When deciding how to generate traffic to my new blog site, Bourbon and Bluegrass, Facebook seemed liked the most logical place to start. I am already familiar with the horse racing community on that social media channel, and am connected with a few people who could create a path to some organic traffic in addition to some paid advertising.
The first step was to establish a page for the site that would allow me to create a few ads. I opted for two initial paid ads to simply get my toes wet and experiment: one to promote the page, and one to promote a specific post.
For my promoted page ad, I selected relevant keyword interests, set a duration of 7 days to start off with, and a minimal budget of $2 a day. In the first 4 days, this ad has generated 19 likes from a reach of 351, or an engagement rate of just over 18%, which I’m pleased with. For a future campaign, we’ll throw in a little A/B testing and change the background photo to see if it affects the results.
For the promoted post, I selected a blog entry that had relatively universal appeal with content that was not dependent on a specific news cycle. This one got a $5 budget, and at its conclusion had a paid reach of 1,000 with an engagement rate of 11.2%
I have a piece of content coming down the pipeline tomorrow that will make for a timely promotion opportunity in a couple of weeks; therefore I will revisit post promotion for that entry near the end of September.
I will be interested to see how organic vs. paid traffic compare once the initial bump of traffic from my personal invites wears off. For the time being, the only specific goal for Bourbon and Bluegrass is to drive traffic to the site and create engagement via the Facebook page. This is a very general goal that would not service an e-commerce site, or even a non-commerce site that requires KPIs centered around macro and micro conversions in order to achieve measurable and meaningful results. But this is a starting point. If I can drive traffic, that opens doors to bigger and better things.
So far, I’m happy with my first independent foray into paid advertising and digital marketing. We’ll see what happens next!
Effective marketing ultimately hinges on effective content. And at the heart of effective content is a good story. With an educational background in creative writing, a firm grasp of digital marketing principles learned through Market Motive certification programs, and over a decade of experience writing fiction, blogging, and evolving with the ever-changing social media landscape, I can help you find new ways to create powerful and measurable marketing content that will build a better business for your clients.
Whitney E Richter 