I have good news. It appears that Meta has finally fixed a Video Views Custom Audience bug related to Facebook Reels engagement.

Not excited? I am. I’ve been checking every day for over a month and a half, waiting for this to be fixed. And I’m already seeing the positive impact of that fix.

Let’s take a closer look at what happened and how I’m using this to my benefit…

The Bug

When you create a Video Views Custom Audience, one of the steps is to “Choose Videos.”

For example, let’s say that you choose “People who have watched at 95% of your video,” like in the image above. By selecting videos, you will create an audience of people who watched at least 95% of those specific videos.

You can select videos from both your Facebook page and Instagram business profile.

So far, so good.

I have published a Facebook Reel and Instagram Reel every day this year. But starting around March 2, Reels stopped appearing in the list of videos you can select. I could select other videos published to my page or used in ads, but no Reels.

I totally remember this period of time. Everything was buggy with scheduling Reels around then, which is why those “Untitled Videos” were also showing up. And the videos were all showing zero 3-second views, which wasn’t correct.

Anyway, no Facebook Reels showed up for the rest of March and most of April. But Instagram Reels were showing up just fine.

So, if I can select the Instagram Reel, why does it matter that I can’t select the Facebook Reel? Because they aren’t the same video. They look the same. But when I select an Instagram Reel for this audience, it will only include people who engaged with the Reel on Instagram. It will no longer add the people who engage on Facebook.

I recorded a video after a few weeks of this being a problem, too. You can watch it below…

Why Does This Matter?

I know what some people will say about this: Remarketing is dead. Who cares? You should go broad with your targeting anyway.

Look, I’ve bought into broad targeting, too. I don’t do nearly as much general remarketing based on all people who engaged with my Facebook page or visited my website as I once did. But, this has proven to be very different.

I have a funnel running with Facebook ads based on engagement with my Reels. I’m doing this because I’ve found that people who watch my Reels to completion are hyper-engaged. This is a special group.

One is a simple “Are You My People” ad. It’s a video where I explain that I’ve learned that those who watch my Reels to completion are “my people.” And only those who watched one of my Reels to completion during the prior seven days could see that ad.

Keep in mind that this is a Reach ad that is normally targeting around 1,000 people in all. But it gets a very high rate of engagement of people telling me that they are my people.

Of course, things got a lot quieter once I couldn’t include Facebook Reels engagement. That finally changed once I could. Take a look at how the Cost Per Reaction/Comment/Share and Cost Per 95% View have evolved since I could include Facebook Reels on April 24…

Yikes! I was wasting some money for a while there. Big change.

Since I know this group of people is so important, I also target them to promote one-on-ones and membership. In both cases, these are Reach campaigns targeting this small, but important, group.

Watch Video

I recorded a video about how this has been fixed, too. Check it out below…

Your Turn

Do you use Video View Audiences and select Facebook Reels?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Fixes Video Views Custom Audience Bug appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

I’ve consistently published short-form videos to TikTok, Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn for most of the past six months and change. What was the impact on my presence (impressions, engagement, and followers) in each case?

Lots of context is necessary. First, I’ll explain the nature of my strategy. Then, we’ll go platform by platform, where we’ll evaluate performance before and after this commitment to short-form video.

Let’s go…

The Strategy

This commitment to short-form video began with TikTok on September 30, 2022. I created 70 videos during October.

Eventually, this approach would spread to other platforms. After briefly experimenting with downloading the TikTok video and publishing it to Facebook and Instagram Reels, I’d eventually create my videos outside of any app and publish that same file to every platform.

I would not create unique content for each platform. It was the exact same file published to each location.

There was a time when I’d never consider doing such a thing. But I knew that I didn’t have the time or resources to create unique content everywhere. The options were repurposing the same content or focusing only on one or two apps.

I decided to spread my content around. This would allow me to learn some things:

1. Does it matter that this is the same content published on multiple platforms?
2. Would certain platforms always outperform others?
3. Would some platforms emerge as being more valuable than expected?

For this to work, volume was a necessity. I’ve published most days since I started this, but I’ve committed to publishing at least one video every day in 2023 (which I’ve accomplished so far).

Let’s go platform-by-platform.

TikTok

Follow Me: tiktok.com/@jonloomer
Start Date: September 30, 2022

This is where it all started. I added 11 videos to TikTok prior to September 30, but they were rare and sporadic. On September 30, I marked the sand.

On one hand, my impact on TikTok is pretty easy to measure since 99% of my content created, impressions, engagement, and followers came from September 30 and on. Unfortunately, TikTok’s metrics are pretty awful as they only go back 60 days.

I do have nearly 12,000 followers right now, less than seven months after I started. And I also connected Agorapulse to my TikTok account beginning on December 13.

So, here’s a look at my account’s growth in followers from December 13 through April 23.

As you can see, I’ve added 6,638 followers during this time. That leaves another 5,132 for the three prior months. That’s a bit misleading since I also stopped running ads in early December, and about 3,000 of my followers came that route.

But you can see spikes in followers that came organically in February and March when a video took off. Also, I get more followers now on a typical day than I did previously.

Here’s a look at engagement for that same period (from Agorapulse).

Engagement was pretty slow until a video took off the week of February 11. While it’s clear I had a couple of spikes representing high-performing videos, the “floor” day for engagement rose significantly from that point.

Overall, I’m really happy with where I’m at on TikTok. I went from no presence at all to getting about 5,000 impressions per day now.

Instagram

Follow Me: instagram.com/jonloomer
Start Date: September 30, 2022

I’ve had an Instagram account for years, but I’ve barely used it. From a business point of view, I mostly only had it for the Instagram ad placement. Otherwise, most of my posts to Instagram prior to September 30 were of my kids or dog (and even those were extremely rare).

At first, I merely published my TikTok videos with the TikTok watermark to Facebook and Instagram Reels. I didn’t stop doing that until November 3.

I’ve added nearly 3,000 Instagram followers since I started posting videos to Reels. That’s pretty impressive since I have 6,525 in all, so nearly half came in just the past seven months.

As you can see, that growth is up 1,400% compared to the prior period.

My Instagram Profile Visits are up 289%…

Here’s a fun look at the increase in post reactions, comments, and shares…

It was a ghost town until October!

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on Instagram…

Facebook

Follow Me: facebook.com/jonloomerdigital
Start Date: September 30, 2022

I’ve had my Facebook page since November of 2011. It’s where my social media presence as a business was born. My page has been through lots of ups and downs since then.

My page’s best year was probably 2017. But, I’d also say I hit the bottom in 2021. That was the first (and hopefully last) time my number of followers actually dropped from one year to the next.

To give you a visual representation of how Reels saved my page, here’s engagement from April 24 of 2022 through April 23 of 2023.

Even while including those horrendous months of April through September of 2022, engagement is still up 537%.

Let’s focus just on the time since I started sharing short-form videos to Facebook Reels. Engagement is up 1,187%.

While engagement is down a bit since the early spike when I started, I can still make some reasonable projections based on what has happened so far this year.

I’m projecting the following:

• Organic Impressions: 3,745,000 (+182%)
• Total Engagement: 768,273 (+219%)
• Follower Growth: +1,812

Yes, Reels saved my page.

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on Facebook…

YouTube Shorts

Follow Me: youtube.com/jonloomer
Start Date: November 3, 2022

I have a complicated history with YouTube. I started my channel in 2012 and recently surpassed 15,000 subscribers. My best years on YouTube were probably from 2013 to 2014, but I’ve used it very inconsistently since then.

Let’s focus on recent history. Here’s a look at video views on my channel beginning January 1, 2022…

Pretty obvious when this started, right?

During the time since I’ve been posting videos to Shorts, I’ve added 992 subscribers with nearly 56,000 views.

Let’s use the period of January 1, 2021 through November 2, 2022 for comparison. This is the nearly 22 months immediately prior to starting with Shorts. This is about three times longer than the time I’ve been posting Shorts (more, actually), and I had only 43,000 views (fewer) and 1,600 subscribers (600 more) during that time.

While I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by the performance of my videos on YouTube compared to the platforms mentioned so far, I can’t complain. Shorts have given my channel some life. And things do seem to be improving.

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on YouTube…

LinkedIn

Follow Me: linkedin.com/in/jonloomer
Start Date: November 6, 2022

Now, I understand that LinkedIn isn’t technically a short-form video platform. And they actually prefer square videos, so posting my stuff there may have been out of place.

Initially, I placed my videos on a square canvas to compensate. But eventually, I just resorted to publishing the exact same video to LinkedIn, too.

Keep in mind that I have been relatively active on LinkedIn already for the past year or so. Once I started sharing my videos there, I actually pulled back on sharing the stuff I normally would.

Would that be a negative? Let’s see…

Impressions have been consistently higher since I started posting my videos in November. Unfortunately, I can’t isolate the time period to focus on November 6 to April 24 to see how it compared to the prior period.

Engagement shows a similar improvement.

Even if you eliminate my big spike of new followers in January, the new followers added are pretty clearly higher now than they were before.

I decided to export my data to get a closer look. Instead of looking at it by day, let’s go by month.

Here are impressions…

Here’s engagement…

And new followers…

While my presence on LinkedIn was already pretty solid, sharing my videos every day (that were shared to many different platforms) instead of my typical behavior didn’t hurt my growth. It may have actually helped it.

Here’s a video I recorded about my growth on LinkedIn…

Other Platforms

I’ve actually shared my videos to three other platforms as well. I’m not going to dig into those results because I haven’t been doing it very long.

• Pinterest
• Lemon8
• Clapper

I’m not seeing much with any of these three, to be honest. I may not continue much longer with them unless I start seeing more impact.

Evaluation

First, I don’t think I need to spend much time convincing you that publishing these videos to the five platforms has been an enormous positive for my social media presence. I know that the next question is whether it led to business or revenue but 1. That misses the point, and 2. Yes, I’ve had examples of where it’s led to revenue. I just have to rely on people telling me that, so it’s not easy to measure.

Next, which platform has been most impactful? That’s actually tough to say, and that’s a good thing. I will say that the top three performing platforms tend to be TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. But the fun part is that it’s not always in that order.

Sometimes, a video does best on TikTok. Sometimes it surges on Facebook. Instagram has given me some big numbers. You just never know. And that’s actually the beauty of this. I’m getting results, and it’s not because of one platform.

What’s most exciting to me is that this is still so early. How will this look once I’ve published a video every day to each of these platforms for all of 2023?

I can’t wait to find out!

Start Your Own Short-Form Video Journey

To say I’m bullish on short-form video is an understatement. But I also understand first-hand how difficult it is to get started. If you haven’t, you need to. It’s hard. It’s scary. And it’s frustrating. But it’s oh, so worth it.

I created a training called The Short-Form Video Blueprint to help beginners get going. It includes so much of what I’ve learned during this journey.

I hope you’ll join me there!

Your Turn

I’m curious what you think of the impact of short-form video, either on my own social media presence or yours.

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How Short-Form Video Impacts Presence on 5 Platforms appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

I’ve recorded more than 270 videos (give or take) since I started my short-form video journey about six months ago. I’m often asked about my process for recording short-form videos, and I feel like this is a good time to do a reveal.

Truthfully, I didn’t feel all that comfortable saying much during most of this journey since I knew that I was still so early in figuring it all out. I was learning and evolving, and I knew that whatever process I had was likely to change as soon as I talked about it.

At this stage, though, I feel pretty good about the process I’m following. It’s consistent. I’m sure plenty will still change to how I do things over the next year and beyond, but the rate of change will likely slow. I’ve found what I like and what makes me efficient for now.

Below is my current process for recording my short-form videos. It’s not perfect. But it’s what works for me.

If you want to learn more about what I do and how to get started with short-form video, check out my new training course!

Scripting

I know there are a lot of theories on this, but I mostly don’t script anything.

Occasionally, I’ll write down some thoughts and I’ll even write out bullet points. But I truly think my videos are more conversational if I don’t have a script.

I have a goal in mind, of course. I know what I’m going to talk about. And then I talk.

I’ll get to that a bit more later.

Lighting

I won’t get into all of the details about lighting here because that’s a separate topic of its own, but here are three primary things that I do…

1. I turn on my two LED panels that are mounted on either side of my desk.

2. I turn off my ceiling lights.

3. I turn on my RGB light that’s laying on the floor for a splash of color to the walls and ceiling.

The RGB is unnecessary, but I’ve found it adds a little bit of style and variation. My videos are bound to look very similar to one another, so switching up the color every day tends to help.

My Camera (My Phone)

Some people are surprised to hear this, but the primary video source is my phone. It’s not a special DSLR or fancy camera.

Of course, I do use an iPhone 14 Pro, and I can see a noticeable improvement over my old iPhone 12. I also use the Cinematic video setting to make the background blurry and give it a bit of professional polish.

I perch my phone on a small tripod in front of me on my desk. I use the rear-facing camera because it produces slightly better quality. To do that, I connect my iPhone to my MacBook and open up QuickTime. I start a new video and select my phone so that I can see what I’m recording from there.

Many have reached out and told me that I don’t need to do it that way, but I do because I have an older MacBook from 2016. Newer ones can mirror to the laptop without hooking them up.

I use a little remote that once came with a tripod to start recording. Couldn’t cost more than $10.

Beyond that, I line everything up so that my desk doesn’t appear in the shot and my eyes land on the top horizontal line of the grid tool.

Screenflow Recording

While I record with my phone, I also record with Screenflow, a desktop video editing app.

Many people ask what I use for editing, and I’m always hesitant to tell them. The truth is that you can do the same thing with so many different apps, it really doesn’t matter. Use what you’re comfortable with. I’ve used Screenflow for more than a decade.

I record at least my external mic from Screenflow. This will replace my phone audio to improve the quality. If I’m doing a tutorial, I’ll also record my screen.

What that means is that we’ll have at least two files to work with when I’m editing. Since there will be audio from my phone’s video file, I will line up the phone’s audio with the audio from my external mic before deleting the phone’s audio file.

The Sit-Down

Here’s something you need to understand: While the final product is a clean edit, it was anything but that when I sat down and hit record.

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A post shared by Jon Loomer (@jonloomer)

I could create a blooper reel for every sit-down I do. I’m not kidding.

I know that this is one of the things that keeps people from creating videos. They see the final polish and they think that’s how it looked when it was recorded. That can be intimidating.

My original video files are anywhere from three to six minutes. And really, three and six almost never happen. It’s usually between four and five.

To recap from earlier, I set up my phone in front of me and hit record. I have a general idea of what I want to say, but I don’t script anything out. I just talk.

To simplify, I’m really thinking about the next sentence I want to say in my head. I’m not all that worried about the full message.

I know I’m not alone in this, but I fumble with my words a lot. I often need to attempt to say the same sentence five or six times. It’s frustrating, but that stuff gets edited out.

I say a sentence, and then pause and think. I say another sentence, pause, and think. I repeat it if it comes out awkwardly. Sometimes I say sentence fragments and pause and then complete the sentence. I can splice the fragments together later.

Editing

I won’t get into the details of my editing here, but just a few quick points.

I will cut that three to six-minute rough file down to no more than 60 seconds. No exceptions. You’ll find that many of my videos are 59+ seconds. This is not by accident.

After lining up the files, I make a first-pass edit. This is when I just clean up the mistakes and pauses.

Of course, that almost always results in a video that will be longer than a minute (typically 10 to 20 seconds over). That means I need to go back through and prioritize. This is where I take out parts that aren’t completely necessary to the message.

Once I get it down to 60 seconds, I then add a final polish with jump cuts and zoom video actions.

The final step is that I export that file and import it into CapCut to add the captions.

Scheduling and Publishing

I publish my videos to six different platforms (links to my profile for each):

• TikTok
• Facebook Reels
• Instagram Reels
• YouTube Shorts
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

It’s a lot. I’ve experimented with using various scheduling and repurposing apps, but I’m currently back to scheduling almost all of them natively. I just don’t find it takes all that much time to need a separate app.

There’s always the debate about whether third-party apps hurt your reach, too. Personally, I only have suspicions about YouTube Shorts. Whether a coincidence or not, I’ve seen that my videos consistently perform far better when scheduled or published natively from YouTube.

Not that my videos do great from YouTube. But I was regularly seeing 50 views or less per video when using a third-party app, but I consistently see more than that when scheduled natively.

Everything else is trial and error and personal preference. I publish at least once per day, and it’s typically in the morning.

Your Turn

Do you have any questions about my short-form video recording process? Ask it below.

The post My Process for Recording Short-Form Videos appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If you’ve created short-form videos, you’ve likely discovered one major annoyance: Your videos don’t appear the way you expect them to.

This is due to a few issues that cover or impact your videos:

1. Icons displayed by the app on the right side
2. Text and descriptions at the bottom
3. Dead space at the top due to the device
4. Cropped out content on the sides

These things happen on all platforms for short-form video (TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts). Each of these issues taken separately are minor annoyances. Taken together, they could seriously impact the viewability of your video.

These four things especially impact two primary aspects of your videos:

1. Captions. Your captions will often spill off into the icons on the right or get covered by text from the app on the bottom.

2. Screen shares. If you use screenshare videos or screenshots, you’ll likely see important areas get impacted. The sides get cropped slightly, which would make those screens more difficult to understand.

Because of this, a Safe Zones template for all of these platforms is necessary. I know there are other templates out there, but I wanted to create my own instead of trusting someone else’s.

I use the template below with my own videos. I’ve also updated this file as I’ve noticed ways to make it better.

Safe Zones Template Combo: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts

Originally, I created unique Safe Zones Templates for TikTok and Instagram. But over time, I’ve realized that not only are these templates similar for these and other platforms (including Facebook and YouTube Shorts), but it’s beneficial to use a template that combines safe zones so that a video is viewable without obstructions everywhere.

The below template is the result of that realization. It should work on all platforms.

[DOWNLOAD A COPY]

When you click the link above, you’ll download the transparent version of this template. If it doesn’t go straight to your downloads, right-click the image that does pop up to save it.

How to Use the Templates

This template is transparent in the safe portion of the image. So, add it as a layer to whatever editing software you use.

Here’s an example in CapCut.

Add the template to your Media tab and then drag it down to a layer. You can then adjust your captions or other content to fit properly within the safe zone.

Of course, you’ll want to hide that layer or remove it entirely before you export it.

Get a Video Tutorial

I’ve also put together a video tutorial of how to use these safe zone templates. Subscribe by completing the form below and I’ll send it to you.

[GET THE VIDEO TUTORIAL]

Enjoy!

The post TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts Safe Zones Templates appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Now that I’m putting a greater focus on Reels and short-form video, the next step is figuring out how to leverage this engagement with ads. I want to target the people who are most engaged with my Reels, both on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s clear that these videos are making an impact, even though they don’t drive traffic to my website. I’m getting better engagement than I’ve seen on Facebook and Instagram in years.

But, most importantly, I keep hearing from people who are seeing my content again. They had stopped seeing my stuff, even though I kept sharing links that went into the abyss. Many of the consumers who fall into this group are now buying from me.

So, I need to figure out some creative ways to use this to my advantage. First, I’ll need to figure out the best way to target them.

Create the Audience

Let’s consider our options.

I don’t want to target all people who are engaging with my posts. That’s just too broad. This can be done with both my Facebook page and Instagram account.

No, I want to focus on my videos. So, let’s use the Video Views Custom Audiences.

I’ll want to focus on those who watched the entire video (or at least 95%).

But, the immediate problem is that we need to select at least one video. So, we could go through and select all of my recent Facebook videos from the past couple of months…

Side note: It’s an obvious bug that all of my Facebook videos show they have 0 3-second views.

You’ll also want to select all of your Instagram videos…

The result is 118 videos, which may be a bit overkill.

I’ve decided that I want to focus on recency since I can’t isolate people who watch the most of these videos. Otherwise, someone who watched one video could be targeted perpetually.

So, let’s use the last 7 days…

Unfortunately, I’ll also need to update this audience every time I create a new video. Not ideal, but the lengths I’ll go to create good targeting.

How to Leverage this Group

There’s obviously plenty we can do with this. I could promote products and opt-ins. But for now, let’s just make sure we can reach these people.

So, I created a video indicating that if you’re seeing it, I have a feeling you’re my people. You’re someone who is watching my Reels to completion, and that seems to be a good indicator.

Since this is a small group (under 1,000 people), I’m using an Awareness campaign optimized for Reach.

And since it’s a small but relevant group, I’m using worldwide targeting. You can do this by simply removing any targeting from the location field.

I’m targeting the custom audience we just created. But I’m also excluding anyone who watched the video that I’m promoting in this ad. I created that audience after this campaign was published, then updated the targeting in the ad set.

I’ve focused on the more relevant video-first placements.

And I’m sticking with the default of 1 impression every 7 days.

The reason for that is I may keep this campaign running a while, and I don’t need to keep showing the same people the ad all the time. The exclusion helps prevent that, but this control helps as well.

Am I Reaching People?

Yeah, I am. Since I started this campaign on Thursday, I’ve reached a grand total of 147 people.

Not a lot, but these are important people. And due to the frequency cap, that size has shrunk pretty fast. I only reached 9 people yesterday and 13 so far today. But, the main thing is that it’s still running.

If delivery becomes an issue, I may need to update the frequency cap to something like 1 impression in every 3 days. But, we’ll worry about that if and when we need to.

One of the nice things is that it’s incredibly cheap to reach this very relevant group. I’ve only spent about $5 so far to run this campaign.

If I were to leverage this audience for something like list building or selling products, it has the potential to be very efficient.

What Could Have Been Better?

It’s fun to experiment with this, but the truth is that this isn’t my preferred approach. Two reasons.

1. Why can’t I target anyone who watched any Reel or video during the past 7 days?

I went to a lot of effort to create this audience based on people who could have watched any of my Reels. Even if I wanted to only focus on the most recent videos, I’d still need to keep updating the videos included as I publish new ones.

That’s far from ideal. Why isn’t there an option to isolate engagement with all videos at 95% during a specific period of time?

2. Why can’t I target people who watched at least 3 Reels during the past two months?

A frequency element would be amazing. That way, we could widen the net and include videos over a longer period of time. But without frequency, a person who watched one video two months ago (when I publish videos every day) isn’t as valuable as someone who watched one recently.

This is actually something that can be done with website custom audiences, so it’s not completely new functionality.

I created a video on this, too (because of course I did!). Check it out…

@jonloomer Here’s how Facebook could improve video views custom audiences. #facebookads ♬ Ocean Chill Guitar | Trap Hip Hop Instrumental – xklbeats

Your Turn

If you publish a lot of videos now, this may be a good approach for you. What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How I’m Targeting People Most Engaged with My Reels appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

You may know that I have fully embraced short-form video during the past couple of months. This was not an easy transition. I had to overcome so much of what I thought I knew about marketing and advertising to do it.

Throughout this pivot, it’s become obvious to me that there are so many “old school” marketers and advertisers who just don’t get it. But, I fully understand and appreciate why they don’t get it because I was one of them until recently.

Maybe you are in this group of resistant marketers. Allow me to attempt to explain your reservations before arguing why you’re wrong (in the nicest, gentlest way possible).

First, I’ll tee this up with what I’m doing right now — a strategy that will feel wrong to many.

What I’m Doing

After years of prioritizing my blog (I haven’t abandoned it!), I now focus first on short-form video. I make time for recording and editing videos. At least one video will be published to TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn on most days.

My short-form videos are not promotional. They are created with the goal of solving a problem. The vast majority of them are tutorials or discussions of an advertising tactic (mostly Facebook ads, but some TikTok, too).

Each video is a minute long. There is no call-to-action button. No link in the description. Just helpful info.

Okay, maybe not 100% non-promotional. Of the more than 100 short-form videos I’ve published in two months, a few discussed what happened during one of my weekly webinars, strategy sessions, or one-on-one sessions. So, these were at least loosely promotional.

But those videos make up the extreme minority. And you can bet they were far less popular than the others.

The Argument Against It

The old-school marketer in me resisted this approach for years. Not just because I was intimidated by getting in front of a camera and the perceived work involved to do it well. I couldn’t get over the hurdle related to measurement.

I’ve been asked several times during the past couple of months questions related to ROI. How much revenue is this generating? Is it leading to positive ROI?

I understand. For years, I only cared about driving traffic to my website. I valued the traffic because traffic is what fed my funnel. More traffic, more people on my email list, and more customers.

These things could be measured pretty easily because I was sharing links. I knew how many people clicked those links, and I could often figure out how many of those clicks led to purchases.

But, links aren’t added to these videos. I’m not able to track what people do after watching them. Realistically, they aren’t immediately going to my website because there isn’t a link.

I’m spending a couple of hours per day creating these videos. Time is money. I am not tracking (able or willing) whether anyone watching these videos is then buying from me. Without links, that’s not possible.

Why not just add a link? Well, that misses the point. We’ll get to that point.

But, the argument is made that such efforts are a complete waste of time and money. If you can’t connect a marketing effort to revenue, you shouldn’t do it. It was a failure.

Right??

My Goals

Understand that it’s not that I don’t have the goal of making money. I just don’t care whether I can tie revenue to these efforts.

My goals for this approach can be summed up like this…

Build my brand. Establish and reinforce expertise. Be top-of-mind. When someone has a Facebook ads-related problem, they think of me.

I built my brand years ago. I established my expertise. But the truth is that I started to lose that fresh polish. I wasn’t in your feed every day because I refused to play the algorithmic game. And ultimately, I was no longer top-of-mind.

I don’t need any encouragement or reassurance. I understand I lost some of that. It was my own fault. And it was largely because I didn’t evolve with video.

My videos don’t need to remind you every day that I have a website. They don’t need to push my products in your face constantly to get you to buy them.

I want to be present in your feed, but I don’t want to be annoying. I want you to look forward to seeing me there. It’s not like the commercial that you can’t get out of your head.

I want to own the most-followed account for Facebook ads strategies, tutorials, and advice — on TikTok and everywhere. That isn’t the case right now because I relied far too much on the success of my website to carry me.

This doesn’t happen by creating videos that push my products. This happens by being useful.

The Difference with Video

Look, we know that video is different for marketers than links. Many of those differences are negatives related to tracking. But, there’s also a huge benefit in our favor.

Videos can initiate a relationship that written words struggle to create.

With videos, you see a side of people and brands you wouldn’t normally see. Connections can be made. You come away feeling like you actually know this person.

This connection grows with each video.

Measuring Results

This approach can be maddening, I know. I’ve been putting in countless hours the past couple of months refining my process and learning what works and what doesn’t work. And it absolutely is challenging to stay motivated when you don’t know that it’s helping.

Initially, my reassurance to keep going was a small, daily reminder. I’d consistently get comments on my Facebook Reels from people saying that they were happy to see me in their news feed again. That I helped them years ago but they haven’t seen my stuff in forever.

I hadn’t gone anywhere. But, it was obvious. Until this new effort, I was no longer top-of-mind.

Those little reminders were nice. But we needed something of substance. That substance has repeated itself the past couple of days.

In two days, four separate people have told me the same thing. They were inspired to buy something from me because of my videos. In each case, they followed me years ago, and then I disappeared. The videos moved the needle.

Not any particular video. Just the collection of videos. The constant, subtle reminder that I could help them.

Those four people combined to buy three memberships (two annual) and 12 one-on-one sessions (this is not a misprint, they booked in advance).

Without the videos, none of this would have happened. I’m confident of that. They are confident of that, too.

My Challenge to You

Because these four people told me this, I can connect the videos to revenue. But without their friendly words, I would have no idea. And it would have been easy to get frustrated. But we can’t. We must see the bigger picture.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey. I challenge you to look beyond the way we have always done things.

Some efforts don’t need to be tied directly to revenue to be worthwhile. Some efforts merely set the stage. They make the purchase possible, even if the effort itself didn’t direct that purchase.

I encourage to create videos — even most of your videos — that only aim to provide value. No direct and obvious goal of a sale.

Things are changing. If you want to show up on short-form video on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, you need to consider how people consume that content. Don’t force them to click links because of your need to measure your impact.

Watch Video

It’s only natural that I have a quick video that discusses this topic, too!

Your Turn

Obviously, this applies more to info marketing than it does to e-comm, but I’d argue there’s room in e-comm strategy for this as well.

Have you come around to this marketing approach? What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How Short-Form Video Alters Marketing Evaluations appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If you’ve been following me on any of my primary social channels during the past month or so, you’ve likely noticed a very clear pivot. I am deeply invested in short-form video.

This is a complete 180. I’ve long resisted video creation in every form. Admittedly, the delay was not smart strategically. But there were many reasons behind that delay.

It hasn’t been an easy transformation. It required getting uncomfortable. I was forced to get in front of the camera, something I really haven’t liked doing. Stubbornness, fears, and old habits all needed to be overcome.

I’m doing this not just for me but for the introverted marketers whom I share these struggles with. So far, it’s been a heck of a ride. Not an easy start, but the growth has been energizing.

Oh… And please follow me on TikTok (if you can).

And worth it.

Let’s take a closer look at what held me back, what I’ve done so far, and my future plans for short-form video. I encourage you to take whatever you can from this to help with your own journey.

The Excuses

Let’s face it. This website is more than 11 years old now. I’m an old dog who doesn’t want to be taught new tricks.

We could get into a very long, philosophical discussion about the unique holes I put myself into over the years by trying to streamline and simplify my business. But, that may be for another day.

Ultimately, I am most comfortable writing. I like to write. You don’t see me struggle when I write. I don’t need to worry about lighting, what I’m wearing, or how I deliver a message when I write. I can sit, think, write, delete, and write again.

My video efforts have been few and far between. Sometimes I’d turn a podcast into a video. But I’d do everything I could to keep from pointing the camera at myself.

Some of the excuses I made were for business reasons. I wanted to drive traffic to my website. That’s where business is done. A video on Facebook or Instagram doesn’t help satisfy that goal (or so I told myself).

I convinced myself that I didn’t need to go with the trends. Being different could separate me from the pack.

I was wrong. This, and several other decisions (and non-decisions) hurt my business.

The Pivot

The decision to pivot was late but necessary. It was made for several reasons.

Organic traffic to this website has always been the lifeblood of my business. It fed my list and funnel. It was this “easy” traffic that made profitability nearly effortless.

Of course, it took a ton of effort to get there. But there was a time when I was getting 10,000 organic referrals per day from Google. My list was robust and a high percentage of those on it were opening and clicking my emails.

When these things started drying up, business followed in the same negative direction. I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing.

My content was no longer reaching nearly as many people as it once did. I was no longer top of mind when people had a need for Facebook ads help. My brand had grown stale.

It was time to adjust. I could no longer treat my business like time stood still, hoping I could resist the laws of business physics. I needed to remind people that I was here, reaching them with the types of content people now want to consume.

It didn’t mean my blog would die. But short-form video needed to be a way to build my brand. Remind people that I’m here. And ultimately drive them back to my website and my products.

As recently as mid-September, I was mocking TikTok. Like every other “mature” person resistant to this format, I thought it was all dancing, memes, and junk. And then…

One Month of Production

Lots of fear and uncertainty, but I knew I had to do it. I gave myself grace, knowing that my early efforts would be cringe-worthy. But, I knew that I had to create in order to learn and get better.

On September 30, once I realized this was something I needed to do, I put myself out there with this embarrassing video…

@jonloomer

Create stuff that sucks!

♬ original sound – Jon Loomer

I had no idea how to use the app. I didn’t know how to edit or add music. This was a bad video, but I no longer cared. The effort was the point.

I’d ultimately create 70 videos in the month of October, publishing at least one video nearly every day of the month beginning October 3. I created with a variety of formats, experimenting with themes.

I struggled with efficiency and finding the right tools and processes to create quality content without taking an entire afternoon. I consumed others’ videos and noted what I liked and didn’t like.

Almost exactly a month from that “This Video is Going to Suck” effort, I created this…

@jonloomer Follow me for Facebook ads tips, tutorials, and maybe a little bit of breakdancing. #facebookads #facebookadstips ♬ Old school Hip-hop – Nebikov

I was getting comfortable. I began experimenting with TikTok ads. These videos were also repurposed for Facebook and Instagram Reels. An immediate impact was felt.

“I haven’t seen you in my feed for years!” I’d hear. Some of the comments almost treated me as if I were coming back from the dead (“I never went anywhere!” I wanted to scream…).

My audience on TikTok went from virtually nothing to 3,000 and counting. Confidence is building. Processes are sharpening. Efficiency is in sight.

My Short-Form Video Strategy

More than a month in now, a strategy is coming into shape. It will continue to evolve, but I want to share what I’m doing for the month of November.

1. MULTIPLE PLATFORMS

This experiment started with TikTok videos only. Then I’d download those videos and re-purpose the TikTok branded video for Facebook and Instagram Reels. This approach is now growing and maturing.

TIKTOK: It starts here. I really can’t believe that TikTok is my home base now — I’d never believe it a couple of months ago. But, I see the immediate impact but also the immense potential. I create two videos per day for TikTok.

INSTAGRAM REELS: I now longer use the TikTok branded video to publish to Instagram and Facebook Reels. Now I take the video I created (not within the TikTok app) and add music from Instagram.

FACEBOOK REELS: I don’t know what happened, but until last week I could cross-post from Instagram to Facebook. That option went away from my Instagram app, so I now also upload a unique version to Facebook Reels.

YOUTUBE SHORTS: I resisted. Just last week I told someone it was just too much to do this. But, I’ve started publishing these videos to YouTube Shorts, too. It helps that the format is the same.

LINKEDIN: During the past few days, I’ve started creating a square version for LinkedIn. Originally, I created an entirely new video. Now I just take the original 9:16 and put it on a square canvas. It’s otherwise too much work right now. We’ll see what impact it makes.

2. VIDEO LENGTH

Originally, I didn’t worry much about time. And then I realized that if I wanted to re-purpose to Instagram, it couldn’t be longer than 90 seconds. And if I wanted to push it to Facebook, it couldn’t be longer than 60 seconds.

This was a good thing. It forces me to edit. I am a butcher when it comes to editing (in a good way). The final video will be no more than 60 seconds.

Here’s something I recorded recently about my approach to recording and editing…

@jonloomer

If you ramble and struggle with short form video, this is for you. You can do it.

♬ Zodiac | Seamless Looping Trap Hip Hop Instrumental – xklbeats

3. FORMAT

There are three primary formats that I use:

• Q&A: I answer questions I find in my comments (easiest and quickest video)
• Reaction/Talking Head: Typically not edited in the TikTok app
• Tutorial: Utilizes a screenshare and talking head

The third is surely the most valuable but also the most time intensive. I do enjoy creating them.

4. SUBJECT MATTER

Initially, my focus was going to be on Facebook advertising only (with some relevant Facebook marketing topics). But, I’m starting to share some videos related to my TikTok ads experiences, too.

5. FREQUENCY

For now, I’m aiming at two videos per day. I could see cutting this down to one per day on the weekends. But, I do believe that consistent creation is critical to growth. Avoiding burn-out is also important.

What’s Next?

This pivot is no small feat. It’s not just a new format but it’s an admission. I know that doing things the way I’ve always done them is no longer good enough.

There’s actually something very new and exciting about that. I haven’t experienced that type of feeling in a long time. I do sometimes miss how amazing those initial days of my business were, going from obscurity to an explosion of recognition. There’s a bit of a high achieved by overcoming this.

I’m admittedly not a big long-term planner. October was an important month for my business and my professional growth. November will be just as important. While I have plans for what I’m going to do, everything could change quickly as this evolves.

It’s already looking possible that TikTok advertising may become an additional topic discussed on these pages. No predictions. Stay tuned.

Your Turn

Have you made your pivot to short-form video yet?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How I’ve Pivoted to Short-Form Video on TikTok and Reels appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If you’ve been creating videos for Facebook and Instagram Reels, you can increase your reach with ads.

This is a format I’ve been experimenting with extensively of late. Why? Well, Meta has been very clear that Reels are getting priority for distribution. This is their answer to TikTok. They want users to watch them.

Because of that known priority, this can be an advantage for marketers — both organically and with ads. In theory, you should get better distribution with a well-done Reel than you would a link or image post. And if you get increased engagement, that often leads to lower CPM costs in ad spend.

Let’s dig into how you might take advantage of the Reels format with ads.

Quick Overview

First, it’s important to understand what we’re dealing with.

Reels are short-form videos (up to 60 seconds on Facebook and 90 seconds on Instagram) that are typically recorded from a phone. As a result, Reels utilize the 9:16 aspect ratio.

Here’s a visual example of a Reel I’ve published…

Objective

The objective isn’t particularly relevant here. You could theoretically use several different objectives, assuming your ad could lead to the desired outcome.

The only requirement for this tutorial is that we promote an existing post.

The Ad

We’re going to jump ahead to the ad for a minute.

Make sure that you select both your Facebook page and Instagram business account under “Identity.”

Under Ad Setup, select “Use existing post.”

Click “Select Post” under Ad Creative.

If you are publishing your Reels on Instagram and cross-posting to your Facebook page (you probably should be!), toggle to Instagram at the top and select the Reel that you want to promote.

You should select a Reel that is under a minute long so that it stays within the requirements for both Facebook and Instagram (yes, it would make a lot of sense if the rules were the same for each platform).

Placements

Okay, now let’s go back to the ad set to choose placements (let’s manually select them instead of using all).

What you do here is up to you, but I’d recommend making the most of the 9:16 aspect ratio. First, you’ll probably want to keep all Stories and Reels placements selected since they are all 9:16.

If you want to select the Overlay and Post-Loop Ads on Reels placements, you also have to select Facebook In-Stream.

This is unfortunate since In-Stream uses a 16:9 aspect ratio. So, you can either roll the dice here or keep Overlay and Post-Loop unchecked.

Finally, you have to check at least Facebook Feed. Both Facebook and Instagram Feeds use a 4:5 aspect ratio. I’d keep everything else in feeds unchecked.

Adjust by Placement

Whether you do anything else here is up to you. But, if you want to make sure your ads look good, let’s adjust creative by placement. Go back to your ad. Click to edit by placement.

Something that I like to do is edit the thumbnail.

Potential Exclusion

If you really want to get detailed, you could exclude people who already watched your Reel. You’d do that by creating a custom audience based on video views.

What you use for view length is up to you. If you use 3 seconds, that should immediately exclude anyone who saw the video due to auto-play. Or, you could go all the way to 95%. I won’t argue with either approach.

When you choose the video, you can select multiple videos at once. So, if there are versions on both your Facebook page and Instagram profiles, I’d select them both.

My Experiment

Because I’m creating a lot of Reels right now, I’m actually trying something out with a very narrow audience. Honestly, I have fun with the super narrow audiences — it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go broad. But, this makes it easier for me to have a small, controlled experimented with a limited budget.

I’m using a Reach campaign with a 3:1 frequency cap.

The reason it’s so aggressive on the frequency cap is that people are likely to see my ads for up to seven days. The reason for that is I’m targeting my most engaged audience during the past seven days.

Of course, I’m excluding those who already watched the video.

If you’re curious, my “most engaged audience” is defined by people who performed a series of custom events on my website during the past seven days. That includes any of the following:

• Shared a blog post
• Started my podcast player
• Clicked at least two internal links
• Registered for something
• Viewed a page for at least two minutes

The result is an audience that Facebook says is about 2,000 people. I’m using only a $5 per day budget, which Facebook says will result in reaching 153 to 443 people per day.

Your Turn

Have you experimented with Reels yet? Are you promoting them with ads?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Run Ads to Promote Facebook and Instagram Reels appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.