Making the decision to outsource your paid social to an agency can be tough.

It’s a big decision to hand over the reigns of your social advertising to someone outside of your business, and one of the questions Andrew and I get a lot is, “when is the right time to hire an agency?”

Today we address that question, as well as the specific questions to ask when you’re vetting your agency (and the answers to look for), and what you can do as a client to ensure you have a great relationship with your new partner.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:41 The first thing you need to do before you hire an agency.
• 7:00 Andrew's calculation for determining whether or not it makes sense to hire an agency to manage your ads.
• 12:24 If you don’t want to do the math, why you should at least be tracking your time.
• 16:11 The first question to ask when vetting an agency: Do you manage my ads in my own ad account or in your business manager?
• 18:29 Question #2: Who is in charge of creating the creative?
• 21:48 Question #3: What are your best performing look-a-likes or audiences?
• 22:38 Question #4: How do you normally approach mid-funnel targeting?
• 24:29 Question #5: What previous experience do you have and can you show me results?
• 25:46 Question #6: What are the expectations for performance?
• 27:40 Why you have to be careful as a business owner with over promises from agencies.
• 31:08 Question #7: What are your best clients doing and what do you expect us to do if we want to perform like your best clients?

Links and Resources:

• Episode 181: The Changing State Of Paid Social: Tips, Strategy, And How To Win
• Episode 183: How To Manage Your Time Strategically While Growing Your Business
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member:

If you liked this episode, you’re going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Today’s episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Over 10,000 brands have joined Klaviyo to help them build higher-quality relationships with their customers. Klaviyo does not force you to compromise between speed and powerful functionality, you get both. Interested to see Klaviyo’s impact? Tune into their 12-part docu-series following three brands—Chubbies, SunSki and the Love Is Project. You’ll learn how they prepared for Cyber Weekend 2018, marketing throughout the holidays, and beyond. Along the way, we’ll fill you in on what you should be doing as a business to push your marketing strategy to the next level.

Also, as you're going through this, they're going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.

Magical things can happen in your business with a strong brand and a loyal customer base.

Bryan Anthonys’ founders Amber Reynolds and Ed Glassman built a seven-figure business, in part by creating a brand and products that their customers feel deeply connected with.

Today the husband and wife team share the story of how they built their business, the lessons they’ve learned along the way, and the secret to their customer loyalty.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:07 From hustling on Ebay to building their own ecommerce store: the story of how Ed and Amber started Bryan Anthonys.
• 8:52 What’s working for Ed and Amber’s business right now.
• 9:35 Tough lessons learned when it comes to expanding your product portfolio.
• 10:55 The strength of Bryan Anthonys’ brand and how they design products that really connect with people.
• 14:44 How Ed and Amber's build customer loyalty.
• 16:44 Why Bryan Anthonys made the bold decision to have all aspects of their business (manufacturing, shipping, distribution) based in the US and the impact it’s had on their vendors.
• 21:02 Bryan Anthonys approach to customers service and one story that set them as the gold standard for Gracie.
• 25:48 How Bryan Anthonys uses text message marketing to bring in revenue from cart abandoners.
• 29:15 The power and value of having a good agency partner and what it’s done for Ed and Amber’s business.
• 31:37 What to expect with Bryan Anthonys in the upcoming years.

Links and Resources:

• Bryan Anthonys
• Gorgias
• Retention Rocket
• Bryan Anthonys on Instagram
• Bryan Anthonys on Facebook
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member:

If you liked this episode, you’re going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Today’s episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Over 10,000 brands have joined Klaviyo to help them build higher-quality relationships with their customers. Klaviyo does not force you to compromise between speed and powerful functionality, you get both. Interested to see Klaviyo’s impact? Tune into their 12-part docu-series following three brands—Chubbies, SunSki and the Love Is Project. You’ll learn how they prepared for Cyber Weekend 2018, marketing throughout the holidays, and beyond. Along the way, we’ll fill you in on what you should be doing as a business to push your marketing strategy to the next level.

Also, as you're going through this, they're going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.

Too many established ecommerce stores run out of money before they can scale.

Over the last several years, I’ve helped 126 ecommerce brands build more profitable businesses. 78 of them scaled into 7-figure businesses. 2 them had $100 million dollar exits.

Through this experience, I’ve learned that if you observe certain principles as you scale, you’ll increase your chance of doing it profitably.

Today I share my 3-step formula for profitably scaling your ecommerce business. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:10 The two conversations Austin had with clients that inspired this episode.
• 5:55 Strategy #1 for profitably scaling: Mindset.
• 6:20 Understanding your business’ DNA to get into the right mindset for growth.
• 9:40 The tough choices you have to make when you commit to growing profitably.
• 11:15 Strategy #2 for profitably scaling: Money.
• 11:32 How to calculate and set a profitability goal for your business.
• 14:17 Most business owners are paying themselves to little. Here’s how to calculate a fair wage for yourself.
• 17:31 Figuring out how much money you need to have in your business to be fully capitalized.
• 19:40 Is now the right time to hire? How to calculate how much you can spend on salaries based on your profitability goals.
• 24:29 The three financial components on your business to focus on after setting your salary cap.
• 25:57 Strategy #3 for profitably scaling: Method.
• 26:54 The biggest levers to focus on to grow a more profitable business.
• 34:33 Increasing average order value with "priority processing."

Links and Resources:

• Episode 178: You’re Treating Your Customers Equally (And It’s Costing You Money)
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Today’s episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Over 10,000 brands have joined Klaviyo to help them build higher-quality relationships with their customers. Klaviyo does not force you to compromise between speed and powerful functionality, you get both. Interested to see Klaviyo’s impact? Tune into their 12-part docu-series following three brands—Chubbies, SunSki and the Love Is Project. You’ll learn how they prepared for Cyber Weekend 2018, marketing throughout the holidays, and beyond. Along the way, we’ll fill you in on what you should be doing as a business to push your marketing strategy to the next level.

Also, as you're going through this, they're going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.

Earlier this week, Andrew shared the first 10 of 20 questions he asks when auditing clients’ Facebook accounts to see whether they’re managing them to their fullest potential.

Today he shares the rest of his tactical questions to help you optimize your Facebook ad account, including questions about audience overlap, value bidding, and your add to cart to purchase ratio. Part two of this episode will give you the full list of questions so you can complete a professional level Facebook audit on your own.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 3:42 Question #11: Do you have too high of an audience overlap?
• 4:37 How to know if audience overlap is an issue for your account.
• 6:31 Question #12: Have you tried or requested value bidding?
• 9:41 Question #13: If things are feeling stale on your account, have you tried a bid override?
• 14:16 Question #14: Are you advertising to previous customers?
• 16:48 Question #15: Have you tried product bundling to bring up the AOV?
• 21:19 Question #16: Are you remarketing to engaged users?
• 22:41 Question #17: What does your age report breakdown look like (and where to find it)?
• 25:39 Question #18: What is your Add to Cart to Purchase ratio?
• 27:25 Question #19: Have you tried campaign budget optimization?
• 28:44 Question #20: Do you have consistent naming conventions set up in your account?

Links and Resources:

• Episode 184: Use These 10 Questions to Get Unstuck With Your Facebook Ads Part 1
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• andrew@foxwelldigital.com
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Become a Member:

If you liked this episode, you’re going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Today’s episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Over 10,000 brands have joined Klaviyo to help them build higher-quality relationships with their customers. Klaviyo does not force you to compromise between speed and powerful functionality, you get both. Interested to see Klaviyo’s impact? Tune into their 12-part docu-series following three brands—Chubbies, SunSki and the Love Is Project. You’ll learn how they prepared for Cyber Weekend 2018, marketing throughout the holidays, and beyond. Along the way, we’ll fill you in on what you should be doing as a business to push your marketing strategy to the next level.

Also, as you're going through this, they're going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.

A few weeks ago Andrew shared his five-step process for optimizing your Facebook ad account.

In part one of this two-part episode, Andrew takes a more tactical approach and shares 10 questions he asks when auditing clients’ Facebook accounts to see whether they’re running things in the best way possible.

After auditing more than 200 Facebook accounts last year, Andrew has seen accounts that are killing it and those that have a lot of room for improvement. Whether you’re on one end of the spectrum or the other, these questions will help you identify changes you can make to improve what you’re doing on Facebook.

Stay tuned later this week for part two of this episode, where Andrew will share the additional 10 questions to ask when auditing your Facebook account. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 8:06 Question #1: Is user-generated content integrated somewhere in the creative?
• 9:16 Question #2: Are you utilizing reviews in your copy?
• 10:53 Question #3: Are you utilizing square video link posts?
• 12:39  Question #4: Is your product at least 40% to 50% of your ad image?
• 14:20 Question #5: Are there unanswered comments or questions on your ad??
• 18:26 Question #6: Is there a discount integrated at some point in the funnel?
• 19:56 Question #7: If you have an ad set that you stopped running because it died, have you tried duplicating it and running it at a lower budget to give it new life?
• 21:13  Question #8: Have you introduced new prospecting audiences based on dynamic pixel actions?
• 23:07 Question #9: Are you trying broad match dynamic product ads layered with interests?
• 24:03 Question #10: Have you split you dynamic product ad time windows, separating the adds to cart and the view content?
• 25:07 How long it typically takes for Andrew to audit an account and the process he goes through.
• 26:23 The most common mistakes Andrew sees when he’s reviewing Facebook ad accounts

Links and Resources:

• The Five Step Process To Optimize Your Facebook Ad Account
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• andrew@foxwelldigital.com

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Shoelace

This episode is brought to you by Shoelace. Shoelace helps fast-growing ecommerce stores tell their brand story, increase conversions, and grow revenue through Customer Journey Retargeting. This personalized approached to retargeting shows the right customers the right ads at the right time based on where they are in the buying journey with your brand. Whether a visitor is discovering your brand for the first time or a loyal repeat-customer is considering a purchase from your latest collection, they'll see tailored ad content that evolves like an engaging story in the days and weeks following their visit.

Shoelace's automation platform makes it a breeze to run memorable retargeting experiences. Visit ecommerceinfluence.com/shoelace and get started on working with Shoelace today. Mention "Ecommerce Influence" to claim a special offer during your free trial!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Today’s episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Over 10,000 brands have joined Klaviyo to help them build higher-quality relationships with their customers. Klaviyo does not force you to compromise between speed and powerful functionality, you get both. Interested to see Klaviyo’s impact? Tune into their 12-part docu-series following three brands—Chubbies, SunSki and the Love Is Project. You’ll learn how they prepared for Cyber Weekend 2018, marketing throughout the holidays, and beyond. Along the way, we’ll fill you in on what you should be doing as a business to push your marketing strategy to the next level.

Also, as you're going through this, they're going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.