Paid ADs - Share your experience of Paying For Facebook, Pinterest Ads - How, What, Where and to who

[CreativeLeahG]

I thought we could all benefit from discussing our experiences with paying for ads re our Zazzle products (I don't have any yet, but hope to start soon and report back).

Before I pay for an advertisement, I believe I should do the following research:

• Which product will generate the most interest and have the most impact?
• What audience do I need to target the ad to (women/men, age range, geographical data, and so on, using whatever filters are available).
• What words and visuals to use to get people's attention (photo of kittens??)

Or I could just dive in and figure it out on the fly. This last alternative does not appeal to me.

If you have any paid ad experience and are willing to share it, along with any outcomes, that would be fantastic.

If you want to learn (like I do) how to include sponsored ads into your Zazzle marketing plan, hop aboard. I hope this becomes a helpful resource that we can all use.

Note: If you're not interested in paid adverts, please don't come on only to say so, as the more on-topic this remains, the easier interested parties will locate the post they need. Unless, of course, you've used paid advertisements and found them to be ineffective, in which case sharing your experiences will be quite beneficial. Thank you very much.

[KC]

I love learning new business tricks, but I was under the impression that it's part of the associate agreement that we NOT pay for ads?

Maybe an admin can clarify this. I did find this in the associate agreement and am still perusing the other agreement sections:
"You may not use Zazzle's brand to generate Referral Fees. This includes, but is not limited to, bidding on any keywords containing the trademark "Zazzle" or using the trademark "Zazzle" in advertisements associated with paid search, online content networks and online display networks. If you violate this term or any other terms and conditions, your Referral Fees may be permanently withheld and your account with us may be terminated."

That seems to be pretty specific to using Zazzle's name or logo in paid ads, I think?

[CreativeLeahG]

I found some guidelines from Zazzle re how to do the paid ads, links below. And you're quite correct, we can't compete in paid ads with Zazzle's own ads by using their branding or 'impersonating' Zazzle. And we can't link direct to our stores or products (which I didn't know) but I shall have a read through the posts and see if we can get some more updated info. Quite exciting and daunting the idea of paid ads, and I am hoping those with experience of this share their experiences.

@zazzle 

[CreativeLeahG]

I didn't realize Zazzle had to info we need re this! Here are the details re how to advertise with paid Ads as detailed on Zazzle's own blog.

Advertising Part 1: Facebook

Advertising Part 2: Google

I have asked (via blog comments) if there are later posts re this with changes based on newer ad systems etc.

[VivianD117]

Very interesting -- did you find that there are subsequent perhaps updated posts?  it seems to net out that if you want to do a paid ad, you need a website to direct your traffic to rather than to Zazzle.  I can't think of another way to do it "legally" or am I missing something?

[LMGildersleeve]

@CreativeLeahGI asked a question regarding ads from Zazzle a few months ago. Here is there answer. Take it how you will.

""You are correct that Zazzle doesn't allow Designers to bid on paid search keywords that include "Zazzle." We have a robust marketing team that uses the valuable "Zazzle" trademark to drive traffic and sales to Designer stores and products, but you can promote your own products via paid ads for your product or Zazzle Store, so long as "Zazzle" is not included. ""

[CreativeLeahG]

That's good, thanks Lynn, I will see if I can get further confirmation.

[Caprice]

Since sales are so slow - I'd be interested to know if anyone has had luck with paid advertising on Twitter, Pinterest, FB, etc.  Were you able to attribute sales directly to the ad?