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PACE New Features: Video and Screen Sharing, New Microsoft Teams Integrations, and More!

Toni Milushev — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 14:30:38 +0000

Perficient’s Amazon Connect Experience (PACE) solution amplifies the power of Amazon Connect with several added features and managed services. As we continue to develop and customize our software to your needs, we will post blogs with new features and processes we have added, changed, or fixed. To learn more about PACE, visit our dedicated landing page or view our listing on the AWS Marketplace!

Video and Screen Sharing:

Are you looking for a solution that seamlessly enables video and screen sharing for your contact center? Look no further. PACE now supports video and screen sharing out of the box. Customers can request that agents escalate chat conversations to virtual meetings that enable video and screen sharing. In addition, agents can proactively escalate active chat conversations to virtual meetings. Regardless of who triggers the escalation, agents and customers can talk to each other, see each other, and even share their screens.

Microsoft Teams Outbound Chat:

Earlier this year, we announced the first native Microsoft Teams chatbot for Amazon Connect, enabling Teams users to seamlessly message contact center agents. With this release, contact center agents can now trigger outbound chats to Teams users while taking advantage of other PACE features such as canned responses. Best of all, supervisors can gain valuable insights into these interactions by reviewing them in the PACE real-time dashboards and historical reports.

Microsoft Teams Status Sync:

PACE already enables agents to sync their Microsoft Teams statuses to Amazon Connect. Now, we also allow agents to sync their Amazon Connect statuses to Microsoft Teams, resulting in bi-directional sync between the two platforms. This innovative approach will increase productivity and reduce unwanted interruptions for agents who are Microsoft Teams users.

To help administrators manage this new functionality, we’ve added support for configuring which Microsoft Teams activities will prevent agents from being available for contact center interactions and which PACE activities will set agents to busy in Microsoft Teams. In addition, administrators will be able to better manage the underlying integration with enhancements such as the secret expiration indicator.

And There is More!

This release improves the underlying Dashboard, Lambda, and WebSocket frameworks for enhanced stability and cost savings. It enables supervisors to configure Microsoft Teams status syncing on a per-agent basis and adds retention policies for voicemails and 3rd party links. PACE also now supports rich text for both Canned Responses and Web Chat, as well as automatic email responses configured to proactively acknowledge your customer’s messages.

But we didn’t stop there. Agents will no longer be confused by seeing the Canned Responses tab on contacts that don’t support that functionality, and they will have a better experience when handling emails. Also, administrators will better understand PACE contact flows with the newly improved descriptions. Last but not least, we made multiple enhancements to the following pages on the Administrative Console:

Integrations (Teams)
Integrations (SMS)
Prompts Manager

Learn More

We’re an Amazon Connect Service Delivery Partner with more than 20 years of experience delivering customer engagement solutions. We offer unparalleled contact center experience to accelerate innovation with AWS and Amazon Connect. In addition, our cloud expertise enables us to create powerful solutions while maintaining business agility and flexibility, while our dedicated CRM and ERP practices ensure seamless integrations with legacy applications.

To learn more about what our experts are doing when it comes to customer engagement solutions and Amazon Connect and to get in touch with our team, visit our thought leadership hub!

PACE New Features: Email Routing, Queue Voicemail, and More!

Toni Milushev — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 19:52:06 +0000

Email Routing:

Prepare to ditch your email tools because out-of-the-box email routing for Amazon Connect is now generally available with PACE! This new addition to our ever-growing list of channels brings agents the seamless experience of handling email interactions directly from the PACE Agent Console. Now, agents can view email threads, respond with rich text, and send file attachments. At the same time, supervisors can review metrics associated with the interactions in historical reports and real-time dashboards. So with just a few configurations, your contact center can now leverage customizable email flows and skill-based routing to get your customers’ emails to the right agents!

Queue Voicemail:

We have expanded our voicemail options to now include Queue Voicemail in addition to Agent Voicemail! Offering callers the opportunity to leave voicemails is particularly useful when queue wait times are long or when no agents are available in a queue. Once a queue voicemail is recorded, PACE leverages skill-based routing to route the task to the appropriate agent to guarantee the best customer experience. Using the PACE Agent Console, the agent can listen to the voicemail, review its transcript, and directly call back the number with a click of a button.

And There is More!

One of our customers’ favorite features is the Contact Path Tab which displays how a caller navigated through the contact flow (IVR). We have now updated the tab’s functionality to show paths for tasks such as email and voicemail, in addition to the existing functionality for calls and chats. We have also improved the underlying performance of this feature.

Changes We’ve Made:

With this release, we enhanced the Queue Live View dashboard to display channel information, making it even easier to see which agents are handling what type of interactions. We also updated our underlying services to the latest versions and made multiple enhancements to the following pages:

Integrations
Reporting Configuration
User Management

Learn More

To learn more about what our experts are doing when it comes to customer engagement solutions and Amazon Connect and to get in touch with our team, visit our thought leadership hub!

PACE New Features: Queue Live View Dashboard, Customizable Roles and Permissions, and More!

Toni Milushev — Tue, 31 May 2022 15:29:02 +0000

Queue Live View Dashboard:

The Queue Live View Dashboard is here! Many of our customers requested this new dashboard template that allows them to see who is waiting in a queue so they can determine if a VIP caller has been waiting too long. Supervisors can use the Queue Live View Dashboard to see the phone numbers or usernames of customers in a queue and how long each person has been waiting. Additionally, we added an Active Contacts view that allows supervisors to determine who their agents are actively servicing and for how long, which will enable supervisors to determine if an agent is stuck on a difficult call.

Customizable Roles and Permissions:

We have expanded the PACE user management system to support custom roles and permissions. Administrators can now create tailored permissions that map to typical roles in a contact center. For example, Administrators can create custom roles for Supervisors that limit their access to the Agent Console and specific Dashboards, as usually Supervisors should not make changes to the underlying points of integrations. This level of granularity allows for more control over who can perform specific tasks and is a must-have feature for all contact center platforms.

And There is More!

In this release, we continued our focus on building the best out-of-the-box Real-Time Dashboard solution. We optimized real-time dashboards for scalability and added support for channel-specific reporting, which will come in particularly handy when creating custom reports for channels such as SMS. In addition, we improved the underlying security for dashboards and incorporated best practices for real-time data retention. Lastly, we enhanced some of the Contact Center Overview Dashboard metrics.

But this is not all! We are happy to announce that PACE now officially supports Google SSO as an identity provider.

Learn More

To learn more about what our experts are doing when it comes to customer engagement solutions and Amazon Connect and to get in touch with our team, visit our thought leadership hub!

PACE New Features: Inbound & Outbound SMS, Dynamic Agent Experience, and More!

Toni Milushev — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 19:59:03 +0000

SMS Messaging:

We expanded our supported list of channels to include inbound and outbound SMS! With this out-of-the-box integration, customers can text message with self-service contact flows and connect with agents if they require additional assistance. In addition, we have extended this functionality to allow customers to transition from voice interactions to SMS interactions when the call queue wait times are too long.

With outbound SMS, agents can perform customer outreach campaigns directly from the PACE Agent Console. This feature is also handy when an agent needs to summarize the details of a voice conversation for future customer reference. For example, while the agent speaks with a customer about a new shipping number for their order, the agent can now easily text the shipping number to the customer.

Dynamic Agent Experience:

Many platforms advertise customizable agent desktops, but PACE takes that to the next level! Our agent experience is now more dynamic than ever, with the ability to enable different applications based on the queues the agent is interacting with. For example, a call from the Support queue will enable the Ticket Creation application. On the other hand, a chat from the Sales queue will allow the agent to process a payment through the Payment application.

And There is More!

As promised in our last release, we continue to expand our real-time out-of-the-box dashboard templates. Supervisors can now see an overview of the contact center’s performance by looking at the Contact Center Overview dashboard and review queue-specific details using the Queue Overview dashboard. We also fulfilled our promise to expand the types of branded Web Chat interactive messages that we support to include a list picker with images and a time picker.

But this is not all! We now support file attachments for agents and Teams users on Microsoft Teams Chatbot interactions. In addition, the PACE version number is now viewable on the Administrative Console to help administrators determine what features are available on their deployments since we release features so quickly.

Changes We’ve Made:

In this release, we improved the underlying security for integrations and resolved a minor issue with the automatic chat translations language selector on the Web Chat widget. We also made minor changes to make the buttons on the Call Me Now, and Web Chat widgets have solid backgrounds. Plus, we alphabetically ordered the menu items on the Administrative Console and made multiple enhancements to the following pages:

Agent Console (Configure Queue Metrics)
Agent Console Settings
Agent Extensions
External Contacts
Lex Bot Management
Prompts Management

Learn More

To learn more and get in touch with our customer engagement practice, visit our Customer Engagement webpage!

PACE New Features: Microsoft Teams Chatbot, Real-Time Dashboards, and More!

Toni Milushev — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 11:55:52 +0000

Microsoft Teams Chatbot:

The first native Microsoft Teams chatbot for Amazon Connect is here! Our team has been hard at work developing this native Amazon Connect chatbot for Microsoft Teams that allows Teams users to interact seamlessly with contact center agents. Our new chatbot also supports Lex bot interactions to enable AI self-service options directly within Microsoft Teams. The best part of our integration is that the agent experience does not change; ultimately, this allows agents to manage all incoming customer conversations across voice, web chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Microsoft Teams!

Real-Time Dashboards:

In our last release, we enabled the building of real-time custom dashboards. In this release, we expand the available contact center metrics for custom dashboards and bring two out-of-the-box dashboard templates to help you get started even quicker:

Agent Dashboard – The Agent Dashboard allows supervisors to see their agents’ daily performance and provides an at-glance chart for supervisors to determine if additional staff is needed.
Contacts Dashboard – The Contacts Dashboard enables supervisors to drill down into the day’s dispositions (categories) for contacts and survey responses.

This is just the beginning of our dashboard template offerings. Be on the lookout for the Contact Center Overview and Queue Overview dashboards in the next release.

And There is More!

Businesses continuously aim to improve their customers’ experiences, including their web chat interactions. For that reason, our low-code web chat widget now supports branded interactive messages that allow customers to select from a list of options with the click of a button. In addition, our web chat now has advanced customization capabilities that enable it to match the branding of your website no matter the website’s complexity. In our next release, we will expand the list of supported interactive messages to include a time picker and a list picker with images.

Changes We’ve Made:

In this release, we improved the underlying Customer Profiles and Wisdom integrations resulting in better performance of the PACE Agent Console. Plus, we added enhancements to the following pages on the Administrative Console:

Agent Console Settings
Agent Extensions
External Contacts
Lex Bot Management
Reporting Configuration
Third-Party Integrations
Web Chat Management

Learn More

To learn more and get in touch with our customer engagement practice, visit our Customer Engagement webpage!

PACE New Features: Facebook and Instagram Messaging, Customizable Dashboards, and More!

Toni Milushev — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:23:14 +0000

Facebook and Instagram Messaging:

PACE now supports Facebook and Instagram as inbound messaging channels! This brand-new integration allows agents to directly handle customer interactions from both Meta platforms for a seamless customer experience. In addition, you can now configure Lex bots to provide your social media customers with self-service options, which will increase customer satisfaction. This integration marks the beginning of our planned expansion of channels for this year. Stay tuned for the upcoming announcements on Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and more!

Customizable Dashboards:

Contact center data is a valuable asset that helps contact center managers decide how to improve day-to-day operations and increase customer satisfaction. However, that can be difficult to do with raw data absent of meaningful context. For that reason, we are now enabling managers to build customizable dashboards and view them directly in PACE. The dashboards can be configured with multiple visualizations to provide managers with the insights that matter most in driving change.

New Web Chat Customizations:

We are excited to announce that our low-code webchat widget can now be placed anywhere on your pages using the new positioning configurations. In addition, we expanded customization options for the message box, start button, and survey interactions. However, we understand that having so many customization options can become overwhelming. For that reason, we also added the ability to preview the widget before it has been published, and standardized multiple configurations, such as the icon sizes.

And There is More!

If you find it as difficult as we do to configure Quick Connects for internal agent transfers, then you will appreciate the new “PACE Internal Transfers” contact flow. This new pre-built contact flow allows your agents to transfer calls to each other based on pre-configured extensions. We have also added support for multiple direct inward dialing scenarios that are described in greater detail here: Direct Inward Dialing (DID) for Internal Agent Transfer with Amazon Connect

Changes We’ve Made:

This latest PACE release also includes multiple changes and optimizations. First, we integrated the Voicemail UI technology, significantly improving performance and stability, and we optimized the caching mechanism on the Closed Message Management page. Next, we reduced the PACE deployment time by over 60% and updated our backend frameworks, such as Log4j, to the latest versions. Finally, we also added pre-built alerts for all PACE contact flows and improved our logging technology.

Below are a few more items we added and improved:

New localization configurations for the Agent Console Dashboard
New validation for Slot Names on the Intents Management page
Improved Canned Responses formatting and disabled Canned Responses for voice interactions
Improved Lex Bot processing of multi-language inputs
Updated Calling Options dropdown on the Call Me Now Widget
Updated breadcrumbs for the Translation Terminology page

Learn More

To learn more and get in touch with our customer engagement practice, visit our Customer Engagement webpage!

9 Pitfalls Marketo Docs Didn’t Prepare You For: Integrating with Facebook Lead Ads via LaunchPoint

Zack Everett — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 17:00:02 +0000

Facebook Lead Ads are nothing new to Marketo users. This is a fairly common LaunchPoint integration, and for good reason: Facebook is a prolific source of new leads, and Adobe Marketo Engage is arguably the best product for tracking and nurturing new acquisitions.

The documentation for this integration is straightforward enough – it even calls out common pitfalls. But if, like me, you ever find yourself working with a complex client that is already using Facebook Lead Ads before integrating with Marketo, you’re likely to get snagged by a thicket of thorny issues that have no easily Google-able solutions. I’m going to lay out the common pitfalls and foolproof ways around them so you can engage with your client – and avoid time-consuming errors.

The 9 Pitfalls – and How to Avoid Them:

1. My instance doesn’t even have Facebook Lead Ads?

Did you know that instances with dedicated server pods do not come with the Facebook Lead Ads LaunchPoint integration out of the box? Because I didn’t! Before planning your workflow with your client, confirm that “Facebook Lead Ads” is an available Service within your instance’s LaunchPoint.

If “Facebook Lead Ads” does not appear in your Marketo instance, you will need to contact your Customer Success Manager to have this service activated. There are no add-on costs, but many new instances do not come with this integration activated out of the box.

2. You need “Full Control” – not just Admin access – on Facebook Business Manager.

Let your client know that you will need a Facebook user that is listed as an Admin user role with Full Control in the Facebook Business account’s Page settings. There are two types of Facebook Business Manager users: Admin and Business, but it’s not enough to designate an Admin user – the business administrator assigning these roles will need to grant this user EVERY permission available.

Do this by going to business.facebook.com/settings, and navigate to Users > People > (User’s Name) > Assets > (Assigned Business Page). Toggle “on” every available permission, and at the bottom under “Full control” setting, toggle “Manage Page” on.

Why is this a potential pitfall? This setting may require a justification conversation with your client’s social media team, as this is the maximum level of control available for Facebook Pages.

3. Even after successfully finishing your LaunchPoint integration in Marketo, two obscure settings can block leads from passing to your instance.

Explicitly agree to the Terms of Service: Go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/leadgen/tos and make sure that the connecting Facebook user agrees to the Terms of Service.

Make sure Marketo AdBridge is “Active”: In https://business.facebook.com, go to Business Manager > Pages > (Name of Page) > Publishing Tools > Leads Setup. Under Connected CRMs, confirm that Marketo AdBridge is listed AND set to Active. Sometimes this will be listed but not activated.

4. Test Forms will not do. You need a live form, and that can feel weird to clients.

Let your client know that you will require a live (published) form – an unpublished test will not suffice. Your client and/or their social media vendor(s) may be accustomed to performing 100% of their setup and testing before publishing a live form. Further, they may already have a CRM connected to their Facebook Lead Ads account and insist that you do not need to do this because another CRM does not require it.

Depending on your client, this may be easy (one person can post a form for organic conversions), or it may be difficult (multiple colleagues may need to be involved between the Business Account, the Facebook Ads Manager, a financial authorizer to approve a nominal ad spend in the Facebook Ads Manager to publish the form). In my recent case, the client needed to go through several channels to have authorize a $100 ad fee just to publish the form. Letting your client know that a live form is a requirement can help them get ahead of any administrative hurdles like this.

5. Add any new Marketo fields before the integration action to enable your field mapping in one fell swoop.

Upon integrating Facebook Lead Ads with Marketo, you will be prompted to map the fields. Ask for all the form fields they intend to use so that there are no surprises when you map fields from Facebook to Marketo. Most Facebook fields are String type, but not all.

This will give you time to figure out what fields you will need to map to Marketo, especially if you need to create new custom fields and assign the correct the field types.

If a client is giving you their Facebook account login and password to authorize the integration in Marketo, they may want to be present while you set up the integration. If you are not prepared for the field mapping exercise, you will have to edit the integration later.

6. Custom Questions: Good. Conditional Questions: Bad.

Confirm if any Custom Questions will be used; understand that responses to custom questions will be stored in String type data fields.

Custom questions are powerful but can be destructive to the LaunchPoint integration. Custom Questions require a large amount of data in Facebook’s system, so they should be used conservatively. If too many Custom Questions are used, Facebook can produce a “500 status code” error and not pass any fields to Marketo because there is just too much data to pass.

Confirm that the form does not include Conditional Questions in their Facebook Instant Forms. Conditional questions only appear on a form when a certain condition is met (e.g., when Country is selected, a field called “State” may appear, or a field called “Province” may appear). Marketo does not support conditional questions from Facebook – the fields simply will not be visible to Marketo and you will not be able to map them.

7. No cloned Facebook Instant Forms, especially if you use Custom Questions.

Ask your client if the Facebook Instant Form they wish to use is duplicated anywhere (even in an Archived form), or if it is possible the form will be duplicated in the future.

Custom Questions appear the same to users as the actual field name (e.g., a question like “Do you have a dog?” will have a data field labeled “Do you have a dog”). Each form will have its own fields for custom questions, and a repeated question means a repeated data field.

If your client has cloned Facebook Instant Forms using the same custom question, the LaunchPoint integration will produce a “500 status code” error because Marketo will see two (or more) duplicate data fields from Facebook and be unable to respond to Facebook’s call. This will result in Facebook refusing to pass data from this field to Marketo. (Tip: If your field mapping table is blank when authorizing LaunchPoint, run Chrome Inspector, select Network, and see if any red lines show up with “500 status code” error. This may be a cause of the error.)

8. There is only one taboo question on Facebook Instant Forms…

Beware: Facebook thinks it’s rude to ask a lead their age. Any default Facebook fields (such as City, First Name, Zip Code, etc.) can be referenced and even overwritten in Facebook Forms, except for one: Date of Birth. Facebook does not allow users to overwrite this field under any circumstances. Moreover, Facebook reserves the right to suspend a user’s Form if they ask this question separately (such as “What is your date of birth?” as a Custom Question).

Not even the social vendor in my recent case was aware of this hazard, so this is a small way you can add value to your client relationship.

9. Testing the integration with your client: Proving that it works.

This isn’t really a pitfall, but Marketo does not provide recommendation on testing that leads pass to Marketo – so I’ll help you get a head start.

Build a test campaign in your Marketo instance. I recommend using the Smart List trigger “Fills Out Facebook Lead Ads Form” and selecting your form name; then use the Flow steps “Add to [Static] List”, and Send Alert to yourself (any email asset you wish – the point is that you see this coming in real time); set “Send to” to “None” and “Other Email” to your email address. In the Static List I mentioned, create a View that includes all of the Facebook fields you wish to test, so you can quickly see if there were any errors in your field mapping once a lead enters Marketo.

Fill out the first form with at least one lead that already exists in your Marketo Database in the same partition as your Facebook Lead Ads program. The Email field must match. Marketo will not be able to detect the Facebook Form name within the Smart List trigger or filter called “Fill(ed/s) out Facebook Lead Ads Form” unless an existing member of the Marketo Database is listed as a Lead on the Facebook side.

Once you have that one test lead, you can add as many other test leads as you wish – the additional test leads do not need to already exist in the Marketo Database.

If your client wishes to use the native Facebook Lead Ads Testing tool, that is fine but it will not help you confirm your field mappings are correct. To test through this tool, go to https://developers.facebook.com/tools/lead-ads-testing while logged into the connecting Facebook account. Select your Page and Form name, then “Create lead”. Shortly after clicking this, you should see a new lead in your Marketo static list called “” in each native field except Email, and for none of the Custom Question fields. If you don’t see one of these type leads in Marketo, look back in the Facebook Lead Ads Testing Tool under “Webhook Subscription for the Selected Page” section of the page where you created the test lead. You will see whether Facebook labeled the test as a success or failure. If it failed, you will want to send that detailed information to your Marketo Support team.

Good luck!

I hope your Facebook Lead Ads integration goes so smoothly that you won’t need any of this information. Honestly, they usually do. But if you run into any issues, I hope that my hard-earned lessons can help you through them.

Look for more Marketo content in Perficient Blogs.

Trust Must Be Earned at Every Point During the Client Experience

Scott Albahary — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 14:01:46 +0000

Whether you think Facebook users don’t understand what information of theirs is subject to disclosure (user’s fault) or Facebook needs to provide more education and acknowledgement of risk to its users (Facebook’s fault), no one can argue it’s been a rocky year for the company as it works to regain user trust.

In the rush to digitize their businesses and implement advanced technologies, financial services firms should take a cautionary tale away from Facebook’s experience. Regardless of how mundane the information may be, clients of financial services firms believe they will have their information protected. This is not just a security or risk management issue – it has become about assuring consumers that the trust they place in their financial services providers is warranted. Once that trust is gone, it’s gone. And you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.

Trust must be earned every day, at every touchpoint, and during every transaction in the client experience. If we focus on just technology like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics without adequately addressing the overall client experience that makes consumers feel like they have a relationship with an organization they can trust, we will miss a golden opportunity to truly revolutionize the financial services industry.

Facecoin is Not the Only Option

David Callaghan — Mon, 14 May 2018 13:48:42 +0000

Is Facebook getting ready to launch a Facecoin ICO? Probably not. A number of outlets are reporting that Facebook is planning on launching its own cryptocurrency, but that may just be a particularly narrow interpretation of blockchain from the people reporting this story. At this point, we do know there is movement at Facebook related to blockchain and blockchain could one day play a pivotal role in the Facebook stack. Just not where people may think.

Morgan Bellar of the corporate development team was apparently the first person at Facebook to seriously look into how blockchain could be used on the platform. Her work with Andreessen Horowitz and Medium seem to show that she looks at technology from a strategic perspective. It would seem that her work progressed beyond the aspirational to the practical sufficiently to possibly have been a factor in some high-level changes.

David Marcus, former president of PayPal, is stepping down from Messenger to lead a new blockchain initiative. “I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.”, he said in the post announcing the move. Because he is an early bitcoin investor and is on the board of digital currency exchange Coinbase, some people may be thinking that a Facebook cryptocurrency offering would be a natural progression. You would have to discount statements he has made to the contrary and his support of Facebook’s decision to ban cryptocurrency ads including bitcoin.

Let’s assume that Morgan Bellar has identified some key strategic initiatives at Facebook that could potentially benefit from a distributed ledger and bitcoin investor with a deep knowledge of payments is leading the initiative with all options on the table. Where could they other than crypto?

A very logical alternative could be to use a distributed ledger to help make their byzantine (smile) privacy system more transparent and accountable. Certainly, that has some visibility right about now. Use cases like identity verification or tracking advertising sales also come to mind. There is also value in keeping an eye on a technology that could one day pose an existential crisis. It’s probably not OpenBook or Telegram, but not all social networks live forever.

How to Choose a Facebook Advertising Objective

Sarah Summit — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 15:56:33 +0000

Advertising on Facebook can be quite costly, especially if you are unsure how to set the ad up properly or you don’t know how to select the best option for your particular objective. In order to get your ad to the right target audience at a reasonable price, you have to ensure the objective of your campaign is chosen correctly.
That starts with learning more about Facebook advertising objectives in general and reviewing a simple but detailed comparison of the different types of objectives you get to choose from.

Selecting Your Objective 101

When you decide you want to run a Facebook advertising campaign, think of the main objective or goal you have in mind. Are you launching a new product and want to spread awareness? Are you offering a discount for a promotion? Are you looking for lead generation?
Really think about what your goal is since this is the key component of the ad campaign process, which will set your ad up for success and provide you with a solid return on investment (ROI).
Selecting your Facebook advertising objectives is the first step to campaign creation because it’s that important — everything else follows suit. There are three different options to choose from:

Awareness — Objectives that generate interest in your product or service. These are more top of funnel objectives.
Consideration — Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business and look for more information about it. These are more middle of funnel objectives.
Conversions — Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service. These are more bottom of funnel objectives.

Under each of those three objectives, there are subcategories you can drill further on. Under the Awareness objective, you have brand awareness and reach. Under the Consideration objective, you have the options of traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, and lead generation. And under the Conversion objective, you have conversions, product catalog sales, and store visits to select from.
Once you select the objective that fits best with your overall business goal you can continue setting up your ad campaign based on that particular objective set.

Your Guide to Facebook Objectives

Maybe you read that, and you are still unsure which objective your campaign goal falls under. Maybe you read that and are conflicted since there are a couple of different options that fit the campaign, which is a common case.
Well, here are a couple of different scenarios to help you choose the right Facebook advertising objectives:

Goal — to acquire new customers

This goal is all about getting new customers to either check out your online store, follow your social page or subscribe to your newsletter. So your ad objective could be best suited under the following options:

Conversions — drive them to your online store
Lead generation — get newsletter subscribers and followers
Engagement — promote your brand and events
Messages — start a conversation with people to engage them with your brand

Goal — to drive sales to your products/services

This is a very common goal for most Facebook ads since companies and startups are running ads to drive their sales. In this case, there are several different options to choose from:

Engagement — drive an offer or deal
Conversion — drive them to your online store
Message — start a conversation with people to engage them with your brand
Lead generation — capture the person’s information for targeted offers

Test and Learn Mentality

There is a lot of pressure to get your Facebook ad right since you are spending valuable time and money to do so. However, you may not always get it just right the first time. There are a lot of options and tactics to choose from, and it’s okay not to get it right the first time. That’s when you can test and learn from the type of ad campaign you are running and adjust accordingly the next time around.
Every audience is different and will respond to your unique messages differently. Take a look at your cost per click and cost per conversion to ensure your spending is on target and receiving a positive ROI. If not, play around with the type of objective you set up and optimize your next campaign a bit differently so you can receive the type of conversions you are aiming for.

Your 2018 Facebook Lead Generation Plan: 5 Tips for Better Leads

Sarah Summit — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 15:00:27 +0000

The first quarter of 2017 showed US digital ad spend is up 23 percent to $19.6 billion. And Facebook and Google are expected to pull in 63 percent of US digital ad spend in 2017.
When it comes to Facebook advertising spend specifically, eMarketer reported that “2017 will be the first year when Facebook captures more than one in five US digital ad dollars. The company’s total digital revenues in the US will grow 40.4% to $17.37 billion, pushing its share of the US digital ad business to 20.9%.” Facebook will bank $15.28 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2017. 2018 is promising to bring in even more revenue for the social media giant.
Facebook ads will continue to be a top way for brands to advertise their goods and services in 2018—and for good reason, too. Brands can use Facebook ads as a form of lead generation by pushing out messages to encourage potential customers to sign up for their emails or newsletters, thus capturing critical customer data.

But with an influx of ads hitting the screens of social media users every day, you need to ensure your ads are actually generating the types of qualified leads you are hoping for.
That means starting with a savvy Facebook lead generation ad plan and outline. In order to properly construct your Facebook lead generation ads, you’ll have to take note of the following campaign best practices:

1. Define and Narrow Your Audience

Facebook ads allow you to drill down on who you specifically want to target. If your ideal customer is a woman living in Texas between the ages of 25-35 who has an interest in yoga, you can set-up these specific guidelines.
It’s important to define and narrow your audience so you can spend your dollars efficiently by targeting potential customers who are the most likely group to purchase your product or be interested in your brand. There is no point in “spraying and praying” your ads to everyone and anyone hoping you will get great lead generation—that’s expensive and a waste of time.

2. Make the Most of Your Budget

Budget is important, especially if you are running a small business with limited funds. It’s easy to make a costly mistake when setting up your budget for your Facebook lead generation ads. Here are some options to consider when trying to figure out which is right for your lead generation campaign:

Set a daily budget, which will cap the number of clicks, views, etc. per day and keep costs low
Set a lifetime budget, which will be a bucket of money until it runs out
Automatic bid, which allows Facebook to set up your bid that helps you to get results at the best price
Manual, which is where you enter your bid on what results are worth to you
Bid high enough to get reach for your ad, but not too high that you are overpaying

3. Creative is Key

With thousands of messages and images penetrating a single social media user per day, you need to set your ad apart. You can do so by having top-notch creative. Grab a potential customer’s attention with engaging headlines, captivating images, and short blurbs. Having it be mobile friendly is a must.
You can decide the type of creative that is best for your specific brand and ad campaign, whether it’s a carousel of photos, a video, or a single image. Also, be sure to give a desirable reason for your potential customers to opt-in to what you’re advertising. Offer them a coupon, give them a discount, provide some type of incentive, etc., to sweeten the deal and get more clicks.

4. Create a Lead Form and Then Use the Information

Create a lead form to ask specific questions, but be sure to ask only questions you truly need. You don’t want to ask so many questions that a potential customer will bow out from answering due to the length.
And once you receive results from your lead form, make sure you’re actually using this information to your benefit. Follow up with your leads as soon as you can, or retarget them in future ad campaigns.

5. Determine What’s It Worth To You

Facebook lead generation ads are a great way to build your customer base and increase your sales. As long as you follow the guidelines and set your ads up properly, you’ll be fine. When in doubt, think about how much one lead is worth to you. If you’re selling a product that is $100, you wouldn’t spend $200 trying to capture one lead. You would likely want to spend under $15-$20, so that you’re still turning a fair profit.

Please Don’t Tell Me Social Media Doesn’t Work

Eugene Sefanov — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 14:27:44 +0000

I was listening to Bloomberg on the radio today and heard a segment that I knew I had to share. I knew I had to share it because it was a topic that continues to be discussed and debated. In fact, I had similar conversations with two business owners in the last two weeks.

Social media. Does it actually work?

Let me start by sharing the first conversation that I two weeks ago with my barber. He’s been a barber for over a decade, but recently opened his own shop about 20 minutes from where I live. It’s a little more than I’d like to travel to get cleaned up, but it’s worth it. I’ll tell you why in a minute. But first, let me tell you how I found him. On Instagram. He’s all over it. Photos of his cuts are plastered all over his account, along with at least a dozen hashtags in each post.

So, I was impressed with the haircuts I saw. I knew he could fix me up. Was that enough to send me on the 20-minute drive every two weeks? Probably not, but there’s another aspect to his business that got me hooked. I could schedule an appointment online. Playing the waiting game, not to mention the risk of not getting the guy I want, is a pet peeve of mine. While I found on him on Instagram, he secured my business with the ability to book online.

I frequently ask business owners how they obtain their clients. Not surprisingly, I’m not the only one who started going to my barber because of his social media presence. He recently told me how Gordon Hayward’s wife found him on Instagram. Since then, the NBA star has been a frequent customer. In fact, Bleacher Report recently highlighted his move away from Great Clips.

I shared the story with a friend who is a top real estate agent for Century 21. He just came back from a sales event in the Bahamas, where he was able to learn and relax. He said a variety of sessions revolved around the importance of social media. My friend isn’t active on social media, although he’s finally beginning to see the value through the stories he hears. It’s not too late to start.

Now, let me get back to the specific segment on Bloomberg I heard. It was about how ultra-luxury car dealers were selling their cars. It appears Instagram is a big channel for sales. One of the folks highlighted in the story attributes $2 million worth of car sales, during the first half of 2017 alone, to Instagram. He’s certain there are even more sales that were likely supported by his social media activity.

While Instagram and other social media platforms can lead to sales top-of-mind positioning, the companies who leverage them best, are creating great experiences for their customers. To put this in perspective, take the car dealer I mentioned. They built a green room with video production equipment that allows clients to take pictures and videos of their new cars for posting. Talk about maximizing social media.

The examples I just gave you are relevant to all industries. I can give you plenty of examples of how your company can be leveraging social media to build relationships with prospects and customers, and at the end of the day, sell more products and services.

Look, it’s not easy to do. It takes time and resources to make it work. And obviously, the effort required directly relates to the type of products and services you sell. In some cases, you’ll need a strategy in place. In some, you’ll need to make sure you’re following complex regulations. In others, you can just post and not overthink it.

There’s no silver bullet when it comes to leveraging social media. But, please don’t tell me that social media doesn’t work. It may be difficult to prove, but it works.