix it.

If you want more visibility into how your creative is being used, we can walk through every active variation with you.

Our priority is keeping your brand safe, not just keeping the ads running.

🚨 June 2025 Google Core Update: What Agencies & Their Clients Need to Know

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

1. Big alert: Broad core update now live

Google began rolling out the June 2025 Core Update on June 30, 2025 (around 7:34 a.m. PDT), and it will roll out over approximately three weeks across all regions and languages (Search Engine Land).

This isn’t a niche tweak—it’s a broad ranking shift across all types of content and search verticals, including organic search, Discover, and featured snippets.

2. Why this matters for PPC-savvy agencies

Many agencies separate SEO and Google Ads, but a core update—especially one lasting three weeks—can significantly alter organic visibility and traffic flows. If your client only relies on PPC, sudden shifts in organic clicks and SERP real estate can affect:

  • Search volume and keyword competition Changes in who ranks organically can reshape CPCs, budgets, cost-per-acquisition, and dayparting strategies.
  • Overlap & cannibalization A new organic top spot may reduce the effectiveness of your ad placements—or vice versa. Watch SERP placement closely.
  • Content & landing page relevance Google’s quality changes often reflect shifts in user expectations. PPC performance can suffer if your landing pages aren’t aligned with evolving search intent.

3. Early signals and volatility to watch

As of July 2, monitoring tools like Mozcast, Semrush, and visibility scores show initial volatility—some sites already hit, others boosted (Search Engine Roundtable). SEO community chatter confirms:

“I’m seeing surges and drops beginning… for ~4K sites across verticals this morning” — Glenn Gabe

It’s early—but the rollercoaster has begun. Expect peaks and valleys throughout this three-week phase.

4. Big-picture advice from Google

For agencies and clients, the key is to resist knee-jerk reactions and lean on long-term content strategy. Google’s core update wisdom:

  1. You can’t “fix” a core update directly—poor drops don’t necessarily signal a penalty (Search Engine Land).
  2. Instead, perform a people-first content audit:
    • Is your content original, authoritative, and valuable?
    • Does it provide unique analysis or research?
    • Are titles honest and non-clickbaity?
  3. After rollout (give it ~1 week), use Search Console to compare weeks before and after. Assess drop magnitude, query types, and page-level impact (Google Search Central).

Bottom-line: No shortcuts—focus on strengthening content relevance, depth, user experience, and expertise.

5. PPC-specific action plan

Task What to Do Why It Matters
Monitor SERP appearance & query trends Use tools like Semrush, Search Console, and PPC dashboards to spot keyword shifts. Adjust bid strategies early for rising or falling terms.
Reassess ad copy and LP messaging Align ads with trending content angles and intents. Match landing pages to earned new organic successes. Sustains CTR and conversion rates amid content churn.
Watch CPC & quality score Core update volatility might alter ad position dynamics and keyword relevance. Higher CPCs or lower quality scores can impact ROI.
Communicate proactively Brief clients: core updates are gradual, organic swings are expected, and PPC helps stabilize short-term visibility. Builds transparency and sets realistic expectations.

  1. Next steps for agencies & clients

  • Stay calm, create records: Track daily organic and paid traffic performance.
  • Audit top-performing content: Ensure it’s user-first, insightful, and upholds E-A-T (Expertise – Authoritativeness – Trustworthiness).
  • Give it time: Don’t tweak campaigns mid-update unless urgency warrants—changes may swing again.
  • Post-rollout adjustments: After July 21 (three weeks + buffer), reassess SEO and PPC priorities.
  • Embed resilience: Foster evergreen content strategies, dynamic ad themes, and regular content refresh cycles.

Bottom line

The June 2025 Core Update isn’t just another algorithm tweak—it’s a three-week upheaval across organic search that ripples directly into paid strategy. Agencies that anticipate, adapt, and align SEO and PPC in response—not in panic—will help clients thrive through the turbulence.

Sources:

  • https://searchengineland.com/google-june-2025-core-update-rolling-out-now-457731 
  • https://searchengineland.com/google-advice-on-improving-your-sites-ranking-for-future-core-ranking-update-320184 
  • https://www.seroundtable.com/google-june-2025-core-update-volatility-39694.html 
  • https://developers.google.com/search/updates/core-updates 

Top 10 Social Media Marketing Best Practices for Small Business

Posted on by Claire Winslow Brown

Use these top 10 social media marketing best practices for small business to build your brand and generate a profit using social media.

Every business owner knows that marketing is an essential part of building your brand. Yet, as a small business owner, it can be hard to compete with the big dogs who can pour thousands of dollars into a national marketing campaign. However, traditional marketing is expensive, hard to measure, hard to change, and often a one-way form of communication.

There’s another (dare I say, better?) way to market in the new media age that allows direct, quantifiable, targeted messaging delivered directly to your target audience–social media marketing.

Social media connects your brand with an attentive and relevant audience that is open to your messaging and ready to engage. It also offers cost-effective ways to funnel cold traffic into profitable actions. With a smart social media marketing strategy in place, businesses can harness the power of social as an extremely useful marketing tool. If you are deciding how those roles divide, use our paid versus organic social media framework to assign each channel a clear job. Before changing frequency or platforms, run each account through our social media audit worksheet to check ownership, content, conversion paths, and measurement.

Here are our top 10 social media marketing best practices for small business:

1. If you build it, keep it up. If you can’t keep it up, delete it.

When first launching your social media presence, it can be tempting to create a profile on every social media channel available to you. Keeping up six different profiles with individually optimized content sometimes is not realistic. It’s better to have a limited, streamlined presence rather than spotty coverage all over the Internet.

2. Focus on 2-3 platforms where your demographic lives.

Not every audience is on the same page–literally.

Knowing where your audience lives online is a valuable piece of information in creating your social media platform strategy . Want to focus on a younger audience? Twitter and Instagram are good platforms to start with. Looking for an older, professional audience? Consider creating a LinkedIn profile. Need to curate your online reputation management? Google and Yelp are where you should live. Being able to tailor your strategy to your audience will save you a considerable amount of time and effort down the road.

3. Google yourself and your company from a private browser. The first page is your current online reputation.

Using Google Chrome’s Incognito mode or Safari’s Private Browsing mode with a single Google search provides a quick snapshot of your online reputation. Don’t like something that you see? Feel like something is missing? Now you know what to work on with your targeted strategy.

4. Research marketing rules of your industry, especially if it’s highly regulated.

Each industry has its own specific rules and regulations governing marketing and advertising. Knowing precedent can save you from various headaches, including getting your ad rejected on Facebook or even possible legal action. Examples of highly-regulated industries include financial services, healthcare, education, government, law, alcohol, and the oil and gas industries.

5. Don’t leave your social media marketing execution up to an intern. Your social media presence is the public representation of your company.

It can be the knee-jerk reaction to assign the young person on the team to cover social media. Though they might be a digital native who understands the difference between Tik-Tok and Instagram Reels, having a more senior member of the team guide strategy and execution will pay off in the long run. Social media is often the first place a potential consumer will encounter your brand, and an experienced team member leading your social media plan can help ensure it’s a good one.

6. Use the “4-1-1 Rule of Marketing” (or similar) to develop a content calendar.

The 4-1-1 Rule of Marketing is:

  • 4 pieces of curated content created by others in your industry
  • 1 piece of self-serving, promotional content to drive sales/traffic
  • 1 piece of original creative content produced internally

For example, using this cadence as a guide for creating a content calendar would include sharing one piece of content promoting an upcoming special offer for your company with a direct call-to-action, one piece of original organic content, such as an infographic or specialized blog post, and four additional pieces of content, including retweets or reposts, industry updates, or article shares.

Whether you use this “rule” or something else, the bottom line is simple: Social media marketing is still about being social and organic social audiences don’t always want to be pitched. Instead, offer them more value by diversifying your content with more exciting and relevant information that builds engagement, connection, credibility–and yes, even sales–over time.

7. Use Facebook Blueprint to gain a solid foundation in social media marketing.

Facebook Blueprint is a library of online courses that allows you to “explore self-paced and step-by-step tutorials that can help you build your digital marketing knowledge and bring your business online.”

Consider it a free online marketing school. Love it, use it, and let it demystify the many facets of social media marketing for you.

8. Use Canva to make simple graphics.

Quality in means quality out. Creating high-quality content is a great way to develop your audience and increase engagement. Using a simple graphic design tool like Canva is an easy and effective way to create content for your feed.

9. If you blog, write for SEO.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the single most important ways to get your online presence noticed. Writing “search engine-friendly” content will help give you a leg up in the competition.

Tips include:

  • Keep content to 300 – 2,000 words
  • Include at least 3 hyperlinks per post
  • Add at least one picture
  • Use keywords regularly, but be careful not to spam your audience.

10. Don’t boost posts without a strategy. Use Facebook Ads Manager to target your specific audience.

Facebook Ads Manager is a useful and powerful tool to help identify and build audiences. Creating core, custom, and lookalike audiences will deliver your content to people who are most likely to interact with it. Knowing your audience’s locations, demographics, behaviors, and interests can inform an audience segment as far-reaching or focused as you need. Keeping these audiences in mind throughout your social media advertising strategy, including any boosts, will help you get the most “bang for your buck” with your advertising budget.

From choosing your key social media platforms to executing your social media plan and reviewing your social media analytics, these best practices can help inform your social media plan, set S.M.A.R.T. social goals, and reap the benefits of social media marketing.