My baby girl finished middle school this week. It was a major event that upon completion will have involved the actual ceremony, a dinner hosted by the school, a pool party (today) hosted by the parents, and two trips with friends to commemorate the occasion. Needless to say, I’m a little concerned about what this means for the high school graduation in 2025. Also of note, it’s high cicada season here and twice this week one of them has caught a ride on my shoulder and scared the bejesus out of me. The most recent being in my car this morning as I drove my youngest to school. I slammed on the brakes, brushed it off of me, screamed bloody murder, and lept out of the car like my pants were on fire, as one does. These events combined with the short week has led me to feel a little frazzled and off my A game all week. But fear not, I’ve combed through the news and have a full serving of it for you to read today. Topics on deck include: Facebook, Microsoft, lumber, and Google.
FACEBOOK ADS 101
Typically, I’m not inclined to share basic how-to’s but this article not only included some basic definitions that I think are helpful even if someone else is running your Facebook ads for you, it also included some nuggets at the end about what the future of Facebook ads looks like. And one of those nuggets involved ads in Facebook groups. This is exciting stuff. Facebook groups are increasingly popular with users because connecting with people and businesses within groups can feel more intimate than connecting on the newsfeed. Because of that, the amount of targeting that could be possible within groups, is pretty impressive. I also liked the focus at the end of the article on the plus side of the shift in targeting options because of tracking changes. I love a healthy dose of positivity.
MICROSOFT FINALLY ♥️ FACEBOOK
That’s not totally true but they did just roll out Facebook Imports which is akin the already available Google Imports. This means you can export all of your Facebook ads data and import it into Microsoft as a way to set up Microsoft campaigns without having to duplicate your efforts. Of course, Microsoft ads don’t run the same way as Facebook ads do so there are some caveats to its functionality but overall, it can be a big time saver and another way to ease the entry barrier to Microsoft ads. As mentioned last week with Microsoft’s Unified Campaign, there is a lot of effort being made to make Microsoft ads more appealing to users. From my perspective that’s a great thing. Bing search is small but it’s still highly relevant especially when you’re targeting an older demographic.
USING GOOGLE MAPS FOR BUSINESSES
I don’t know about you but as a consumer I use Google maps, a ton. It therefore stands to reason that google maps could be a great place for businesses to make themselves known and establish lines of communication with customers. Ever wonder how to make that happen? It’s all tied to your Google My Business account. And you know how we at ONeil love ourselves some Google My Business. If you have a verified Google My Business account then you’ll show up on maps. And now Google is adding messages to those locations. Imagine the possibilities for potential home buyers to be able to directly contact you from within their search activity! As for the other info in the article about performance insights, you should ask us about our custom GMB data studio reports. This isn’t even a humble brag, it’s just a straight brag, they’re amazing.
LUMBER AND THE GOVERNMENT
The astronomical price of lumber is such common knowledge that there are now memes and tiktoks. They are pretty funny too if you ask me. But what’s important about them isn’t their humor, it’s that it’s now part of popular culture and when that happens to a subject matter, often that can influence politics. Certainly, the NAHB has spent no small amount of time and money trying to influence the politics of lumber to help bring down the cost. Just this week it was announced that the Commerce Secretary and the Biden administration would do what it could to help bring down costs. The more it stays in the news and in pop culture, the more likely there are to be results.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go check out this Facebook import business on Microsoft before taking on my second job as my teenager’s private chauffeur.
