Why Live Shopping Is The Future Of Ecommerce

/in , /by

Brick-and-mortar retail was a significant revenue-driver as recently as 2019, but Covid-19 has changed everything. The pandemic has already accelerated levels of e-commerce growth not previously expected until 2022 at minimum. Live shopping is coming up as the latest Ecommerce trend that combines advances to technology and social media channels with the familiar, quaintly nostalgic concept of at-home shopping. Envision the Home Shopping Network (which continues to be quite successful) but streamable on mobile phones through websites and on social media apps such as Instagram with influencers that help to sell goods.

Onimod Global experts are here to break down what live shopping is and why it will be crucial to the success of your Ecommerce strategy in 2021 and coming years.

What exactly is live shopping?

Livestream shopping is a natural confluence of several current tech trends—streaming, influencers, social, commerce—and offers companies a new approach based on an old shopping trend to consumers’ hearts and wallets. Think back to when the Home Shopping Channel began to appear on televisions, first across North America and then worldwide. Previously catered to housewives, the live shopping on channels QVC and HSC allowed women to shop from the comfort of their couches just by calling in to the show.

Several decades and gender role changes later, live shopping provides a convenience that has now been completely taken over by ecommerce and the ability to do it all from one’s computer or mobile phone instead. Live shopping provides a real-time feedback loop for all consumers tuned in, including reviews and recommendations of products. Influencers and customers sharing among followers and friends, and asking questions about the product on the platform in use is an important piece of the puzzle for brands to embrace “social commerce.” As we’ve already mentioned, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of live shopping, giving ample space and opportunity for it to reach customers in North America and Europe. Beyond fashion and beauty, live shopping can be extended into many different types of categories. For example, cars and houses and all sorts of accessories sold in a variety of industries are emerging in popularity.

Live shopping platforms

Live shopping used to come from one customer and one customer only: the ones watching tv at home. Now the landscape has shifted entirely, where live shopping can happen on a buyer’s phone or computer, and, yes, streamed on their smart television, too.

This list of already existing streaming platforms from Shopify is a great place to start looking if you’re interested in offering live shopping:

The most important and largest platform to start live shopping for your business is of course, Instagram. Instagram live shopping is used in the following ways:

  • Product demos: Educate and engage buyers. Test the products for interested customers, answering any questions they may have.
  • Collaboration: Give buyers authentic reviews. Bring on other creators or brands with an influencer to give a level of insight and realistic product presentation to the process.
  • Human interaction: Invite buyers to participate. All of these options allow for your buyer to participate in the testing, learning, and shopping experience in a way that straight Ecommerce doesn’t necessarily provide space for.

The future of Ecommerce

Live shopping brings a humanized element to an otherwise human-less experience. One thing Ecommerce always had going for it was the fast and easy process, however no one had yet figured out a way to bring interaction to the table to match the USP of convenience. COVID-19 catapulted Ecommerce and online shopping in this direction, with no signs of slowing down.

Though a post-COVID life is hopefully coming soon, and whatever version of “normal living” is sure to resume soon after, live shopping—like many other new or adapted consumer behaviors and technologies—is likely to remain a pillar of the buying experience.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

How to Maximize Lead Generation via Facebook Posts and Ads

/in , , /by

With billions of people using Facebook each month, the opportunity for lead generation is endless. Facebook recently shared tips on how to maximize lead generation via Facebook posts and ads to help businesses boost the performance of their Facebook marketing efforts. These tips cover the four critical elements of effective lead generation, intending to help marketers formulate a better strategy for reaching and connecting with potential customers. 

1. Lead Capture

According to Facebook, one of the keys to capturing leads is ensuring that your audience clearly understands what they’re signing up for. They should also clearly understand what makes your product or service worthy of giving their personal email address or other information. Being upfront and having clear communication from the get-go helps ensure that those that are converting are a part of your target audience. 

2. Lead Magnets 

Facebook’s second tip is that brands should adopt the “give before asking” mentality by offering users something in return for their information. This could be a one-sheeter, eBook, discount code, free trial, newsletter, webinar, etc. By providing value upfront you establish trust and a connection with your audience, leading to a better relationship and more brand-loyalty in the future.

3. Landing Page 

Landing pages are a critical element to ads. It’s important that once you get a user to click through your post or ad, that your landing page matches what you’ve explained. It’s also important that it has a quality design and effectively collects the information you need. Facebook advises brands to test different versions of landing pages to see which have the high click-through and conversion rates. They also suggest that you should consider setting up a custom audience to then retarget those who have clicked through, but not yet converted. 

4. Lead Scoring

Facebook’s final tip is to create a lead scoring matrix in order to better customize their outreach efforts and prioritize leads based on past engagement. For example, downloading a white paper is worth more points than unsubscribing from your email list. This can help you save time and effort by only contacting the leads that are more likely to convert first. The way you go about establishing your lead scoring table will vary, depending on your offer and goals. But the idea is that by segmenting each of your leads will allow you to better focus the outreach for each of your strategies. 

Final Thoughts 

Lead generation is key to maximizing your Facebook marketing efforts. The more insights you can gather, the better you can hone in on where the right people are for every campaign. Either by focusing on groups directly or using them for Lookalike’s to expand your research. At Onimod Global, we’re experts in digital marketing, specializing in Facebook Ads. If you need additional assistance in the Facebook ad space, or any area of digital marketing, we can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of social media and digital marketing. Learn more about who we are and what we do, and contact us here today. 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here.

5 Google Ads Campaign Tips for 2021

/in , /by

Is your 2021 resolution to improve your Google Ads campaigns and increase your overall business profitability? As marketers, it’s important to maintain control over our strategies and campaigns. Google’s optimizations are not always in the best interests of our business, they also don’t exactly know the context of our brands. To succeed in the upcoming year, we must try new things and change our strategies and tactics. We have to integrate more data, retain control over automatic Google optimizations and fight against increased competition. 

Here are 5 things to do and focus on in 2021 to improve your Google Ads campaigns. 

1. Have keyword intent. 

Google always favors consistency with campaigns. The more similar performance your keywords have, usually the better the campaign will perform overall. When selecting keywords, user intent should be the top priority around which we group our keywords. 

Users who have searched for the name of your brand are obviously more likely to convert once they make it to your website. So, any keywords relating to your brand should be grouped together since they bring the best CPA and ROAS. Any keywords mentioning “price” or “discount” are strong signals of purchasing intent as well. Phrases including “specifications,” “size” or “warranty” are important to bid on, but CTR and CR are likely to be lower, so you want to reduce your bid. 

If you want to improve results, it’s important to visualize and quantify areas in which you can improve things and find new business. The trick is to structure your account appropriately. This can be a tedious and complicated process, but there are a number of tools that can assist you. 

2. Declutter your campaigns. 

Keeping a close eye on all aspects of your campaigns can seem overwhelming, yet it can be key to success. Any underperforming spend represents the portion of your Google Ads investment that either has a low quality score or isn’t converting enough. To reduce waste spend, it’s important to focus on two Google reports: Quality Score and Search Query Report. This will help you analyze the search terms that trigger your ads and identify where to increase and decrease spend. 

3. Identify and double down on your strengths. 

It’s a common misconception that bidding on new keywords automatically leads to increasing sales. While this is sometimes true, it’s more effective to make sure you have the maximum market share on the keywords that are your most profitable, beyond just branded traffic. 

The best way to ensure you don’t miss out on any opportunity is to monitor your impression share on Google Ad SEPRs. Lost impressions relate to missed opportunities on searches related to the keywords you bid on. Best practice includes focusing on your top 10 campaigns and checking the market shares of your competitors, monitoring closely when you’re not shown and identifying why that might be. 

4. Use high quality creatives. 

Ad copy and visuals obviously play a huge role in your campaigns. Users are exposed to more than 6000 ads daily, so standing out and grabbing attention is essential. The quality of creative weighs up to 80% in the performance of Facebook Ads campaigns and the case is similar for Google Ads. Optimizing ads and creatives includes giving in to statistics. It’s impossible to know for sure which creatives will perform best without testing multiple versions. It’s also important to continuously test ads. Even when you identify a clear winner in one test, create new versions to continue to test to ensure you’re always increasing your ad performance. 

5. Spend smarter, not more. 

Spend should be allocated not only on keywords or placement levels, but user profiles also need to be taken into account. Data is gathered from users’ declarative info, when and where they’re active online, as well as Google Analytics shared data and inferred data from previous search queries. It’s important to take these user profiles into consideration and make bid adjustments to your most valuable audiences and criteria. 

More from Onimod Global 

At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of Google Ads. If you’re looking for digital marketing assistance, we can help your business reach its full digital potential. Interested in growing digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Google Core Update December: First Insights

/in , /by

Google’s December 2020 Core update was a notable change according to several data providers. The Google core update is now completely finished rolling out as of December 16, 2020 and while the December core update is not figured out completely, experts at Onimod Global wanted to share significant first insights that can be made so far based on first data.

What is a core update?

Google changes their algorithm on an almost daily basis.  A couple of times a year, they release significant changes to their core search algorithms and systems that are much more noticeable. Potentially in the past, your website may have experience a decline in traffic following a Google core update. This most likely is related to the fact that Google’s algorithms have determined that there are other pages on the web that are more relevant and helpful than yours. It can be frustrating to SEO’s to not know how Google does this.

How search works

  1. Organize content on the internet:
    As Google crawls the internet and all of the web pages that can be searched in a search engine, they organize the pages in an index. They take note of key signals on each page such as which keywords are on the page, how up to date the page is, and more.
  2. What is the meaning of the user’s search query:
    In order to know what to recommend, Google needs to understand exactly what the user means with their search query. Algorithms determine whether a query is looking for fresh, new content or not. Some words in a query may be easy for Google to decipher. This has become quite advanced with the featured snippets showing you a small graph or snippet of information that is a fast answer to a search query.
  3. What pages are the most helpful:
    Once Google understands the intent behind a query, their goal is to return web pages that are the most helpful to answer this query.

Patterns from the latest update

  1.  Google may have made changes to how they assess alternative medical topics
    According to Search Engine Land, several company sites in the medical industries have performed better after this update. It’s possible that Google may have made strides in being able to understand which of these pages are trustworthy. In the past, SEL says that a lot of alt-med content was simply discounted by Google even though it was the type of content many people were searching for.
  2. UX becoming a factor
    If you declined with this update and have a large number of ads, especially ads that interfere with a user’s ability to read the main content, it may be worth experimenting with showing fewer ads. But know that if Google did change something with this core update in regards to ads, you may need to wait until there is more data about the core update and its improvements.
  3. More attention to headings and content structure
    This allows for faster skimming, and searchers like to skim headings to determine whether an article is one with which they want to engage. One of the questions Google lists in their post on core updates is, “Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?” This is telling of the fact that this update has placed an emphasis on this type of content.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Top 4 Digital Marketing Trends For 2021

/in , , /by

Many businesses have completely altered the way they operate in 2020. More and more products and services move online and many employees will continue to work remotely or in a hybrid setting for much of next year. What are the most relevant digital marketing trends for 2021 that your business should keep in mind to build customer loyalty and generate more traffic, leads, and revenue? Check out the top 4 areas Onimod Global experts recommend to invest your time and resources into next year. If you’re not sure where to begin, this list is the perfect starting point.

Businesses must embrace the digital transformation

The post-COVID world we will hopefully experience in 2021 will make a digital presence for companies almost mandatory. “Digital transformation” has become a popular buzzword since March 2020, and all types of companies are investing heavily in the migration to digital platforms. This includes platforms such as e-commerce, chatbots, email, apps, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, omnichannel marketing and augmented and virtual reality.

Google listings and local SEO will be a top priority for small businesses

If you own a small business, one of the most important things you can do is ensure your local listings are verified and kept current on various search platforms. For B2C businesses that draw in primarily local traffic, the Google My Business listing provides valuable information about your hours and whether or not they are affectd by COVID, services, and geographical location. It’s one of the key factors in search and business owners are often blown away to learn how many directories there are out there.

One tip you can easily implement today: make sure that you have a geographically-defined service area in your local listings. Doing this will help your business show up in “near me” searches. That’s because Google and other search engines will prioritize relevance in their search algorithms.

Voice search and its power

Voice search queries will often populate different results than if the user had typed in a text-based search. Even though voice search is not a part of Google’s algorithm, it still dictates current search results. This means that businesses should be up to date on voice search components for their consumers who are adapting and switching over to that medium.

Content must be specifically optimized for voice searches, according to experts in voice search. The content needs to be more direct and conversational, and by doing so it will accurately sync with search queries. This will help boost traffic by staying relevant and more visible to consumers.

Influencer marketing a key pillar of marketing for consumer brands

Consumer brands have historically used social media influencers to present authentic unbiased advertising to appeal to prospects and customers. The pandemic amplified the impact influencers have on the purchase of products, due to a limited ability to shop at stores and increased online shopping traffic.

A recent study found that 40% of people reported that they purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. Influencers and their impact are expected to gain even more popularity and followers and businesses to use influencers more than ever before.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

How Content and Marketing Automation Work Together to Maximize Your Marketing Efforts

/in /by

A study found that 84% of people now expect brands to publish content that entertains, provides solutions and is engaging. Content really is the brand ambassador of an organization and as a marketer, you have to make sure it’s curated that way. To maximize the power of content, it’s essential to combine it with marketing automation. Here’s how.

Why We Need Content and Marketing Automation Together: 

Obviously, we want our content to be insightful, relevant and engaging so our customers continue to keep our brand in mind. Marketing automation gives content a pipeline so that it’s delivered to the right users at the right time. It also allows you to track which content works best for you. 

Content and marketing automation work together through channels such as: 

  • Social: Marketing automation can assist you in discovering insights on customer engagement across all platforms. With the ultimate goal of creating channel-specific content to better nurture leads. 
  • Email: Marketing automation ensures email messages are personalized and relevant to your recipients. 
  • Web: Web personalization collects behavioral insights on each visitor so that each time they visit, it alters content to their preferences.  
  • Mobile: With insights from marketing automation, you can determine what type of content brings higher engagement rates and channelize your efforts into it. 

How Does Content and Marketing Automation Actually Work Together? 

1. Content Marketing 

Today, content marketing is an essential business asset to all brands. It helps with brand awareness, lead qualification, customer engagement and retention and drives sales. 

It also helps with lead nurturing, which aims to bring prospects closer to conversion and builds a better relationship with them. Different forms of content should be used at each stage of the sales funnel. 

The top of the funnel, which is where they’re identifying their pain points, newsletters, eBooks and blog posts are the most effective forms of content. The middle of the funnel is where you want to provide more details on these pain points. Content pieces like data sheets, case studies, webinars and personalized email campaigns are best here. Lastly, at the end of the funnel, you should explain why you’re the best solution to their problem. Here you would use industry reports, product demonstrations, white papers and highly-trafficked content from your assets. 

2. Hyper-Personalization 

The modern customer does not only prefer content that’s tailored to their needs, it’s expected. That’s why hyper-personalization is so essential. Backed with AI tools and real-time data, brands get actionable insights into customer needs. 

3. CRM

These tools help you understand what your audience really wants, tracking user engagement. Content marketers should take these insights and use them to curate a variety of content tailored to each audience, maximizing their efforts. 

Final Thoughts 

With the expectation of the modern consumer, it’s evident the clear need for material to be tailored to each stage of the buyer journey. When combining the power of content and marketing automation, you can guide your customers in making those purchasing decisions more efficiently and quickly. 

At Onimod Global, we have expertise in content marketing and marketing automation. If you need assistance in any area of digital marketing, contact us today! 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here.

What’s In Store For Digital Marketing Agencies in 2021

/in , /by

Nobody was prepared in the slightest for everything that occurred in 2020, and that includes digital marketing agencies. When initial shutdowns began worldwide, agencies all over the world decreased significantly in revenues.

While 2021 still holds some economic uncertainty, leaders in the digital marketing realm have indicated that their agencies have been remarkably standing strong, according to CallRail’s fall survey of 167 global marketing leaders who use its services. The findings show that most agencies will finish 2020 with higher annual revenues than in 2019.

2021 financial outlook

In the CallRail’s survey, 88% of agencies indicated they are satisfied to extremely satisfied with their agency’s financial health in 2020. Only 3% were extremely unsatisfied. Most agencies also anticipate exceeding their 2019 revenue by the end of 2020, which are in line with the rest of the findings.

As most business shifted from offline to online at a rapid rate, it makes sense that a majority of agencies are succeeding this year financially. The vice president of Avalaunch Media, Kyle Shurtz, shares how his business experienced an increase in financial success, “Because we focus strictly on online advertising, we had more business come through as people shifted from offline to online. We anticipate 2021 to be much more of the same. Our goal is to grow by about 20% year-over-year.”

The value of digital marketing agencies

The key value that digital marketing agencies bring to the table for clients is their strategic value. Being seen as a strategic partner is one of the primary ways agencies can increase their value to clients. Most agencies felt as though they were doing quite well in this area. According to 67% of agencies, the primary reason that clients choose their agency is because they’ve established themselves as strong strategic partners.

The longevity most agencies have with clients is another indicator that clients believed agencies are delivering enough value to continue to use their services. Long-term relationships of two years or more were common for 69% of agencies. Only 4% said the client relationship lasted less than one year.

What this means for 2021

Uncertainty of course remains, but the future looks very bright for digital marketing agencies in 2021. And there seems to be agreement among agencies that even if more lockdowns occur, it likely won’t be a repeat of spring. As agencies look ahead to 2021, there’s every reason to believe they will continue to realize increase revenue, growth in business, and overall strong financial health.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing lead generation and sales revenue for your company through digital channels? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

5 Ways to Boost Your Brand Awareness and Grow Your Business in 2021

/in /by

Looking to increase your brand awareness and grow your small business in 2021? Utilize these 5 psychological factors and strategies to achieve just that. 

1. Social Influence

Today, around 80% of consumers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by their friends’ social media posts. On top of that, consumers are around 70% more likely to make a purchase based on a social media referral. So, being active on social media has a number of benefits for brands. It not only helps you increase your brand awareness, but also allows you to influence user perception. Consistently engaging with your target audience and positioning your brand how you want to be seen can deliver great results. 

2. Consistency and Transparency 

In the current climate, honesty is extremely important to consumers. Be transparent about your products and services and keep your promises. This means if something goes wrong, be upfront to your consumers about it. Odds are people will find out eventually, and it looks worse if you’ve attempted to hide it. Share information freely and be consistent with your branding to help build trust among your audience. 

3. Color 

Colors have a significant influence on customer perception and purchase decisions. In fact, research has shown that 90% of subconscious judgements about a product are based on color alone and 85% of shoppers consider color and the primary reason for making a purchase decision. You want to use colors that coincide with your brand personality and brand image. 

4. Customer Experience 

Almost 90% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. As we discussed above, staying active on social media can increase brand awareness and also allow you to influence user perception. You can deliver value by sharing content that’s useful, builds brand authority and increases consumer trust. If a user has already had a positive experience with your brand on social, they’re much more likely to take that to their purchasing decision. 

Additionally, encourage your customers to share their experiences online. People trust people significantly more than brands themselves. If a user sees that someone else has had a great experience with you, they will remember that when it comes time to make their purchase decision. 

5. Visual Storytelling

Lastly, it’s essential to incorporate visual storytelling. Telling intriguing stories that align with personal and social identities of your target audience helps boost brand loyalty drastically. People stay loyal to brands who share the same values as they do. Not only that, but 75% of website visitors visit a site after watching a branded video. 

Final Thoughts 

There are a number of ways to boost brand awareness and grow your business, but these strategies are a good place to start. It’s important to note that both of these goals can take time organically, but can be sped up by being paired with paid ads.

If you need additional assistance in any area of digital marketing, we can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of social media and digital marketing. Learn more about who we are and what we do, and contact us here today. 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. 

The Top 5 Google Ranking Factors – SEO Guide

/in , , /by

With so many different ranking factors for Google, over 200 in total, it’s important to identify which are the most important that are essential to your success. Overall, there are several ranking factors that do little to nothing in terms of SEO, so we’ve created a definitive list of Google ranking factors that can make or break your search optimization strategy.

Mobile Optimization

Google announced that starting from September 2020 all websites without exception will be judged on their mobile version, not the desktop version. So essentially if you want your website to have any chance of ranking, it definitely needs to be optimized for mobile landing pages. It also provides your customer with a better user experience, so it’s a win win for everyone involved.

Structured Data

This is where you implement tags that are crucial to Google understanding everything about the content you are posting. Structured data can be used to tag authors, ratings, product features, locations, and so much more. This is a not-so well known SEO tool that can do wonders for you in terms of ranking — creating links between entities, pin your location, and enhance your search snippets with rich elements.

Google My Business Listing

Creating the listing, optimizing, and then maintaining your Google My Business listing is hands down the most important thing you can do for your local SEO. It helps establish your company as an entity, which in itself is a great asset to your SEO. Even more, it will skyrocket your local search performance. Once you create a listing, it becomes eligible for the local business panel as well as Google maps, opening your business to nearby searchers. For example, if someone is shopping and stopping for a coffee, your Google My Business listing will help show you in the search results of a nearby option.

Backlinks

Google has said that they are planning to move away from backlinks in the future, but for now they still remain the most important ranking factor for your pages. Except now you have to be very straightforward with your SEO strategies — your links have to come from a variety of high authority websites that are similar to yours. Furthermore, there are Google sources who say that freshness and traffic may also be important backlink metrics.

Avoid Content Saturation

In the past, you could overload your content with keyword rich information. Now things have changed, and for the better including everyone involved. Your SEO content has to contain an appropriate amount of relevant keywords, entities, and images for the length of the copy. The content should not be completely filled, like in the beginning days of SEO, it should rather be a natural-sounding copy written in an informative style.

More from Onimod Global

Looking for an agency to help your small business with your search engine optimization? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Why Your Small Business Ads Are Getting Blocked By Facebook

/in , , /by

Facebook, one of the largest social and advertising platforms in the world, is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to monitor the platform. If your small business ads are continuously getting blocked on Facebook, there may be another reason besides errors in your ads.

Bloomberg stated in a report that errors made by AI algorithms looking to remove offensive ads from Facebook’s platform have caused already struggling small businesses to miss out on online sales opportunities.

As helpful as Facebook ads have been for all business in general, there are several drawbacks to the platform that have made it increasingly difficult to find success in some situations. Drawbacks include problems with the company’s content-moderation software, limited options for customer support and lack of transparency about how to fix problems.

Interviewed by Fortune, New York-based businesswoman Ruth Harrigan selling honey in souvenir shops has had to rely heavily on Facebook ads  for sales during the coronavirus period. Her business was abruptly stopped due to Facebook blocking her ads account due to policy violations. Harrigan is one of millions of small business advertisers who have come to rely on Facebook Inc. because the coronavirus has shut down many traditional retail channels.

Facebook’s human moderators have been focusing on the US election and Covid-19 misinformation this year, so the company has leaned more on artificial intelligence algorithms to monitor other areas of the platform. That’s left many small businesses caught in Facebook’s automated filters, unable to advertise through the service and frustrated because they don’t know why and can’t reach adequate support to fix the issue.

A Facebook rep interviewed by the Post says, “We know it can be frustrating to experience any type of business disruption, especially at such a critical time of the year. While we offer free support for all businesses, we regularly work to improve our tools and systems, and to make the support we offer easier to use and access. We apologize for any inconvenience recent disruptions may have caused.”

Appealing these often-automated decisions has also become a lot harder. “Due to a temporary reduction in our review capacity as a result of Covid-19, we could not always offer our users the option to appeal,” Facebook wrote in its third-quarter report.

More from Onimod Global

Looking for an agency to help your small business with your paid social media, specifically running Facebook ads? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.