Ever wondered how you can transform social media marketing into your highest ROI? Yeah, same. That’s what the wizdom of Jessie Healy can answer. Founder of Webtopia, this snowboard-loving, bike-riding, dark-chocolate-eating expert is coming to spill the beans on using Instagram ads to blaze your business. Jessie has already dropped $20M on cracking the code so YOU can munch on your doritos and get the same results. If you’ve ever be curious about:

⭐️Real-time insights on the market

⭐️Advice from someone with years in the industry

⭐️Hacks you can’t find online  

…saddle up!

🗣️: Tips on how I start marketing my small business using Instagram. What are the dos and don't in creating ads on Instagram?

💬 Jessie: First of all, I need to know what your business is before I can advise the best strategy - it really depends if you are a product business or a service-based business, or perhaps a coach, etc.

The dos and don'ts are hard to summarise - but I think the most important thing is to define what good looks like and track that carefully. The second do is to really know who you are targeting and what motivates them and design a campaign around that!

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🗣️: How do I increase the number of Instagram followers?

💬 Jessie: I can't say I am an expert on growing Instagram followers - I am a paid advertising person. But I can say I have grown my followers on LinkedIn by showing up consistently, posting daily, and seeing what posts resonate with my audience. The more you post, the more you learn about what is working and what isn't. Reels are a great way to grow your following!

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🗣️: After IOS 14 what is the best way to track and read data from Facebook and Instagram ads, to be able to optimize campaigns?

💬 Jessie: We still use the platform data, Facebook recently reintroduced longer attribution windows. Other attribution tools like Triple Whale and Northbeam can be good to get a fuller picture. Then we always say, track your marketing efficiency ratio over time to see how you are trending.

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🗣️: My interest in your work dates back a long time ago and you're doing it great! So, can you share your personal tips for creating efficient highly-converting Instagram ads?

💬 Jessie: So firstly - I probably wouldn't limit yourself to Instagram, we'd recommend running across 'all placements' which includes Facebook - this gives you the best chance of reaching individuals on whichever platform they are browsing. If most of your customers are on Instagram, then that is where most of the ads will show. We want to give the algorithm flexibility thought!

In terms of tips....

Here is what I recommend:

1. A wide variety and types of content being tested - at least 6-7 ads should be live in your ad library, with a number of creative tests being run at any one time.
2. Mix of creative types - we want to see video, static, and carousel being tested.
3. People/lifestyle images used in at least some of the ads.
4. Social proof and reviews - both video and written testimonials and press quotes in ads still go a long way to convincing consumers to trust you.
5. Indisputable proof that your product works - this could be UGC videos, explainer videos, before and after - anything that makes it utterly convincing that your product gets the job done.
6. Clear explanation of the benefit of your product (rather than features).
7. Agitation of pain-point your product solves -> clear articulation of transformation.
8. Ad elicits emotion - be it through music, storytelling, or messaging.
9. Use of storytelling ‘I was struggling with X, then I found Y, it changed my life’ ‘I thought I was doomed to X’, etc.
10. First-person creative as told by your customer - eg. the journey of how they found your product, a day in the life of your product - 1st person ‘TikTok style’.
11. Offer to position - is the offer unique and compelling, urgent and scarce?
12. Thumb-stopping, pattern-interrupting or surprising imagery or video.

🗣️: From your experience, when running ads on Social Media, does running an Ad for a long continuous time differ from running an Ad for 2 weeks let's say, and then stopping for a few days, and running them again for 2 weeks. Does this affect reach? Will the new ad after pausing just reach the previous target? or will it still reach new ones?

💬 Jessie: If you turn off an ad and turn it off again, it re-sets the learning, so Facebook will start again to try to hit your goal, it's not good practice to turn it off and on for that reason. Generally, Meta wouldn't show the ad again to the same people - but you can look at the average reach to see the number of times your ad has been seen per person.

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🗣️: How do I choose relevant hashtags? Is it better to use hashtags that are used by a lot? (thinking the post might get flooded instead) 🤔 or something less common. If you can share an estimated number(posts on #) that would help a ton!

💬 Jessie: Do not use hashtags in paid advertising, as this will get people to click away from your target URL. Just direct people to the button to 'learn more' or 'shop now'.

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🗣️: What are your five rules for creating an IG Ad?

💬 Jessie:

Rule 1 - know your target customer, research them, talk to them, understand them.

Rule 2 - develop marketing hooks that speak directly to this customer.

Rule 3. Agitate the pain point they are suffering without your product.

Rule 4. Use social proof, UGC and reviews.

Rule 5. Make sure your technical set up is correct for your goal.

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🗣️: For E-com, when starting, which campaign types you will start first? Does that change based on budget? What is the campaign structure that you start with? What is your creative testing strategy? Any creative frameworks that you would suggest to start e-com ads? Any suggestions to increase cross-selling and AOV?

💬 Jessie: For e-com, I always start by optimizing for purchase, unless you have really low data on your pixel, in which case I would try add-to-cart initially. I would have a campaign for prospecting and a campaign for warm audiences. The prospecting campaign would have at least two ad sets and at least 3 ads per ad set. Here is a blog on our creative testing framework: https://www.webtopia.co/blog/the-four-step-model-for-high-converting-ad-creative

Here is a quick rundown of 8 ways to increase your average order value -

1. In Cart Upsells 🎁

Below the item that’s actually in the cart have a recommended product or two. Be clear it’s not automatically been added. You will lose trust and get abandoned carts if it’s not clear that this is an offer, not in their cart.

2. In Checkout Upsells 🔥

Be careful to monitor this has no negative effect on CVR, but these can be a great way to get more into the cart, once people have committed to buying.

3. Post Purchase Upsells 🔔

On the pro side, there’s no effect on CVR, and they can increase AOV by a good amount. On the con side, it can be seen as a little pushy to keep offering another sale so soon after the purchase has happened. Do what is right for you, test, and follow the data.

4. Experiment with your Free Shipping Threshold 🤑

The key here is to look at Revenue Per Session. You can increase AOV while decreasing CVR. You also want to look at the margin per session, because you have to factor in the costs of not charging shipping as well.

5. Bundles 🚀

Even if you only have one product - you can still have bundles - allowing for a multi-purchase discount. Don’t overcomplicate - have 1-3 running at any one time. Combine a few of your best-selling products, or products that go well together. One bundle can be an introduction to the brand and your core offering. Another might be a great gift that makes it easier for the buyer to make a quick easy buying decision. Bundles don’t have to be discounted, instead, they could contain a free product or a product you can’t get any other way - find a way to offer value.

6. Upsells on your product page 🤩

Place these just below the add-to-cart or buy button. You can offer a slight discount if you want to, but you don’t have to.

7. Frequently Bought Together 👯‍♂️

Have a section at the bottom of your product page that shows a few commonly bought together products.

8. Quantity Selector In Buy Box 💯

If you sell something where it makes sense to buy multiples, then you should offer multiple different quantities - offer 1, 3, and 6 with different discounts. Consider making the default selection the one in the middle. If you sell a product with a low average order value - consider not even allowing people to buy one unit at a time, which a lot of food and drink brands now do to combat the low AOV.

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🗣️: From your experience, is Instagram marketing worth the investment? Any Instagram marketing/ads predictions we should watch out for in 2023? And maybe you can share with us some hacks we can't find online?

💬 Jessie: For the right product, you should expect to see at least a 2X return on investment for Instagram ads if you optimize properly. My big prediction for next year is consumers make more conscious choices, take longer to buy, and are more susceptible than ever to discounts. The industry will continue to evolve massively with the rise and rise of AI for writing ads and creating content. I am not sure if this hack is found online - but I really recommend you try white-labeling, that is when you run ads from an influencer account!

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🗣️: How would you analyze an ad account, which is already going on for a while, for better performance? Is there any analyzing framework checklist?  

💬 Jessie: To analyze an existing ad account, we first look at the benchmarks - is it getting a good CTR a good CPC, and a good conversion rate, AOV, and ROAS? If not which metric is off? I generally focus on CPC, AOV, and CVR as these need to all be good for an account to deliver.