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When I graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Sure, I knew that I wanted, you know, to be employed. I knew I wanted to put my English degree to good use. And I knew I wanted some aspect of the written word to be involved. But what did that look like?

“I dunno,” would’ve been my honest answer.

It’s not that I received anything less than a great education. In fact, I have almost nothing but good things to say about my undergrad alma mater. It’s just that the school had fallen into the same problem that most universities do — the coursework, while excellent, didn’t address what has turned into a pandemic marketing and sales skills gap.

Granted, that was more years ago than I’d like to admit, before much of the technology essential to marketing and sales jobs was as prevalent as it is today. But according to research conducted by Boston Consulting Group, companies still continue to fall short on the level of digital skills on their marketing teams. And as the consumption of products, services, and information continues to rely more on technology — that’s not good. 

But what are you supposed to do about it? You’re busy enough trying to do what you can to make up for this skills gap. How could you possibly also resolve how to actually fill it? Well, as it turns out, you have two major options: To build talent, and to buy it. Don’t worry — neither option is as overwhelming or as expensive as it sounds. In fact, both really boil down to providing the right resources for both your current and incoming employees. What do those look like? We’ve got a few ideas.

How to Get Better Marketing Talent

When You’re Buying

Bringing in new hires is not a simple process. There are the measurable variables, like the cost of onboarding — an average of over $4,000 per new employee, for most companies — and expensive employee turnover in a number of industries. So when you’re looking to add someone new to your team, you want to make sure it’s a good decision.

Part of feeling certain of a new hire is understanding what kind of training and experience that person has received, especially when it comes to new graduates. A shortage of internships available undergraduates limits their opportunities for experience. So, how can you be certain that a candidate can fill your marketing team’s needs — especially if the right skills aren’t being taught in the classroom?

That’s where you come in. See, the recruiting process goes both ways — just as you want to make sure a candidate is the right fit, you want to do everything you can to look attractive as an employer. And those efforts could include providing learning resources to prospective employees.

For example, when I was looking for opportunities in business school, I would come across many hiring pages from companies that listed the many reasons why I should work there — great benefits, great culture, and opportunities for growth, to name a few. But there was something missing. Nowhere on these hiring sites were there tips for what I could do to strengthen my candidacy for that particular environment.

So if you really want to attract the best talent, follow the mantra, “Help me help you.” It only requires a few steps.

1) Make a list of desired attributes — beyond the job description.

When I first began to look into working for HubSpot, one thing that really stood out to me was the fact that the company has a Culture Code. It didn’t just teach me about how I would be valued as an employee, but it also illustrated the must-have qualities of people who get hired here. That immediately made me realize how much I wanted to work for a company like this one.

When you begin recruiting talent, ask yourself what your company’s own Culture Code would look like. It might not be for everyone, and that’s okay — you’re trying to get candidates who are the best fit to stick around. Give them the right information to help them know who they are.

2) Collaborate with educational institutions.

This step goes beyond simply signing up for a booth at a career fair. I wouldn’t know anything about planning a higher education curriculum, but I get the impression that it’s not easy — which is why these skills gaps might still exist. However, as a marketer, I have a better idea of what kind of knowledge my own team might be seeking, and I’m happy to share it.

If you’re in the same boat, it could be worthwhile to reach out to the career development departments of nearby colleges and universities to find out what you can do to help bring some of that knowledge to the student body. Mind you, we’re not suggesting that you ask for a teaching position or request to be paid for a special lecture.

Rather, work with the school’s administration to see if you can offer a complimentary workshop on the skills that you’re seeking the most. While you might have them, you’re only one person — so see what you can do to share them. It’s an investment of time and resources, but it doesn’t come without a return. If you brand the opportunity properly, it’s a way to stand out in the minds of future job applicants, who might ultimately apply for work with you, therefore filling those gaps. Plus, it reinforces your own reputation as an expert in that particular area, and now that you’ve helped others build those skills, you’ll be able to recruit the talent necessary to meet resulting demand.

3) Share learning resources with applicants — and educators.

While you might not have the bandwidth to undertake something like teaching a workshop, there are still ways to help bring skills and knowledge to your future hiring pool. That’s why your hiring site should be built with two audiences in mind: The applicants themselves, and the people who will be teaching them.

For applicants

In addition to listing the general skills and characteristics that you seek in your new hires, it might be helpful to direct them to the resources that can help them gain that knowledge and become better candidates.

Free online courses are a great place to begin. Do some research on the ones available for the skill gaps you need to fill the most — for example, this EdX course in Digital Branding and Engagement, or this one on High Level Digital Marketing Strategy For Small Businesses from Udemy. Plus, a pre-existing knowledge of inbound marketing is always helpful, and getting inbound certified is free with HubSpot Academy.

For educators

When it comes to providing resources to educators, sometimes identifying the skills gaps is a big first step. Understanding what your strongest candidates need to know in order to succeed in the digital marketing landscape can help develop the tools for teaching the accompanying skills. Outline what they are, and give examples of the type of job titles and responsibilities that require them.

And just as there are online learning resources for applicants — there are actually some for educators, too, like HubSpot Academy’s Education Partner Program. Its mission is to help educators teach inbound marketing, and to connect their students with opportunities to apply both in the real world. Plus, the criteria for becoming an Education Partner doesn’t really go beyond the scope of what’s already required of most institutions — it’s a college, university, or institute that teaches Inbound with HubSpot Academy’s resources, or uses HubSpot software in their classes.

When You’re Building

Please forgive the cop out, but we’ll tell you right now — the efforts for building the right kind of talent within your current team isn’t really all that different than buying it.

There are many situations when one option might be better than the other one — that all depends on your budget, your scope of work, or your current client and customer demands. But when it comes to the latest and greatest skills in cultivating your current employees, all you really have to do is provide the same resources for them that you would for external applicants.

It won’t look identical. But when you go about building or revamping a hiring page like we described above, look into building an intranet or wiki that provides many of the same learning resources that can help employees build their skills and progress in their careers — without leaving your company. After all, we’ve already gone over the high cost of employee turnover. Helping to build the right internal growth opportunities for your current team can prevent those costs from becoming necessary.

Create a place where your employees can see the types of roles or skills gaps you’re trying to fill, and let them know where they can learn how to fill them. Just as you might provide a list of these resources for external applicants or lead workshops for them, do the same for your current staff. Even if someone isn’t looking into changing roles, digital marketing knowledge can be applied to a broad range of projects.

And if they do progress — well, now you know how to attract the best people to replace them in their former positions.

Talent Show

Trying to ensure that you’ve got the best people to meet your company’s demands is never an easy process. There’s so much to consider, from culture fit to necessary skills. As we said — you want to be certain, and for good reason.

But with the above-outlined steps, it doesn’t have to be quite as daunting as you might think. You can proactively take measures to attract the best talent — whether that’s coming from a pool of recent grads, or from your current team.

What are your preferred ways getting the best marketing talent? Let us know in the comments.

 

If you’re like most marketers, you’re always on the search for ways to reach new audiences and generate leads. 

But did you know that according to BrightTALK, 80% of marketers report their current lead generation efforts are only slightly or somewhat effective?

Typically, lead generation marketers collect information through form submissions on a website. First, the marketer promotes a specific offer — like a gated ebook or coupon — and then an interested user will fill out a lead form to claim the offer. 

While this method does work and helps get exposure to your site, it has one important problem: it requires users to leave the place where the offer was promoted to click through your conversion path.  For marketers, this means bounce-rates at every point along the process. And that’s not ideal.

Ever wish you could just reach people and collect information from them without asking them leave the social network they’re already browsing? Well, you can  — with Facebook Lead Ads.

For a full guide on how to successfully create, target, and utilize Facebook lead ads in your marketing efforts, check out this guide. 

In this article, we’ll go over the basics of Facebook lead ads: what they are, why they matter, and how you can start using them effectively in your own marketing campaigns.

What is a Facebook Lead Ad?

A Facebook lead ad is an ad type you can purchase through the Facebook for Business platform. Instead of sending users to a landing page where they fill out a lead form on your website, Facebook lead ads allow potential customers to access your offers without ever leaving the Facebook app.

This feature means you can capture lead information from the Facebook platform and avoid the friction of a longer click-through path for the user. 

Facebook lead ads allow prospects to sign up for your offers or request other types of offers — such as pricing guides, product demos, or free trials — directly within the Facebook platform. Facebook lead ads are also designed with the user in mind; when a user clicks on a lead ad, Facebook creates an auto-fill form with information the user has already submitted to Facebook. 

Image Source: Facebook

The auto-fill feature makes lead ads especially helpful for mobile users, who experience the most friction from the traditional conversion path. Convinced? Time to get your first lead ad setup.

How to Set Up Your Facebook Lead Ad

Start by preparing to set up your lead ad. You’ll need a few things beforehand:

• Admin access to your Facebook Business Page
• Your privacy policy page URL.
• An image/creative asset to make your ad stand out on a user’s newsfeed.

Next, open up the power editor or ads manager tool for your business page

Not sure which to use? The ads manager is Facebook’s classic ad tool for basic advertisers. If you’re just starting out, the ads manager is probably the tool you should use.

On the other hand, the power editor is Facebook’s more advanced tool for advertisers who are regularly creating numerous ad campaigns in bulk. It has some more advanced features and allows you to create more ads in bulk. This tool is ideal for someone with a high budget at an enterprise level.

Step by step instructions once you’re in the Ads Manager or Power Editor tool:

1) If you’re using the Ads Manager, Click “Create Ad” in the top right. If you’re using the power editor, Click “Create Campaign” in the top left.

2) Next, you’ll see a screen asking for your ad campaign objective. Click, “lead generation” and the page will pull down with the next option:

3) Name your ad campaign.

4) Next, set the details of your account (Country, Timezone, Ad Unit Currency). This step is part of setting up the ads account for your business, not for the actual ad you’re setting up. We’ll get to the ad setup in a bit.

5) Choose your business page from the drop-down menu and read through and “Accept the Facebook Lead Ads Terms and Conditions”.

6) Set up the targeting settings for your ad. You can customize the target audience by location, age, gender, language, and hundreds of other target settings. As you add in more targeting features, the ticker on the right will show you the total size of the audience you’re trying to reach.

7) Next, tell Facebook whether to automatically place your ad where it’s most likely to perform best, or if you’d rather customize the placement based on your own preferences. In general, it’s recommended to let Facebook place your ads automatically.

8) Next, customize your budget for the ad. Determine with your team how much budget you’re willing to spend for one ad. Facebook ads works on an auction system, so choose a budget that seems reasonable based on prior research. 

9) Choose an ad layout format from the options on the next screen, and upload creative assets to your ad to make it stand out. Don’t forget to test different creative options and layouts to figure out what performs best over time.

10) Now it’s time to set up and customize the form for your lead ad. First, customize the headline, text, and CTA for the display page of the ad. Be as specific as possible so the user knows what they will get by clicking on the CTA of your ad.

11) Next, choose which information you want to collect from from your leads on the “questions” tab. Only ask necessary questions for your funnel; the more questions you ask, the lower your click-through rate is likely to be.

• One benefit of lead ads is that they’re completely customizable. Not only can you request common form fields such as name, phone number, and email address, you can also ask an open-ended questions such as, “what kinds of information do you find valuable?” While an open-ended question might not be best for all forms, you can use an open-ended question to qualify the submissions you do receive on your lead ad form.

12) Next, check the setting for the privacy policy on your ad. This step is particularly important because it ensures the security of the user’s information. Add the link to your company’s privacy policy and feel free to add an optional custom disclaimer to the ad in addition to Facebook’s required disclaimer that will appear below the form.  

13) Finally, you’re ready to customize the Thank You Screen. Insert your website link in this option so the user can visit your site after submitting the form.

14) Check the completed ad to make sure all of your work looks like it should. Don’t ever forget to double check and proofread your work! 

15) Click “finish” to complete your form. Optionally, you can “select a CRM” to collect submission information in the Leads Setup section. 

16) The final step is to click the “Place Order” button.

How to Make Your Lead Ad Stand Out

Now that you know how to set up your lead ad, you might be wondering how to actually drive conversions. After all, you’ll be competing not only for a spot on a user’s Facebook newsfeed but also for the attention among all the other content the targeted user is scrolling through. 

How do you make sure your lead ad is compelling enough for a user to click on it? Here are some tips:

1) Make it visually appealing

Because your competing against all the other pieces of content on a user’s newsfeed, it’s important that your ad is visually appealing. Make creative assets that are colorful, bold, and/or interesting in some way.

While there are plenty of ways you can make a visually appealing ad, don’t just find the brightest, most colorful image and plop it on your ad. Whatever creative assets you use should accurately illustrate what you’re offering through the ad.

As you experiment with Facebook Ads, test out the success of different types of creative assets, and find out what works best for your target audience. Try testing videos, GIFs, and other types of images. Overtime, track the click-through and conversion rates of different creative types to optimize your ads strategy for the future. 

2) Create compelling copy 

The copy of your ad should have a clear message to your audience. When writing copy, write it so that your target audience can easily understand what you’re offering, why it’s relevant to them, and why they should request more information now. 

Because your goal is to get someone to submit information right then and there, be sure to add urgency to your ad. Don’t just say “Learn More” and hope for the best. Instead, include an offer with an expiration date so the user feels compelled to download or sign up for the offer now.

If you’re retargeting users who have previously been to your site, add context to the copy to remind them why they visited your site in the first place and how your company’s offers can help them.

3) Include a clear call-to-action.

Part of writing compelling copy is making sure the call-to-action is clear and prominent. You can’t just use a Facebook Ad to tell your target audience what you company is and expect them to click a button to “Learn More” without giving them a clear value offer. What will they get from you when they fill out information?

Facebook gives your six CTA options for lead ads: 

• Apply Now
• Download
• Get Quote
• Learn More 
• Sign Up
• Subscribe

Offer your audience something they can’t refuse. Whether you’re offering an event, discount, content offering, subscription, etc, make sure the audience knows what they will get when they “Sign Up,” “Learn More,” “Download,” etc.

4) Target the right users with relevant offers

A key piece of creating successful Facebook Ads is targeting people that are actually going to be the most interested in what you have to offer. Don’t spray and pray, instead, spend your ad budget most effectively by learning to get the most out of Facebook’s targeting features. 

In general, your goal with Facebook Ads should be to reach new audiences. However, because you’re also trying to collect lead information on the spot, it’s also important not to ask for too much to soon.

That’s why lead ads are especially useful in retargeting campaigns. Use tracking pixels on your website to find out who is visiting your website but not converting, and use lead ads to nurture them back into you ecosystem.

This blog post didn’t cover a full picture of Facebook Ads targeting strategy, but luckily, we created a free guide to walk you through it. 

Want more information on how to target users effectively? Check out our full guide — it includes additional lead generation and social media tips as well!

The lack of transparency that often occurs between advertisers and their marketing partners has reached a tipping point.

Advertisers have spoken loud and clear: They are tired of paying more and more for their digital advertising and seeing less and less return on investment from these efforts. In fact, many companies are wondering where the heck their money is going and whose interests are being represented.

Many advertisers are drawing a line in the sand. They will no longer work with agencies, networks, technology platforms, or marketing “partners” who aren’t completely transparent about their practices.

And good for them. Not only does this behavior make the good guys look bad, but it also puts the whole marketing industry at risk.

A Need for Greater Transparency

Procter & Gamble recently made an unsettling discovery. Among other things, some of its agencies were receiving kickbacks from media companies. Others made extra money by paying publishers less than the amount P&G gave them to pay out to them.

So the world’s biggest advertiser did what any smart company should do — it revisited all of its media agency contracts to ensure full transparency. What’s more is that P&G’s chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, has challenged the rest of the industry to do the same.

In a show of solidarity, let’s call out a few tactics that some unethical agencies and marketers employ in an effort to help advertisers protect their brand and marketing dollars:

Display Ad Fraud

Fake ad impressions are on the rise. This year, bots will be responsible for up to 37 percent of ad impressions, costing companies billions of dollars. Unfortunately, as this crime becomes more profitable and easier to execute, ad fraud will take many different forms. In all cases, though, it’s a dishonest use of a company’s money, and it falsely inflates ad performance.

Agency Kickbacks

Media agency kickbacks are still a prevalent issue. To illustrate, let’s say an agency buys $1 million worth of advertising from its clients, which the agency is getting paid to do (often as a percentage of the ad spend). If it then accepts a $250,000 credit from the place it bought the ads from — when it wasn’t the agency’s money in the first place — and does not disclose this, that’s a kickback.

Tasked with purchasing the best slots for advertisers, many agencies are, in fact, buying certain times or spaces to receive kickbacks from media companies. While six of the biggest advertising agency holding companies flatly denied that claim, an ANA report confirmed that there are media agencies accepting cash rebates.

Advertiser-Agency Disconnect

The same ANA study revealed that advertisers and agencies do not always see eye to eye on the nature of their relationship. According to this research, advertisers often believe their agencies bear a fiduciary responsibility to always act in the best interest of the advertisers — even going beyond the scope of terms stipulated in the contract, if necessary.

Although some agencies share those beliefs, others say their sole responsibilities are outlined in the contract, so they have no other duty to act on the advertisers’ behalf. This disconnect opens the door for agency mismanagement and lack of transparency.

These methods hurt the entire marketing industry.

When profit is not passed on to the client, the integrity of all marketing methods is called into question. As the founder and managing director of a leading performance marketing agency, it pains me to see how a few bad apples can weaken confidence in our industry. In the long run, it hits everyone’s bottom line when advertisers choose to walk away.

Greater transparency is not just the best solution — it is the only solution. In fact, advertisers made a clear statement when they voted for “transparency” as the word of the year in a 2016 ANA poll. In this industry, you have no choice: If you want to succeed, your agency must give advertisers what they want.

The Benefits of Transparent Communication

Whether you’re an agency, an affiliate, a media company, or an influencer, providing full disclosure to your advertising partners is not just the right thing to do — it’s the ethical and moral thing to do. If you aren’t willing to disclose it, it’s probably for a reason. Of course, it keeps partners happy, but it also earns you respect and improves the value of your relationships.

Consider the increased demand for omnichannel marketing. Highly successful marketers are using this technology to provide full visibility into the consumer path to purchase across digital channels and devices with the aim of fostering better ties among advertisers, publishers, and networks.

By understanding each marketing channel’s contribution, advertisers and publishers can explore additional strategies and approaches for working together. For example, in the affiliate model, a management agency can more effectively encourage select affiliates to increase promotions by aligning incentives with the consumer behaviors they most value. In this win-win situation, transparency is profitable, and it strengthens partnerships.

Even Facebook is course-correcting toward better transparency to benefit its advertisers. After it was revealed that it had overestimated its video views and organic reach, Facebook has made a push to give its advertisers a clearer view of the platform’s metrics. Citing transparency as a primary aim, the social media giant is debuting its updated blog, rechristened “Measurement FYI,” to provide better information on metrics, partnerships, products, and research.

The Path to Real Transparency

Transparency is more than just making a commitment to your clients that you will engage in open and honest conversations with them. It needs to be woven into the fabric of your business — from the way you communicate with your clients to how your contracts are written to the core values your organization embodies and executes.

Here are four ways to get started:

1) Be transparent in your agreements.

One of the factors that led to P&G’s revelation that its agencies were engaging in corrupt behavior was its reevaluation of its agency contracts. By doing so, the company discovered that its agency agreements made few stipulations about agencies’ use of company money. In fact, P&G discovered that an agency making money on float wasn’t prohibited — it was actually in compliance with P&G’s contracts.

As an agency, if you want to build long-term, high-value relationships with your clients that are based on trust and integrity, it’s essential to lay out expectations, terms, and conditions in your agreements with them from the start.

If you don’t accept kickbacks or financial incentives, especially those that are not in your partners’ interest, put that in writing. Be sure to also address and define the role of your agency’s direct and indirect partners, including affiliate networks, affiliates, and subaffiliate networks.

2) Don’t just conduct transactions; build relationships.

The person sitting across from you is more than a client and more than a company. Take time to ask questions, listen, and get to know him or her personally and professionally. A genuine conversation not only creates loyalty and commitment, but it also helps you better understand and meet the needs of your clients.

Authentically connecting with partners builds more trust in your partnerships, and trust is the cornerstone of a healthy, long-term relationship. When you invest in getting to know people, you naturally adopt a habit of full disclosure. In turn, both partners benefit.

3) Align incentives so clients pay for performance.

Traditional models obscure marketing campaigns by requiring businesses to pay in advance for creative without considering the return on their investment. If companies aren’t able to see where the money went or how it contributed to marketing success, it fosters suspicion and resentment toward their partner agencies. Changing that model is the key to transparency.

Pay-for-performance marketing, on the other hand, depends on creating visibility into marketers’ actions. Rather than invest upfront, a company compensates the agency based on measurable campaign accomplishments or benchmarks.

This means the two must be communicating constantly about what the agency is doing for the company and how well those methods are working. Transparency is baked in.

Clients are not the only beneficiaries in a pay-for-performance model. Although it does demand a lot of work from agencies, the motivating factor is to get paid for successful efforts. This approach incentivizes marketers to refine their skills and knowledge of the marketplace, as it requires excellence.

4) Think long term and focus on performance partnerships.

The term “performance partnerships” refers to the transparent, valuable relationships that companies seek from affiliate marketing partners. Comprised of all the aforementioned elements, it’s a strategy that incorporates a system to manage those relationships at scale.

Once your partners are equally on board with open communication, have bought into building a deeper personal relationship based on trust, and have embraced the cash-on-delivery model, you can elevate that partnership through advanced tracking and reporting technology.

Using a software as a service (SaaS) platform brings these pieces together, providing a convenient system for managing and maintaining multiple relationships in which all relevant partner information (contracts, tax forms, real-time reporting, payouts, etc.) can be tracked in one place.

Performance partnerships represent what companies should strive for in all of their marketing programs, as the overarching principle is transparency. An effective system handles all the marketing data and allows both partners to see what the other is doing. When they have access to this information and complete trust in you, that strong relationship leads to smarter, more strategic campaigns.

You Can’t Outperform With Opacity

Dishonest, opaque agency practices — including the misuse of client money — only serve to foster a culture of mistrust, prompting many advertisers to part ways with their agencies. Rightfully so, companies don’t want to work with marketers or agencies who are not transparent about what they’re doing with the advertiser’s money or how they’re spending it.

Moreover, agencies must be accountable for our methods. Tighter contracts and models that stipulate payment for performance give agencies and marketing partners the opportunity to prove value and boost bottom lines all around.

Most importantly, honesty is the best policy, as the saying goes. If your agency is not being as transparent as possible, why is that? What are you hiding? Even if the answer is “nothing,” you’d better believe your partners are going ask the same questions.