Akvile DeFazio Interview with Foxwell Digital

We were psyched to be able to catch up with marketing and paid advertising guru Akvile DeFazio via Zoom to chat about all things Q4 in 2020. Watch the video, or read the interview below.

MODERATOR, COURTNEY ALEXANDER: Hi, my name is Courtney Alexander, thank you so much for meeting with me today. We're going to talk a little bit about Q4, specifically around Facebook and Instagram ads. I would love for you to explain who you are, and we can go from there.

INTERVIEWEE, AKVILE DeFAZIO: Hi, Courtney. Hi, everyone else tuning in. Thank you for having me. My name is Akvile DeFazio. I am the president of AKvertise, and we are a social media advertising agency based in central California. We've been in business for six years, and we focus primarily on clients that are in the e-commerce space, mobile apps, some B2B lead gen, and also in the entertainment industry.

CA: Wonderful. I’m going to ask you a few questions, some of our listeners and on the podcast, and our group members in the Q4 Facebook group have asked these questions, and we really just want to pick your brain about Q4 and where we're at currently. So the first question is, how are you feeling this year for Q4, as opposed to previous years in terms of Facebook and Instagram ads?

AD: Great question. You know, it's been a different year for a number of reasons, I think we can all relate to that, based on COVID to the election. So you know, this time of the year, we usually try to start talking, you know, maybe even in August, we start talking to our clients about what Q4 is going to look like in terms of any promotions, whether they'll be hosting any new lines of products that they want to promote, or any changes in terms of pricing or anything else. However, I noticed that we started doing that back in July, because there's a lot of skepticism and questions about what is this year going to look like with the economy taking a shift. Though I think a lot of people are at home now, and they're working there, so they're more aware of their surroundings and their space. So we've seen actually an uptick in sales a little bit earlier this year. So we're just trying to prepare a little bit earlier this year. And based on what we've read from reputable sources from Facebook's holiday guide to other platforms that are publishing different types of studies that they've run. But it's an interesting year. That's for sure.

CA: That is true. I think we can all agree to that. My next question is: what tactics do you make sure you consider and implement this time of year for your digital ads?

AD: This time of year in particular, we keep trying to feed the funnel, I know it kind of goes without saying that you should be doing that all year round. But it's important to get more people into the funnel, because competition goes up, maybe have additional budget reserved for Q4, especially if this is a peak season for you. If you're in e-commerce and you want to drive more sales and maximize that, Facebook and Instagram both are really great to leverage in those aspects to drive people into the funnel and introduce them to your brand. So just make sure that you are prepared for the temporary shift in CPMs and cost per click, and just to make sure that you have that accounted for, because we might see a little bit of an increase in cost. But that's typical for every year. But I feel like now with everything else, and with more small businesses that have entered the playing field, that a lot of people have realized just how important using Facebook and Instagram and other online mediums to get their business out and to drive revenue is kind of heightened this year. So I would just make sure that you have enough budget and just prepare accordingly.

CA: Really great insights. I love that. How do you approach expectations with clients this time of year?

AD: Another great question. There's a lot of education. You know, we have historical data from prior years, we've been looking at that, though it's a little bit different this year, from what we've noticed. Personally speaking, we've noticed that people are already asking for promotions in early November, or if we're going to be doing any sales for clients that we've historically run sales or did a gift with purchase. It seems like people are really itching for the end of the year, maybe just because it's a feel-good season, it's warmer, it kind of gives us more hope, after a challenging year. So it's just a lot of preparation, kind of managing expectations. And you know, this is all new for us in terms of the territory that we're going into. We have some familiarity with it as advertisers and marketers to kind of forecast what it may look like, but of course, we don't have crystal balls, and we can just do our best and say, you know, this is what we might expect. But let's also prepare in case x, y or z happen, and just have backup strategies in place for us to maybe pivot if we need to maybe with an additional promotion if we're not seeing as many sales come through. So it's just a lot of discussions that we're having with clients that I think it's important for everybody to manage expectations, hope for the best do everything they can in terms of planning and creating assets, and just have an appetite for testing.

CA: That's awesome. I absolutely love that. What would a sample schedule look like for you for a client in terms of promotion and timing, and different messaging as we kind of are getting into the holiday season?

AD: Excellent question. So, we typically start planning in September, though, for a few clients, we started earlier to spring up those conversations. But as we get closer now that we're in November, and if you know you're still looking to set up some campaigns, if you are running any special promotions, you may want to start them sooner rather than later. I've noticed a lot of brands like J Crew, they started running Black Friday sneak peak sales. So like a smaller discount, kind of ramping things up. Maybe in anticipation for even a larger sale during that peak shopping weekend, at the end of the month. So, you know, you may want to start with small things, maybe giving little teasers about what's to come, maybe you want to fill your email drip campaigns and start doing lead gen, to get people to subscribe to your newsletter. So then that way, when your sale does drop, or if you have maybe a new product coming out that weekend, you can start messaging that now and just kind of cultivating that audience and warming them up to any promotions you might be doing. One strategy we found particularly successful and priors, whether it's this time of the year, or any major holiday throughout the year that's important to our clients is kind of doing a countdown. You'll have to prep these ads in advance. So they go through the approval process, so they don't have to get stuck waiting. And then not even show your ads for half of the day. So if you can just launch those ahead of time, keep them paused or schedule them out until you need to have them run, but do a little countdown, like you could start with limited time offer to maybe one in one week, or you know, three days left to save, you know, just to make the urgency of it. Maybe limited quantities available. So if you can add any sense of urgency to it as it gets closer to that. Especially if you have shipping, cut off lines or cut off dates for you know, if you can't guarantee delivery before Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa or any of the holidays that your audience might be celebrating, just make sure that you add that messaging as well as another additional sense of urgency to buy now instead of having to wait later and then maybe get stuck with buying e-card.

CA: That's perfect. I feel like I'm like over here taking notes. I can't wait to integrate all of these things. What are some strategies that might be overlooked by advisors this time of year?

AD: Let’s see, maybe just not being prepared and expecting cost not to change. You know, competition does go up, so if you can offer something unique, just do a lot of testing and just know that what might have worked last year may not this year, if you're doing something similar. Our jobs aren't really set it and forget it anyways, but I feel like it’s especially so this year where there's a lot of unknowns. I think that you should just plan ahead.

Also, in Facebook’s 2020 holiday guide, they did mention that 82% of global online shoppers reported UX issues when trying to shop during the holidays. That's a huge percentage of people, and I know this is such a fundamental thing, and there jobs to just make sure your landing pages work that the ads look right, that they're not getting cut off on mobile for any important ad copy or calls to action. So just double check your work before you schedule it, publish it, and then have to maybe reset it and go through the learning cycle again, or learning phase and just having to go and re-approval. So just double check that everything is right, make sure your landing pages work on both mobile and desktop. And that makes sure that your imagery resonates with your target audiences.

Facebook did also say that 32% of baby boomers reported that font sizes were too small. So that's one thing to consider, especially if you might be targeting older demographics. Just make sure that it's an easy seamless way for people to make a purchase or to download or sign up for something during this holiday season. Because those are tiny things that are overlooked that can really impact the bottom line. And it's just a quick check. So just do that between yourself, your teams, your clients, and just make sure that everything works and put yourself in the shoes of your customer to make sure that everything looks right. And it's easy to use.

CA: I love that. Tthe little things are the biggest things, especially in our industry. That's great. So we've kind of talked about this a little bit, but I think it's really important. So speaking of strategies and ad buyers, we've already started seeing holiday ads, as we've mentioned, and it's only November. Obviously, this is a different type of strategy. What are your thoughts on this? Are you doing this? Have you seen it? Do you like it? Do you hate it?

AD: I don't mind it actually. I feel like everyone's really ready to jump into the holiday season. I don't mind it because I feel like a lot of people are going to be online shopping now more and maybe we'll start getting people to purchase sooner, because I feel like there's a lot of last-minute shoppers. And it'd be interesting to see at the end of this season. How many people actually purchase more products ahead of time rather than just scrambling to get last minute gift cards or something of the sort. So if you can do a little teaser promotions, I don't think that there's any harm and doing that if you see that people aren't receptive to it, and maybe scale back a little bit, but I feel like as we get every day we're getting closer to peak shopping season that I think it could just there's no harm in doing that.

CA: I think that's the perfect answer. You know, obviously everything this year is so up in the air is we don't really know, we haven't really done this before. So I love getting your thoughts on all of these things. That is all of the questions I had for you, is there anything else that you're just itching to tell everybody or that you found that's just so insightful that you could share with us?

AD: Oh, gosh, I feel like I ramble too much about the early sneak peak sales because I keep seeing those pop up. I think from a consumer standpoint, it's also interesting to do these earlier sales. I know that some people are like, hold off, we still have another holiday before all the other holidays coming up. But a friend of mine just asked me for my address for a holiday card that she can send, I was like, oh, my goodness, this is so soon. Maybe this will give people more thoughtful ideas about what they could give somebody and put more thought behind it and to be conscious about what they are gift giving if they are.

So I think that as brands, we can take that into account and make more personalized customizable gifts that really resonate with their audiences and who's in their lives, instead of just buying a bunch of stuff. And you know, and having it end up in a landfill or gifted. So I think this is a really good time to be more creative, really bring the human side of advertising out. And just try to get to know your audiences, especially this time of the year, because it's been a hard year for everybody. You know, I feel like it's so cliche at this point. But we're all in the same boat. And so I just take your messaging to another level, don't be afraid to test and just to get creative with it to see what kind of data you can get and what kind of you know, if it's fruitful for your business in terms of the bottom line.

CA: I love it. This has been so insightful. Thank you so much for your time, and I can't wait to implement all the things that you talked about.

AD: Thanks for having me on. I hope this was helpful. Thank you