attorney marketing

Hey, everybody. Andy Stickel here. I have had a few people ask me what is the criteria that I personally use when deciding whether or not to turn on or turn off Facebook ads and when should I let a Facebook ad run. They want to know when I decide if I should pull the plug because it’s not profitable.

Facebook ad goals

I have specific goals with Facebook ads. There’s a couple of different goals with Facebook ads that I will predetermine. So depending on what my goal is for the Facebook ad, that largely determines when I turn an ad off and when I let it run. If you’re dealing with traffic or conversation ads or lead ads, which are probably the most common types of Facebook ads that you’re going to run, then what I typically do is I will let my ads run for a little while and I will make sure that, first of all, before I make any decisions on them, I need to make sure that they are out of learning mode. Basically, when you first launch a Facebook ad, Facebook is basically testing a lot of different things to see which types of people are actually going to respond to your ads. When the ad is in learning mode, it means that Facebook is still kind of conducting their test and you have to let the Facebook algorithm run while this is actually happening. And, typically, you want to get a couple of conversions, and then it’ll come out of learning mode. What I usually look at is the impressions and the amount spent. I won’t turn off an ad typically until it has at least 1000 impressions. Because if it hasn’t gotten 1000 impressions, then it really has not had a chance to run as much as it should and Facebook hasn’t had the opportunity to actually test the algorithm and kind of see what’s going to work and what audiences aren’t going to work.

Facebook checks

Facebook kind of works like ‘hit or miss.’ I kind of equate it to a game of Battleship where, basically, Facebook is kind of guessing and saying, “Okay. So… C4” and then it goes there and sees, “Oh, okay. That didn’t work.” And then it says, “B9” and it goes there and, “That didn’t work.” And then it says, “D11” and then they get a hit and all of a sudden they find some people that are going to respond to your ad. And that’s kind of a very simplified way of how Facebook works in terms of testing who they show ads to and which ads are actually going to get responses and which ads work and then where they subsequently show your ads. You have to let the ad get out of learning mode. But then once it’s out of learning mode, I typically will turn an ad off if it’s not getting results and if it’s not generating leads. If it’s generating conversions or anything like that once it’s actually gotten 1000 impressions. If it hasn’t gotten 1000 impressions, I typically won’t turn it off unless the ad costs a lot of money. If I’ve already spent a significant amount of money on the ad and it hasn’t even gotten 1000 impressions yet, then, yes, I’m definitely shutting that thing off. But that’s generally my rule of thumb, is around 1000 impressions.

Now, if you’re talking about video view ads, video view ads are a little different. Our goal with a video view ad is to get people that will watch 100% of the video. Now, the longer the video is, the fewer people you’re going to get to watch 100% of the video. My rule of thumb typically is I want to pay 5¢ for every minute that the video is for a video view campaign. For example, if you have a two-minute video, then what you want to do is you want to look at how much you spent on showing the ads, and then you want to look at how much it cost to get a 100% view of the video. The way you do that is you go on the Facebook ads dashboard and you go to the column selection and then you select video engagement. And then you can scroll over to the right and you’ll see how many people watched 100% of the video. And if you’re getting 100% and people are watching 100% of the video, that means that they’re pretty engaged. My goal is to have the cost be 5¢ per minute of the video for a 100% watch. If the video is two minutes long, then I want it to cost me no more than 10¢ per 100% video view. That is the goal. If you’re at 11¢ or 13¢ or something like that for a two-minute video, it’s not the end of the world. But that’s just kind of the baseline that I look at. When I look at it and I see, “Oh, I’m at 75¢”, then I know that I need to change something else or I need to change something up. But unless it’s a 15-minute video, then 75¢ to watch it 100%… Getting a 100% view of a 15-minute video is actually really good. Those are the baselines that I use. Those are the baselines that I tell my team. Those are the baselines that I use when creating content for clients and also with my coaching students when I teach them how to actually create content as well. I hope that helps. If you have any questions about this, feel free to leave a comment below. I’ll answer all your questions. Or send me a direct message. We will talk to you soon. Thanks a lot. Have a good one.

Andy Stickel: Hey, everybody. Andy Stickel here. One of the biggest challenges in getting started with video is just getting comfortable talking to the camera and really finding your on screen personality. This is actually something that I see a lot of lawyers struggle with. I actually talked to our social media manager about the problem. His name is Chris Vander Kaay. I had him record a video for you guys that will show you three steps to finding your on screen personality and actually getting comfortable talking to the camera so that when you create videos it feels natural and it feels like you’re just having a conversation. You’ll get much better results as a result of your performance. And honestly, it’s really, really easy. Just follow the three tips that he lays out in this video. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions.

Chris Vander Kaay: Hey, everybody. It’s Chris Vander Kaay from Social Firestarter. I wanted to talk today about the idea of your on camera personality. The first question people always come to us with is, “Why do I have to be the face of my own campaign?” We have a different video to talk about that. But once they’ve gotten past that point and they’ve accepted that, the next question is usually, “What about my on camera personality? I don’t feel comfortable on camera. I don’t really like being on camera. I don’t think I’m good on camera. How do I fix that? How do I get better at that?” And Andy always says, “It takes time.” And that is true. It’s absolutely true. You’re going to have to work at it for a long time. But there are things that you can do that will help you to get better on camera. One thing I want to stress before we get to the three points, the three things that I think will help, is I want to point out a lot of people think that this is like acting, that this is performing. And I want to make it clear this isn’t really about acting. If you had to compare it to something, it’s not about being an actor, it’s more like being a host. You’re not not being yourself. You’re just being a slightly bigger version of yourself that’s slightly better at the thing you have to do here, which is to present information to someone in an interesting way. That’s not the same thing as acting. And we’ll talk about the ways in which it’s not the same. And I think the first one is actually really important. Be authentic. Right? Even with your errors and your imperfections and all the things that you feel are awkward in front of the camera, you have to be honest about those and you have to feel authentic in order for people to want to believe you. One of the reasons why we want lawyers to be their own face on the camera and we want them to be their personality is because if you’ve ever watched an ad where they use actors doing things, you recognize within yourself you immediately shut off. Right? Because I’m not seeing who this person really is. I’m not getting any genuine emotion. I’m not connecting in any way because I’m not even looking at the person that I’m going to be connecting with. You have to have that. You have to have that genuine connection. And even if you’re on camera and you’re the real person but you’re not being your genuine self, people will notice if you’re putting on some sort of an affectation. One of the things you notice about me I’m sure is that I talk very quickly. I have to accept that about myself, which is one of the reasons why I do a recap at the end of the points that I’ve covered because I talk fairly quickly and I want to make sure that they got the points. The second thing that I want to talk about is how to make it a conversation with just one person. I’m not talking to a thousand people right. When I’m looking at this camera and I’m talking, I’m talking to one person. I’ve chosen who that specific person in my life is that I feel comfortable having a natural conversation with. And once I know who that person is and I’m just talking to them and I can block out the idea that thousands of people might see this, it makes it a conversation instead of some sort of a presentation. I’m not acting. I’m just having a conversation. I’m providing one person that I know and I like and I’m comfortable with some sort of valuable information. And that really tends to take the fear off of it all, the expectation off of it all. And as you’ll notice, as we’ve been talking, I’ve been glancing at this card. I was doing that on purpose. I don’t normally use a card. When I do have it, I don’t normally look at it like this. But that’s point three. And I did that on purpose to show you how distracting it is if you’re trying to keep track of what it is that you’re saying, if you have a script. It’s very distracting if you try to write a script for yourself for two reasons. One, you’re either looking at it and then, even if I put it over here, when I’m looking over to see what it says, you can tell that I’m looking over to see what it says. And that’s distracting. The other thing is if I’m not looking over at it but I’m just reciting it to you because I memorized it earlier, I memorized it exactly like this and I will say it exactly like this, there’s nothing genuine to it because all I’m doing now is spitting words that I memorized back out at you. What you want to have is some sense of natural ideas. If you look at the card that I wrote, I wrote down at the bottom, “Don’t make a script. Just make notes.” I keep the notes around because I glance at them right before I record. But I’m not constantly consulting them. And therefore it’s coming off comfortable, extemporaneous in the same way that if you were just accessing information in your head when you’re having a conversation with somebody. That’s the feeling that you want to have when you’re on camera. You obviously want to provide good information but you don’t want it to become so important that that information is delivered exactly this way that you’ve lost all interest in who you are as a person and what you’re providing to another as a human being. Because otherwise I could just slap up words on a screen. Easy enough. Right? And you’d still have the information. You’re trying to make a human connection on top of providing that information. Those three points I’ll reiterate because, again, I have accepted the part about me that is a problem, which is that I speak quickly. The first point, be authentic. Even with your mistakes and with your problems, be authentic. Second point, make it a conversation with a single person. Figure out who that person is in your life that you know you could have any conversation about anything with and that you’re comfortable and you don’t have any nervousness speaking around them. And then that’s who you’re talking to. And then the third and final thing, don’t script anything out. Make your notes so that you know what you want to get at and then look at it right before and then just go ahead and record. And don’t worry about trying to land every specific phrase the way that you wrote it. Just be honest. Share the information that you have. Be genuine. And if you do that long enough, that will become the natural presence that you have on camera. And your on screen personality will shape itself once you do those things.

Legal Marketing Tip – How To Become the Expert in the Room & Build Your Law Firm’s Credibility

3 Things That Make Lawyer Marketing Videos Better

Video is everything in advertising right now. This is true in every avenue. But it must be a good video. If not, your reader will not just stop watching they will stop reading. Read on for some useful information to get you top-grade video.

Andy Stickel: Hey, everybody. Andy Stickel here today. I brought in our social media manager Chris Vander Kaay to show you one really, really cool trick that’s going to make your videos more interesting and more effective. Check it out.

Chris Vander Kaay: Hey, everybody. It’s Chris Vander Kaay from Social Firestarter. I get a lot of people who ask me a very specific question, which is, “There’s a piece of information that I have and I want to share it with people. But because it’s a legal situation, it’s very detailed. Sometimes, it’s a little bit abstract. And it’s not necessarily the most compelling thing in the world for people to want to listen to. But it’s very important. And if people understood that and they understood what it meant, they would be very interested in what I had to say.

How do I create a story that is very compelling? And how do I create a hook that will get people to want to pay attention to what I’m saying so that by the time they get to the thing that’s very important to them they’re still listening?” I get that question a lot and so I decided I would write the answer on this card. And so I did. On this side of the card, I wrote the answer to that question. And I’m going to hold this while we talk. And at the end of this, I’m going to turn around and I’m going to show you the answer. Okay? So you’re going to get the answer by the end of this. Now, the first thing I want to do before I do that. There’s actually only one thing I want to do. I want to tell you a word and I’m going to give the definition of that word and then it’ll explain why the answer on this card is helpful to you. Okay? The word is MacGuffin. If you’ve ever heard of it before, It’s something that they use in the film. It’s a term that they use for a specific kind of thing in a film. And what that thing is… I’m going to give you an example. Right? If you’ve ever seen a spy movie – you’ve seen a Mission Impossible movie, right – there’s usually some kind of a case. Right? There’s a disc, maybe, that somebody has lost and they have to get it back or there’s a case full of some sort of technology that someone has stolen and they have to get it before such and such happens. Right? Whatever that object is, that is the MacGuffin. But what does that mean? What is the MacGuffin? Alfred Hitchcock invented it years ago, probably back in the 30s. And it’s basically a term that means a thing that is an excuse to get action moving. In the story, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what’s inside of that case or what’s on that disc. It’s really not important. The goal in the story is you want them to be interested in what’s that case or what’s on that disc. Because if they are, they’re going to pay attention to everything else that happens in that movie. And if we’re being honest, ultimately, it doesn’t matter all that much. I’ve recently watched one of the Mission Impossible movies. You know what I remember about that movie? I remember a scene where somebody tore their face off and they were actually Tom Cruise underneath. I remember a scene where he was hanging off the side of an airplane. You know what I don’t remember? What was inside the case. I have no idea what was inside the case anymore. But I had a good time watching that movie. And that was the hook that made me sit through the movie. It was, “What’s going to happen with that thing that they have?” That’s a MacGuffin. And that is one of your most powerful tools in being able to tell a story. Figuring out what your hook is, what your MacGuffin is means you’re going to provide a serious suspenseful thing at the beginning that they’re going to want an answer to. And they’re going to wait around in an attempt to get that answer. And in waiting around to get that, they will be provided with something important. Right? It’s almost like saying that you’re going to get dessert after you eat your vegetables. Except in this case, we’re not doing it so obviously. Right? We’re not saying, “Here’s the thing you can’t have until…” We’re saying, “Here’s the thing you do get to have.” And then as you’re showing it to them, you’re also giving them other important pieces of information. If you have something that’s legally complicated to explain or something that’s a little bit more detailed, if you’ve already offered them the answer before you go into the detail on what it is that they’re going to get, they’re going to stick around just like, as you’ve been watching this video, you’ve been waiting to see the answer on the back of this card. And the thing is I already gave you the answer. It was just a little bit more complicated to explain than what I could write on the card. So when I actually turn this card around and I show you the answer, the thing is that it doesn’t matter anymore. Because by the time I show you this, it doesn’t matter what’s on the card. You already had the answer. It took me a little longer to tell you. But that’s the framework that we create. Give them something to expect, something to look forward to and then they’re hooked and waiting and listening until you get to the reveal of the thing. And then, secretly, you’ve already revealed the thing.

Why You HAVE To Be On Camera For Your Law Firm’s Marketing Campaign