Best Practices of Automations to get the most out of this BFCM!

Automations is a highly effective tool to create and manage all your BFCM campaigns hassle-free. To help you get the most out of this feature, we've prepared a list of best practices that you don't want to miss!

Templates

• Using the “Collection Ad” ad template

This is perfect if all your discounted items live in one collection. The items will be pulled from your Shopify catalog and showcased in a carousel format!

• Using the “Build Your Own Campaign” feature

If you want to run a promotion campaign for a site-wide sale, we recommend you to build your campaign from scratch. You will have the option to customize every parameter of a campaign.

Time

• Finishing the “In Review” process early

The average time a campaign stays “In Review” during BFCM is 8-12 hours. Get ahead of the curve by completing the “In Review” process earlier.

Set the “Date of Ad Creation” 1-2 days before the official launch date of your promotion campaign. Don't forget to add 1-2 days back in the campaign duration to compensate the time you scheduled for early approval.

Approve it when you receive the proposal and turn the campaign off when the review process is complete.

*ONLY do this if you’re 100% sure that you will remember to turn it off and then back on when the time comes! Set up a reminder for this!

• Setting the right time duration

Change the duration from the default “7 days” to the number of days your campaign is going to run for. Usually, it’s 4 days from Friday to Sunday, potentially one more day on Monday if you have a Cyber Monday promotion.

Audience

• Choosing the right audiences

If you want to reach your biggest possible audience, choose “Everybody that has viewed a non-product page in the past 180 days”. This is all website visitors in the past 180 days.

Other popular choices are “Everybody that has viewed a product page in the past 180 days” and “Everybody that has purchased in the past 180 days”.

Objective & Optimization

• “Conversions” as the Ad Objective & Optimization Goal

If your BFCM campaign’s goal is to drive sales, the best option for the Objective is “Conversions”. By doing this, you are telling Facebook that the #1 priority for your ad spend is to drive conversions.

Ad format

• Single Image Ad

This is highly effective for announcing your deals across all audiences.

• Dynamic Product Ad

This is effective if you’re advertising to your ViewContent or Add to cart audiences. Facebook will use your historical pixel data for these audiences to display items they browsed or the most relevant items in a carousel.

• ONLY go with this option if you think the inventory will not run low during the sale. The campaign might show out-of-stock items as your Shoelace catalogs update every 12 hours.

Ad creative

• Best practices for ad images

Choose images with simple backgrounds and add text overlays to make your announcement pop! However, too much text could slow down ad delivery or get it disapproved! Check your image using Facebook Text Tool before you use it.

• Using Canva

If you don’t have a good image to use, a neat tool like Canva has thousands of templates for all kinds of eCommerce marketing needs. They have a dedicated section for Sale and Promotion templates.

Ad Copy

• Right copy for the right audience

It’s important to tailor the ad copy to the target audience of each campaign. As an example, if a campaign is going out to your Past Purchasers in the past 180 days, consider thanking them for their loyalty and support and including a special promo code such as “THANKYOUFAM”.

• Always create urgency

Be sure to create urgency by mentioning “limited quantity”, “limited time offer”, “only a few left”, or “the first 60 customers will get XYZ”.

• Emojis or no emojis? 🤔

Don’t be afraid to use emojis (where you see fit). They will help your text pop and catch more attention instantly.

• First things first

Put the most important information first! If you want people to know that BFCM deal is 40% off site-wide, write it as the first thing in the ad copy AND incorporate it in the headline section if applicable.

Now you're all set! Head over to the Automations section in your Shoelace app to get started! If you run into any questions, check out our Help Centre!

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