Ep. #907 - Google Ads vs. Social Media

00:01.40

Andrew Morgans

What’s up, Hustlers? Welcome back. This is Andrew Morgans, founder of Marknology; here today as the host for Startup Hustle, covering all things e-commerce and Amazon entrepreneurship. Today, we’re talking about Google ads and social media ads content. Whatever you name it. Um, before we get in and I introduce today’s guest, I want to give a shoutout to our sponsor. Today’s episode of Startup Hustle is powered by Full Scale. Hiring software developers is difficult. Full Scale can help you build a software team quickly and affordably. And has a platform to help you manage that team. Visit FullScale.io to learn more. They really are an amazing company. I’ve been using them myself, and I recommend them every time I get the chance. And if you are struggling to find or scale out your development team, I encourage you to at least start here and get some information at FullScale.io. Today’s guest is coming out of Jersey, David Abraham. We have been around each other in the same circles at the same events listening to the same speakers. And today, we’re actually getting to meet in person. So I’m super excited to have you on the show and hear more about your story—how you’re working with brands to take them to the next level.

01:16.82

David Abraham

Appreciate it, Andrew. Thanks for having me. And I agree, it’s great that we finally get a chance to be with each other.

01:22.86

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, we were just chipping it up before the show like we always do, trying to get warmed up. And I said we got to start playing records. I got to push a record on this thing; we’re just going to chat it up by telling stories. But no, today’s episode is entitled Google Ads versus Social Media. And I think, to speak to that, you know, I love this topic because I love holistic e-commerce. I love how everything works together. It’s not Amazon. It’s not Shopify. It’s not retail. It’s everything. It’s commerce. It’s business. And in a world where digital seems to touch everything, I think it’s great that we pay attention to all of those things and treat all of them as a healthy ecosystem. Before we jump into the tactics of Google ads and social media and how they differ, let’s talk about David a little bit. David, I need to know more about everything that you’re doing. But let’s start from the beginning. Um, did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur? Like when did you get into web and marketing? Um, go as far back as you’d like.

02:28.13

David Abraham

All right? Well, I hope you have plenty of time because it’s a long story. But I guess way back. It’s funny because I never really saw myself as an entrepreneur starting out when I was a kid.

02:31.31

Andrew Morgans

Um, you know, removed?

02:46.41

David Abraham

Crazy about tech, I was very big into video games when I was really young. It was just that I wanted to program video games. You know, I tried playing around with creating flash games, kind of developed into playing around with Computers. So when I was a kid, I used to be, um, very friendly with the computer teacher in my school, and she used to give me these broken down Computers that weren’t working anymore, and I actually used to go and kind of pick them apart and try and rebuild them and you know I was very. Very big tech head and then from there getting a little bit older than it kind of turned into programming a little bit, so I started trying to learn C++, HTML, and Objective C. All different types of languages things like that I was reading a lot of the for dummies books.

03:40.69

Andrew Morgans

Who is?

03:42.82

David Abraham

Growing up, and you know, when I got to college, um, I actually spent a year overseas in The Middle East. I took a year off after high school before I went to college and, um, came back and went to Rutgers University.

03:54.38

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

04:00.62

David Abraham

And I was trying to major in computer science, thinking that that was going to be the major that I was going to go into wanting to be a programmer and I kind of failed out my first year. I was just getting by. I was on academic probation, and also at this time I was dating my now wife and I was getting ready to quit out of college I thought it wasn’t for me, you know and my wife convinced me to stay. And I ended up shifting majors because I spent hours going after a major that I realized was not really what I wanted to do. I shifted towards another major, which was also hands-on programming but without the parts of it that I kind of struggled with.

04:42.37

Andrew Morgans

Um, and.

04:53.93

Andrew Morgans

This is what I can ask just because I’m a computer science major. I got my bachelor of science in networking and security. I hated programming. I think I’m a little bit older than you. So when I went, programming was archaic as heck.

04:55.27

David Abraham

And then I finished ruck.

05:04.72

David Abraham

2

05:11.51

Andrew Morgans

When we test we were writing out programs on paper and I flunked a couple classes I had to take them online to pass because the teachers just sucked and if I did it online I could get the teacher out of the way and essentially get the materials so I’m just curious like for me it was ah I think c plus plus. Honestly, ah was one of the classes I got a d and I got once I took it myself just so you know, but ah just what classes were like you know, just didn’t get it going for you like I took one or two languages in college. But I do not enjoy programming personally.

05:33.42

David Abraham

Us.

05:45.66

David Abraham

For me, it was really the math related courses. Math was never really my strong shot. There was a lot of math involved in computer science. But there was really none involved in it, and within it I really majored in it.

05:51.18

Andrew Morgans

Are.

05:57.80

Andrew Morgans

Um, yeah.

06:03.59

David Abraham

My major was really Java development and I did a little Java programming in high school. My school offered a course kind of into my junior-senior year and you know I liked it. It was hands-on programming with no math involved and you know I was creating like these.

06:04.33

Andrew Morgans

Cut.

06:20.59

David Abraham

Basic stupid programs. But you know they were fun to play with and I thought that was going to be a going forward. You know when I was in college I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was a very play it safe kind of guy. I wanted to work for somebody else. I didn’t want the responsibility of having a business on my shoulders you know and I just wanted to take home paycheck security.

06:44.83

Andrew Morgans

Have you seen that model like in your with your parents or Uncles or family or like you know what? what scared you off from that responsibility because like I had never seen it so it wasn’t even something desired because I hadn’t seen. Maybe if I knew how stressful it was, I wouldn’t even be here. But I.

06:55.63

David Abraham

Um, yeah.

07:02.77

David Abraham

But

07:03.78

Andrew Morgans

I didn’t really have that around me as entrepreneurship wasn’t something I thought of because I didn’t really see it modeled. Ah but you know, was it something you saw in your family like Nah I don’t want that I’m going to just like I just want to work a good job.

07:14.27

David Abraham

Yeah, for me, it was the opposite. I was actually surrounded by entrepreneurship. You know my father and brother started their own company. I have another brother that started his own solo company.

07:19.37

Andrew Morgans

Um, I feel.

07:29.93

David Abraham

I Don’t know if it was seeing you know there were times my father and brother could be. You know, very stressed out when it comes to business. You know it’s a lot on your shoulders when you know everything makes a break is on you and you know the idea kind of just got me a little nervous. Early on, I thought I would be satisfied just working for somebody else and taking home a paycheck but what got me into starting my own business was that once I graduated college, I was actually a um when I was a senior I had an internship in the City. Ah, with a web development company with a promise to get a full time job after I graduated and you know I was finishing it off I was getting ready to get married I was planning on proposing to my wife at the end of senior year after graduation or close to and then I was planning on working with them full time.

08:12.51

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

08:27.63

David Abraham

And I ended up proposing to my wife about like four months before graduation and maybe like two weeks after I proposed they came back to me and we’re like hey we don’t have a job for you anymore we needed somebody more media we had to give it away and we really don’t have anything for you and you know. I kind of went into panic mode and didn’t know what to do. You know I figured I’m starting this new life ready to go and no money. No nothing and you know my dad came up with the idea of, you know, maybe try doing something yourself for a little bit temporarily just to hold you over. Until you know you have something more substantial to get you by, you know and I was playing. I was applying for jobs in the beginning before I started my own thing and the problem was nobody wanted to hire me because I guess in tech, there’s so many languages that you can learn. And so many frameworks that you can learn and I only knew things that were taught to me in school, things that were taught to me or things that I picked up on when I was interning for this company and I didn’t know the right combination of languages that any one company wanted you know and it was. I felt like I was in the most in-demand industry and nobody wanted to hire me. I’m freaking out and you know I went along with my dad’s idea and I said okay you know I’ll start this I’ll start an agency just temporarily.

09:48.26

Andrew Morgans

Are.

10:01.29

David Abraham

Until I find someone else that’s willing to hire me. You know my 3 accounts were family accounts and by all the statistics in numbers. This.

10:08.98

Andrew Morgans

What are you doing for them? Let’s just stop there for a second because I think this is interesting, like you know your story can help people and is very relatable. Um.

10:17.22

David Abraham

Um, yeah, absolutely.

10:22.80

Andrew Morgans

You know, like one thing about entrepreneurship, it comes with stress and it comes with all those things. But there’s no one that can fire me. And there’s a piece in which I’m gonna make it a break about myself. But like if someone says they don’t have a spot for me like I was never the one to get picked for the softball team I’ll tell you what like you know and growing up that way for me was just like. I’m tired of not being picked. You know I’m tired of like I got turned down by best buy the geek squad when I was getting out of college. I’m like the geek squad. I could run this whole thing now, right? Like they missed an opportunity is how I think about it now but then it was like man if I can’t get a job at the Geek Squad doing like techie stuff behind the counter like.

10:51.59

David Abraham

A.

11:01.17

Andrew Morgans

Which I felt like was beneath me after I had a degree is like well well who’s gonna take me you know? and um, you’re like okay so you so that’s I think a lot of people start with friends and family like if you know if I’m launching a product I’m getting friends and family to try it out and like you be-come my customers but you’re in programming and we have yet to talk about web design.

11:18.48

David Abraham

And

11:20.65

Andrew Morgans

So whenever you say you had 3 accounts. What does that mean, what were you doing for them.

11:24.29

David Abraham

So I started off mainly as a WordPress developer building you know, business sites, informational business sites and there were 3 um the 3 family accounts were mainly in wholesale.

11:28.69

Andrew Morgans

Um, okay.

11:42.78

David Abraham

My father and brother had one account. My uncle was another my cousin was and they were mainly in packaging and household. You know one of them was in household goods and hangers. So I was basically creating websites on demand, updating websites, updating landing pages things like that at.

11:57.38

Andrew Morgans

Was it Java or HTML or like.

12:02.10

David Abraham

So it was um, building on the WordPress platform. It was mainly PHP, CSS, and you know I originally started just building them myself. You know I knew I was a programmer and you know it was just that was all I knew how to do all I knew what to do.

12:06.13

Andrew Morgans

The case.

12:18.88

Andrew Morgans

Debt.

12:22.00

David Abraham

And um, a big part of what landed me where I am today was being in that office with my family. We all shared an office. They gave me a little office space to run out of because I was just a solo operator. But. Being surrounded by other business people and dealing with the same things that they were dealing with, I mean they were um they were multimillion dollar companies I was just starting out, but we were dealing with the same struggles we were worrying about streamline and scalability and growth. And my brother Zeke and my father Irwin were a huge help in, you know, becoming the business that we were today because of all the pitfalls, all the hurdles we just got here together.

13:04.44

Andrew Morgans

Um, lost.

13:11.51

Andrew Morgans

Who was there for you when no one would hire you right? you know and they find a for you and it’s a win-win Sure I’m sure they benefited from having a site back then like when they didn’t you know getting help on that and the website and everything you made for them. Sure had benefits but also, I mean it’s something I learned too that like.

13:15.15

David Abraham

Exactly.

13:30.63

Andrew Morgans

When my life was at its lowest and even when they had nothing to give like who showed up for me, you know and and then you’re like you know what this entrepreneurship thing doesn’t look like doesn’t look so bad. You know, if I’m surrounded by the people that that you know care about me the most, I was just interested to see that to see that come come about.

13:33.94

David Abraham

Family.

13:50.13

Andrew Morgans

So you’ve got you’ve got accounts. You’re like seeing that you have the same problems as them. They’re big but like that’s why it’s like more money more problems. You know we’re all dealing with this stuff and it’s why I love this podcast is because I like to pull out the things that we all have in common. I’m in the midwest you’re in Jersey you’re in web development I didn’t go the programmer route but like all the same.

13:52.27

David Abraham

Are.

14:09.91

Andrew Morgans

It’s the same struggle. It’s the same battle. Um, okay so thanks to the fan. Thanks Dad! Thanks brother. Ah, you know about learning mentorship. What came next.

14:14.18

David Abraham

It. So I started doing WordPress websites for a while informational business sites and I was doing them all myself until you know I hit my one roadblock which I could only handle. A certain amount of projects at a time is very time consuming and very difficult. So then it became um, outsourcing and originally I hired a developer in the states and was doing that for a while I was a little bit worried about.

14:37.92

Andrew Morgans

Um, yeah.

14:55.40

David Abraham

Outsourcing overseas because of language barriers and difficulties and things like that and then I eventually you know came around to it and was very careful with the vetting process and then we started you know, outsourcing and finding partners very strong. You know teams overseas. And we were doing that for a while. We were very big into the informational sites and the WordPress sites, and then I came across my first um e-comm site and in the Shopify space and you know someone requested that I don’t remember the exact project. Someone asked me for a Shopify site. I kind of played around with it a little bit while it was at my intern gig. I said all right? you know I’ll check it out I’ll see what it’s about and Shopify just sucked me in the entire e-com space. You know I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with Shopify as a company. And you know the Google ads platform and just the e-com world and you know that it felt like that’s where the opportunity was and for a long time we were doing WordPress and Shopify side by side as they came in but it ended up being where.

15:58.71

Andrew Morgans

Are.

16:09.60

David Abraham

90% of our requests were for e-com and Shopify stores and.

16:12.20

Andrew Morgans

And you’re close if I were like I’m just I’m assuming here but like I one can guess that like the Shopify projects were smoother. Ah, you know, getting great results like I mean because I had sites on WordPress and Shopify when I was none starting my businesses. Um, and. That’s just the usability, especially if you’re a programmer but like if you’re you know it’s like the Apple versus the Android anyone that’s like a custom guy wants to do all these crazy modifications is like I want the Android but if you’re just trying to get it like. To work right? and to do its thing and what do what it does which is to sell products or build at like Shopify or or Apple’s the play in my opinion and I just remember when Shopify came on to the scene I was just like thank god ah that I can move away from WordPress and like I’m not a coder so like Shopify became. Just like having to me honestly.

17:03.66

David Abraham

Yeah shop I’m a very big believer in you know instead of trying to you know, being a jack of old trades master of none I’m very into each role-playing its role, not trying to pretend to be good at everything and early On. WordPress was trying to be like that for me, you know it was WordPress was trying to be an e-comm solution. It was trying to be a custom portal. It was trying to be everything and I just liked that Shopify just made it so easy. For e-commerce. That’s all they do is e-commerce. They don’t pretend to be anything else and their whole goal is to just make having an e-commerce site for an individual or for business just that much easier and the way they’re constantly developing and updating. They just released. Ah, bunch of new updates and overhos to the platform year to B Two B, and you know I just I just love what they’re about and how they keep evolving and growing with the times.

18:07.24

Andrew Morgans

I can’t agree and I am sponsored by Shopify because if you’re not, you should be. We’ll send it. Yeah, we’ll send them this episode. Um, you know, okay so.

18:11.56

David Abraham

The apps Oh Shopify hit me up if you’re listening to this.

18:24.60

Andrew Morgans

I want to use like the rest of the episode to get into kind of some of what you’re doing now. Um and like okay so like I see how your business is developing kind of how you just fell into it. Obviously you’re surrounded by entrepreneurs. I feel like it was just a matter of time till you found it? Um, you’re there.

18:31.80

David Abraham

Are.

18:41.41

Andrew Morgans

Building you’re scaling. You’re using offshore talent. You know, um and speaking of offshore talent. What a better time than to give a shout out to our sponsor. Ah for today’s episode finding expert software developers doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you visit FullScale.io. You can build a software team quickly and affordably. Use the Full Scale platform to define your technical needs and then see what available developers, testers, and leaders are ready to join your team. It’s super easy. You can get in there and search it, just like a search engine. Visit FullScale.io to learn more. David, so talk to me now about. You guys have a kind of sweet spot with Bluesoft Design. Um, you know what you guys are working on, who’s your ideal client. Um, how are you working with brands or sellers? Um, you know today or even a parallel to Amazon brands trying to get into d 2 c. Um, what are some of the things you guys do ah you know on a daily basis or if our brands are coming to you. What’s that conversation like?

19:38.74

David Abraham

So we ended up niching down a lot and you know cutting out excess services that we don’t really specialize in and and now it comes down to really three things. It’s Shopify Google ads so those are our core 3.

19:54.16

Andrew Morgans

Um, okay.

19:56.22

David Abraham

And we’re working a lot with sellers in the Amazon space and kind of, you know, incorporating their Shopify stores with their Amazon stores using that to kind of expand off of the Shopify branch into other marketplaces and really trying to show Amazon sellers the benefits of. Having their own Shopify store giving their brand the face and not just having all your eggs in one basket with Amazon you know the pitch kind of changed for us. Originally when I was a little bit more naive back in the day I used to approach people and be like hey you know. Sign up for Shopify. It’ll outperform your Amazon store. We can do it. We can make it happen and there are some cases that are out there that where that happens so I won’t deny but you know now the pitch kind of became your Shopify store is here to compliment. Your Amazon’s store and to complement the other marketplaces they play off of another you know one of the big things is you know these Amazon store owners you Shopify for or are landing pages. You know to acquire emails build out your email list blast out the next time you have an ah product launch on Amazon.com, you know a lot of Amazon store owners want to get into b two b you know having a wholesale inquiry page on your Shopify store and just things like that where they play off of one another. Or easily get into the other marketplaces and diversify because that seems to be one of the big topics now. I just came back from all these Amazon shows, the prosper show and the topic of choice is diversification.

21:39.57

Andrew Morgans

Um.

21:43.32

David Abraham

You know, when you have all your eggs in one basket with Amazon, you do one thing wrong and they knock out your account. That’s a multimillion-dollar business that just goes down the tubes. Or you know even better yet. You do so well in a particular category that AmazonBasics Launches a generic version of you know what? You’re selling and knocks you off, you know?

22:00.23

Andrew Morgans

Um, no.

22:03.10

David Abraham

So having your own website gives you brand security. It gives you control. You know, being able to promote to your customers and offer discounts. You know the customer service you know? Yeah yeah.

22:12.42

Andrew Morgans

Gives you options it gives you options and um, you know a similar thing like just because we’re always talking Amazon but I own Airbnb business as well like property management here in Kansas City of Airbnbs and it was like 2020 ah, someone falsely reported us similar to an Amazon claim or something like that and they essentially took our Airbnb account down. Okay, so an email was missed that we needed to reply to or something, and I’m telling you we are like whatever the one star host is and all those kinds of things we had all the metrics we were crushing it and I couldn’t get a hold of Airbnb.

22:35.10

David Abraham

And

22:49.75

Andrew Morgans

Can get a hold of anyone lost all my accounts and ah you know it was then that I was like diversification even within my Airbnb business as a must I built a website where it has like on like on the website I can host I went to vrbo I started diversifying so that if it happened again I at least had a place to push customers I could like. You know, contact them and collect payments. I had people in my house with Airbnb shut down like people just staying in our houses you know and the counts went down. It was absolute chaos very similar to Amazon in space. Um, I’ve seen about every tragedy that can happen that you can imagine and I’m in the business of keeping people out of trouble. For that exact reason, that’s why you know Marknology is a business that’s like you know we’re white hat and we try to help brands navigate and they don’t know what they don’t know and we you know we try to keep them out of that. But um I can attest and say like very much so diversification and you want options. That’s what it’s all about. You know business is hard. Ah, it’s way easier if I come into a problem and I have 5 potential solutions than if I’m just stuck and it’s too late and I wasn’t thinking about that and what do I do now and I didn’t plan for this. So I think ah you know you can’t predict if you couldn’t have predicted a pandemic. You can’t predict the future but you can plan. Ah, to be as stable as possible and diverse as possible and you know you can have videos on a product page on Shopify and you can’t do that on an Amazon Account you know so um I work with all types of sellers of all sizes not just native Amazon brands. But like manufacturers. Brands that are doing on their d to c site that are coming to Amazon and and how did those things play I just came into New York ah for the buy with prime training. Okay so something that’s coming to Shopify or that’s there basically and try to try to learn everything about it and they brought us in there to poke holes in it and tell them.

24:31.18

David Abraham

Okay.

24:40.87

Andrew Morgans

You know all the reasons we think it might be a struggle and to get more info and they’re releasing the programs through their agencies ah to then to then work with that. Well, do we get to collect the customer information? Do we get a retarget then do you know all these questions are coming out of us. Um, oh.

24:49.71

David Abraham

Ah. There We just got an email to participate in the buy with prime program. I’m excited to see where they go with that here.

25:00.65

Andrew Morgans

It gives us options, right? It’s not a fit for everyone. It’s gonna be a fit for certain people. It’s gonna be a fit for certain brands gonna be a fit for people that don’t want to sign a contract with the 3 p or fulfillment center who knows you know? Um, but it’s all about the options and I think that’s what you’re getting at it Shopify gives you.

25:13.93

David Abraham

And

25:20.48

Andrew Morgans

Options and it gives you the ability to um, you know do that b to b email do that landing page. Ah collect you know emails ah have abandoned cart emails um have bundling that’s all like through fbm instead of having it all packaged and. Um, I’m saying that for sellers that are just like I don’t know why I need one I’m doing well on Amazon or um, it gives you the ability to pivot when you need to pivot, you know.

25:37.95

David Abraham

And

25:43.33

David Abraham

Exactly and more importantly than anything you know, especially nowadays, if you’re trying to establish yourself as a brand people want to work with people people don’t want to work with nameless faces. You know and. Your own website gives your brand a face. It gives you a personality. You know it’s more. It’s more likely that someone is going to come back as a repeat customer aside from and not just be a time sale. It gives your business personality. That’s how you set yourself apart from the rest and that’s why.

26:03.63

Andrew Morgans

Um, it makes you look at more people.

26:20.44

David Abraham

You know when I get that argument a lot is why do I need a Shopify store and I say look at the big you know the big players in your industry you know and they’re investing in their Seo and they’re trying to take over Google ads. It’s all about how much presence you have and. You know that brand recognition and if they’re doing it. It’s probably because it’s working and it’s doing something right.

26:44.89

Andrew Morgans

I spend I’ve spent the last two years obsessing about off Amazon strategies and tactics I mean I’ve cared about it my entire time but I finally got myself enough out of the weeds in my own business to spend a lot of time innovating and really understanding what the great d to c guys the great Shopify guys. Teams guys could be females sued anyone listening I didn’t want to play you out but like the great teams what they’re doing. They’re doing it well and why if they don’t need Amazon why they must be doing well enough on Shopify if I could combine the powers right would be a superstar so how are those funnels working how you know it’s because of so many other things.

27:05.80

David Abraham

Um.

27:22.53

Andrew Morgans

Connect better with Shopify or websites than Amazon you know from Facebook chats to YouTube links to affiliate marketing to ah all types of things it goes on and on and on and there’s just a need for that and there’s going to be just like there’s Walmart and Target and there’s CVs and Walgreens. There’s going to be customers that choose over the other and the way that they like to be sold and the way that they like to interact and you know I got a roommate that doesn’t chop on Amazon he got suspended time about a fraudulent charge that he reported. Ah, he reported on his card and so basically Amazon didn’t pay it because he recorded at the bank level. They removed his membership and he’s like boycotting Amazon right? There’s one to be not said. Everyone’s that negative way. But there’s always going to be customers that prefer to shop on a website or on a different site than Amazon. Amazon’s not everything right? So where are those customers shopping? Um, how do you reach them?

28:12.70

David Abraham

Yeah.

28:20.59

Andrew Morgans

Ah, you know, ah all these things matter. Um as we’re coming up on our last five I want to hit you with just a couple pointed questions that I want to get some of your knowledge on. Um, yeah, so and then what we do is we take great Shopify sites that have personality and we try to bring that personality to Amazon.

28:28.27

David Abraham

Yes, sure.

28:37.16

David Abraham

A.

28:39.50

Andrew Morgans

Right? Because I’m like I’ve seen such beautiful sites that do a great job of telling story and branding and personality and then I see an Amazon store and it’s shit and I’m like we can’t have this branding is about having consistency across where anyone comes into contact with you. So if they’re on an Amazon page.

28:54.15

David Abraham

A.

28:57.92

Andrew Morgans

I don’t want them to see their website. Be amazing and beautiful and engaging and emotion-evoking and then you come to the Amazon page and it’s like barely barely anything. That’s a huge dropoff. So how do we make everything work together when they’re on your site or they’re on your Amazon they’re like I don’t know about this company. They go to your site and see the same branding. They see the same story. They see the same quality trust is immediately communicated so just closing that chapter is a huge huge fan of doing well ah on your Shopify site spending the time investing in it. It’s your brand, your reputation that matters. Um, okay, last question is for you I want to talk about like ah you know our title is around. Google ads versus social media ads, um, as someone that’s learning Tiktok facebook Instagram using pixel me, which is a carbon 6 software for creating ads easily for some of us amateurs that aren’t so good at it. Um. To someone that writes blogs and SEO I mean I love it. I obsess about e-commerce. Talk to me about Google ads versus social media ads. Why don’t you guys offer social media ads? Why are Google ads your go to? Um, what’s David’s thoughts and process around that?

29:53.81

David Abraham

A.

30:07.14

David Abraham

So early on we were experimenting with all different types of ads, and you know both social media and Google ads and this opinion might be a little bit controversial. You’ll find some people that agree and some people that don’t. Because we be-come so focused in the e-commerce space. We don’t believe in direct consumer sales for social media ads and for social media, I know that there are a ton of people that have come to me and seen a ton of success. With social media ads, I know it’s been a little bit crippling since Apple updated their own cookie policies. But I mean if you think about it out loud and social media. You don’t have but ah buyers intent you know with Google if. You have a product that’s being advertised on Google shopping. Your listing’s coming up because someone’s seeking it out if you’re selling a pair of boots and an ad’s coming up for your pair of boots. It’s because someone’s looking for boots. You know if someone’s on social media. They’re looking for. You know they’re interacting with their friends. They’re seeing what their family’s up to. No, one’s really out there necessarily looking for boots. You know you might have some exceptions you might have Facebook marketplace and things like yeah but the thing is that if you’re deciding where to spend your ad dollars. You think that you’d want to put it more towards the go.

31:24.54

Andrew Morgans

Way more passive way more passive.

31:36.80

David Abraham

Where people are actively searching for you know what? you’re looking to sell, and I do think that social media ads have their place for brand recognition when it comes to trying to engage with your listing audience. You know, getting branded posts out and things like that. But when you’re trying to just make a sale on social media, I feel like you have to work one or 3 times as hard to try and pay for multiple clicks from the same person, whereas usually with something like Google ads, Google shopping. They’re usually converting on the none 1 or 2 clicks and. That’s that’s really where you know that’s really why we kind of settled on Google because that’s it’s geared towards e-commerce I mean social media. There are some ads like luxury ads and jewelry ads. Ideas of exotic lifestyles and things like that that do well on Facebook but it’s just about knowing your audience and knowing where they’re shopping. You know there are different platforms for different needs. Sometimes Pinterest might be a need. You know, experimenting. TikTok if you’re engaging with a younger audience and that’s a new field and a new space that might do incredibly well, but we just found that our audience knows the Amazon sellers of the world. The e-commerce space. You know when we’re talking with certain budgets and. You know, looking for the best place to spend your ad dollars. We found that Google shopping just dominated over the social media space. So we decided to focus exclusively on that and you know Bluesoft Design became certified Google ad partners. So we’re we’re all in the Google’s corner.

33:19.52

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, well I definitely understand that I think as far as Amazon sellers go google PPC is going to be something that they feel a lot more comfortable with considering it’s keyword-based um, you know it’s it’s direct like someone’s typing in boots I’m going to show them boots. Um. 1 thing I would add to that and I don’t necessarily disagree I do think it’s better for top of funnel. Um, you know, and I do feel like someone that’s really good at Google ads is completely different type of marketing to be good at social media ads um, there’s a lot of visuals. Ah, the the artwork matters. Ah the creative matters. Not just like you know the keyword and then show the product and and link out to the page. Um, you know you’ve got ah so many factors there, but there are some things where you know I’ve been selling a product on Amazon, and let’s say we’re a smaller brand getting going. We’re targeting specific keywords that matter. Ah, and let’s say black umbrella we’re gonna use black umbrella as an example and let’s say I have a massive competitor. Um, they truly can bully me out of those keywords that I need. Okay so on Amazon, there’s not a lot of ways around it if I have like 5 to 10 keywords that are like very specific to what I’m selling black umbrella. Umbrellas for men dark umbrellas. Whatever the case might be right? There’s only so many search terms. Um, you can get essentially bullied out of the game. Okay, so how do you rank your product. How do you get your ads seen without paying $20 a click I’ve seen it all the way up to $40 a click where someone was saying no matter what no one’s getting these keywords but us we have the budget to give let’s dominate this marketplace and you have to get creative you have to get creative and so a way that someone can’t block your keywords specifically is to go more of that demographic type of targeting that’s like I’m going to look at men between 20 to 50 that live in Seattle because it rains a lot and they have median incomes plus because I feel like that means they have additional income to spend or whatever the case might be and you can see that someone can’t block you from every person in that demographic like they can in a keyword type of strategy where they’re like these keywords are the main ones to get to it and I’m going to block them and so in those instances. We have used um, that’s not the only way but that’s an example of a time where social media be-comes really important. We’re going to like having these keywords here. But if we can’t get them how else do we get momentum on our listings? How else do we get our? Do we get visibility?

35:45.82

Andrew Morgans

Um, some of that kind of guerrilla warfare type of thinking and the other one I would think of is like I think of 2 types of selling: demand capture and demand generation. Okay so demand capture is what you’re talking about with or 2 clicks in a buy. They’re searching for something they’re looking for; we show them boots. We capture the sale. Just have to convince them to buy from our brand versus the others. Okay, that’s where I feel like I’m at with my technology now is like everyone knows they need to be on Amazon they’re all looking for Amazon help or agencies or consultants, and I’m saying choose us. We’re the best. Okay I’m capturing that demand at the beginning of my journey. It was very much demand generation.

36:16.65

David Abraham

Right.

36:24.90

Andrew Morgans

There’s not a lot of people looking for Amazon. I was telling people you need to be on Amazon you need to like your Shopify stores aren’t great. But I’m telling you there’s potential over here like it was educational right? and so that demand generation a lot of times if you have a specific.

36:33.49

David Abraham

Right.

36:39.95

Andrew Morgans

Like let’s say an invention type of product or a product that people don’t know about yet. They’re not looking for your product. They’re not looking for black umbrellas black umbrellas is a general thing, but like let’s say you have ah these new like eye visors that are like night vision something like that, right? and there’s not people typing in for your product. Well.

36:50.49

David Abraham

On.

36:59.70

Andrew Morgans

How do you get that out there in ah in a marketplace ah or Google shopping Amazon Ppc and Google shopping very similar where people aren’t searching for that. How do you get in front of the right customers? You could advertise your product with product targeting where you show up on a page of something similar to that. There are some things you can do there. But if you know about organic ranking around keywords you know that you need those specific keywords just like Seo you need people searching for something and then your product ranking for those and so again social media ads can come in in that mode to say I know that? ah. People are looking for these types of visors and night vision is this kind of customer demographic. You do research and things to kind of come up with that same similar customer and you’re showing them something that they don’t know they need and you have to educate them about what it is and why they need it and move them down the funnel. But if you’re looking to be profitable. No doubt the keyword.

37:45.16

David Abraham

Bright.

37:55.38

Andrew Morgans

Direct intent to buy is a cheaper, more effective way. But sometimes you don’t have that luxury of selling a product like that and I do think you have to get outside the box and you do have to kind of stretch in a way to get to customers in a different way. Um, but I also think. You know I’m usually like if someone says they’re amazing at all these different types of ads to me that’s a red flag because it’s almost a completely different methodology behind building out Amazon ads versus Facebook ads, you know? um.

38:24.70

David Abraham

Yeah I don’t I don’t try to pretend to be an expert and things that were not. We tried that for a long time and you know we have some great affiliate partners that we work with. Someone comes to me and says hey you know I really do want social media I say look. What we do. We’re not your guys but we have guys that we trust that you know we feel comfortable. You know introducing you to these guys and you know passing the business along and that’s why I really love you know the e-commerce community the Amazon community when I what.

38:58.17

Andrew Morgans

Um, right, e-comm cooperative is perfect for that.

39:02.20

David Abraham

What, yeah, one of my favorite sayings that I’ve heard since I’ve been in this base with other services. Providers are. It’s not you versus me. It’s us versus Amazon. It’s us versus Google. You know, there’s enough business for everybody where people can genuinely help each other and hand off the business to one another. And you know it’s just not as cutthroat as it used to be, and I like being part of that space because I know starting out being an entrepreneur, I needed that help I sometimes I feel like I still need that help and I like helping those that I see were. That is in my shoes that you know are just starting out that need the help they need the support, and I like being there for them as well.

39:44.31

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, and I found that honestly, if a brand is doing well on their social media ads and they’re doing well on their D2C site, it only helps what I’m trying to do for them on Amazon. It’s not cannibalism. In fact, it’s like looking if they’re getting sales from social ads or from Google ads on their website. Ah, that’s great for us as a whole the company is going to be healthier like it’s a win-win across the board and um, you know, just like the person introduced us, they like David, who we’re talking about on the founder of the e-comm cooperative which is a community of different service providers that just like David and me here I do Amazon he does web and Google and SEO. Um, David is technically a competitor in a lot of ways, right? and brought us together to have this conversation. So I love the e-comm community. I think it’s unlike a bunch of others, and um, you know, I wish we could keep chatting for hours. But we’ve run up on time. I want to give a shoutout one more time to our sponsor for today’s episode.

40:23.83

David Abraham

A.

40:41.39

Andrew Morgans

Do you need to hire software engineers, testers, or leaders? Let Full Scale help. They have the people and the platform to help you build and manage a team of experts. When you visit FullScale.io, all you need to do is answer a few questions. And then let the platform match you up with a fully vetted, highly experienced team of software engineers, testers, and leaders at Full Scale. They specialize in building long-term teams that work only for you. To learn more, visit FullScale.io. David, it’s been a pleasure. I know our paths are going to cross very soon, whether it’s a pow wow or the next event. Um, I’m actually coming to New York for a concert. I think July 16. We may not cross paths then, but I’m always in your neck of the woods. I love New York, and it’s been a pleasure having you on the show. Thank you so much for your time. Yeah, you’re welcome.

41:17.10

David Abraham

Oh, nice.

41:27.11

David Abraham

Thanks for having me, Andrew. Can’t wait to see you again soon.

41:33.40

Andrew Morgans

And thank you again, Hustlers, for your attention. We’ll see you next time.