Facebook Advertising MBA Secrets with Tamara Ashworth

What does it mean to own your business assets with Facebook Advertising? What are the new Facebook ads trends? How can businesses effectively market their products on Facebook? What makes a good marketing agency? To Tamara Ashworth, the answer to all these questions lies in focusing your energy on a limited area of expertise and always keeping up with new innovations.  In this episode of the Social PR Secrets Podcast, host Lisa Buyer talks with Tamara Ashworth, co-founder, and CEO of e-commerce Facebook marketing agency, Ashworth Strategy. After working in finance in New York City for a few years, Tamara got her MBA with a focus on marketing from Notre Dame. She then got her start in corporate marketing in Europe before learning the ropes of smaller companies in an NYC startup. That’s when she decided she was ready to start her own company. Facebook Advertising 101 According to Tamara, one of the most important things brands should do when advertising on Facebook is to own their assets. The agency they work with should not own them, instead of helping the company set it up themselves. The first step in owning assets is to have a business manager to which you can connect your Facebook page. You should then create an ad account and a Facebook pixel, making sure you own all of these first and then share them with the agency you’re working with, through partner access. When businesses work with Ashworth Strategy, this entire process is streamlined. Tamara sends them instruction guides and videos and is always ready to jump on a Zoom call to help out. Finances: The Most Common Error Tamara says that the most frequent error brands make when setting up their Facebook advertising strategy is to overlook finances. She explains that brands need to understand what they want their returns to be. There needs to be an actual strategy based on numbers. Companies should know their numbers well enough and know when they become profitable. Tamara says that unlike Ashworth Strategy, most agencies don’t get down to the granular lever lof finances.  2020 Facebook Ads Trends To Tamara, every single month of 2020 has felt different. She notes that last year, Facebook started focusing more and more on videos but that photos were still doing better. However, video is making an actual come back now. She also explains that the first few months of 2020 felt normal marketing-wise. But in March, everything changed. As soon as coronavirus started to spread, copy became more important than video and photo. The messaging put out by brands had to be sensitive to the times. But then, in May, people started getting tired of this messaging. In early June, with the intensification of the Black Lives Matter, brands had to adapt again. Tamara explains that brands who took it on did best if they stayed sensitive to the issues. Overall, in 2020, copy became the most important component of Facebook posts, along with branding. Indeed, people want to resonate with brands they think are doing the right thing. How does one go from finance to marketing? How to learn more about Facebook marketing? What are some common mistakes brands make? Listen to this episode of Social PR Secrets to find out!   “I’m so passionate that my business rarely feels like work” - Tamara Ashworth Some topics discussed in this episode include: