Welcome to the CMBA Newsletter!
Just as one season is moving into another weather-wise, many of us are moving into new seasons of life: welcoming new family members, supporting parents or adult children who are ill or struggling, seeing a nest begin to empty, changing jobs, moving, and more. If you are moving into a difficult season in your life, remember to rest and take care of yourself.
In this issue of our monthly newsletter, you will learn about a fun blog challenge for the month of October and about using Facebook ads to promote your blog.
New Members
The following blogs joined CMBA since our last issue. Do visit their sites and share an encouraging word.
PLUM – God’s Design for Sex – Corwin Wong
The Pursuit of Influence – Harold Arnold
Marriage God’s Way – Scott LaPierre
Please check your listing on the member’s page to make sure that it is accurate and up to date. If it needs to be changed, send an email to Chris at chris@forgivenwife.com.
It’s Time for a Blog Challenge!
The blog challenge this fall is to write a post related to the picture below during the month of October.
The rules are:
- Your post should relate to the image above.
- You must give credit to Kate Aldrich Photography, along with a link to her site: http://katealdrichphotography.blogspot.com/. Kate and her husband Brad blog at One Flesh Marriage.
We will provide you with a blog button and additional guidelines in the September newsletter. You’ll find out how can share your post with other CMBA members–and be entered into a drawing to win a marriage, writing, or blogging resource from The Marriage Bed.
How Do I . . . ?
5 Tips for Using Facebook Ads for Your Blog
By Keelie Reason, Love Hope Adventure
Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with Facebook ads and their effectiveness. I’ve had hit and miss luck with the ad campaigns I’ve put together, but I recently took a class that has helped me understand more.
I reached out to Bernie Martin, the gentleman that led the online Facebook webinar, to share with a few insights.
Here’s what he said about Facebook Marketing.
It allows you to get your content in front of new people that are in your target audience through a Facebook ad. Because Facebook is tracking the behavior and information of everyone on Facebook…you can now narrow down your target audience.
You can target people by:
- age
- gender
- location
- relationship status
- income (US only)
- home owners/ renters (US only)
- the books and magazines people read
- job titles
- and the list goes on…
The marketing capabilities are endless when it comes to Facebook Advertising, but remember this one thing… GIVE VALUE!
In addition to this information, during our training, Martin shared these 5 tips for Facebook ads.
1. Know What You Can Promote on Facebook
My very first ad campaign was denied because I was trying to promote a sexy bedroom game. Facebook has rules of what you can promote and what they will deny. Get familiar with the ad policies you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/. As marriage bloggers, we will have to make sure we are paying to promote things that are within these guidelines.
2. Know When to Boost a Post and When to Use Ads Manager
Martin shared the difference between boosting a post and creating an ad in ads manager:
Most people have tried “boosting” a post by using the “boost post” button on their business page. This is a very simple and easy way to create an ad. Although, this is a very limited way of creating an ad and I only suggest doing it this way to target people that like your page…this way you can reach more than the 5-10% audience for a very small price.
You can use ads manager to create an ad that doesn’t appear on your timeline. These types of ads can accomplish many things such as promote clicks to your website or awareness of your page. Boosting a post from within your timeline is a good way to get more of your followers to see the post, but not good to bring new people to your content.
3. Select the Right Images
There was a time when Facebook had strict policies on the number of words that you can put on your images for ads. While they no longer have those policies in place, what Bernie has found is that people respond best to images that are void of words.
You can test your images by running the same ad with different pictures and determine which performed better.
4. Install a Pixel Tracking Code on Your Website
Until I took the Facebook class, I didn’t understand what a pixel tracking code was. You can have Facebook generate a code for you specifically that you place on your website. This code will then track everyone that visits your website and can be used to target those audiences with your ads.
For example, I’ve put a pixel tracking code on some of my most popular website pages. Then I can create ads for that specific audience that is interested in my website and the content on those specific pages.
5. Just Try Things
Experimenting is key when it comes to running ads. Try different wording, different images, and different target audiences. When you experiment with the ads, you will eventually figure out what works and what doesn’t.
If you want to find out the next time Bernie is offering a training webinar, be sure to email him at this address Media@mysocialmediapartner.com.
Social Media
Are you on social media? Follow CMBA!
- Pinterest (If you would like to be added to CMBA’s collaborative Christian Marriage and Sex board, email Bonny at pearlmail3@gmail.com.)
Thanks for always doing a great newsletter.
Keelie Reason recently posted…Tips for a Great Vow Renewal
Who does the newsletter? I sent an e-mail, but I guess it didn’t reach the right person.
The link for my blog is wrong. There’s a quotation mark on the end that makes it a broken link. It should be https://scottlapierre.org/blog/ but instead it’s https://scottlapierre.org/blog/”
Thanks,
Scott