• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

What Say The Experts

Product recommendations by people in the know!

  • Creative
    • Video Editing
  • Ecommerce
  • Marketing + Sales
    • Email Marketing
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Social Media Marketing
    • CRM
  • Office
    • Remote Work
  • Websites
    • Web Design + Development
    • WordPress
  • About
  • Contact

Best Instagram Scheduler? What 83 Instagram Marketing Experts Say

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated May 24, 2021

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no added cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

We surveyed 85 Instagram marketers to find out which is the best instagram scheduler

Without a doubt, Instagram is a great way to grow your business. There are one billion users on Instagram and 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services. Those are statistics you just can’t ignore.

But while the platform might be just the ticket to give your business a welcome boost, planning an Instagram marketing strategy and putting it into action is no easy feat. One of the main challenges that many face, particularly time-poor small business owners that often wear many hats, is having the time to plan out and then publish content that resonates with their target audience. And that’s where an Instagram scheduling app can really come into its own.

Rather than having to religiously show up each day on Instagram (although it is important to show up and engage when you’re able to!) when you’ve got calls to suppliers to make, customer inquiries to respond to, orders to fulfil, etc (plus remembering to eat!), you can plan a batch of content ahead of time and have it published to your account without you having to be there. MIND BLOWN!

If you’ve already started searching for these tools you might have run into another problem…there are quite a few. “But which is the best Instagram scheduler…which one should I use??” We’re glad you asked because that’s the whole point of this article. We reached out to over 80 Instagram marketing experts to get their take on the best Instagram posting apps, using their insights to put together a list of recommendations that you can trust.

Whether you’re just starting out as an influencer or trying to give your multi-generation family business the edge it needs, you’re extremely likely to find an Instagram scheduling tool below that will help you get there.

Best Instagram Scheduler? Here’s How the Experts Voted

Instagram Scheduler# of Votes
#=1. Later33 Votes
#=1. Creator Studio33 Votes
#2. Hootsuite15 Votes
#3. Sprout Social14 Votes
#4. Planoly12 Votes
#5. Buffer9 Votes
#6. Agorapulse8 Votes
#7. Sked Social6 Votes
#8. Preview5 Votes
#=9. Onlypult3 Votes
#=9. Tailwind3 Votes
#=10. HubSpot2 Votes
#=10. Falcon2 Votes
#=10. Gain2 Votes
#=10. Plann2 Votes
#=10. Iconosquare2 Votes
#=11. Canva1 Vote
#=11. SmarterQueue1 Vote
#=11. Social Mermaid1 Vote
#=11. Publer1 Vote
#=11. Planable1 Vote
#=11. CoSchedule1 Vote
#=11. Loomly1 Vote
#=11. HeyOrca1 Vote
#=11. Hopper HQ1 Vote
#=11. Sendible1 Vote
#=11. Inssist1 Vote
#=11. UNUM1 Vote

There were a total of 28 scheduling platforms that received votes for being the best Instagram scheduler. Five of the entries really stood out, receiving 10 votes or more. These were Later, Creator Studio, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Planoly. Later and Creator Studio tied for the most votes and were quite clearly the top two picks with more than double the votes of 3rd placed Hootsuite. Below we’re going to discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the top 5 Instagram schedulers that were shared by our experts based on their experiences with these tools.

An Overview of the Most Popular Instagram Schedulers

Below we’ve put together a table comparing the top 5 scheduling tools from our survey, placing them side by side to look at some of the more important features you might want to consider when choosing the best Instagram scheduler for your needs.

We wanted to make a distinction between tools that are able to “Auto Publish” and those that send a “Push Notification” prompting you to publish, and you’ll see this in the table where we’ve put an “AP” or “PN” below the check icon for the different post types.

      
 
Single Image/Video
Carousel Posts
Stories
IGTV
Reels
Native Tool
Official Instagram Partner Native Tool
Free Plan
Paid Plans From $15/Mo Always Free From $49/Mo From $99/Mo From $7/Mo

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • Best Landing Page Builder: 63 Paid Traffic Experts Vote
  • Facebook Ads Mistakes: Insights from 45 Experts
  • All Social Media Marketing Resources

A Closer Look at the 5 Top-Voted Instagram Posting Schedulers (Including Both Paid + Free Instagram Tools)

1. Later

When it comes to user interface, Later offers a scheduling platform like no other. It’s one of the original scheduling tools for Instagram, and its calendar layout enables you to visually plan and schedule your Instagram posts with ease. Later has diversified across other social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. It’s also affordable, with the free plan allowing one user 30 posts across a set of social media accounts.

If you upgrade to a paid plan you unlock lots of other useful features, such as analytics to help you understand how your content is performing, their Linkin.bio feature which enables users to add links to Instagram posts (a feature that most competitors don’t offer), and the “Add First Comment” feature which allows you to add your hashtags to the first comment as opposed to the actual post. And that’s just a small taster of what you get with Later for a fairly modest monthly fee.

More Info

2. Creator Studio (by Facebook)

Facebook’s Creator Studio is the in-house option that you can use to link multiple Instagram accounts, plus it works incredibly well with video, including IGTV. Many also believe that Creator Studio improves the effectiveness of Instagram posts due to it being a native scheduler rather than a 3rd party tool. Available for use on both desktop and mobile, Creator Studio also aids in recommending hashtags to use and allows you to manage comments through the app.

Creator Studio is also completely free to use!! Widely regarded as the best free Instagram scheduler, it measures up favorably against the free plans offered by competitors, and it offers numerous features they don’t (even in their paid plans), such as being able to schedule and autopublish both Carousel Posts and IGTV (although for now you can’t schedule stories). Since it’s run by Facebook there is also constant user-centric development, with new features being added all the time. The main things that are somewhat lacking compared to other tools are the analytics and the user interface; basic insights that are only provided one week at a time and there’s no visual planner on offer here.

More Info

3. Hootsuite

If cross-platform posting is what you’re after then Hootsuite will be right up your street. It may not have won the race to be voted our best Instagram scheduling app, but it is the scheduler that has been around the longest, servicing multiple social media platforms at the same time. Hootsuite allows users to post directly to Instagram, and you can post stories which not every Instagram scheduling app allows. Advanced analytics enables you to access reports across multiple platforms, allowing you to understand what is working, and where. (Particularly useful if you’re still not sure where your target audience “hang out”…you might have thought it was Facebook, and then find out you achieve much better results on Instagram!)

With a free plan to span across two channels, Hootsuite is a perfectly suitable option for a small business. The social listening feature also helps you find posts that mention your business, and follow discussions and developments within your industry. The choice of scheduling in advance or by push notification also enables users to check their Instagram posts one more time before publishing. Although it seems to receive mixed reviews on the user interface, Hootsuite is still one of the best Instagram scheduling apps out there.

More Info

4. Sprout Social

If you’re an agency owner or social media manager, Sprout Social may be the best Instagram scheduling app for your needs. Sprout Social works well for teams that need to collaborate in putting posts together, and will also make suggestions for the best time to post on Instagram.

Where Sprout Social really stands out is in the detailed analytics the tool compiles, allowing social media managers and marketers to clearly communicate the results of marketing campaigns to clients. Sprout Social can deliver reports about post performance, audience analytics, and hashtag effectiveness. The analytics features are backed up by deep social listening to know more about what is being said about your brand. These features do come at a cost though, being one of the more expensive options. But if Instagram management is what you do for a living, it’s likely an investment that will pay off big time.

More Info

5. Planoly

One of the more recent additions to the market is Planoly. Founded in 2016, it features an easy to use drag and drop visual planner, and it’s very apparent that user experience was a high priority during development. The app also works well on both desktop and mobile devices, enabling users to manage their scheduling in a way that suits them.

Both photos and videos can be scheduled and Planoly works across multiple social platforms. Pricing is also very affordable starting at $7 per month. Planoly comes with a host of easy to use features including storing hashtags, autoposting the first comment, image filters and their “Quick Schedule” function. This reliable and user friendly platform is slightly let down by analytics that aren’t quite on the same level as some of the competition, but it’s still considered by many to be one of the best Instagram posting apps.

More Info

 

Read What The Experts Said

We didn’t just curate a list of the best Instagram schedulers and rank them in this order “because we felt like it.” We surveyed industry professionals to put together this article. These are folks that have tons of experience using Instagram scheduling tools, and have figured out what works best. So don’t just take our word for it when reading these recommendations. Read what the experts themselves had to say.

If you would like to read what was said about a specific scheduler, feel free to use the filters below to jump to the Instagram scheduling app that interests you.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • Later
  • Creator Studio
  • Hootsuite
  • Sprout Social
  • Planoly
  • Buffer
  • Agorapulse
  • Sked Social
  • Preview
  • Onlypult
  • TailWind
  • HubSpot Instagram
  • Falcon
  • Gain
  • Plann
  • Iconosquare
  • Canva
  • SmarterQueue
  • Social Mermaid
  • Publer
  • Planable
  • CoSchedule
  • Loomly
  • HeyOrca
  • Hopper HQ
  • Sendible
  • Inssist
  • UNUM
Viv Conway
Viv Conway is co-host of the chart-topping podcast, Ace The Gram. Viv built and sold an e-com brand, and now runs a successful Social Media Agency from New Zealand.
https://open.spotify.com/show/1UqaOAaRgcxoGsFJYNahsV
  • Sked Social – “Sked is the software that we use at our Agency. Sked allows you to automate (almost) everything that you could post manually and has always been an Instagram ‘first’ platform. Stories, posts, tags etc are all possible using Sked, with the exception of tagging other accounts in posts, or active tags in stories.”

  • Creator Studio – “This is the tool we use to schedule important Instagram posts in advance where all the features aren’t available in Sked. The layout is easy to use, and it’s completely free!”

Marti Jeremiah-Shelley
Founder of Wee Bit Social - Teaching small business owners the importance of social media marketing and how to bring more of their own style to their content.
http://www.weebitsocial.com

“As a Social Media Manager and Consultant scheduling tools have always been a huge part of my day to day work and something I recommend to clients regularly.

I’ve tried a few in my quest for scheduling perfection and not loved many, but my number one – not just for Instagram and for so many reasons has got to be:”

  • Buffer – “I have had a long-running love affair with Buffer for a number of years now – it all began when I started training in social media marketing. Everyone was singing the praises of Hootsuite – it was all Hootsuite this and Hootsuite that – but for me, just starting out I found the interface of Hootsuite to be too cluttered and Buffer was a clean, no fuss, so easy to use alternative and it’s just so good!

    The price is fairly cost-effective, it’s so easy to upload images and craft your post. (You can even add Instagram stories ready to post) Another huge plus for me is that the customer service – although on American time – is excellent! They also don’t bombard you with emails but their newsletter is fab and they have a great podcast. Their whole ethos is perfect for me, it’s straight to the point, helpful and they are so friendly as a company and just on it! Have I sold you yet?”

“My runner-up for Instagram scheduling has got to be Plann.”

  • Plann – “What I love about Plann is that you can plan (see what I did there) your grid – a huge plus when it comes to planning your grid and getting a real feel for how your grid is going to look. Again, it’s fairly straightforward and so easy to use (noticing a theme yet?) which is ideal for beginners and the pricing is great value too.”

“So there you have it, my top picks when it comes to Instagram scheduling – I should say Hootsuite is actually pretty good and I have used it with clients and found it to be pretty awesome as well. With most things I think it’s down to personal preference. Most apps these days give you the option of a free trial, so take advantage and see what’s right for you, which interface you prefer and the extras you think you will get the most value out of.

I would say in general, scheduling tools are always worth the money and save so much time when it comes to planning out your content and really something I would recommend spending your hard-earned cash on.”

Zoë Stephenson
Co-Founder of The Social Shepherd, a fast growing Social Media Agency that helps brands scale 🚀
https://thesocialshepherd.com/
  • Creator Studio – “My first recommendation has to be Facebook Creator Studio. Is it the most user friendly? No. Is it the most in-depth? No. However, it is an in-platform tool as opposed to out of platform, which means there’s little to no chance of using this tool affecting the reach or performance of your Instagram posts.

    It is worth stating, that no Instagram scheduling tool will allow you to schedule everything; reels, stories & guides are all currently un-schedulable in an automatic form. Lots of tools will send you notifications when you have a story that’s scheduled to go live, prompting you to post it from your phone… but it is impossible for them to publish on their own from any tool. Yep, that means even when using Facebook’s own tool also.”

  • HeyOrca – “A tool that we actually use at The Social Shepherd is called HeyOrca. We use it as our clients love the sign off process. They can give feedback and approve content with ease, and once signed off by the client that content is automatically scheduled. As mentioned above, it isn’t perfect (as no tool is) and it is in its infancy, but it’s the best, most cost-effective tool that we’ve come across from an agency perspective, and they seem very proactive in terms of consistently developing the platform.”

  • Later – “Later is a great basic scheduling tool, particularly for Instagram. It has lots of helpful features like hashtag recommendations, optimised posting times and feed visuals. I’d recommend this for anyone that wants the basics, but in a really easy to use way.”

Megan Postiglione
Social Media Manager
https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-postiglione/
  • Later – “While there are many scheduling platforms out there, Later specializes specifically in Instagram. It’s a visual scheduling platform where you can easily schedule photos, videos and carousel posts. It also includes Linkin.bio so you can include custom links for your Instagram posts.”

  • Sendible – “Sendible is a good tool for agencies that need to have multiple users and also allows you to send approvals to clients or team members within the platform. It includes scheduling for several platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s not as visually appealing as others, but it is cost-effective and efficient for scheduling.”

Arielle Mason
Multi-passionate Social Media Marketing Expert
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariellemason/
  • Hootsuite – “This is one of my favorite tools specifically for IG. This tool allows you to schedule your timeline posts (including swipe-through carousel posts) all in one spot. Additionally, they now also allow you to post IG Stories which is a game-changer.”

  • Social Mermaid – “While a newer platform on the market, this has been a game-changer for smaller/local businesses. This allows users to have all handles under one hood similar to Hootsuite but is much more tailored to smaller businesses.”

Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller is the owner of a boutique social media management agency for online business coaches called Brittany Miller Biz. She is also a social media coach helping businesses of all sizes learn how to implement an effective social strategy.
http://www.brittanymiller.biz

“Deciding on an Instagram scheduler can feel overwhelming. You could choose Planoly, Later, Plannable, Hootsuite, Preview App, Facebook Creator Studio, Tailwind, Canva and more!”

  • Creator Studio – “If you are a solopreneur or have a small team and limited budget, I would recommend using Facebook Creator Studio.

    Here’s Why!

    1. Price: Facebook Creator Studio is FREE! It is built right into the Facebook platform and allows you to auto-schedule static, video and carousel posts to Instagram, as well as IGTVs. In comparison, the features on the free version of other scheduling tools (like Later or Planoly) are pretty limited.

    2. Auto-schedule: As mentioned above, you can auto-schedule your Instagram posts or IGTV with Facebook Creator Studio. With most of the other Instagram scheduling tools, you will have to pay a monthly or annual fee to do this.

    3. Desktop Availability: Creating and scheduling content from your computer versus your phone will save you a substantial amount of time. For some Instagram scheduler tools, like Preview App, you have to pay to access this desktop feature. This is something you can easily do with Facebook Creator Studio! If you aren’t working from your laptop/desktop to create and schedule your social posts, it’s time to make the switch.

    4. Ease of Use: Using Facebook Creator Studio is pretty intuitive. It is easy to upload photos, tag a location, and add in your hashtags. You can also view your insights directly from the platform.

    5. Multiple Accounts for Free: If you manage multiple Instagram accounts, no problem! Easily switch between them when scheduling content or viewing insights…at no extra charge!

    Although Facebook Creator Studio is my go-to scheduler, there are a couple of features it does not have at the moment.

    1. You are not yet able to visually plan your feed. However, I’ve been able to get around this by using the free version of Preview App on my phone or creating a “mock-up” feed in Canva.
    2. You cannot schedule to Instagram Stories…yet! Although you can do this with a few other Instagram scheduler tools (usually a paid version), it is not yet possible on Facebook Creator Studio. However, I have a feeling it is coming soon.
    3. Not able to store hashtag sets. This isn’t a big concern for me. Save these in an excel spreadsheet, and you are golden!

    If you’re looking for an easy and free Instagram scheduler to use, give Facebook Creator Studio a try!”

Emily Brimmer
Emily is a seasoned marketing professional, specializing in Communications, Social/Digital Media, Advertising, Partnerships, and Event Strategy and Execution. After in-house experience with globally recognized brands like Saks Fifth Avenue, Michael Kors, and MCM Worldwide, Emily founded EKB Marketing to lend her fashion savvy to up and coming brands, helping to launch and create identities for various verticals with a special focus on health and wellness.
http://ekbmarketing.com
  • Later – “Since I work with a lot of start-ups, the free options on Later are really the best out there. In addition to standard scheduling options (up to 30 posts a month), you also get access to their linkin.bio tool that allows you to include separate links for all your Instagram posts. This is especially handy if you’re working with smaller accounts that haven’t unlocked the story swipe up feature yet. Analytics on the free account are limited to post performance (broken out by likes, comments & engagement rates), but when you upgrade to the paid accounts, they layer in some solid analytics (including best times to post based on traffic, more in depth audience insights, and hashtag performance), as well as the option to schedule a first comment, avoiding the plague of post copy littered with hashtags. The paid accounts also give you the ability to schedule stories, but unlike the feed posts, which you can schedule to auto-post OR post through a push notification, all stories scheduled have to be posted with a push notification. It’s not the end of the world, but is not quite a “set it and forget it” feature.

    Later also allows for scheduling to Facebook, all of which is pretty standard. The biggest downside I see, is you can’t tag anyone in the post copy for Facebook, so if you’re working with a partner that needs to be tagged, you’ll have to go in and edit the post once it’s live.”

  • Hootsuite – “Hootsuite is great for Facebook and Twitter posting, but their Instagram options leave a bit to be desired. Within both Twitter and Facebook scheduling, you have the ability to tag anyone that isn’t a personal account, so think brand partners, media outlets, etc. This is a great feature especially if you’re sharing a lot of news stories or looking to amplify the work of your PR team. There is no link tree, or bio link tool included with Hootsuite, so as far as Instagram goes, you’re basically limited to post scheduling (feed, and stories). The analytics are solid, including parsing out comments by sentiment so you can see if you’re getting a lot of positive/negative/or neutral feedback. Sometimes their filters for reviewing the comments are a little off, but it overall gives you a pretty good bird’s eye view. All that said, there is no free account for Hootsuite, so a budget is definitely required.”

  • Sprout Social – “As far as tools BEYOND post scheduling, Sprout has the best perks. They have some of the best analytics out there, including tracking your competitors to see how you REALLY stack up, as well as custom reporting options that will make you look like a rockstar to the C Suite. Their smart inbox also streamlines all your DM’s across connected platforms so you can reply to everything from one place, saving a ton of time. Their social listening feature is one of the most accurate in my experience, allowing you to track more than just what people are saying about YOUR brand, but also the competitive landscape to keep you ahead of the curve, and not just in your own little vacuum.”

Jenn Herman
Jenn Herman is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She is the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing. She is a sought-after and international speaker providing tips, resources, and training for organizations of all sizes that need to structure their social media strategies.
http://www.jennstrends.com
  • Agorapulse – “My hands-down favorite scheduling tool is Agorapulse. I have been using them for years for all my social scheduling needs – Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I love how easily the content calendar allows me to see ALL posts or just posts for specific platforms. And from an Instagram perspective, the ability to have saved hashtags in groups makes it super easy to add hashtags to any feed post and then schedule out my content. Although no tool currently has API access to allow scheduling of IG Stories, Agorapulse does have the option to schedule Stories to be set for a push notification to your device for publication at the set time.”

  • Tailwind – “Another amazing tool for scheduling on Instagram is Tailwind. They have been dedicated to Instagram and Pinterest for years and allow so much flexibility and design creativity in their publishing tools. If you’re focused on making sure your Instagram grid looks a certain way or follows a set pattern, Tailwind will make this process easy for you.”

Sanja Komljenovic
CEO and Founder of ONA Creative, a female-driven brand strategy and creative agency based in Los Angeles.
http://www.onacreative.com

“Scheduling content is a great way to stay on top of your editorial calendar. And it allows you to sit down once to organize all of your content for the week, saving you time in the long run.

But the most important aspect of scheduling content is capitalizing on the times your audience is most active and scheduling Instagram posts for those high engagement periods.

There are a handful of tools to use out there, each with different pros and cons. At ONA, we use various scheduling tools. I’ll walk you through some.”

  • Iconosquare – “Iconosquare has been around since 2011, originally called Statigram. It was one of the first 3rd-party platforms that organized Instagram analytics, and now it’s a complete social management system. We love it for its robust analytics and scheduling capabilities. It allows you to manage Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and they’re working on a TikTok integration, all for a relatively low cost.”

  • Hootsuite – “For those who need to manage more than Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, Hootsuite is your best option. Hootsuite adds YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest integrations into your scheduling capabilities. It also has a fantastic content calendar that allows you to see your upcoming Instagram posts, and rescheduling is done by dragging and dropping posts within the calendar. Hootsuite is a little more expensive than Iconosquare, but they do offer a free account option with fewer features.”

  • Creator Studio – “Lastly, for those on a tight budget who only need to schedule Instagram and Facebook content, Facebook’s Creator Studio is a great option that not many people know about. Creator Studio is a free platform available through your Facebook Business account. It lets you create and schedule content for both platforms and has analytic tools as well. Because it’s managed by Facebook, it also supports more native platform features like live streaming and IGTV.”

“When scheduling content, always refer to your analytics on when you should post but don’t be afraid to test new days and times. Happy posting!”

Margaret H. Geiger
Margaret is the owner of Twelve31 Media, LLC, a full-service marketing company that specializes in public relations, social media management and email marketing. She creates big ideas for small businesses through strategic messaging and full-circle marketing campaigns. Her client roster spans from real estate and luxury home construction to retail and travel/tourism brands.
http://twelve31-media.com
  • Hootsuite – “In order to manage multiple clients, it’s important to stay organized. I love using Hootsuite. The platform is free up to three channels and after that, they have very reasonable annual fees based on how many accounts you have. You can publish directly to Instagram, which many platforms CANNOT do. This was a big win for us.

    With Hootsuite, you can schedule content, create analytics reports to track your account’s progress (engagement, likes, followers, etc.) and create streams that are basically a homepage for all published posts, scheduled posts, and any posts that contain hashtags that are relevant to your brand or business. Super helpful!

    Most recently, you are able to schedule Instagram stories. However, you schedule them out and are reminded to post instead of direct publishing. It’s more of a calendar reminder, but it’s a good start.”

Jodine McIntyre
I am a social media trainer for ambitious business owners. I help you make sense of social media so you can confidently and consistently build buzz around your business online.
http://www.yoursocialsmarty.com
  • Creator Studio – “The beauty of Facebook Business Suite is that it is built by the company that owns Instagram so the integration is seamless, there is no need to reconnect accounts or find that content has failed to post as your account has unexpectedly disconnected. You can schedule content to both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously and you can adjust the posts for each platform prior to scheduling. The interface is very user-friendly and you can preview your content in a list, calendar or grid format.”

  • Later – “Later is a fantastic Instagram scheduling tool with additional features that really streamline the content scheduling process. My favourite feature is saved captions which is great for saving hashtags. You can also schedule your first comment along with your post so that your hashtags sit in the comment rather than the caption. The grid preview is great too and allows you to move scheduled content around to adjust your overall aesthetic.”

Jennifer Braun
Jennifer is a results-driven, innovative social media strategy expert with 15+ years of experience developing and executing data-driven, creative campaigns that increase brand awareness, community engagement, and generate increased revenue.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbraun/

“One of the most common questions we hear at REI Associates is “How do you remain consistent in scheduling social media posts?” The answer is Later.”

  • Later – “Later is an easy-to-use app that allows you to schedule a variety of content across your favorite social media channels. My team and I love that we can schedule Facebook and Twitter, as well as pins on Pinterest, Instagram Stories, and even TikToks. Did I mention we can also schedule the first comment on Insta? Later even suggests the hashtags we should use.

    Later’s tagline is “Publish a month’s worth of social media posts in minutes” and they aren’t kidding! We save so much time using Later’s built-in media editing. Drag and drop your pictures, edit, filter, write your posts, and Later does the heavy lifting of suggesting when to schedule to optimize traffic. For those discerning marketers and influencers wanting to keep a particular Insta aesthetic, Later provides a preview feature.

    Later also provides awesome analytics so you know which of your posts are driving traffic. They present your data in an understandable format so you’ll get the scoop on audience, story performance, post performance, and hashtags. If you’re not sure how to use any of these features, Later provides great tutorials, perfect for anyone new to scheduling social media posts.

    As with any app, there are a few drawbacks. Later does not support LinkedIn scheduling (yet!) and you cannot schedule text only posts, but our team is able to easily work around both of these issues. Take the free version for a spin and let us know what you think!”

Amanda Jackson
Social Marketing by Amanda takes a fresh approach to social media by incorporating business and marketing tactics. Amanda has been a featured speaker on various platforms and is most widely known for her workshops on social media strategy and providing coaching and digital marketing services for small businesses and nonprofits.
https://www.socialmarketingbyamanda.com/

“I really enjoy picking social media tools with specific features that my clients can apply and understand. Over the years, I’ve seen tools and apps break out from their competition by creating quantifiable and distinct features in their offerings; becoming more than just scheduling platforms.”

  • Later – “My first pick is Later (free/premium). Later has been a favorite automation tool since 2017. It’s been an easy-to-integrate tool that I can teach clients to integrate on their own. The visual capability of seeing a calendar view with posts and video. The addition of hashtag recommendations, analytics, linkin.bio and the ability to share user-generated content has made this scheduling app a game-changer.”

  • Planoly – “Second up is Planoly (free/premium). It is an easy-to-use platform that can house all of your social media accounts. Not only do I like Planoly’s color scheme but it is also a great go-to for anyone looking to sell products by using the “sellit” feature. With Instagrams Shops becoming more popular, this is a must for someone who wants to have a storefront within their social media.”

  • Buffer – “Lastly, Buffer is a platform for making an investment if you’re interested in the business aspect of social media (premium). From being able to integrate your Shopify store, to strategy recommendations and analytics reporting; it incorporates the user experience (UX) side of social media. Buffer is like having a personal consultant that helps you understand how to build better branding, engagement and provides metrics on what does and doesn’t work for your business on social media.”

Sarka Seborova and Nikki Gooch
We are marketers from Gough Baily Wright! Originally established in 1936, we’re the longest-running independently-owned marketing agency in the West Midlands.
https://gough.co.uk/
  • Creator Studio – “The main benefit of using the creator studio is convenience. If you are managing Facebook and Instagram for your business this may be a clear choice. It is user-friendly and free. You can schedule content for your main feed and IGTV. As this tool has been created by the platform itself you will be able to see all of your content in one place including stories, carousels, videos, messages and analytics. Instagram regularly rolls out new features so another benefit of using Creator Studio is that you can be sure it will keep up and adapt quickly to any future changes. The one downside is that the insights for Instagram are only available a week at a time, making monthly reporting more time-consuming.”

  • Hootsuite – “Apart from regular features such as scheduling and drafting posts, Hootsuite is great for social listening. For example, on your board you can follow certain hashtags, join conversations, all of which can inform your social scheduling. For Instagram, Hootsuite gives you two options – to schedule directly or through a push notification. The push notification option is great if you are someone who likes to read over the post one last time before it goes live. This reminder will also allow you to be present straight after publishing, so that you can interact with your audience and easily respond to any comments.”

  • Sprout Social – “Sprout Social has many of the regular features but also includes added benefits like recommended posting times, which helps improve engagement on individual posts across platforms. The scheduling features are excellent making management across multiple accounts and platforms easy without getting confused. The added benefit of allowing an approval step is a real help when training more junior members of staff, allowing them the freedom of creating their own posts but offering a safety net to check times and content is accurate before it goes live. Sprout Social also offers some excellent educational webinars which help us to upskill, offering our clients additional expertise which we can charge an additional fee for. The reporting feature is also a huge time saver, offering clear, concise reports that communicate all social media efforts easily.”

Dan Fuoco
4x Live Twitter Surgery Marketer who also interviewed Richard Branson | Storyteller | Branding Aficionado
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danfuoco/
  • Preview – “This app has saved me tons of time posting hashtags on Instagram. They have the ability to create hashtag groups. The groups eliminate repetitive hashtagging for business brands. For example, I managed an automotive Instagram account that sold 30+ brands. I created hashtag groups for each brand (Lamborghini, McLaren, Mustang, Corvette, etc.) as well as a general hashtag group for cars and one for the local community. When I was ready to post, I uploaded the image, clicked on the hashtag group I wanted and BAM! The post was ready.”

  • Agorapulse – “Another way to schedule Instagram posts is via a social media scheduler called AgoraPulse. AgoraPulse is a highly recommended all-in-one platform that offers a straight-forward approach to scheduling for Instagram. Simply add your image, caption, hashtags and then select the date and time of the post. Everything is seamless and pain-free. AgoraPulse gives you the freedom to create your posts via desktop or an app, depending on where you are.”

Sarah DeGeorge
Sarah is a digital marketing specialist who works in paid and organic marketing, public relations, and social media marketing and management to help small businesses find their authentic voice for their audience through a holistic marketing approach.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/degeorgesarah/

“Instagram scheduling is so important when you are balancing a lot of different projects at once. While most Instagram Scheduling platforms are at-cost for more features (free options are still available), the benefits are important to note.

For the most optimal Instagram scheduling experience, there are two platforms I would suggest:”

  • Buffer – “Buffer is one of the long-standing Instagram schedulers out there that has the features available to plot, plan, and schedule Instagram posts with ease. Also, having the app available on the go is important when you are between meetings and need to get some Instagram posts scheduled and ready to go live. For Business pages on Instagram, Buffer is a great place to get direct publishing options so you are not just reminded to post but actually able to post through the app and platform.”

  • SkedSocial – “SkedSocial is a great place with Instagram as their main focus to visually create your Instagram grid, as well as create and schedule images and videos for direct posting. SkedSocial also creates a collaborative interface if you are working with a team to create, organize, and schedule Instagram posts to go live. The big time-saver is the Common Caption which is a caption across different social channels, as well as a more targeted caption creator for each platform’s specific algorithm or “voice.””

A Final Thought:

“Make sure the platform you use also has analytics data that can help you continue to make continued optimizations of your Instagram presence and build out a great experience for your followers and those who have yet to follow you–make them want to take action when they reach your feed!”

Terri Nakamura
Author, Blogging on Instagram (Pub. Aug 2021); Content designer/creator, and social media consultant; Founder of Instagram Hubhouse on Clubhouse
http://www.terrinakamura.com
  • Buffer – “Great capabilities and an easy-to-use interface make Buffer a great choice for posting on Instagram. I’m a “Pro” subscriber, which allows for eight profiles across five social channels (currently Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest). Each profile can store up to 100 pieces of content. At $15/month, it’s a solid value. Other offerings and subscription tiers are available on their website.

    Buffer Sample scheduled post
    Screenshot of a sample post in Buffer composer

    Buffer requires an Instagram business profile in order to schedule content on Instagram.

    A user can create a post directly in Buffer, loading an image and writing a caption and hashtags in the composer, or you can externally manage assets (images, text, hashtags), and batch post them. Buffer allows for spontaneity, too. For example, if an event is happening right now, content can be created and published immediately, or be designated to appear in the next scheduled time slot.

    The Pro version of Buffer features an engagement tab that shows:

    • Posts at a glance
    • How many comments a post received, and
    • How many comments have yet to be answered

    Using the web or mobile Instagram app, it’s possible to miss a comment.

    The Buffer Engagement tab makes it convenient to access this information at a glance and makes it impossible to miss an important comment. Comments can be filtered by:

    • Sentiment (negativity)
    • Trolley (order-related), or
    • Comments that contain questions

    The efficiency of using Buffer to respond to comments is impressive. You can view comments and easily reply, bypassing the clunky web or mobile experiences where you have to click “+” to see more comments.

    Buffer Engagement Tab
    Buffer Engagement Tab

    The above screenshot of the Engagement Tab, shows recent posts, numbers of comments that haven’t been answered and an explanation of the grid view. On the right side, a comment that hasn’t been answered is highlighted automatically and awaits a response.

    Buffer:Analyze as well as Buffer’s Brand Building tools, are available only to Premium and Business subscriptions. Buffer aggregates the information for efficient access. The data on individual Instagram posts shows more detailed Reach and Engagement numbers and which posts are getting the most traction. It’s superior to the information on Business Instagram Profiles where a user needs to look at each post to find it.

    Buffer Reach and Engagement rates
    Buffer Reach and Engagement rates

    Buffer:Analyze offers recommendations for frequency and best times to post. You can schedule the same slots across seven days, weekdays, or customize each day. It also allows the user to analyze the performance of hashtags including hashtags in your first comments. Schedules and posts are flexible and easy to adjust.

    Buffer Analysis of Best Time to Post
    Buffer Analysis of Best Time to Post

    With a Premium account, you can schedule an IG Story with videos, single images and multiple images. The Story is queued, and users receive a mobile notification when it’s time to publish.

    Buffer continues to grow and change to accommodate new features of social media channels. The company anticipates users’ needs and creates positive user experiences. They offer excellent customer service. You can take a free trial to see if you like it. That’s how I started ten years ago, and I’m still a customer.”

Becca Booker
Northern-California made, Becca Booker received a double-major in Marketing and Journalism from ASU and now lives under the sun in Phoenix, Arizona. Dubbed the “modern social media queen” by AZ Foothills, Becca is revolutionizing the social media game and inspiring brands to use innovative tactics to grow their social media through her agency, Homemade Social.
http://www.homemadesocial.com
  • Later – “One platform that has continuously been our agency’s right-hand is a scheduling tool called Later. Later is an Instagram scheduling app that helps you plan and schedule your content in advance. The auto-schedule feature is one of our favorites. Nothing beats being able to focus on other aspects of your biz or social media, while Instagram posts are automatically published for you! Later even tells you what time of day is best to schedule the post, based on your audience’s activity, to ensure the best result for your post. We also love Later’s analytics tools as they allow us to better understand our audience and the content they respond best to. This insight informs our social media strategy going forward. Other notable features include their hashtag suggestions, the option to save captions, and assistance finding repurposed content.”

Katherine George
Katherine George is the award-winning founder of social media marketing agency Oh So Social, which provides social media management, training and mentoring services, and online training platform Oh So Savvy. She is also one of eight Facebook Blueprint Lead Trainers in Europe and a Facebook and Instagram accredited #SheMeansBusiness mentor.
http://www.ohsosocialmarketing.co.uk
  • Agorapulse – “My first choice for Instagram scheduling will always be Agorapulse; we use it for all of our clients at Oh So Social and for our own socials. As a social media marketing agency, we’ve tested our fair share of scheduling software, and this one comes up trumps for Instagram.

    One feature I love is the ability to save hashtag groups ready to paste into your Instagram posts at a touch of a button, which is a brilliant timesaver. With Agorapulse you can directly schedule a post to your feed, and you can also schedule Stories via push notifications, which is invaluable if you want to create Insta Stories campaigns in advance. Plus, you can manage your Instagram accounts all on one platform, including responding to comments and monitoring key hashtags making community management quick and simple. While the reports help you to monitor your results and prove ROI to clients.”

  • Later – “If you’re on a budget and on the hunt for a free option to schedule to Instagram, then Later is for you. An easy-to-use visual planner for the week, hashtag suggestions and recommendations for the best time to post based on your followers make this a great option for small businesses looking to grow their Instagram profile.”

  • Creator Studio – “Created and owned by Facebook, and therefore Instagram, Creator Studio is a nice free choice for your Instagram feed scheduling. It allows you to manage multiple Instagram accounts for free, while seeing your previous posts and some basic insights. The plus side of Creator Studio is IGTV scheduling and sharing content from your Facebook asset library. However, its complicated interface and its limitations make it a good choice for in-house teams but not great for agencies.”

Jennifer Corbridge
Jennifer Corbridge is a marketing and communication professional specializing in content marketing, specifically social media, employee advocacy, digital marketing and internal communications.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifercorbridge/
  • Later – “In my experience, I’ve never found a perfect scheduling tool, but the best Instagram scheduler I’ve used to date is Later. My favorite parts about the tool are the ability to drive traffic to different URLs through Linkin.bio, schedule, preview and rearrange your posts depending on what looks best for your grid and the ability to schedule Instagram Stories. Later provides a simple visual planner for your content, hashtag suggestions and personalized insights like the best time to post. Although there are things I’d change like longer reporting timeframes (limited to three months), more detailed analytics you can find natively in Instagram, but are not available in the tool and supporting more content types like IGTV and Reels, Later is intuitive and has great resources, like their blog, to help you manage your Instagram strategy.”

Renée Wallen
London-based marketing consultant managing social media for businesses that are too busy to do it themselves. Renée can coach you to market yourself more effectively online, create your strategy, or simply take all your social media off your hands so you can get on with what you do best.
http://www.weekendwitchsocialmedia.com
  • Hootsuite – “Hootsuite is my go-to scheduling platform for all social media – and it’s perfect for scheduling Instagram posts. Once you’ve created the image – I use Canva for mine so that all images meet my branding requirements – it’s simple to upload to Hootsuite. You can then compose your caption and add relevant hashtags. To save time, I often copy and paste these from one of my previous Instagram posts, tweaking the list to remove any that are no longer relevant, and adding any appropriate new ones.

    Hootsuite’s calendar is simple to manage and, if you have a business Instagram account, you can post directly to Insta. If you have a personal Instagram account you can still schedule via Hootsuite, but it won’t post – instead you’ll receive a notification on your phone to post when you’re ready.

    One downside of scheduling Instagram through Hootsuite is that the images aren’t tagged. However it’s simple enough to edit the post afterwards to add any @mentions. And on the plus side, you can send the post to several other social media platforms at the same time – although be wary of including multiple hashtags if you do this.”

Adam Askew
I am a Social Media Marketing Manager who has worked in the industry for over half a decade now. My major focus is with Instagram and Facebook but I am also adept with Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and more.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-askew-38a706aa/

“One of the questions I’m frequently asked is what tool do I use for scheduling and monitoring posts, especially with Instagram. In truth, I don’t look further than the Social Media Site itself.”

  • Creator Studio – “Created and monitored by Facebook themselves, Creator Studio flew under the radar for me at least until a couple of years ago. Contrary to what the name suggests, it actually allows you to sign in or add your Instagram account as well as: schedule posts, monitor comments and interactions and even boost posts directly from the interface. Best of all, it’s completely free!

    Personally, I feel like it’s an under-utilised tool. Whilst there may be many other paid options out there that can offer some, admittedly great, perks — Facebook Creator Studio allows you to manage Instagram as Facebook intends it, which helps avoid some of the issues that management software actually has – such as posts not appearing as you intend them, or sometimes posts not appearing at all.

    I’ve used Creator Studio since the moment I found it, and wouldn’t use anything else if given the option.”

Karen De Amat
Karen De Amat’s professional career began on the cusp of the Social Media emergence. As a marketing professional, she built a social media presence and developed her personal brand. Karen founded Social Behavior in 2014 with a grassroots approach serving a handful of customers in a home office. Satisfied customers and high demand yielded growth in a developing marketing category.
http://www.socialbehaviorhouston.com
  • Creator Studio – “This is our preferred scheduling tool at Social Behavior. Creator Studio is Facebook’s built-in scheduling platform. It allows you to schedule on the Facebook and Instagram platforms, you can schedule videos, Instagram feed posts, IGTV videos, Facebook stories, and more. You can also go live on Facebook from Creator Studio. To use Creator Studio the business page must be connected to the Business Manager.”

  • Sprout Social – “We prefer to use Sprout Social for the analytic reporting that it offers but using it as a scheduling tool comes in handy thanks to their different content batching tools, such as batching content and importing it directly into a content calendar to cue up for scheduling. Sprout charges a bit of a premium compared to other tools, but the integrations, tools, and resources it offers definitely make it a worthy investment.”

Nicole Schwartz
Nicole is a marketing consultant with over 15 years of experience in the social media space. She helps small businesses in the food, beverage and retail sectors grow through creative marketing campaigns which integrate consumer behavioral principles.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartznicole/
  • Onlypult – “Though I have never met anyone who has heard of this scheduling platform, it has been my favorite for over three years. It allows scheduling of IGTV and stories with swipe up links. They are constantly adding new features like the ability to save frequently used locations and hashtags. Bonus! Onlypult is very economical for people who manage several accounts.”

  • Later – “For my e-comm clients who benefit from adding a link in bio with each post, Later takes the cake. The platform provides a great visual of what your scheduled Instagram posts will look like. I also love the phone app for on-the-go scheduling!”

Azalee Maslow
Azalee Maslow is a Top 10 Branding Coach and the owner of PrettyAF, a philanthropic lifestyle brand as well as The Babble Boutique, a Digital Marketing Agency.
http://AzaleeMaslow.com
  • Buffer – “At The Babble Boutique, we use Buffer to schedule all of our clients’ Instagram posts. Buffer was one of the first tools that allowed you to automatically post to Instagram, which is a big reason we use it! Buffer makes it really easy to pre-schedule a ton of posts, edit the captions for each platform, and add hashtags in the first comment. You can also save groups of hashtags which makes it really easy to add hashtags to your Instagram posts. They also have a free plan if you’re just starting out or only want to use it for your personal accounts.”

  • Hootsuite – “We used to use Hootsuite and it’s also very intuitive. I believe they now offer direct scheduling to Instagram and have a free plan as well. Their paid plan is more expensive, but it includes message monitoring which can be useful.”

  • Canva – “We create many of our graphics on Canva so it’s really convenient that they now offer a scheduling option. On the paid plan, you can schedule social media content to 7 platforms, so if you’re already paying for Canva, this could be a good option.”

Emmy O'Reilly
Emmy is an Instagram Strategist, Content Creator and Magnetic Marketing Coach for specialists and coaches in the Mindfulness / Transformation space. She helps her clients leverage their unique, authentic voice as a means to build loyal, aligned audiences online and amplify their positive impact.
https://www.meo.marketing/

“Call me CONTROVERSIAL & CRAZY, but I believe that if you’re a purpose-driven personal brand or coach, obsessing over the aesthetics of your feed and keeping a tight posting schedule can actually block you from creating your most potent and successful content. Why? Because energetically, you’re not trusting yourself and your ideas which will deflect a lot of potential high ticket clients from signing up. Instead, your most magnetic and conversion-driving content (that receives comments like, “holy sh*t! did you just read my mind?”) will always come from the heart, not just your head.

So when it comes to scheduling, I encourage this:

  • Create a strategic outline of your posting schedule according to your business goals and when your audience is online (which you can find out about through the tools I mention below)
  • Schedule the Macro content pieces to auto post so you can save yourself time and headspace to operate your business. But definitely ALLOW FOR SOME WIGGLE ROOM with your micro content and stories, so you can leverage your authentic voice and ideas when you experience loud, intuition-led AHA moments. (don’t know what micro/macro content is? Message and ask me on instagram @dubkitty)
  • Then, to boost your engagement on Instagram posts, make sure you or your social media manager spend some time right before and after those scheduled times to engage authentically with your audience and nurture your potential clients with love and openness.

For scheduling tools, I have listed my favorites below with pros and cons. But I also want to caution that whilst there are tons of amazing third-party scheduling tools out there, always ensure they are approved by Instagram/Facebook first! This could take a little research to dig up whether their claims to be “Instagram approved” are valid, but it’s totally worth it in the long run, because getting your account restricted and losing your ability to post is super frustrating! (I learned that one hard way once!)

I specialize in organic reach so my suggestions below will cover the free versions of a few scheduling tools.”

  • Creator Studio – “PROS (of free version):

    • You can auto-post (one or multiple photos in a carousel ) to your Facebook business page & Instagram page at the same time
    • You can schedule IGTVs
    • You get access to free audience analytics for Facebook and Instagram in one place (once you have a following big enough to reflect useful insights
    • You can look at your story performance dating really far back!
    • Reliable – Won’t ever be penalized because Facebook owns Instagram and Creator Studio

    CONS (of free version):

    • Currently no spell check if you’re writing or editing your caption in the text box
    • No visual preview grid to know what your photos will look like on your feed
    • Can’t schedule REELS”
  • Later – “PROS (of free version):

    • Great drag and drop grid “preview” for visual planning – (although it won’t show Reels or IGTV cover photos at all right now)
    • Optimised for Instagram / visual content planning
    • Can use “labels” to organize content by pillars or themes
    • “Saved caption” option, so you can use caption templates, outlines, CTAs, or hashtag sets for example
      Media storage library for future content organization and filing

    CONS (of the free version):

    • Required to have an Instagram “business” profile to auto-post (I chose a creator account because it gave me music functions on my story so I don’t use Later for my Instagram page).
    • Can’t auto-post videos, reels or carousels
    • Minimal analytics (on free plan)”
Daryna Pechenchis
Daryna Pechenchis is a social media manager at a PR firm in Toronto. She specializes in building brands through social media, developing and executing effective marketing strategies. Daryna has a passion for distilling research into insights and helping clients achieve their goals.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynapechenchis/

“One of the benefits of a scheduling tool is that it makes social media manager’s life so much easier. It saves time, reduces stress, and headaches about publishing on all of the accounts you are managing. Before I chose the best Instagram scheduler, I tried out a loooot of different tools. A lot!”

  • Creator Studio – “One of my recent favourites is Facebook Creator Studio. It is a tool that lets creators schedule content for Facebook and Instagram, monitor messages, and see insights into every post. Everything in one place! If you don’t want to pay a lot of money for a scheduling tool and plan on keeping everything in one place, Creator Studio is for you.”

Georgie Krone
Georgie is a social media consultant based in Winchester and London offering bespoke advice and group workshops / webinars. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Now offering social media marketing service for one off campaigns or ongoing help.
https://georgiekronesocial.com
  • Planoly – “Planoly has become my go-to scheduling app for Instagram. I have been using it exclusively for the last couple of years, having tried out others. I ultimately chose it because at that time its mobile version was more versatile than other mobile versions. I need the mobile and web versions to work really well together.

    My favourite feature of Planoly is the hashtag feature. I rely on it as a place to save all my hashtags in different categories. It’s easy to edit and in a single click, I can add them to my draft post.

    I recommend investing in the paid version if you will be relying on it for content creation because it enables you to schedule video posts and carousels, although it doesn’t offer you automatic posting for those content types.”

  • Later – “A close second is Later. It is very similar to Planoly in what it offers but I didn’t find its mobile app as sophisticated. This was about 2 years ago so things might have moved on. If you sign up with Later you get sent really useful blogs on the latest Instagram and general social media trends. These blogs really help keep me up to date and give useful tips.”

Tamara Hammad
Social media marketing and campaigns specialist. I create innovative social media strategy and campaigns so that brilliant businesses get noticed online.
http://www.tamarahammad.com

“Scheduling tools can be amazing for helping businesses to take control of their social media and helping them to be consistent with their posting. I recommend one day a week to sit and plan the content for the next week and then to schedule at least 3 posts. I have noticed with some platforms, particularly Facebook that the reach of scheduled posts does seem to be less than unscheduled so I always recommend a mix of scheduled and native posting.”

  • Later – “I work mainly with Instagram and my favourite scheduler has to be Later. You get so much more than just scheduling. The visual planner allows you to decide how you want your Instagram posts to appear on the grid so you can really work on your grid aesthetic and it has a really easy drag and drop formula. It also gives you the best times to post based on when your followers are online. This is available within insights on Instagram itself but the times are given in PST so working them out in UK time can be a pain.

    Hashtags are key to growth for most accounts on Instagram and yet tracking the performance of hashtags in the app isn’t an option yet other than telling how many people found your post from the group of hashtags you used. Later gives you hashtags analytics so you can track the hashtags you used on each of your Instagram posts, you can work out which posts generated the most engagement and which hashtags were used on those posts. You can also save groups of hashtags.

    Posting to Instagram stories is also possible in Later which is a big plus. The app allows you to resize photos for stories and add stickers, shopping tags and provides analytics for stories too.

    Later’s free plan gives you 30 posts across one social set which is more than enough for most small businesses although the best time to post insights only come with the paid plans. Later’s whole brand is about adding value and I think they really deliver not only on the scheduler but also on the value add on their socials and in their weekly emails.”

  • Hootsuite – “My second most used scheduler is Hootsuite which I use mostly for Facebook and Twitter.

    Hootsuite allows you to schedule across multiple platforms which is a huge advantage for the average business owner trying to run their own socials. I really like the Hootsuite dashboard which allows you to see all of your streams in the same place, the ability to set up social listening so that you can monitor what people are saying about your brand and respond is a big plus too. The “My Posts and Mentions” stream allows you to keep track of your activities, monitor mentions and the performance of posts. Alongside this, you can set up a “My Industry” stream, which gives the option to follow keywords and conversations to see what your competitors are talking about.

    Hootsuite really just simplifies the whole business of posting different content on multiple platforms. It’s not as exciting to look at as some of the newer schedulers, but it’s really simple to use and the analytics that come with paid plans are really helpful. The fact that you have the option to see how all of your socials are performing – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter – all in one dashboard is really useful. Seeing the results side by side lets you quickly identify the social channels with the highest engagement and allows you to work out where to make changes for the best ROI.”

“Probably the best advice is to try a few out and see which works best for helping you manage your platforms and achieve your social media goals. A lot of it comes down to personal preference.”

Samanta Cimerman
With over 10 years of experience in marketing, Samanta has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world and helped them grow their businesses through social media. She is an Instagram consultant, strategist, and founder of a membership site SocialSidekick.net, which is focused on helping small business owners skyrocket their business through Instagram organically.
http://www.socialsidekick.net
  • Creator Studio – “It’s a free tool by Facebook that lets you schedule regular Instagram posts, videos, carousels and IGTV.”

  • Later – “Its UI is really easy to work with. Two features that stand out are the ‘Hashtag suggestion tool’ and their library of amazing presets.”

  • Preview – “Preview is great because it has the ‘shoppable post’ option which is a must if you have a product-based business. It also has the ability to add drag and drop to preview the look of the feed before you publish your post.”

Adam Meskouri
Owner of @Gadgetings on Instagram. Co-Owner of Genfluencer, a news organization dedicated to the coverage of digital culture. I enjoy working on online projects, especially ones involving social media!
http://genfluencer.com
  • Creator Studio – “The creator studio gives users the freedom to schedule Instagram posts in a simple, effective manner. The layout and accessibility is easy to navigate, which gives the product a high value for beginner users, while also providing scheduling services that are also utilized by larger brands. It’s simple, free, and does exactly what most people need a post scheduler to do.”

Milena Farber
Digital marketing expert with 4+ years of experience, specialising in social media and influencer marketing. My mission is to produce high-quality content and use digital marketing initiatives to increase rankings, conversion, and click-through rates.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/milenafarber/

“I have listed my top scheduling tools for Instagram below.”

  • Later – “Later is an easy-to-use platform. It’s simple: Drag any media (image or video) from your library into the calendar. You can write a caption, tag other social media accounts (more than one), geolocate the post, and much more. At Tonara, we always plan and schedule content using Later. We’re managing 6 Instagram accounts from the platform and the experience has been amazing! The ‘Saved Captions’ feature works really well, especially for us to save branded hashtags such as #Tonara, #TonaraConnect, and #TonaraStudio. We love the fact that we’re able to add a linkin.bio. It has been extremely helpful in ensuring our audience is able to simply find the information that they need when they see one of our Instagram posts. I can’t not mention the “Thumbnail cover” feature when posting videos and the “Add First Comment” feature too.”

  • Creator Studio – “It’s FREE. Creator Studio is an absolute lifesaver! It saves so much time, and I don’t have to worry about manually posting to Instagram every day. You can connect as many Instagram accounts as you need and you can schedule a feed post (image and video) and IGTV. Once you create a post from Creator Studio, you can upload a file from your computer or from your Facebook Page (if connected).”

Julie Sealey & Sophie Cameron
Social media advertising specialists and co-owners of “Nutshell.” Helping ecomm brands scale through cracking advertising campaigns.
http://www.nutshellservices.co.uk
  • Later – “Between us, we’ve worked with lots of schedulers and whilst none are perfect, as business owners, Later ticks a lot of the boxes and is what we use for Nutshell. Much like Instagram itself, the emphasis is on the visual. Most other schedulers will have you start with the message and attach the picture but Later starts with the visual. You can upload unlimited photos/videos to the media library and easily keep track of which have been used. We love the visual planner where you can drag and drop your posts to see how they fit with the wider aesthetic of the grid. You can schedule your posts and stories (push notifications for stories) and whilst it’s centered around Instagram, you can also manage Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest from the same dashboard. It lacks the social listening features that other platforms offer and the analytics are a little basic but what it does do, it does well. It’s simple and reliable and the paid for packages are great value for money.”

  • Creator Studio – “We often recommend this, as the native scheduler for Instagram and Facebook it’s a great (free) content hub for uploading, scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and tracking your content…and it avoids any API issues. Great for video and as it’s hosted in your Facebook account, it saves the need for yet another App. You can schedule posts and IGTV at present. Overall it’s a stripped-back content management tool, popular with both business owners and social media managers.”

  • Agorapulse – “In terms of managing multiple platforms for a number of clients, Agorapulse is our winner. We can’t find many flaws in it tbh. It’s pretty intuitive and keeps things nice and tidy. The shared calendar feature is a winner in terms of collaborating with clients – you can give them a login to view scheduled and published content and to send content approvals. The analytics also won us over.”

“If your focus is primarily on Instagram and you’re looking for a reliable scheduler – keep it simple and stick to Later.

If you have a bit more money in the pot and need a solution for multiple channels, accounts and collaborations then we’d recommend checking out Agorapulse.”

Ashley Mason
Ashley Mason is a marketing consultant and the founder of the Massachusetts-based marketing firm Dash of Social, specializing in social media, marketing strategy, SEO, and content marketing. Working closely with their clients, Ashley and her team help small business owners and entrepreneurs craft and execute value-driven marketing strategies designed to establish thought leadership, grow online communities, and build connections and leads.
http://www.dashofsocial.com
  • SmarterQueue – “SmarterQueue has been an amazing Instagram scheduling tool for both myself and my team as we schedule our clients’ Instagram content. The platform has some awesome features, such as analytics, feed preview, category organization, and more. Their support team is also stellar, which I think is equally important as the features the platform offers.

    They also very recently released auto-publishing for Instagram with the option to leave the first comment for hashtags, which has already saved my team SO much time!”

Alexis Davis
Alexis Davis is a connector, speaker, and social media educator. She is the Founder and CEO of The Content Plug, a social media management firm dedicated to helping small businesses, start-ups, and non-profit organizations boost their online presence and grow their businesses through social media.
http://thecontentplug.com
  • Planoly – “My favorite scheduling tool for Instagram is Planoly. The tool is super handy for managing multiple Instagram accounts from your phone (it has a free app for iPhone and Android) and from desktop.

    Planoly gives its users the ability to automatically post Instagram content so social media users and managers can schedule content in advance and have it post at a future date and time.

    Additional features include Instagram Story scheduling, analytics, hashtag organization (which removes the need for storing hashtags in multiple places), content management, and the ability to loop in other users for quick content approval.

    We also love that Planoly is based in our hometown of Austin, Texas and is a woman-led business!”

Kumba Dauda
Kumba Dauda Is the Founder of Digital Marketing Agency Wholehearted Social, the Award-Winning Blogger Behind Kumbear Xo and Contributing Author of Female Empowerment Book, She Is Unstoppable.
http://www.wholeheartedsocial.com
  • Sprout Social – “Our go-to scheduling software is Sprout Social and we can’t recommend it enough. Its slick design and easy to navigate platform makes scheduling a quick and pain free process.

    One of our favourite things about this platform is its advanced analytics feature. You can get all the info you need in just one page – audience growth, message volume, top-performing Instagram posts, audience demographics, hashtag performance and much more.

    Its cross-network performance feature allows you to compare impressions, engagements and post link clicks across your various social media channels and makes pulling all of this data into a PDF super easy – great for sending client reports at the end of the month.

    Sprout Social consistently reads the data and changes according to how your profiles are performing. For example, when you’re scheduling it will give you the optimum times to post for that channel on that day of the week – this is constantly changing depending on how your audience is reacting.

    They have exceptional customer service with an online chat feature that we can’t fault. Any issues that arise are rectified swiftly.

    We’ve tried many scheduling softwares over the years but for us, Sprout Social definitely comes up on top.”

Corey Walker
Corey Walker, President of The Marketing Specialist, is a social media strategist with over 20 years of experience in marketing. She has worked with numerous small businesses, and the corporate marketing departments of Educaid, CampusEngine.com, VSP, Eyefinity, and Dignity Health. She is also the co-author of Instagram for Business for Dummies, and Instagram for Dummies.
http://www.themarketingspecialist.com

“If you are focusing mostly on Instagram, there are two that I like that specialize in Instagram, and aren’t super expensive: Later and Planoly.”

  • Later – “Later is a nice tool as it allows you to schedule Instagram posts, retain a media library that you can pull from whenever you want, and comment on posts within the tool. They also have analytics that shows you information on followers, impressions, reach, and best-performing Instagram posts to better inform your future posts. You can also enter a hashtag to search for other user-generated content for ideas about what others in your industry are publishing, AND they will give you ideas for other hashtags to use. Finally, they offer Linkinbio, which is their tool to allow you to post multiple links on your Instagram bio (normally you can have only one link.) It does allow you to post or schedule posts to Facebook, TikTok or Pinterest as well. If you only use those platforms, it can be a one-stop-shop for you.”

  • Planoly – “Planoly has very similar features to Later in terms of scheduling, analytics, user-generated content, and hashtag suggestions. They do not offer a tool like Linkinbio. However, they do offer some capabilities to add a shop to your Instagram profile. Planoly posts to Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. They do not currently have access to TikTok.”

“There are some minor differences between these two schedulers, but if Instagram is your focus, you can’t go wrong with either one!”

Maria Dykstra
Maria Dykstra co-founded TreDigital after a 14-year Microsoft career. TreDigital is now an award-winning marketing agency with clients on 4 continents. Maria is named a Top Social Media Influencer who is frequently featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and other top media.
http://www.tredigital.com

“Most of the Instagram scheduling tools have the same basic scheduling, analytics, and hashtag-recommendation functionality. Therefore, when selecting a scheduling tool, I look for something “extra”. These 3 tools are the go-to-tools:”

  • Onlypult – “Onlypult is one of the few (if not the only tool) that allows scheduling of stories and carousel posts. Make your stories more engaging by adding questions/polls/tagging others. Scheduling stories via desktop is a must-have if you do a lot of video editing. Onlypult also makes loading of large-size videos a lot more user-friendly (many other schedulers require you to load videos to Dropbox first). If you want to compare the performance of your feed post vs. story, you can do it in a streamlined insights view. While it does have a number of advanced features, Onlypult is still quite simple and cost-efficient for beginners.”

  • Tailwind – “Tailwind, the original Pinterest scheduler, recently added an Instagram scheduling option. My favorite feature is the smart-scheduling functionality: simply drag-and-drop your content into suggested time-slots based on the best times to post. Another noteworthy feature is ranking hashtags by relevance (niche, good, best, competitive). It helps you with choosing the best hashtags and avoiding the banned ones. Tailwind grid preview helps you see how your content will appear to the end-users: re-arrange the posts if you do not like the order. Note: You do need to connect your Instagram page to your Facebook profile for automatic scheduling.”

  • Creator Studio – “We’ve tested direct Facebook/Instagram scheduling vs. scheduling via 3-rd party apps. In 9 out of 10 cases, the same post performed better if scheduled directly (i.e. via Creator Studio). While it may not be feature-rich as other schedulers, Creator Studio does offer hashtag recommendations and the ability to cross-post to Facebook.”

Ylva Vitorovic
Social Media & Influencer Marketing Specialist, CEO at VIVA Communication & manager for the Swedish Foodblogger Award
https://www.instagram.com/zylva/

“When working for an international company with multiple social media accounts in different languages, it’s important to have a social media tool in order to be able to follow up results, getting insights, identify best practice cases, etc. That said, I always felt that the best way to interact with your Instagram community (like commenting on followers’ photos, getting Stories reposts and @mentions, video chat, etc) and being able to access all the features (like Stories stickers, GIFs, shoppable links, Story poll results, Spotify integration, etc) on this mobile application, is to use it natively on your mobile phone. Scheduling Instagram posts through a third-party platform creates a sort of filter or distance between you and your followers, as you’re not there when posting. And it’s the same thing with community management and the interaction with your audience. These limitations are, of course, due to the Instagram API that the third-party platforms are having to use. The only thing you can’t do on Instagram, however, is to schedule. And speaking of third-party platforms, here are two that I like.”

  • Iconosquare – “Iconosquare is the scheduling tool that feels closest to the mobile Instagram experience, especially as they have now opened up for scheduling video posts and stories as well. They also have a smart tool for knowing when to post, making sure that your Instagram posts reach the right people at the right time based on geolocation, user tagging, etc.”

  • Hootsuite – “Hootsuite’s one of the world’s most widely used social media management platforms with over 18 million users. Their customer success team, helpdesk and insightful blog posts are all very helpful. Their content pool is great for big companies with multiple accounts in different markets.”

Ashleigh Watson
Owner of Copper Square, Ashleigh specialises in social media strategy and content creation for business. She is the host of Social Media Savvy and an experienced social media marketer.
https://www.instagram.com/coppersquare/

“It makes sense to want to schedule Instagram posts in advance. Not only does it save you time, it also means that you are thinking about your content and planning your message and image in advance so it will have purpose.

A scheduling tool is helpful in many ways and not least because consistent, high-quality content is easier to plan, create and share when the process is automated.

My first tip however is to check the type of Instagram account you have; depending on what you do, you can choose between an Instagram Creator Profile and an Instagram Business Profile, so check which is right for you.”

  • Creator Studio – “With so many scheduling tools to choose from it can be overwhelming to chose one, but I find that Creator Studio from Facebook is a great tool with easy-to-use features and best of all for a small business owner – is is free to use!

    Once you connect your Instagram to Creator Studio you can plan, create and schedule your content – including scheduling to IGTV too!

    You can upload videos, photographs and use the carousel feature to create and schedule content. You can include your location, tag others and you can crop images if needed. There is an easy-to-use drop-down to choose the date and time to schedule your IG post.

    Creator Studio is easy to use, it will save a heap of time and if you are a start-up business, solopreneur or small business then the fact that Creator Studio is free to use is sure to appeal! Creator Studio is a great scheduling tool to plan your content, post consistently and engage and grow your business on Instagram.

    Creator Studio gives you fairly basic insights though, but you will see your engagement figures and clicks to website stats.”

Mary Pendleton
Mary Pendleton is an Instagram Expert specializing in growth for purpose-driven brands. She's a self-proclaimed chillpreneur and loves helping brands build relationships on Instagram that further their business goals.
http://marypendletonsocial.com
  • Planoly – “This well-designed scheduling tool is a game-changer for my social media management business! While it has many of the basic features that most planning apps have (like auto-posting), Planoly is a step-up for anyone who wants to maintain an on-brand aesthetic. Their drag-and-drop feature lets you rearrange Instagram posts until everything looks just right. Another Planoly feature that seals the deal for me is their sticky-notes tool. You can add notes to the calendar, creating a content guide for yourself as you plan the month in advance. I use recurring notes, to ensure I cover all of my content pillars equally throughout the month. They really keep my content calendar consistent!

    Another essential feature of Planoly is their equally strong phone and desktop versions. I personally prefer the desktop version, but the phone app is great too! Speaking of the desktop version – it’s dreamy for using their analytics tab. You can filter metrics by date, compare stats to the prior month, and filter top Instagram posts by reach, likes, comments, etc. I use these analytics in monthly reports for my clients and it helps us in making decisions for future content.”

  • Preview – “Preview has really raised the bar when it comes to responding to user-requests. Aside from drag-and-drop design features and stellar in-app filters, I love their caption suggestions and in-app hashtag recommendations! It’s a one-stop shop, and great for folks just getting started on Instagram. The one hang up: they don’t do auto-posting, so you have to set up a push-notification, and then post manually on your own. As someone who manages 10+ Instagram accounts, this is a deal-breaker for me. But I still give the app lots of love when recommending tools to new IG users. Plus their IG account is super educational and fun (@thepreviewapp).”

Sarah Morgan
Sarah Morgan is an Emmy award-winning digital strategist with over 20 years of experience creating online, designing, and selling online. She teaches budding entrepreneurs to simplify their marketing strategies, show up with confidence, and grow their businesses without indecision and overwhelm slowing them down.
http://xosarah.com

“I don’t know about you, but waking up at 5am to share an Instagram post doesn’t fit into my solopreneur schedule. Planning Instagram posts in advance has been KEY in my ability to show up on social media consistently but I can only make it happen when I schedule my content in advance.”

  • Planoly – “Planoly allows you to create a stockpile of graphics and photos which makes planning an eye-catching grid easier than guessing what to share one post at a time. You can create carousels, upload videos, and even plan out Stories in advance. This means you can create all of your Instagram posts in one day and spend the rest of your week focused on engagement and connecting with your audience.

    Plus they’re always adding and updating features to keep up with the ever-changing algorithm so you can show up consistently no matter what Instagram comes up with next.”

David Dennison
As an expert in the digital world, I believe social media is an essential piece to every brand’s marketing plan!
http://daviddennison.com
  • Inssist – “Inssist is an awesome tool for Instagram scheduling and management. The pro version is only $7.99 and has features such as analytics, scheduling, profile audits, direct messages, carousel scheduling, the ability to download users’ stories, and a hashtag assistant to help you find the best hashtags! The biggest and most useful feature of this tool is that it emulates a mobile version of IG, so it lets you post stories and reels directly from the web browser! Furthermore, it’s a simple chrome extension!”

    Inssist IG tool

  • Preview – “This tool is amazing if you only have one instagram account to manage. It costs $149.99/year so it’s super friendly for small businesses! This tool also allows you to schedule Instagram posts, save hashtags for future use, includes analytics, access to over 500,000+ copyright free images, the ability to drag and drop your posts to design your feed, and the ability to regram other users’ photos and videos!”

  • Buffer – “Buffer is awesome because it also includes publishing features, along with in-depth analytics capabilities. The analytics will allow you to set what day and time slots are best for your IG performance. You then add your posts to the queue and they are automatically put into those pre-determined slots! One of the most useful features of Buffer is that it lets you put your hashtags in the first comment of the post, rather than inside the caption. Lastly, it has an engagement section where you can see all the latest comments from your audience members. It also keeps track of what comments you have responded to and which ones you haven’t! The price ranges from $15/mo for publishing and $45/mo for publishing and analytics. Definitely a must-have!”

Josh Klemons
Klemons is a Digital Storyteller/Strategist, helping brands of all shapes and sizes find, hone and tell their stories online. He's worked with political campaigns, non-profits, solopreneurs, Fortune 500 companies and everything between. He writes, trains and consults regularly on ways brands can reach, engage and expand their audiences online.
http://joshklemons.com
  • Publer – “I started using this fun little publishing tool last year after discovering it through AppSumo and I’m hooked! I love how clean and simple it is, while also packing such a powerful punch. I can create posts for numerous channels, including Instagram, all at once and then edit by platform thus ensuring my content is optimized for each channel. There are no broken handles on my social channels! They provide analytics, enable bulk uploading, allow for easy reposting of old content and a whole lot more. But its true strength is its simple interface which allows you to create and optimize content for all your channels at once, unlike most of its bigger-name competitors in the space which require separate posts for each platform.”

  • Creator Studio – “Until recently, there were very few ways to post to Instagram from a desktop, much less to schedule content in advance. Instagram recently opened up their API, allowing third-party tools to get in on the fun. But before that, Facebook added the ability to post to Instagram on desktop straight from their Creator Studio. It’s not the prettiest interface, but it gets the job done. You can post and schedule Instagram content right from your Facebook account. You can even pull content from your Facebook page to post to your Instagram account. A good option for those looking to keep their third-party tools to a minimum.”

Natalie Eminae
Having founded OCOCO Media in 2012, Natalie Eminae works with clients across a diverse range of industries to deliver successful social media campaigns and effective digital marketing strategies. She provides specialist social media marketing support to organisations of all sizes and sectors throughout the UK and Europe.
https://ococomedia.co.uk/
  • Hootsuite – “Hootsuite is the scheduling system we use day-to-day in the OCOCO Media office, as it’s packed with features, regularly updated, and perfect for managing multiple campaigns/platforms.

    For Instagram, both Stories and posts can be scheduled, and the analytics available enables users to take a much deeper dive into their performance on the network. Strategy development is a core part of the work we do, and having detailed, live performance reporting at your fingertips means that much more responsive campaigns can be run.

    You’re able to view everything you need at a dashboard glance, and knowledge is power when it comes to maximising every social media opportunity.”

  • Buffer – “For those looking for a simpler interface, we’d recommend Buffer. That said, it’s by no means basic and the level of attention paid to addressing Insta-specific challenges is impressive.

    I’m a particular fan of Buffer’s Hashtag Manager feature, making it easy to store and retrieve sets of hashtags on their system. This is perfect for speedy scheduling, and simplifies testing, so you’re able to continuously improve your performance and reach. The best part? You can choose to include your hashtags in the caption text, or in a first comment that goes live when your post does.

    Buffer also offers a clever Shop Grid option, helping to solve “link in bio” dilemmas once and for all. Shop Grid recreates your Instagram grid, but with added hyperlinks, improving traffic flow to your website, and enabling you to direct individual Instagram posts to specific URLs.

    All of the above is in addition to creating and scheduling stories and posts, accessing improved analytics and even setting up internal approval systems.”

Claire Stevens
Social media manager and consultant turned agency owner; I am passionate about helping businesses improve their brand presence and grow online! Whether it's Instagram content or a Facebook Ads strategy, I create a professional feed, drive awareness and foster leads for all of my clients.
http://www.crunchysocial.com.au
  • Creator Studio – “Creator Studio is my preferred scheduling tool to use, and best of all, it’s completely free! You don’t need to connect it to your Instagram account via a third-party app, so accessing it is as easy as going through the Publishing Tools tab on the left side of your connected Facebook page. Creator Studio allows you to schedule Instagram posts and videos in advance, while some competitors have limitations on posting videos to Instagram on their free subscriptions. The other perks of this platform include the ability to see the results of your past posts, manage your comments and DMs and add relevant or popular hashtags into your captions.”

  • Later – “My second favourite scheduling platform is Later App. Its super easy to use interface makes it perfect for seeing your content in a month-by-month calendar. You’re also able to view your Instagram feed layout which is great if you’re making a curated feed. With inbuilt analytics and the ability to add a first comment on the competitively price paid version, one thing to keep an eye on with Later is that it can occasionally disconnect from your Instagram account. This means you’ll need to go into the settings and reconnect the platform to continue being able to share your Instagram posts. Otherwise, Later is simple to use and will be a saviour when it comes to planning your content in advance.”

Mimi Banks
Founder of MB Social, a boutique social media agency supporting brands, businesses, entrepreneurs in beauty, fashion, luxury, lifestyle and tech on all things social.
http://www.mimibsocial.com

“What you need: The key to what we look for is automation and a direct API to Instagram vs a reminder to schedule.”

  • Sprout Social – “Sprout Social allows us to schedule in bulk, add hashtags in the first comment and do it directly inside the platform. You can select the time you want or the optimal time which will post based on your audience. You also see a preview of what the post will look like which acts as a safety guard to triple-check your work, avoid typos and ensure you scheduled the content at the right time.”

Stephanie Riel
Stephanie Riel is a brand strategist and marketing consultant and the founder of RielDeal Marketing. Since starting RielDeal Marketing as a side hustle in college, I have spent more than a decade supporting everyone from small businesses to Fortune 10 companies in the e-commerce, health and wellness, technology, real estate, fitness, beauty and retail industries - attract and convert the customers they want.
http://www.rieldealmarketing.com
  • Later – “Later is one of the best Instagram scheduling tools I’ve ever worked with. Not only do they have a robust content scheduler for both Instagram In-Feed and Instagram Story content, but their analytics reporting is full of great metrics for business owners and brands to track. Later’s analytics features are also really intuitive to run through. This tool makes collaboration with various stakeholders easy. The tool also flags image files that have been used before – so you don’t post the same visual twice. Part of their paid application is their Linkin.bio feature for your Instagram profile – which makes it easy to update profile links. You can also track conversations and find user-generated content by hashtag for easy sharing. It’s great Later covers the function of so many different apps in one. We use this Instagram scheduling tool to manage our agency accounts and manage our client accounts, too. But it’s versatile enough to help a startup business, too!”

Chelsea Warren
I'm a social media strategist for Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG). I’ve spent most of my career in agencies, so I've done social strategy for a large swath of companies ranging from international OEMs to mom and pop restaurants. When I’m not working, you can usually find me camping or cycling.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-warren-02188017/
  • Creator Studio – “No Fuss, No Frills, No Funds Required

    Cost: Free

    Ideal User: Small Businesses, Social Media Newbies

    Facebook’s Creator Studio is an AWESOME option if you’re looking for a free, user-friendly way to post on social media. You can do posts for Instagram and Facebook. The platform lets you post things live or schedule them in advance. And you can do multiple kinds of Instagram posts, including feed posts, videos, IGTV, Story posts and more – all in one location. This platform is a great starter option for small businesses, organizations with only one marketing person and companies that want to get started posting on social media while researching more robust scheduling options.”

  • Sprout Social – “All The Bells and Whistles

    Cost: Ranges from $99-$249+/month

    Ideal User: Anyone Who Can Afford It

    This platform offers an exceptional Instagram scheduling experience. You can crop/make minor adjustments to the assets; you can assign teammates to varied levels of posting permissions to ensure that every post is reviewed and approved before it goes out; every post can be tagged for reporting purposes … and the list goes on!

    But social media marketing is so much more than just scheduling posts and Sprout Social represents a gold standard in these other areas as well. The platform’s reporting, listening and community management tools enable organizations to effectively interact with their audiences, take advantage of trends and gauge if their marketing efforts are truly helping them accomplish their business objectives. This platform is ideal for anyone who uses data to drive their business decisions, organizations with lots of marketing channels to monitor, companies with large social teams and anyone who wants an edge over their competition by having the best tools at their disposal.”

Dana Brigance
Community Manager at Sparkloft Media
http://sparkloftmedia.com
  • Sprout Social – “Sprout is the most collaborative tool for any social media work, especially scheduling. If you want to have a few sets of eyes on IG content before it goes out, this is the best Instagram scheduler to use. Conversations over content happen in-app, and allow for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to what’s being published and why certain notes were made. The platform is also incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate.”

  • Creator Studio – “Connecting your brand’s Instagram account to Facebook Business allows for everything to be consolidated across two of the big three platforms. While it’s not as seamless as Sprout, it still provides a nice overview of all content (scheduled, published, drafts) and a fairly easy user experience.”

Julia Babicheva
Julia is a Social Media Marketing Professional with over two years of experience in organic & paid social media marketing, community management and copywriting in the entertainment and tech industries.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/juliababicheva/
  • HubSpot – “In this day and age, there are plenty of software/platforms that focus solely on social media content scheduling, monitoring etc. The one platform I’ve been using and want to recommend (and am a big fan of) is not necessarily a social media scheduling tool, but rather a marketing software – HubSpot. It is an Inbound marketing, sales and customer service hub where all your efforts are consolidated in one place. Going back to the topic of this survey, HubSpot also offers a social media content scheduling tool – including Instagram. What I love about it is that it is easy to use, you can schedule, monitor and analyze content not only by itself, but also see how it relates/affects other marketing and sales efforts across your digital channels. However, it is a pricey software and wouldn’t make sense to use for many businesses. My recommendation is based on experience working with mostly marketing agencies that extensively use HubSpot.”

Corrie Jones
Corrie is the founder of Untapped Digital, the London-based social media agency for ambitious brands. Since its launch in 2016, Untapped has worked on content, strategy and advertising with clients around the world including Virgin Startup, NatWest, Kawasaki Engines and Omaze.
http://www.untappeddigital.co
  • Planable – “We use Planable for scheduling content for our clients and it’s a lifesaver. Especially useful if you’re planning content between multiple people because you can have one dashboard with multiple logins. You can upload Stories and feed posts, and other members of your team can ‘approve’ the content to go live or add comments with feedback.”

  • Later – “Undeniably great and a big leader in the space. As well as having all the features you’d expect from an Instagram scheduling tool, Later also has a brilliant blog full of social media tips. Would definitely recommend following them on Instagram to stay up to date with trends, tips, and best practices on the channel.”

Jenn Wayboer
Jenn Wayboer is a Denver, Colorado based Marketing Director and social media virtuoso. She has worked across many industries and is passionate about helping small businesses thrive online. Currently she is a sales coach and the marketing director for Just The Tips Coaching.
https://www.facebook.com/jenn.wayboer
  • Creator Studio – “It may seem a little crazy, but I can’t recommend Facebook Business Manager (Creator Studio) enough. I have tried lots of scheduling tools and Facebook has done a lot of work on Business Manager recently. Plus, there is a lot to be said about using tools that are already built into the platform. Not only can I schedule my, and my clients’, Instagram posts via Business Manager, but I can schedule them to Facebook at the same time. I can create separate captions for Facebook versus Instagram, which is great if I want to include a link on Facebook since I obviously don’t want that on Instagram.

    On top of that, I can see a list of my scheduled Instagram posts, check out what my grid is looking like, and check out the analytics on recent postings. We all know Facebook wants us to use their tools, so there is no risk of it negatively affecting your page’s edge rank; in fact, it’s more likely to boost it. It’s quick to use, already built-in, and allows everyone that has access to the page access to what has already been scheduled. There is of course the added bonus that it is free.”

Steve Hubbard
Dify Social’s Steve Hubbard is a Monash University Master of Marketing (MMktg) alumni and an Australian Marketing Institute Certified Practicing Marketer (CPM). Steve is regarded as arguably Australia’s best local social media marketer having provided social media marketing & management services for 350+ businesses and enterprises since 2012.
https://difysocial.com.au/
  • Hootsuite – “Dify Social has been using the Hootsuite social media management scheduling platform for it’s own posts and that of our Australian small business clients for almost a decade.

    The basic free plan is perfectly adequate for small business owners with capacity to add three social media channels.

    We typically add the LinkedIn company page, Facebook page and business Instagram account. We also use IFTTT so that Instagram posts are also sent through to Twitter.

    In the main, we post daily or every second day for our clients and whilst other (paid) professional plans enable ‘auto scheduling’ we simply use a common sense approach i.e. post before work (9am), lunchtime (12-2pm) and or after work (before 6.30pm).

    Hootsuite’s support is available to all plans and they provide considerable resources via the blog etc. I’ve tried other platforms, but am somewhat ‘rusted on’ to the owl!”

Georgia Paterakis
Georgia is an experienced social media strategist and digital marketing professional based in Melbourne, Australia. She is the founder of boutique agency Citrine Social, helping small business clients navigate the complex world of social media and digital communications.
http://www.citrinesocial.com.au

“If you’re not scheduling your Instagram content…you should be!

Planning your content in advance will not only save you time, it will assist with planning the visual layout of your feed and automatically send Instagram posts live at optimized times.

Here are my favourite scheduling tools:”

  • Planoly – “This is the holy grail of Instagram schedulers in my eyes. Not only can you visually plan your feed, my favourite feature is the ability to save multiple hashtag sets, aligned with your brand content pillars. You can add hashtags into your post copy, or as the first comment of the posts. PLUS, you can schedule Instagram stories – lifesaver!

    Other features include a calendar view of past, unscheduled and scheduled posts, in-depth analytics (well, more in-depth than Instagram provides), and both desktop and mobile app platforms. Like many platforms, the free version has basic functionality, but for additional features like auto-posting to Twitter and Facebook and adding the first comment, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription.”

  • Sprout Social – “Sprout is great for anyone managing multiple Instagram accounts. It makes my list due to the monitoring capacity of the platform and how easy it is to view and complete community management of comments and DMs. It also has scheduling functionality for Instagram although features are limited and UX can be clunky.”

  • Business Suite and Creator Studio – “Not my all-time fave, but these free Facebook products are available on both desktop and mobile app. They allow you to draft and schedule content on Instagram feed and IGTV via the mobile Business Suite app or desktop Creator Studio platform. Unfortunately, you cannot schedule Instagram stories via this platform just yet.”

Sveta Odaryuk
Sveta was inspired to start SO Social Media after seven years of experience in social media marketing and her own work with life coaches. She specialises in helping startups & SMEs win time back into their business by coaching them to spend as little time as possible on social media to get the most effective results.
http://www.instagram.com/creation_of_so/
  • Sked Social – “This tool provides a truly #stressfree social media scheduling experience! It has a feature that few other platforms do; the ability to auto-post Instagram images, videos, carousel posts and stories, which saves you so much time! I recommend the Fundamentals plan for £19/month which provides a variety of useful in-depth analytics, unlike any other scheduling platform I have seen for that price. It comes with a really user-friendly Instagram visual grid planner, handy chat feature if you need to reach out with a question, which is often answered in under 10 minutes and is great for adding your other social media platforms to schedule for. If you’re a little more advanced I would recommend the Essentials plans for £57/month which includes the ability to do really good competitor reporting, which is still cheaper than other platforms that have this feature and you can add more than 3 profiles as well as create a media library to manage your content.”

  • Later – “If you’re on a budget I would recommend their Growth option which is $25/month and allows auto-posting of images and videos, in-depth analytics and the Conversations feature that’s great for keeping track of all your comments, messages and mentions on the desktop version of Instagram. This tool does also have a drag and drop visual grid, media library, helpful chat and Tik Tok video scheduling.”

  • TailWind – “One of the best tools for those just starting out with Instagram scheduling. Their free version allows you to use the geo and profile tagging features, shows you helpful hashtag suggestions, caption templates and post prompts. Just as with the above tools, you can autopost photos and videos, have some basic analytics, make use of a chat feature and have the ability to schedule the first comment to include your hashtags too. There is a visual grid planner, but it is not as user-friendly as the above tools and you can schedule Stories but they will not be autoposted – you will get a mobile app notification when the post needs to be published.”

Alex Jones
Helping businesses reach and attract new customers through Facebook and IG Ads, content creation and social media management.
http://www.instagram.com/ajsocialmediauk
  • Later – “The social media manager’s best friend! I love Later because it allows me to visually see how my Instagram profile grid looks and feels with the “preview” feature. I love how I can schedule posts across Facebook and Instagram and edit them individually unlike some scheduling tools.

    You have access (with the paid version) to an unlimited bank of stock images via Unsplash, as well as saved captions and hashtag suggestions. The analytics are also great and gives you an easy breakdown of metrics to see how your content is performing.

    You can schedule stories as well, which is a game changer! I also really love the training they provide as well as blogs and articles to help you develop your knowledge and keep up to date on social media breaking news and trending topics.

    Prices start from around $19 a month but I feel it’s worth it!”

Andrew Maffettone
Andrew is a digital marketing expert with over 15 years of experience and is the Founder of BlueTuskr, a full-service digital marketing company for e-commerce sellers.
https://bluetuskr.com/
  • Sprout Social – “This tends to be the more obvious answer for agencies, but we’ve found it can be an incredibly useful tool for companies who have an in-house social media team as well. There are A LOT of features and for Instagram scheduling, it’s very easy to schedule all types of Instagram posts like videos, carousels, etc. as well as do all of your social listening in one place.”

  • HubSpot – “This may be the least liked option listed because HubSpot doesn’t currently have the functionality to post carousels, stories, or tag anything. So, it may not be the most ideal for some social media managers. BUT, HubSpot has the ability to tag posts in certain campaigns you’re running so you can see how much business your Instagram may actually be bringing you or at least influencing. For smaller businesses, when conversions are everything, this tool can really help bring your Instagram game together with the rest of your marketing.”

Chelsea Flower
Chelsea is the Owner of Scott Social, a boutique social media marketing agency in Phoenix, Arizona. Scott Social elevates and streamlines the social media and email marketing process of women-owned businesses, from beautiful content creation to heart-to-heart community management and everything in between.
https://scottsocial.marketing/
  • Sprout Social – “I have used Sprout Social for 2 years and am just as excited about the platform now as I was when I first discovered it. The functionality of their automatic posting feature for Instagram is incredible! I love the convenience of being able to tag a location, tag accounts in the image, and have hashtags added in the second comment. I also love the detailed analytics reports that are automatically curated every month – and my clients love it too!

    For agencies or social media managers that wear a million and one hats, Sprout Social is your lifeline! Sprout Social is also great for scheduling to Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google My Business, as well as monitoring Google Analytics, Tripadvisor, and Glassdoor. I could not recommend Sprout Social enough!”

  • Planoly – “For social media managers or businesses that work exclusively with Instagram, Planoly should be your go-to, hands down. It is visually aesthetic, easy to use, and reliable. I love the ability to store hashtags, design a grid, and schedule all posts! Their drag and drop grid preview is out-of-this-world. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to their newsletter too. They are one of my main sources for updates in the social world!”

  • Gain – “Gain App is a lesser-known option, but a strong competitor in the Instagram scheduling world. Gain App is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and visually appealing. I have always loved Gain App for its ease of approval workflows and private client log-in capabilities. Plus, for freelancers who are getting their feet wet, Gain App is very cost-effective!”

Amy Checho
I’m Amy Checho the owner of Savvy Social! I have a background in public relations, marketing, and journalism. I have six years of experience working with lifestyle/consumer brands, non-profits, professional sports, and small business owners. I specialize in social media management, content creation, and paid social media advertising.
https://savvysocial.co/

“When it comes to scheduling content for Instagram there are so many options it can become overwhelming! Depending on your needs I recommend Planoly, Facebook Creator Studio, and The Preview App.”

  • Planoly – “Planoly is one of my favorite Instagram schedulers to use for my clients. One of the biggest reasons I trust Planoly is because it is an official Instagram partner so I’m not concerned about any Instagram accounts being flagged for using it. I want to make sure the platforms I’m using for my client’s accounts are approved by Facebook and Instagram since their Terms and Service are always being updated.

    Another great feature of Planoly is it allows you to plan out your Instagram grid before it goes live, you can drag and drop pictures, video, gifs and rearrange them in your desired grid. You can create draft folders of different content, create hashtag groups, and if you need your Instagram posts to be approved by a client or manager before they go live, Planoly offers a Share feature that creates a link to the scheduled content! Auto-scheduling is an option for videos and one-post images (you do have to manually post stories and carousels, but you can schedule them and receive an alert on your phone for that time!) Planoly also gives you the option to auto-share each post to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Another cool feature is being able to auto-post the first comment. This is useful for when you don’t want your hashtags to show up in your caption or want to share more about the post in that first comment. Also, if you need help managing comments, Planoly provides an easy-to-use social inbox, to efficiently respond to your community!

    From my research, I found that Planoly is also one of the more affordable scheduling tools especially if you are running more than one Instagram account. For those that only have one account, Planoly is free and includes basic analytics. For more than one Instagram account and advanced analytics, pricing starts at $7 a month. You can access Planoly both on its app for Android and Apple, as well as on your desktop.”

  • Creator Studio – “For those that might not need as many features, like planning out your Instagram grid beforehand, or if you post a lot of the same content on both Facebook and Instagram, then Facebook Creator Studio is a great option. Everyone with a Facebook page can access Creator Studio. For more information on how to access Creator Studio, check out Facebook’s FAQ.

    You’ll need to make sure your Facebook Page is connected to Instagram to use the scheduling tools, but it allows you to auto-post pictures and carousels; most scheduler tools do not allow auto-posting more than one picture to Instagram! You’ll have access to Instagram’s basic analytics, a content calendar, and Brand Collab Manager. For each post, you can add hashtags, a location, and pictures. Plus it is free to use! You can access Creator Studio on your desktop.”

  • Preview – “The Preview App is a newer scheduling tool, but I had a chance to use it for a year with a client and I loved the different features it offers. I would recommend Preview for someone who is super focused on creating an aesthetically pleasing Instagram grid and might not always know what to post! They offer multiple themed photo filter options that can create a gorgeous, influencer-worthy grid. They also offer similar features to Planoly like a content calendar, arranging your grid before posting, analytics, and scheduling posts. If you pay for the premium version, their caption finder offers thousands of caption ideas, quotes, suggestions, and more! Their hashtag finder is just as useful and contains handpicked hashtags based on different categories. Preview makes it effortless to plan your content quickly and in advance. They also offer the ability to add team members, another straightforward way to review Instagram posts before they go live.

    Preview is free for one user and basic features. For the Premium Version, which has the caption and hashtag finder, it is $12.50 a month and you’ll have access to the desktop version instead of only the app!”

“Whatever Instagram scheduling tool you go with remember Instagram will always be updating and changing what its third-party apps have access to and they might eventually allow us to schedule directly from their app one day!”

Sonia Rutter
Sonia has spent the last 20+ years in advertising and marketing, working with brands such as KitKat, Nikon and Weetabix. Specialising in Digital Marketing, Sonia now helps growing businesses get seen online, with social media, Facebook ads, Google ads and email marketing.
http://www.soniarutter.com

“So nothing beats posting on Instagram live. It’s the only way to post all formats (I’m talking Reels here, which are huge at the moment) and definitely know you are making that fussy algorithm happy. However, using an Instagram scheduler means you can batch create content, which saves time and plan your posts to be delivered when your audience is online.

So here are my favourites…”

  • Agorapulse – “This is my current scheduler of choice. It’s quite new to the market and allows you to post images, videos, stories and carousels to your Instagram. My favourite features on this are tagging, Hashtag management and listening abilities. Also the reporting is excellent and saves so much time.”

  • Planoly – “This is a great starter scheduler. It’s free/cheap, super easy to use and you can see exactly what your feed will look like. You can store hashtags, create placeholders for content and auto post the first comment. My only word of warning is when checking insights, as they aren’t always accurate in my experience.”

  • Creator Studio – “This scheduler sits inside the Facebook offering and allows you to manage your content across all your pages for free. It has an emphasis on video and allows you to schedule across your feed, Stories and IGTV. It’s a bit clunky and can be glitchy and the insights are fairly basic, but as it sits in the Facebook platform, I guess it’s the algorithms scheduler of choice.”

Victoria Harrison
Victoria Harrison is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Australian based Influencer Marketing agency, The Exposure Co. Victoria spends her days helping clients leverage the power of social media and working with influencers across a number of platforms including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
https://theexposure.co/
  • Planoly – “Planoly is the go-to scheduling tool if you are after a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed. Planning the visual elements of your Instagram can take time, but the drag and drop tool from Planoly is a visual lifesaver. As one of the few tools that allows users to plan and schedule Instagram stories, Planoly is doing an awesome job at sticking at the front of the pack.”

  • Hootsuite – “If you need to plan feeds for multiple social media channels, and are less concerned about the visual aspect of your feed, Hootsuite is your go-to. Its seamless integration between channels, as well as the advanced analytics, makes every social media manager’s dream a reality.”

Joshua Jamias
Social media and content marketer based in Utah focused on helping businesses thrive!
https://jamiascreative.com/
  • Later – “Later.com is at the top of my list for Instagram scheduling tools. It makes it easy to plan out and schedule Instagram posts ahead of time and allows you to see what future posts will look like in your feed. What I love most about Later as a marketing agency owner is the ability to share post previews with clients. This scheduling platform has a free option if you don’t have the budget to pay for a scheduling tool.”

  • Creator Studio – “Facebook Creator Studio is a free option provided by Facebook to plan out posts for both Facebook and Instagram. If you just want to use it to schedule Instagram posts, you’re welcome to do that as well. It’s not the most aesthetic out of all the scheduling tools available but it gets the job done.”

Brandon Baker
My name is Brandon Nicholas Baker but on Social Media I go by Sir Brandon Nicholas. My ability to connect with people and my love for all things fashion, food, and travel have allowed me to build a community of fun loving followers on instagram, youtube, facebook, Tik Tok, and even LinkedIn!
https://sirbrandonnicholas.org/
  • UNUM – “One of my favorite scheduling apps for Instagram would have to be UNUM! I am absolutely obsessed with their modern features. UNUM makes it super easy to schedule your content and format your feed in case you have a particular aesthetic you hope to maintain. Not to mention they have custom templates for Stories, story highlights, and more that help you to stand out in a rather saturated market/platform.”

  • Later – “I also enjoy scheduling content via Later! Later is an app that allows you to access and plan out your content via your iPhone or your desktop. This simple feature is incredibly useful because you can auto-schedule Instagram posts. Meaning you will be able to select the time and day that your content will be posted. Later saves tons of time and relieves posting anxiety. Not to mention you can also schedule your captions/copy and stories to post at the same time as your post. That way Instagram is more likely to push your post to more people (increasing engagement) because it will seem as if you’re engaging on “the gram” even though you may be preoccupied.

    As a scheduling app Later goes the extra mile! You can even auto-publish hashtags or tag people in your photos! Later is the perfect go-to scheduling app for any marketing professional or social media lover!”

Sam Snowden
Social Media Creative and Strategist with 10 years of B2C, B2B, FMCG and NFP experience.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelsnowden/
  • Creator Studio – “My preferred scheduling tool for Instagram is Creator Studio. It allows me to schedule, manage content, track performance and connect with our audiences. I find our Instagram content performs best using this tool as Facebook owns it. Previously when I’ve used other scheduling tools, our reach and engagements were significantly lower than posting in the app. Since switching to using Creator Studio, our engagement and reach have remained the same as when posting in the app.”

  • Sked Social – “Another favourite is Sked Social for me. I love the visual planner feature that allows you to curate your Instagram grid aesthetic. The tagging functionalities always work, and the planner is very user-friendly. This tool’s only downside is that Instagram posts published from it received 10 – 15% less engagement and reach for us than posting in the mobile Instagram app.”

Liz Parker
Liz Parker is a social media consultant and strategist, serving clients across multiple industries in both the paid and organic social space.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizmparker/
  • Sprout Social – “My go-to tool for Instagram scheduling (really for all social scheduling) is Sprout Social. Sprout makes it easy to schedule content and see it all from a bird’s eye view. Videos post directly from their tool, while multi-image posts, stories or reels can be sent directly to your phone with all the assets to post. Even better, Sprout is all-inclusive and includes reporting with their scheduling, making it easy to see how your content performs, which is essential for a successful social strategy. They also offer robust solutions for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and are growing out their support for Pinterest and a few others.”

  • Later – “For clients who need a visual link-in-profile solution, I suggest Later.com. Their linkin.bio integration makes it easy to add individual CTA’s to each post. If a client only needs a solution for Instagram, this is my go-to because it’s much more affordable as a single-platform option. While Later also offers scheduling for a few other platforms, their analytics are exclusive to Instagram.”

Karlyn Ankrom
Founder and lead strategist at Oh Snap! Social and creator of the Fan Firestarter Framework.
https://www.instagram.com/ohsnapsocialkarlyn/
  • Agorapulse – “My favorite tool for scheduling content for Instagram business accounts is AgoraPulse. It allows you to create content to automatically push out as well as the option for carousel posts and stories to be sent through push notifications to your mobile device to then publish in realtime. This platform also gives you the option to create hashtag bundles right in the tool so you no longer have to cobble your hashtags together day after day, you can build bundles ahead of time and use when relevant to your content. Finally, AgoraPulse gives you robust reporting metrics for Instagram business profiles as well as functionality I use monthly for my clients to track success and how our strategy is tracking with their goals for the quarter.”

Maria Gester
CMO at HappyPancake and marketing consultant
https://linkedin.com/in/mariagester
  • Buffer – “Easy to use and my personal favourite. I’ve used several Instagram publishing tools, but Buffer is the one I prefer. The only thing I miss is a bulk uploading feature. But there is a third-party app called BulkBuffer to use for that. Buffer also has a visual planning feature for stories and you can schedule your first comment which is really nice. In the paid plan you also have access to hashtag manager, publishing of stories, shop grid, and many more features.”

  • Hootsuite – “My second choice is Hootsuite, and I like this tool since you can schedule Instagram carousel posts and stories and also add streams for hashtags, your posts and scheduled posts. You can plan, schedule, review, and publish content directly to your Business Profile from both desktop and app. You can also monitor social conversations, bulk schedule content, and track post-performance. Like other tools, Hootsuite has a free plan, but I recommend using a paid plan depending on your needs.”

  • Later – “I haven’t used this tool as much as the other two, but I like the visual planner and features Later offers. With Later you can plan in calendar view and preview posts with the Instagram planner and bulk upload to save time. You can search for content by users, likes and hashtags and also repost them. In the free version, you can save captions for easy re-use which is a really nice feature. If you need features like a shoppable feed with links or be able to see the best times to post you need to get one of the paid plans.”

Sherihan Mandour
Sheri bid corporate life farewell 7 years ago, for a more flexible role as a social media & digital marketing consultant. She founded Digital Tulips to help small & medium-sized businesses grow & be found online. Her aim is to empower business owners to leverage online marketing to improve results.
https://digitaltulips.com/

“There are so many social media scheduling tools on the market nowadays all promising you better performance, analytics and ease of use. However, every person’s needs are different and it will depend on many factors to determine which scheduling tool is best for you and your business. So before cashing out on advanced management suites, you first need to figure out exactly what you need and what you don’t.

  • Are you looking for a free option or are you ready to pay?
  • What are the social media platforms you want to schedule too?
  • How many social media accounts do you have?
  • Do you need to plan your Instagram posts as well as schedule?
  • Will you need someone to authorise your posts before they are scheduled?
  • Do you need analytics and or reporting?
  • Are you looking to integrate it with third-party tools?
  • Do you want to manage and engage with your followers through the tool?

Most of the clients I work with are small and medium-sized businesses that have between 3 to 5 social media platforms they are managing. For this the 3 tools below are my favourite:”

  • Buffer – “I love buffer!

    • It is a very simple and extremely intuitive tool.
    • It is so easy and quick to publish multiple pieces (or the same content) across multiple platforms and adjust accordingly.
    • Buffer has a chrome extension that can help you share any piece of content from your browser.
    • It has a free option (3 platforms) but the real value is in their paid options which start from only $15/month for up to 8 platforms.
    • You have awesome analytics and in one click you can re-share a post you have previously posted.
    • They are always developing their tools and have recently added an Instagram engagement tab.”
  • Creator Studio – “This is a relatively new free tool by Facebook to help you schedule and manage your posts and stories across Facebook and Instagram. I have to admit the UX could be better, however for all the things you are getting for free it is definitely an excellent contender if you are only posting to Facebook and Instagram.

    • You can schedule and auto-publish multi-photos in Instagram posts which you can’t do on a lot of other third-party tools.
    • You can schedule IGTV
    • You have powerful analytics, especially for video content.
    • Anybody who has the right to manage the account can also add, delete and amend scheduled Instagram posts.”
  • Later – “This is a very popular tool especially for Instagram users due to the visual aspect of the tool. The platform has now expanded to service other social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

    • It’s easy to schedule and comment on your Instagram posts without leaving the tool.
    • Good analytics
    • Hashtag research is integrated into the tool, as well as curation.
    • Later’s visual calendar helps you keep track of your scheduled posts.”
Aycan Demirci
I am a social media specialist that loves all things data! I am all about numbers, performance and 0 jargon.
https://www.collusionagency.com/

“My 3 Tools…”

  • Creator Studio – “It’s seamless and rarely glitches so doesn’t leave you high and dry when you’ve scheduled really timely content over the weekend!”

  • Onlypult – “Allows you to schedule Instagram stories which is a lifesaver as it’s one of the few that don’t require you to have to be on your phone to schedule in this type of content.”

  • Falcon – “A great piece of software that allows easy sign off of Instagram content without the need for Google sheets! It’s easy to use and easy for the client to see your content mocked up rather than piecing together and visualising multiple spreadsheet columns!”

“Scheduling tools for social media can be amazing, as they allow you to create content ahead of time that you want to capitalise on, whether that’s a certain event, date in the calendar or the release of a new product. However, you can’t just create a month’s worth of content, upload it and think that’s your job done for the rest of the month! Social media is so much more than that, it’s a two-way communication stream between you and your fans. Scheduling social content should just be a supplementary tool that allows you to have more time throughout the month to be reactive to the external climate, whether that be jumping on a latest trend or commenting on something related to your brand. It is easy to think that because you have scheduled in some content your social media will thrive, but that simply won’t cut it.

I would say it’s powerful at saving time, to allow you to do more to grow your channel such as communicate with your audience, engage with followers, creating timely content and adapting to the climate, which this past year has taught us – is forever changing!”

Becs Bate
Social Media Consultant, training companies how to transform their social media to generate new business.
https://socialmediaexec.co.uk/

“There is no easy answer when it comes to choosing a scheduling tool for Instagram, because one size does not fit all. They all offer different functionalities. It depends on how you use the platform and what other social media channels you would like to schedule to.”

  • Creator Studio – “Personally I always recommend my clients to start with Facebook’s Creator Studio. It’s free to use, you can schedule to the Instagram feed or to IGTV, and simply click a button and schedule to it to Facebook too (although I would recommend editing the Facebook post to just include 2-3 hashtags rather than the 30 you’ve included for Instagram!). It’s simple, native to the platform and you can guarantee that Facebook will be adding more features in the future!”

  • Hootsuite – “But if you want to schedule to other platforms at the same time such as LinkedIn or Twitter. Then you might want to look at Hootsuite. It offers a whole host of other tools such as responding to comments in the app as well as the option to search for content to share.”

“I would suggest you sit down and make a list of what you want the scheduling tool to do eg schedule to IGTV, schedule stories, schedule in comments with your hashtags, create carousel posts. Think about your budget and what other platforms you want to cross-post to at the same time. Is detailed data important to you, do you want to be able to comment on Instagram posts within the scheduling tool?

Then do your research into the functions available from the various scheduling tools available that meet your business objectives.”

Amy Lainchbury
I run Tasty Comms, a social media consultancy working with clients across a variety of sectors via monthly management and 1:1/group training. I love the geeky side of social, and the power it has to grow brands.
http://www.tastycomms.co.uk
  • Agorapulse – “My favourite scheduling tool at the moment is Agorapulse. It’s a little pricier than some of the other options, but the reporting is second to none. If you or your clients need thorough, in-depth beautifully-presented reports in minutes (if that) then it’s the way to go. The customer service is also the best and fastest I’ve come across so far.

    It also has a Chrome extension that allows you to quickly schedule any image that’s on your screen. Great timesaver!”

  • Later – “This one lets you see your planned grid as you schedule Instagram posts which is really helpful, especially if you have a strict aesthetic that you want to stick to. I also like the easy integration with Dropbox and Google Drive.

    Later has a feature called Linkin.bio, which allows you to easily direct followers to various links that correspond to your posts, neatly getting around Instagram’s no live links policy (you can use Linkin.bio without using Later as a scheduler).”

  • Hootsuite – “It’s a little clunkier than the others, but I like the fact you can upload hundreds of Instagram posts in one go, and the separate feed and planner views are handy.”

Natalie Lasance
Natalie Lasance is a Digital Marketing and Social Media Consultant based in Melbourne, Australia. She works across a range of retail, fitness, design and lifestyle clients offering organic and paid social media, Google Ads and digital strategy.
http://www.natalielasance.net
  • Creator Studio – “For 99% of my clients, I use Facebook’s native publishing platform, Creator Studio. It’s simple, easy to use and it doesn’t cost a thing. If all you want to do is schedule Instagram posts, write captions and tag other users, it has everything you need.”

  • Later – “If you want something with added bells and whistles, Later is a great option if you’re willing to pay a small subscription fee. Later offers a visual planner, which is great for accounts who want to curate the look of their feed as a whole. It also has a suite of analytic tools that can be useful for some businesses. I like how easy it is to bulk upload multiple photos and then drag and drop them into a client’s feed to get a cohesive look.”

Isil Simsek
I help e-commerce businesses grow with high performing Facebook and Instagram ads.
https://www.socialthyme.co.uk/
  • Later – “Later is my favourite Instagram scheduling tool. It’s super intuitive and although I try new tools from time to time I keep coming back to Later. I like being able to visually plan my content. With Later you can drop your content in the planner and drag them around to see how the grid will look and make changes if necessary. I also prefer my hashtags to be in the first comment. This can also be done with Later.”

Taylor Wright
Taylor is a senior marketer having worked with a variety of brands such as Expedia Group, Coles, Tourism Japan, Indeed and TikTok. Taylor’s key practice areas include creative digital marketing specialising in social media, content, paid advertising, communications and influencer marketing to deliver innovative social media strategies that drive meaningful conversations and build brand awareness.
https://www.socialmedium.com.au/
  • Sked Social – “Sked Social is my most recommended tool for any social media manager because it has functionality that most tools don’t have. It not only allows you to visually plan your feed, but you can automatically publish posts of ALL types including Instagram Stories and Reels. In addition, you can get all your reporting done directly within the platform allowing you to analyse and learn from every post.”

  • Plann – “If you’ve ever looked at a beautiful Instagram feed and felt the jealousy wash over you, Plann is here to change that. Plann helps you map out your content in the most aesthetically pleasing way, schedule it with auto-posting and is backed by a team who is constantly offering training, support and guidance to hone in on your social media skills. Now that is a rare thing to come by.”

Amanda McLernon
Amanda McLernon is CEO and Founder of McLernon & Co., a social media agency and Keep Social Media, a social media community. Recognized as one of the MARsum Top 100 Influencers in Advertising and Marketing, Amanda’s agency is known for their campaigns in the consumer package goods industry. (They are the agency who launched and grew Tru Fru’s social media dominance!)
http://mclernonandco.com

“I recommend two platforms for scheduling on Instagram:

  • Publishing Directly to Instagram
  • Sprout Social

I am still a huge fan of NOT using a scheduling tool and publishing directly to Instagram. Why?

1. It allows for more control with tagging – location tags, mentions and photo tags are easier to access when posting on the platform. These tags are a key part of our tactical strategy for social and we frequently use them. Whenever we’ve tried to tag through other tools we find that the tags drop or simply aren’t available. That means we have to go back into the platform after publishing via a scheduling tool, which defeats the purpose of using an Instagram scheduling tool.

2. You CAN save posts as drafts, allowing you to go in, create the post, exit and save as a draft and then come back and publish later. (They do limit the number of drafts you can have to about 5, so you can’t do this with dozens of posts.) It gets my team on-platform when content is being published and they can then engage with our communities naturally, giving the content an extra boost.

3. “Complicated” Instagram posts rarely post correctly with any scheduler – whether it be from platform or human error. We frequently do carousel posts combining photos and videos and almost every time we schedule these through a software program we have to go fix them on platform, again defeating the purpose of the scheduling tool.

4. It just feels more social. Our mission is to keep social media social, and while we do like some Instagram posts to be pre-scheduled, it does not feel social to have a month of content pre-scheduled. (And from our experience, engagement is WAY higher when some of our content is manually posted.) Now – don’t get me wrong – we do still pre-plan our content. We use google docs and sheets to pre-write and pre-plan our content and get client approval. Then, we take some of that content and schedule it, and publish some of it manually.

Call me a purist, or old school, but I am still a huge advocate for publishing on-platform.”

  • Sprout Social – “When we do use a scheduling tool, our agency uses Sprout Social. Here’s why:

    • It suggests the strongest posting time based on the data collected according to each client.
    • They allow for a good amount of customization and we can usually get some tags to connect correctly. (Though not all!)
    • We also use this tool for all of our reporting, so it makes sense for us to also use this platform for scheduling.
    • The user interface isn’t as messy as the competitive platform, Hootsuite. My team has played with Hootsuite multiple times over the years and even as experts we just find the Hootsuite interface…difficult. (But that’s subjective!)”
Maria Grace
Maria Grace is an online marketing expert specializing in Facebook and Google ads, Search Engine Optimization, and Squarespace websites.
http://www.mariagracellc.com
  • Creator Studio – “Facebook Creator Studio was actually launched some time ago, but until recently I was still scheduling Instagram posts and Facebook posts using third-party software like MavSocial and CoSchedule. While these were incredibly helpful, I recently switched to only using Creator Studio instead for a variety of reasons.

    When I first logged in to use it, however, I was pretty confused by several different features, so if you’re new to using Creator Studio, here is a brief overview of what you can do, and a little bit about why I switched from another platform.

    • You can schedule all of your Facebook and Instagram posts to any pages you manage. While the user interface is not my favorite (I would love to have options for different views rather than only a list), you can see what has been published, scheduled, or saved as a draft. In addition, you can see insights for all of your Facebook and Instagram posts as well as any Instastories, which is incredibly helpful to have curated in one place.
    • For Instagram, you can easily add hashtags and mentions. In fact, Creator Studio will show you exactly how many hashtags and mentions you have left for easy scheduling. It also suggests similar hashtags, which I wouldn’t 100% rely on, but is a helpful tool for some quick additions. You can also add platform-friendly emojis to all your posts.
    • All items will post natively to your feed. Right now, Creator Studio is the only tool that will allow native scheduled publishing on Instagram (along with locations, mentions, and even hashtags). This is a huge benefit for marketers and business owners.
    • Schedule your IGTV posts. As of today, Creator Studio is the only way you can schedule IGTV posts in advance. This includes uploading a custom thumbnail and posting it to your feed. If you are making videos for Instagram, this is the BEST way to schedule them!”
Teajai Kimsey
Digital Content Specialist, Social Media Marketing Nerd and all around digital marketing professional.
https://teajai.com
  • CoSchedule – “For ease of use this is probably the best Instagram scheduler. Although the ability to publish directly to any platform is new, CoSchedule calculates the best time to post based on past performance of posts. No need to hunt through insights. The ability to easily duplicate or move posts is smooth with drag and drop capabilities. The app also stores images for later use. Price works for solopreneurs ($17 per month) and small business, as well as larger agencies. This is my go-to on every project and works well as a freelancer handling multiple businesses.”

  • Sprout Social – “Often held up as the “gold standard” in many online marketing groups, the ability to schedule Instagram posts isn’t as smooth and seamless. The price is also higher although the reports included are really well done.”

  • Loomly – “Very clunky. You’ll need to figure out the best time for each post, the default time would literally stack Instagram posts on top of each other. There is no “duplicate” function and storage within the app is non-existent.”

George Hawwa
Attention Experts Growth Director and Founder. Founded Australia's most 5 star rated social media agency. Also founded two successful businesses through social media and is a sought after keynote speaker on social media..
https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-hawwa/

“I would recommend the following.”

  • Gain App – “I have found it to be easy to use for workflows. A little behind with keeping up with the latest API integrations. However, found the UX great.”

  • Falcon.io – “Great service and responsive team. They have a team in Australia which helps also!”

Kerry Baird
Senior Account Manager, Spin Brands
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-baird-72b640b5/
  • Hopper HQ – “Hopper has one of the most crucial features when planning Instagram content – grid view! You can easily drag and drop posts to rearrange your calendar so the feed looks its best. It allows auto-posting (including carousel posts) and schedules across 4 platforms, including Instagram. It also has handy tools like bulk uploading, copying posts across platforms, and hashtag searching.”

  • Later – “Later is an excellent option for scheduling, although it doesn’t allow auto-posting carousels which is a drawback. It has an in-app media library with a great tagging system to organise content options. It is also one of the best schedulers for analytics, with data being held for three months and custom date reporting options. One of Later’s additional tools, which can come in very handy, is the addition of “link in bios” when creating a post, allowing a way around Instagram’s lack of direct linking from captions.”

Lucy Harvey
I am a Marketing Mentor and Facebook/Instagram Ads Expert who helps indie business owners turn marketing from a stress to something that helps create a business they love.
http://www.lucyharveyconsulting.com
  • Planoly – “Planoly is an Instagram planning and scheduling tool. I love Planoly for its ease of use and the ability to visualise the grid posts in the Instagram format. You can use the app or access it on your desktop (this is the main way I use it, but the app is useful if you want to make changes on the go). It has an intuitive drag and drop functionality which I like as it means it’s easy to play around with grid designs. There is a calendar view which I don’t use much but for a more seasonal business, this could be useful. The auto-posting functionality is great and the hashtag library will save you lots of time. You can also post to Facebook as well but this is part of the paid version.”

  • Creator Studio – “I am increasingly using the Creator Studio on Facebook to create and schedule my posts. Last year they made it possible to schedule Instagram content and it’s great to have it all in one place. The functionality is getting better and better and you have access to all of your historical content. On top of this, the Creator Studio is free. The one drawback is not having a visual representation of what content may look like on the grid, so I still use other schedulers for this purpose.”

Ahmed Abdelghani
Ahmed is currently working as Head of Social Media - Middle East, Turkey, and Africa at Kaspersky. Ahmed moved to Dubai early in 2015 when he joined the Social Networkers, as a Social Media Account Manager, Then on to IDP Education in May 2015 as a Social media specialist for the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedabdelghani1/
  • Agorapulse – “I’ve been using this app for quite some time now, maybe around 3 years. In terms of social media community management and social listening, it’s absolutely wonderful. But what it really excels in is its editorial calendar for each social media platform and how it makes it very simple and straightforward, allowing digital marketing professionals like myself to publish content on multiple platforms with one click. Also, the way in which it displays scheduled content gives you a great bird-eye view of what your brand is planning in terms of campaigns and makes it easier to evaluate your content publishing strategy.”

Karla McNeilage
I am a Social Media Manager for a popular Irish subscription box. My area of expertise is growing our company’s online presence through interesting and engaging social content. Instagram is my favoured platform and in my previous role, I grew our Instagram account from 4K - 60K followers in 10 months.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlamcneilage/

“Each Instagram scheduling tool has its own perks and downfalls, and you can make a case for many of them being “the best Instagram scheduler” to use. It all depends on your budget, your goal, which analytics you want access to, and how straightforward you want the tool to be.”

  • Later – “There are different plans for Later, including a free plan, so it’s accessible to everyone which is great. I like that it has a Media Library so you can upload all of your content and drag it across to your preferred calendar date, ready to be scheduled. It will tell you which media content is unused, and it will also tell you how many times a photo or video has been scheduled (for example once on Instagram, once on Twitter, once on Facebook = 3). It gives you a comprehensive view of each month so you can see how much content you have scheduled.

    In the paid version, you can add a location, find the best time to post for maximum engagement, save captions and hashtags for convenience, add notes to your calendar and share your calendar with other team members (especially good if your Instagram posts need approval).

    The number one thing I always look for with Instagram schedulers is the ability to auto-publish a first comment. This is extremely important to me as I always add my hashtags in the first comment. I personally hate when hashtags are in the photo caption as it’s really unpleasant to look at and draws your attention away from the caption itself. The inability to auto-publish hashtags with that post is a deal-breaker for me and it’s a feature you should look out for.

    Later’s analytics are great too and in the paid plans they go really in-depth, giving you an overview of your growth over a set period, along with noting your top-performing Instagram posts, audience activity and engagement, story performance and hashtag analysis.”

  • Sprout Social – “I would say this tool is better if you work in a larger organisation and multiple people need access to the scheduler. This is one of the most expensive Instagram/ social scheduling tools out there but it’s great if you post frequently and like to schedule Instagram posts well in advance.

    It has many of the same qualities as Later, if not all the same, plus a good few additional ones. Sprout Social has much more in-depth analytics and insights; with its deep social intelligence, it aims to listen and inform so that you can make your social marketing strategy the best it can be.

    Some of the key features include; image editing, campaign tracking, Instagram comment moderation, Instagram multi-upload scheduling and Instagram competitor analysis. One of my favourite features is that you can integrate bitly.com meaning you can make all links trackable at the click of a button. Another key feature for me is that you can add notes in different colours wherever you want on your calendar. I know that won’t be exciting to most but the organisation lover inside of me loves to colour co-ordinate notes so each month I can visually see what we have going on. I usually add the likes of upcoming blog posts, email marketing campaigns and any future discounts so that I remember to tie Instagram content in with it and/or promote it on stories.”

“There’s an abundance of Instagram schedulers to choose from but before you even start your research, I would highly recommend writing down a list of every feature that is absolutely essential for you and take it from there. You’re bound to find one you love, and once you find it, your life really will be so much easier. Happy scheduling!”

Ashlee Fleming
Clique Social Media Founder Ash has worked in the social media industry since before it was an industry. She lives and breathes social and thrives on teaching other businesses the ways of the land.
http://www.cliquesocial.com.au
  • Sked Social – “This platform is awesome for a full-scope approach. The advanced features available really lead the pack, but do come at a price comparatively. If you’re looking for a platform that does it all, with a large focus on Instagram, Sked is a great option to look at. Having used this platform for many years, I have seen it dynamically develop. Customer service is also extremely good.

    Perks:

    • Schedule for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin
    • Schedule IG Stories
    • Schedule IG Carousels
    • Schedule IG Reels
    • Visual Planner
    • Product Tagging
    • Location Tagging
    • Advanced Multiplatform Reporting and Competitor Monitoring
    • Linkinbio Setup

    Downfalls:

    • Have found the platform to be a little glitchy (Captions going missing occasionally etc)”
  • Later – “Alternatively, if you’re looking for something a little more affordable, or if your business is more relevant for Pinterest and TikTok, Later would be another good option. Later is great for planning and scheduling basic social media content.

    Perks:

    • Easy to use platform
    • Visual Planner
    • Schedule for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok
    • Priced very competitively for multiple accounts and users
    • Save Hashtag Blocks for future use
    • Schedule Stories
    • Location Tagging
    • Linkinbio Set up

    Downfalls:

    • Cannot autopost carousels
    • No product tagging supported
    • No Reels Scheduling Supported
    • Instagram only Reporting”

“Both great platforms for different business needs.”

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing

Facebook Ad Mistakes: Insights from 45 Experts

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated May 26, 2021

Facebook Ads Mistakes

In 2021, when a lot of business owners think of paid advertising, they think of Facebook Ads. There’s no doubt about it, it’s a juggernaut of an advertising platform and offers businesses the opportunity to get their products, services and brand in front of millions of potential customers. But it isn’t just a case of you putting your money into the Facebook marketing machine, and it throwing leads and paying customers out the other side. Think like that and you’ll probably blow your whole advertising budget and have very little to show for it.

It definitely helps to know what you’re doing. But perhaps even more important is knowing what not to do when setting up your Facebook Ad campaigns, which is the reason we created this post. And who better to walk you through this particular minefield than a group of experts that work with the Facebook advertising platform day-in, day-out, and between them have managed a mind-boggling amount of advertising dollars.

In total, we spoke with over 40 Facebook Ad consultants, strategists and specialists, and asked them each the following question: “Can you name one mistake you commonly see made with Facebook Advertising, and provide some ideas on how it can be avoided or fixed?” The result? A boatload of insights and actionable advice that should help steer your campaign from frustratingly mediocre (or certain doom…I was being optimistic) to the joyful feeling of “it’s working!!!”

The Most Common Facebook Ad Mistakes

Before we run through the entire list that we curated for this article, we want to take a moment to highlight the main ones to watch out for. Part of our research process involved asking each expert to name the three most common Facebook Ad mistakes that they encounter. Any that were mentioned more than 5 times made it onto the chart below.

As you can quickly see, in our survey we found that not getting the pixel set up properly, not putting the time in to test the various elements of your ads and not putting your Facebook ad in front of the right people are the three most common ways that people slip up when advertising on Facebook.

Facebook Ad Errors

 

45 Facebook Advertising Mistakes to Avoid

Below you’ll find a pretty comprehensive list of Facebook Ad mistakes, with some more common than others, and a spread of mistakes that range from “rookie” to slightly more complex. However, they do all share one thing in common…they’ll all harm your ad campaigns in one way or another.

  1. Not Using Persuasive Ad Copy
  2. Not Creating Segmented Retargeting Audiences
  3. Using the Wrong Campaign Objective
  4. Not Utilizing Captions in Video Ads
  5. Not Excluding Past Purchasers
  6. Landing Page Issues
  7. Poor or Unclear Ad Messaging
  8. Forgetting About Other Marketing Methods and Organic Social Media to Support Facebook Advertising
  9. Not Excluding BOF from TOF and Confusing Your Messaging TOF/MOF/BOF
  10. Not Testing Enough – Creatives, Copy and Audiences
  11. Ignoring the Impact of Relevance on Facebook Ad Costs
  12. Boosting Facebook Posts
  13. Touching Ad Campaigns Too Soon and Too Often
  14. Not Understanding the Power of DPAs in eCommerce Retargeting
  15. Too Narrow/Specific Targeting
  16. Showing the Same Facebook Ad to a Person More Than Once
  17. Not Taking Advantage of Custom Placement Aspect Ratios
  18. Not Using Video View Ads to Build Warm Audiences
  19. Not Using One Ad ID Across Multiple Ad Sets
  20. Using Facebook’s ‘Lowest Cost’ Bid Strategy Like Everyone Else
  21. Abandoning Your Ads after Setting Up
  22. Not Using the Correct Custom Conversion or Event
  23. Not Hooking Your Clients’ Attention in the First 3 Seconds
  24. Forgetting to Leverage Existing Customer Data
  25. Not Making Sure The Fundamentals Are In Place Before Campaign Launch
  26. Not Doing the Hard Work First in Understanding Your Customer Avatar
  27. Not Understanding Facebook Fraud
  28. Not Using User (or Influencer) Generated Content in Ads
  29. Failing to Test Ad Copy Hooks
  30. Not Installing the Facebook Pixel
  31. Huge Expectations from Low Budgets
  32. Failing to Hone in on the Benefits of Your Offering
  33. Sending Traffic to Slow Loading Website
  34. The Content Facebook Doesn’t Like in Ads – What to Watch Out For
  35. Neglecting the Importance of the Headline
  36. Not Leveraging Lookalike Audiences
  37. Not Giving the Facebook Algorithm Enough Control
  38. A New Pixel Needs to Be “Seasoned”
  39. Running One Facebook Ad in Isolation and Not Thinking About the Follow-Up
  40. Expecting to Win with Your First Campaign
  41. Poor Ad Account Organization
  42. Not Building Trust First 
  43. Changing the Budget to Scale a Campaign
  44. Not Having a Big Enough Budget
  45. Not Re-Targeting Your Website Visitors

Have you made any of these Facebook Ad mistakes before? Or perhaps you’ve committed a Facebook Advertising sin that we haven’t covered? If so, we’d love to hear from you in the comments section at the end of the article!

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • Best Landing Page Builder: 63 Paid Traffic Experts Vote
  • All Social Media Marketing Resources

What the Experts Said: Facebook Ad Mistakes Examined

In this section, you can read in more depth what our Facebook advertising experts had to say. Each will outline a mistake they commonly see people make when using the Facebook advertising platform, and will then run through some ideas to help you avoid falling foul of the same issues.

There’s a lot of invaluable advice included and tips that will help you move the needle and improve your results with Facebook Ads. So grab a coffee and get learning!

Use the handy filter below if you want to jump straight to something specific.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • Already Seen It
  • Wrong Campaign Objective
  • First 3 Seconds
  • Not Using One Ad ID
  • Not Trusting Algorithm
  • Relevance Score
  • Forgetting Other Marketing Methods
  • Custom Placement Aspect Ratios
  • Customer Avatar
  • Content No-No's
  • Facebook Fraud
  • Dynamic Product Ads
  • Unclear Ad Messaging
  • Not Excluding BOF from TOF
  • Lowest Cost Bids
  • Changing Budget
  • Slow Website
  • Not Using Video Ads
  • Unseasoned Pixel
  • Neglect Headline
  • Past Purchasers
  • Not Testing Enough
  • Segmented Retargeting
  • Lookalike Audiences
  • User Generated Content
  • Ad Copy
  • Editing Too Soon
  • Incorrect Custom Conversion/Event
  • Unrealistic Expectations
  • Forget Fundamentals
  • Abandoning Ads
  • Video Captions
  • Win with First Campaign
  • Narrow/Specific Targeting
  • Forgetting Existing Customer Data
  • Landing Page Issues
  • Missing Benefits
  • Boosting Posts
  • Ad Copy Hooks
  • No Facebook Pixel
  • Not Thinking About Follow-Up
  • Poor Organization
  • Building Trust
  • Budget Too Low
  • Not Re-Targeting
Laura Faragher
Hi! I'm Laura, a freelance Facebook Ads Specialist. I specialise in helping small businesses grow using the power of Facebook Advertising. I'm passionate about making a real impact on a business's bottom line.
http://www.thepracticalmarketingacademy.com

  • Not Re-Targeting Your Website Visitors

    – “Without a doubt, the BIGGEST mistake I see business page owners making is NOT re-targeting their website visitors in their ads audiences. They’re really missing a trick!

    By re-targeting people that have already been on your website, you are sending your marketing messages and getting your brand in front of people that already know about you, and potentially (as they have been browsing your website), are interested in your products and services.

    An added bonus of re-targeting website visitors is that they’re what we call a “warm audience”. So conversion rates are likely to be higher, just as the cost per conversion is likely to be lower!”

Logan R Mayville
Logan Mayville helps entrepreneurs and small business owners double their leads in 30 days so they can serve more people without wasting their marketing budget.
https://loganmayville.com/

  • Poor Ad Account Organization

    – “The biggest mistake Facebook advertisers make is poor Ad Account organization, and the effects can be drastic.

    The key to increasing long-term, sustainable performance is the act of organizing your Facebook ad account (and subsequent targeting and creatives) into two steps — Prospecting and retargeting.

    In prospecting campaigns, you’ll target large groups of cold audiences, so it’s critical that your ad creative catches attention and stops the scroll — if you’re targeting 1 million people, a difference of .5% CTR will have a massive effect on your results down the line. If I had to pick one creative option, I would choose a 15-second video with 1) a hook in the first 3 seconds, 2) a text overlay, and 3) a clear and compelling CTA.

    In retargeting campaigns, you’ll target small groups of people with an established interest in your product or service, so the primary objective of your ad creative is to persuade; not catch attention like in the prospecting campaigns. To do this, follow your buyer’s journey from attention to consideration to decision and provide material for each phase — product reviews, testimonials, comparisons, and limited availability notices can all be effective.”

Samantha Pilling
Sam is a highly sought-after Lead Generation & Facebook Advertising Expert with 24+ years of Media Experience. She specialises in helping coaches, consultants and expert-led businesses attract new clients and amplify their impact.
http://www.bitememarketing.co.uk

  • Running One Facebook Ad in Isolation and Not Thinking About the Follow-Up

    – “Imagine this…

    You’re single. You’re looking for love. So, you decide to go to a bar in the hope of meeting someone special.

    As you order your drink someone catches your eye across the room. In a heartbeat, you dash across the room, drop to your knees and propose marriage… without even asking their name!

    None of us would dream of doing this in real life, would we?

    So why are we doing this with our Facebook Advertising? Why do we expect a total stranger (who has never heard of us before) to make a big commitment on having only seen one Ad?

    What we need to do is consider our marketing efforts (including Facebook) as a long-term-relationship, and not a one-night-stand.

    How do we go about having a long-term relationship with potential customers?

    1. Firstly You Need to Get on Their Radar

    One of the fantastic things about Facebook Advertising is just how targeted you can get with your adverts. If you want to target 50+ year old women within a 20-mile radius of your business who love Knitting and Horror Movies – you can do it on Facebook!

    So, the first step is to research your ideal clients – what do they love? How old are they? Where do they live? Are they a specific gender? And so on.

    Create ‘Interest Targeting’ lists on Facebook and run ads to them using content they’ll love. Is there a video you can share that will entertain or educate them?

    Consider running ‘Engagement’* or ‘Video View’* campaigns with the simple objective of getting on their radar (and at the same time building warm audiences of people who have expressed an interest in what you do).

    * At the time of writing this tip, there has never been a better time to do this. Not being a vulture and picking over anyone’s misfortune, but many people are still in lockdown and have turned to Social Media to stay connected. This means that the cost of running Video View and Engagement campaigns has dropped.

    2. You Need to Woo Them!

    Depending on what you do or what you sell, one piece of great content may be enough to warm your audience to you. For ‘higher ticket’ companies (where more awareness and consideration is needed) then you may need to woo them for longer!

    Always bear in mind that they are not on Facebook to be sold to.

    They’re here for social connection, to catch up with friends, to have a gossip, and to be entertained.

    Add value to their day with content that really resonates with them.

    3. Don’t Forget to Propose

    Now, we don’t want to stay in the ‘friend zone’ forever, so there comes a time when you need to get down on one knee and ask them to commit to being your customer!

    We do that through retargeting your warm audiences.

    These warm audiences might include…

    • People who have viewed one of your videos
    • People who have engaged with your content on Facebook
    • People who have visited your website
    • People who have put something in their Shopping Cart on your website but didn’t complete the purchase
    • People who have expressed an interest in your event
    • People on your email list
    • People on your Chatbot list

    4. Just Because They’re in a Relationship with you, It Doesn’t Mean the Work Stops There!

    Once they’ve become your customer, don’t neglect them! If they’ve had one great experience with your business they are likely to come back for more.

    Upload your Customer List to Facebook and create a Custom Audience of existing customers. Send them great content, add value to their day, give them offers, and tempt them back to buy again.

    And here’s one final Pro Tip for you… Create Lookalike Audiences on Facebook based on your Customer List! That’s saying to Facebook “These are my customers, go and find other people just like them!”

    And Facebook will go off and do the hard work for you!”

Alyssa Ege
Alyssa Ege is the President at Sail Away Media, a social media marketing firm. She guides the team in crafting strategies that have delivered up to 42X return on their investment. She's been featured on WPBF News, Fit Small Business, and Voyage Miami, and lectures to business owners across the country.
https://sailawaymedia.com/

  • Not Installing the Facebook Pixel

    – “I’ve audited hundreds of Facebook advertising accounts, and one of the most common mistakes I see is forgetting to set up the Facebook pixel. The Facebook pixel is a small piece of code that is installed on your website (or any landing page you are driving traffic to).

    The purpose of the Facebook pixel is to track how many people landed on your site from your Facebook ad campaigns. Without it installed, it’s nearly impossible to determine the success of your campaign (unless you are only interested in engagement on the platform itself).

    Another main benefit of having the Facebook pixel installed on your website is the ability to retarget visitors. In case you’re not sure what retargeting means… Think about the last time you were shopping online but didn’t complete your purchase. And for the next week, that pair of shoes followed you all across the internet. Powerful stuff, right?

    Facebook advertisers are able to retarget users by tracking their browsing history with the pixel. Retargeting campaigns typically result in the greatest ROI – so make sure you don’t miss out on this!

    Installing the Facebook pixel is a simple process. All you need to do is copy the small piece of code Facebook provides and paste it into your website header. If code like this makes your head spin – it’s a simple task to pass off to your web developer.

    Good luck!”

Stirling Gardner
Former Hollywood writer turned digital marketer and agency owner. Creator of Launch Perfect™ where we have gotten 43x ROI for our clients. We partner with businesses who are ready to scale fast. Consider us rocket fuel for your business revenue..
http://www.StacktDigital.com

  • Failing to Test Ad Copy Hooks

    – “The #1 thing, even the biggest agencies get wrong with their Facebook advertising, is how to write and test their ads so they are set up for maximum profitability. And it’s a Facebook ad mistake that can end up being very costly.

    More often than not, I have found that most Facebook Ad agencies don’t even write the ad copy for their clients. Say what? That’s like buying a brand new car but it doesn’t come with seats or a steering wheel.

    Even the agencies that do write ad copy for their clients do 1 or 2 versions and call it a day. They tell their clients they are “split testing” and when the ads don’t perform, they’ll rattle off 100 excuses why. The client knows in their heart something is amiss, but out of convenience, they stick with the agency till several months have gone by and they’ve lost a ton of money (on advertising spend and agency fees).

    You do not have to suffer through this anymore!

    BACKSTORY:

    The prevailing wisdom taught by every Facebook ads “guru” is that the success of the ads comes down to the creative (the image or video that goes with the ad copy).

    Why? Because adding a bunch of stock photos (or client photos) as a “test” is a lot less effort than testing your ad copy.

    But when you test multiple variations of copy “hooks,” (what I call the first 2-3 sentences before a reader has to click “read more”), the extra effort will pay off in spades.

    We have seen CPAs (Cost per Acquisition) drop by as much as 6x. Yes, across multiple client accounts in a wide variety of niches.

    The Facebook Ad “Fix” that will get you 6x the results

    When we set out to launch a new Facebook ad campaign, the first thing we test are the hooks. We have found that if you leave every other piece of the ad constant (audiences, creative, placements, and even body copy – the copy that comes after the hook) that the hook is the #1 biggest needle mover to profitability.

    And here’s the real kicker… the hooks we test aren’t crazy different! The difference in saying “How We Multiplied Our Client’s Revenue 6x Using ‘The Hook Method’” could yield widely different results than “‘The Hook Method’: How We 6x-ed Our Client Results!” Of course, not all of our hooks are that similar, but you get the point.

    Here are the steps we use to achieve these types of results:

    1. We write the entire copy of the ad first… we specialize in longer form ad copy but this method works with short copy, too.
    2. We then brainstorm 15-20 hooks to test.
    3. We put each of those ads with different hooks (keeping everything else the same: creative, audiences, etc) in one campaign with one only one ad per audience (or ad set as Facebook likes to call it). To simplify… if we want to test 20 hooks, we create one campaign with 20 ad sets and one ad with a unique hook per ad set.
    4. We leave everything else the same, run it for 3 days and voila! You are going to see something incredible… 1-3 of those hooks will stand head and shoulders above the others when it comes to performance.
    5. We shut down the other 17 ads and scale the winners.
    6. From there, we will start to test creative and then finally audiences.

    We have seen winning ads run for literally years. So, no agency can ever use the “your ads fatigued” excuse again.

    Good luck testing and experiencing truly high-performance Facebook advertising!”

Ashley Boston
Ashley is a #1 best selling amazon author and Facebook Ad strategist. Ash has been in the Digital Marketing space for 12 years supporting business owners and educating them through her online courses and membership Traffic Ads Mastery on how to create profitable Facebook ads on autopilot. 
http://www.unleashedmultimedia.com.au

  • Boosting Facebook Posts

    – “Boosting posts is one of the biggest no-no’s when it comes to Facebook advertising. Most people aren’t aware that when we “boost” a post we are asking Facebook to optimise for engagement on that post. Boosting posts won’t increase website traffic or increase your sales and this is why it is key to make sure you have a strategy in place and that you are using the Facebook ad account to create your ads.

    You want to ensure you are seeing a ROAS on your Facebook ad campaigns, so if you are wanting to generate more traffic to your website, use the Traffic Objective for a cold audience and then you want to ensure you have a follow-up campaign to remarket to your website audience using the Conversion Objective and optimise for Purchasers.

    Say goodbye to boosting posts and hello to profitable and scalable Facebook ad campaigns.”

Paula Gilbert
I’m a Facebook ads strategist and producer, marketing consultant and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. I’m also a trademarked member of Surrey Hills Enterprises. We’re a great fit if your business has a social or ethical purpose. ✔️
http://www.gardenshedmarketing.co.uk

  • Failing to Hone in on the Benefits of Your Offering

    – “If you’re going to get one key thing right with Facebook ads do this: work out the BENEFITS OF YOUR OFFERING to your target audience.

    DON’T SKIP THIS STEP!

    Think about what all good posts do on Facebook – they offer VALUE to the user. They entertain, inform or educate.

    So many businesses struggle with this step. They are stuck thinking about why they want to sell their product.

    And when a Facebook ad is created solely from a business’s point of view, the offering can seem spammy or promotional, and people disengage.

    So forget about why YOU want to sell your product and why you think it’s the bee’s knees. You need to think about it from an outside-in perspective.

    Map out your audience and then work out the main reasons why they’d want your product. What are the benefits?

    working out the user benefits

    Here’s how to do it:

    1. Build out a profile of your ideal customer. Here are some ways to do this:

    Look at your users on social media, think of buyers you know, look at reviews on Amazon for similar products (this is a great one), if you can – look at Audience Insights in Business Manager (it should show if you have over 1k followers on your page). Map out your target user with demographics and their interests.

    2. Now focus on this person, their hopes, dreams, their stage of life. You want to get inside their heads.

    Then ask yourself – how does your product or service fit into this…What are the benefits to the user? And what problem does it solve? FRAMING YOUR CUSTOMER’S PROBLEM AROUND YOUR PRODUCT HELPS YOU FIND THE ‘FIT’.

    3. Now work this into your copy, your creative, your call to action.

    Remember, when a great ad really ‘speaks’ to you, it’s because the business has honed its marketing and shows empathy.

    Get this stage right and your Facebook ad won’t just talk, but will sing to your audience.”

Claire White
I help businesses utilise the power of Facebook advertising by offering a 'done for you' service or by guiding you through the steps to enable you to run your own.
http://www.alphabet-street.com

  • Landing Page Issues

    – “You’ve decided to run a Facebook ad, you’ve picked your objective, targeted like a laser, got your offer nailed and the creatives are looking super good and you’re feeling pretty pleased with yourself. How’s your landing page looking though?

    First off, is your landing page relevant to the message you are sending out in your ad? If you’re a Pilates studio targeting beginners in your ad, don’t send them to the advanced class booking page. Consistency is the key. It needs to match up with your ad.

    So, you know the rules about before and after shots – you can’t use them in your Facebook advertising. Ok, that’s fine but surely it doesn’t matter if they’re on the landing page? I’m afraid it does my friend. Your landing page will be looked at too during the Facebook ad approval process and your ad may, as a consequence, not be given the chance to get out of the gates. The same goes for wild promises that can’t be proven (make £10k a day guaranteed – that sort of thing).

    Does your landing page load in a timely manner? We are not a patient species in general and you may be losing leads/sales. Your sales page needs to be loading in under 5 seconds in an ideal world.

    So, if you skipped straight to the end, make sure your landing pages match up with your Facebook ads, load quickly and you’re not promising anything you shouldn’t be.

    Good Luck!”

Stefan Wesley
Stefan Wesley "The Digital Commando", is a former Armed Forces Communications Specialist turned Tech Mogul. As CEO of Sigma Digital and Founder of The Digital Commando Academy, he empowers freelancers and agencies with the skills, knowledge, and expertise to create highly-effective Facebook Ads Campaigns that turn Startups into 7-figures Businesses.
https://www.digitalcommando.io/

  • Not Building Trust First

    – “Having a great funnel or website is all well and good, but in order to generate a lead and/or sale, we first need to drive the customer from our Facebook Ad.

    There is a common misconception that the offline sales process is completely different from the online sales process? Let’s take a minute to think about this, when we go into a high-street store we are usually greeted by a member of staff who will introduce themself and direct us to what we are looking for. After this, they will usually take time to listen and then educate us about the product they feel is right for our needs. If they have done this correctly we will make a purchase, right?

    Think about the last 3 purchases you have made from a Facebook Ad… Were the brands totally new to you? Did you make a purchase the first time the Ad appeared on your newsfeed?…. or had you seen content from them over a period of time and then taken advantage of a great offer that they put in front of you?

    If a shop assistant approaches you as soon as you enter the store and puts a random product in your face, closely followed by the words “BUY THIS NOW!”, I’m betting the chances that any of us actually purchase the product is slim to none. We don’t “Know, Like or Trust” the seller yet!

    This is one of the most common Facebook Ad Mistakes I see from advertisers. A brand that creates a Sales Ad and Targets a fresh audience of 1.2 million people that they think fits their target demographic without first taking the time to introduce themself or build rapport.

    How to Fix it

    Make sure to segment your Facebook Ads into 3 key content pillars:

    1. Entertaining and Motivational
    2. Educational and Value Adding
    3. Lead Gen and Sales.

    Firstly, use Entertaining and Motivational Facebook Ad Campaigns targeting a wide audience to generate an initial round of engagement from potentially interested Facebook Users. But remember, DO NOT TRY AND SELL THEM ANYTHING…YET!

    Engaged Audience

    Secondly, show ONLY Facebook users that have engaged with your Entertaining and Motivational Ads, longer-form content such as videos about your brand. A great way to do this is to tell a story. I don’t care about the lovely chair your company is selling, but I can relate to Bob who has been building them by hand for 18 years. Tell me about Bob, why he loves what he does, his family, and not only will I buy your chair, I’ll tell all my friends about Bob and how he built it when they come round for dinner. Another way to do this for the service industry is to offer free training sessions, literally showing people you can help them by actually helping them, But once again remember, DO NOT TRY AND SELL THEM ANYTHING…YET!

    This is Bob

    Last but not least it’s time to close the sale, but now you’re negotiating from a position of strength. Humans are reciprocal creatures and because you have already given them something for free or “at your expense”, they will feel a natural desire to reciprocate. This means they now know who you are, understand your brand, and what you have to offer that suits their needs and trust you to deliver on it. YES… NOW YOU CAN SELL THEM SOMETHING!

    Close the sale with a selection of great offer ads BUT only show them to Facebook Users that have watched at least 50% of your video content and watch the sales start flying in!

    Good luck and go and show people you can help them, by actually helping them!”

Ashley Monk
Ashley is the owner of It Media, a boutique social media agency that helps service-based business owners feel less overwhelmed about growing their business, and no longer worried about where their next client will come from. Ashley helps business owners simplify their online marketing and generate leads through Facebook ads, social media, amazing content, and email marketing.
http://byitmedia.com

  • Forgetting to Leverage Existing Customer Data

    – “Facebook advertising is simplified and lumped together with organic content by nonmarketers. But unfortunately, the platform couldn’t be more robust.

    One of the greatest Facebook Ad mistakes I see is failing to leverage existing data.

    Even if you’ve never run or optimized a campaign, your existing customer data may be your greatest asset.

    So often, companies make assumptions about the target demographic they aspire to reach. But those assumptions are guesswork until tested & proven.

    One of the most essential components of our onboarding process to ensure this area is addressed is by creating personas.

    Before we draft a campaign, we see market research as a critical component. Through surveying & gathering existing data, we design every element of the campaign based on the customer journey & avatar up until this point.

    Perhaps the most effective sample to build the best audiences that is SIGNIFICANTLY undervalued is building custom audiences.

    Create Custom Audience

    One of the most powerful aspects of Facebook is its ability to track offline events – which comes from leveraging contact information from past customers.

    By uploading this information to Facebook, the data is slashed for confidentiality, but the datapoints are mapped perfectly to create Lookalike samples.

    But more importantly, uploading such information makes retargeting actual purchasing customers seamless. It also allows for even more information to track past purchase behavior.

    Use Customer List for Custom Audience

    The process is simple: simply create a custom audience directly within the Facebook ad set level. Then, download the sample CSV file provided by Facebook to accurately map your existing data to upload.

    Example Customer List

    Though the step may seem tedious, it’s far greater of a cost to omit it than take the extra time to incorporate this into your campaign.”

Paulina Poliszewska
Paulina is a Digital Marketer who specializes in Performance Facebook Advertising. She has managed approximately £2M in Facebook ad spend for small to medium size e-commerce businesses and helped them to scale quickly. She also runs her own successful e-commerce store.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulina-poliszewska-b6810391

  • Too Narrow/Specific Targeting

    – “Many inexperienced advertisers try to reach their customers by narrowing the targeting to a very specific group of people. E.g. advertising a beauty product only to people who live in particular cities, who are between 25-40, who like similar cosmetic brands and ALSO like Kim Kardashian.

    Although it looks like you have defined your perfect audience, typically your highly-targeted Facebook ads will reach a very small number of people. This way, you will not only quickly saturate your audience, but miss out on many sales opportunities, which will likely increase your CPA, lower the sales volume and effectively sabotage your campaign results.

    The Solution:

    1. Avoid applying multiple restrictions – choose interests that are relevant to your product, you might even group them if they are similar, but avoid narrowing your audience further.
    2. If you can, keep the age and gender targeting open and geotargeting – countrywide.
    3. Keep an eye on the audience size – if it’s less than 200k, try to broaden it.
    4. Test completely broad targeting (no targeting settings).

    Most of all, learn to trust the Facebook ad algorithm. Facebook’s algorithm looks for the cheapest way to reach your goals within your audience. Depending on your campaign objective, it allows you to find the lowest cost conversions/clicks/engagement within the audience you are targeting – so the bigger the audience, the more chances you get to reach customers and the faster you can scale.

    The algorithm is smarter than the most experienced advertisers so let it work its magic :-)”

Jonathan Howkins
As a Facebook Advertising specialist, I train and coach business owners and in-house marketing teams to generate more leads and sales from Facebook. With over 20 years of experience as a creative director within a marketing agency and training direct from Facebook, I can help you create campaigns that convert.
https://jonathanhowkins.com

  • Expecting to Win with Your First Campaign

    – “Are you expecting to win with your first Facebook campaign? If so, you’re in for a disappointment.

    Unfortunately many business and brands are under the illusion that Facebook Advertising is the solution to all their problems.

    It’s often perceived as a no-lose marketing option where you simply pay the money to Facebook and you instantly get more leads and sales.

    Well, the bad news is that it just doesn’t work like that.

    In fact, almost all Facebook ad campaigns lose money initially, because to start with you need to invest some time and money learning more about your audience, as well as refining your targeting and messaging.

    The process of converting a loss-making campaign into a profitable one, is all about testing, measurement and optimisation.

    Facebook has the technology and data to help you win, but only if you’re prepared to take your time and logically work through a structured process of refinement and testing to discover what really works.

    This is an investment you need to be prepared to make. But it needn’t be expensive, or take much of your time.

    The beauty of Facebook is that you can easily create simple ad campaigns, spend very small sums of money, and get some great data to help you refine your targeting and messaging, so you can reach the right people, with the right message, at the right time.

    This is when you can really start winning and scaling your ad campaigns – and start getting some great results!

    So, start with some simple Video Views campaigns or Post Engagement campaigns to identify your audience and learn what messages they engage with. You can run these campaigns for just 3-4 days, spending no more than £2 per day and get some useful data to help shape your next campaign.

    You can then experiment with Traffic and Conversion campaigns when you’re ready to start testing your messaging and creative.

    The journey to profitable ad campaigns does take a little time and investment (together with some knowledge, experience and expertise), but the long term opportunities and return on investment can be huge.”

Akvile DeFazio
Akvile DeFazio is the President of AKvertise, a social media advertising agency. She specializes in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter Ads for ecommerce brands, events, mobile apps, musicians, and non-profits. Akvile is a California-based published author, international speaker, and has been published in USAToday, AdAge, and more.
https://www.akvertise.com/

  • Not Utilizing Captions in Video Ads

    – “Did you know, according to DigiDay, 85% of videos are watched without sound on Facebook. To overcome this, make sure you are sharing your story and conveying your message textually, visually, and acoustically when it comes to your Facebook video ads.

    If you aren’t, add captions to have all of your bases covered and improve the chances of your new video ads performing well. Plus, we don’t want to disregard anyone that may be hearing impaired.

    To add captions to your Facebook video ads, you can easily do so in the ad level under your video creative by clicking the “Edit Video” button.

    Next, head over to captions and allow Facebook to quickly scan your video and generate captions for your video or if you have an SRT file, upload it to accomplish this.

    If you have Facebook generate your captions for you, be sure to review them before launching as oftentimes, if the words aren’t clearly spoken, if the person speaking has an accent, or your brand name is uniquely spelt, they may be miscaptioned.

    Once you are pleased with the transcription and it is grammatically correct, save and publish your new video ad.”

Rome Nicolas
Rome Nicolas is a founder of Bisaya Digital who specialise in managing Facebook and Instagram ads to get new, loyal customers for e-commerce businesses. He enjoys helping small-to-medium-sized companies boost their monthly recurring revenue faster.
https://romenicolas.com/

  • Abandoning Your Ads after Setting Up

    – “It’s an original sin to create a Facebook ad and abandon it for more than two weeks or so, then realize that you should have been checking the ads daily to see if there are any drastic changes.

    In optimizing a newly created Facebook ad, allow the ad to fully utilize the algorithm for three days. But, after that, the real job of optimizing an ad begins.

    If you don’t check your ads on a daily basis, you won’t know if people are seeing the same ads for several times already. You also wouldn’t know if the campaign is achieving the objectives you’ve set it up for.

    Monitoring it would certainly help you make the necessary changes to avoid wasting your money for nothing.

    *Ideas on How to Solve It: After the initial three days of letting the Facebook algorithm do its magic, it’s time to monitor your ads on a daily basis and consider making changes, if needed.

    In checking the quality of your Facebook advertising, keep in mind the following metrics:

    • Ad frequency
    • Click-though-rate vs conversion rate
    • Clicks by interest
    • Number of leads
    • Ad performance by placement
    • Relevance Score

    When making changes, make sure it is data-driven and not based on a random gut-feeling.

    The data you see in your Facebook Ads Manager will help you improve your productivity and ensure that you have a successful campaign.”

Sally McInerney
Facebook and Instagram Ad Agency Owner
https://rockit-social.com/

  • Not Making Sure The Fundamentals Are In Place Before Campaign Launch

    – “Facebook ads are too often seen as a panacea for growth and profits.

    “Experts” make wild claims about their “secrets” to making money via Facebook ads. It’s all too easy and tempting to fall for this over-simplified solution to successfully running ads.

    Whilst it can be pretty lucrative for many businesses – there are a number of other REALLY important factors which you must consider before attempting to invest in Facebook advertising…

    Here are a few of them.

    1) Website/Landing Page Conversion Rate – If you have an ecommerce store you need to look at an average site conversion rate of 2%. If you are trying to convert traffic that lands on a landing page – it will need to be converting at 20%. These are really important metrics as even if you have the best quality traffic landing on your site – if it’s not converting that traffic – you are wasting a ton of your investment. This metric is the biggest influencing factor in driving a good ROAS for your Facebook advertising campaigns.

    2) Abandon Cart Rate – Ideally, you shouldn’t have any more than 68% abandoned carts. If you do – there is an issue at cart level (shipping, payment options, lengthy checkout). This is a very common bottleneck to experience and is usually down to high shipping costs.

    3) A Good Offer/ Hook – You HAVE to give people a reason to give your service or product a go. Don’t under-estimate the power of a great discount for new customers, a really generous free gift or some incredible reviews that give instant trust to your brand. Although you may be reluctant to give large discounts – if you want to grow your brand’s sales online – its something you must have worked into your strategy. Remember – the important metric here is to look at Lifetime Value of a customer – it may mean you break even on their first purchase, but then you need to focus on building that lifetime value and suddenly that initial CPA looks pretty good!

    4) Promote Tested, Winning Product – You might have a whole range of product/services and it’s easy to think the best plan would be to promote EVERYTHING so that you cover all bases. WRONG! Pick that product that you know flies off the shelf and is an easy consideration for the consumer. Once you focus on that winning product, you can focus your targeting, copy and messaging on exactly who that product serves and what their pain points and desires might be. Once you’ve converted customers with the no brainer product – you can up-sell all your other items!”

Rachel Lewis
Rachel is a social media obsessive, Facebook and Instagram Ads specialist and lover of bees. With a background in media and education, Rachel supports small businesses and organisations in the education sector to get the best results from their Facebook advertising campaigns.
http://www.abellasocial.co.uk

  • Huge Expectations from Low Budgets

    – “Warning – Your budget is too low for your high expectations. Reality check needed.

    We're gonna need a bigger budget

    Facebook is not a magic money tree. Too many people have hugely unrealistic expectations of what is possible when it comes to the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Or they simply don’t realise that you need to invest in your Facebook ad spend in order to get results.

    Yes, it’s possible to get some really great results but your budget needs to be in line with both your objective and your expectations.

    Here’s How to Set an Initial Realistic Budget

    As a business, you may already know how much you will be willing to pay for a person to take an action from your ads, whether it’s the cost per lead or the cost per purchase but a few simple calculations can help you to decide on a realistic budget for your Facebook advertising campaign.

    Here’s an example:

    Think about the following for your business and campaign.

    Sample Facebook Ads Budget

    And use the following simple baseline target stats to make your calculation.

    Facebook Ads Baseline Stats

    So, to get 50 people over the line on the website, at a rate of 5% conversion, we’d need to drive 1000 people to the sign-up page.

    To get 1000 people to the sign-up page at a CTR of 1% we’d need to gain 100,000 impressions.

    If every 1000 impressions costs £10 (CPM) then we’d need a budget or £1000.

    Which is a little bit higher than £50!

    Obviously, this is a rough estimate to the budget needed and any fluctuation in the baseline metrics or the conversion rate of your website will have an impact on the cost per result.

    For example, if your website converts at a rate of 2% then your cost per result would rise to £50 and your campaign budget would be a suggested £2500.

    The only way to more accurately assess the true cost of your campaign is to begin testing ads so that you can input your own realistic figures into the calculation.

    The process of testing is so important as it allows you to find out what elements of your ads can drive the best results with the lowest CPMs and CPCs and which ads result in the best CTRs and ultimately the best cost per result.

    Just remember, if you are aiming for a high revenue result, you’ll need to be realistic about your budget expectations. You’ve got to spend money to make money with Facebook Ads.”

Jayne Day
I am an online marketing strategist and business coach. I help coaches, consultants, online experts and service-based business owners build thriving, profitable businesses and grow their reach online.
https://webonize.com.au

  • Not Using the Correct Custom Conversion or Event

    – “When business owners start using Facebook Advertising they often set up their custom conversion incorrectly or use the wrong one when setting up their conversion event in their ad sets, which greatly impact the results that they have.

    For example, you may be using Facebook Ads for lead generation and to build your email database. To do this you may be offering a lead magnet such as an eBook. You need to have the campaign set up with the conversion objective and then have the custom conversion created to track the URL that people land on after they submit their email address and not the landing page before they submit their details.

    If you don’t have this set up correctly Facebook just assumes you want people to land on that page and not take the desired action of submitting their details.

    This then affects the people that Facebook shows your ads to and won’t necessarily show it to people that are more likely to take the entire action we want them to.

    Another example is if you have an ecommerce store and you want to drive sales – you want to ensure you have the custom conversion or event set for completed checkout and not just add to cart. It is the final sale that you want and this is what you want Facebook to optimise your ads for.”

Miles Bonanno
Miles is a seasoned advertising veteran with over 15 years of award-winning work history helping global consumer brands grow. She is the owner of Miles Digital, an ecommerce-focused consultancy that proudly assists brands scale from earning $10K per month to six-figure stores.
https://www.milesdigital.com/

  • Touching Ad Campaigns Too Soon and Too Often

    – “A common mistake that I see when running FB ads is touching / editing / revising new Facebook ad campaigns too soon and too often.

    You will need to give the algorithm some time and a reasonable amount of data (1,500 impressions per ad at a minimum) before deciding if it’s a winning ad or if you need to make edits to the audience, creative or offer to see better performance.

    Facebook is a data machine and you need to give it enough time to look for the perfect audience, especially for newer ad accounts. If you’ve done your homework on your audience and thoroughly thought of your creative/messaging and offer, you need to trust that FB is doing its part in searching for the right audience and placements.

    Keep calm. Sit on your hands if you have to. Better yet, walk away from your laptop soon after you launch a new campaign. Whatever you do, don’t touch a fresh campaign too soon without giving it the proper time to provide you with data for your next point of action!”

Sarah Sal
Sarah Sal is a Facebook Ads Specialist. She’s written on Facebook ad testing, strategy, and execution for AdEspresso, Agorapulse, Blitzmetrics, Copyhackers, ActiveCampaign, AdWeek, Jon Loomer’s Power Hitters Club and others. She’s even presented inside Perry Marshall’s iconic 80/20 Facebook ads course
http://sarah-sal.com/

  • Not Using Persuasive Ad Copy

    – “30% of all Internet users rely on ad blockers, which are overwhelmingly popular as people get tired of ads. Even if our technology doesn’t block ads out automatically, our brains are trained to ignore anything that looks like one. Rather than screaming louder to grab scrollers’ attention, we should write great ads that don’t look like an ad. We’re talking about content that educates, entertains and provides value.

    Without education, you are writing an ad and asking the user to take your words at face value.

    Many advertisers assume they’re facing trouble with their audience when what they really have is a problem with content & copy.

    I once had a call with a SharkTank company. The founder told me: “The problem with our Facebook ad might be targeting optimization.”

    I replied: “You think your ads are not targeting the correct audience. Maybe you’re reaching the right audience, but the ad copy isn’t convincing enough”.

    Their Facebook ads weren’t profitable. By working on the ad copy, their ad campaigns became profitable, and they also got the most sales in a single day from Facebook.

    Below is a screenshot of one of those ads:

    BetterBack AdEspresso Case study ad copy
    Source

    Imagine you found the diary of a client that got help from your product or service. Does your ad feel like you’re reading a page from that diary?

    What does 46X better Facebook ad performance and a free slice of pizza have in common (not pineapple pizza)?

    Strategyzer’s a company I helped get 1866% ROI on their ads. On prior ads, they spent $4,433.53 in around 3 weeks and only got 1 sale in return. That was equal to $0.40 for every $1 spent on Facebook advertising.

    The problem was the ad copy just stated that they had an event coming up.

    And here’s the screenshot of that ad:

    Source

    How did I move them from $0.40 for every $1 spent to make $18.66 for each $1 they spent? ($212,000 in sales for a Facebook ad spend of only $11,357.26, to be exact)

    I knew supermarkets like Mash and Costco got up to 2000% in extra sales by giving away samples. So I used ads to give people a pre-taste of what to expect at Strategyzer’s €2000 upcoming event, instead.

    Here is an example of the first Facebook ad we ran for them:

    Strategyzer new Ad
    Source

    Educational content also helps you fight Facebook ad fatigue.

    Many marketers wonder why their cost per conversion tripled in the last 3 weeks. And that’s because Facebook equals interruption marketing.

    You’re not a coffee shop at an airport with 500k new people passing by every day. Those businesses know that brownies are better than waffles at getting passengers to stop and enter their cafe. And you’re not fulfilling the demand, you’re creating the demand.

    Think about users as a tourist that goes to London, for example. If ads that promoted London’s hippest night scene suddenly stopped converting, I might switch to a copy that talks about London’s wide gastronomical offer or museums, instead. Not everyone would want to visit London for the same reason. Sometimes changing the ad copy to talk about something different while still promoting the same can significantly help fight Facebook ad fatigue.

    So, how can you write ads that stand out amidst all the noise on the Internet?

    Here are a few ideas:

    1. Don’t Just Make Claims. Be Persuasive and Educational:

    To be more persuasive, make your ads educational and don’t just make claims. Most people just state what they’re selling. Facebook Ad copy works when it’s persuasive, and it teaches something at the same time. A great ad makes the user think: “Even if I did not click on the ad, just by reading the ad text, I’ve learned something new.”

    When scrollers stop to read something out of which they’re actually learning something new, ads convert much better. And how do you achieve that?

    2. Use the Power of Analogies

    Take “37 grams of saturated fat” as an example. Those can teach us a lot about writing better ads. When health warnings to popcorn and coconut oil first came out, popcorn buyers had absolutely no clue what those meant! So advertisers relied on analogies…

    In a 1992 press conference, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced:

    “A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings—combined!”

    That made the front pages of the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. The Washington Post wrote about it. And it was featured on CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN.

    Sarah Sal

    The public response was such a strong one that movie theaters were forced to stop using coconut oil.

    In fact, I’m currently reusing this popcorn analogy from an ad on which I paid £0.27 per click with 95 clicks as a result. People spend way more on Marketing per click than these figures, I’m sure you’ll know.

    Popcorn Analogy

    3. Answer Questions You’re Asked All the Time

    To write good copy, imagine a question people in your niche keep asking non-stop. Turn what you’re tired of answering into compelling Facebook ad copy.

    Excellent copy takes what you know your target audiences think, and it puts it on the page. When your prospects read your copy, they feel like you’re inside their head. That’s NOT because you’re a genius, but because you’ve been listening to them for a long time.

    Ad copy is not about you. It’s not about your product, even. It’ll ALWAYS be about your customers.

    Below is a screenshot of such an ad:

    Answer Questions in Ad Copy

    4. Turn Misconceptions into a Facebook Ad

    All industries are plagued by misconceptions! They affect their image, on top of it all; it’s the reality out there!

    If you address a misconception in your Facebook ad copy, that can clear up a customer’s conscious or subconscious objection. Explain your stance and back it up with evidence.”

Kirsty Saint
Kirsty is a Facebook Ad Specialist and Marketing Consultant who helps mission-driven businesses connect with their ideal clients.
https://www.kirstysaint.com

  • Using the Wrong Campaign Objective

    – “Be careful what you wish for with Facebook, because you just might get it!

    Facebook’s advertising platform is incredibly sophisticated in finding the people you tell it you’re looking for. What most advertisers don’t realise, however, is that not all campaign objectives are created equally.

    In Business Manager, there is an array of objectives to choose from when creating a campaign, shown below in ‘guided creation’, and ‘quick creation’ mode.

    Guided Creation
    Guided Creation

    Quick Creation
    Quick Creation

    Facebook knows the usage and activity-based behaviours of people on its platform. It will show your ads to people who are likely to take the action you choose, based on their past behaviour.

    One of the more common Facebook ad mistakes that inexperienced advertisers make is to choose the wrong campaign objective for what they hope to achieve. Let’s say you’d like people to click through to your website and fill out an enquiry form. I often see this set up with a ‘Traffic’ objective, because the thinking is ‘we’re sending people to the website’.

    Interestingly, the people who click through to your website from your Facebook ad posts are not always those who will actually purchase your services. Facebook knows who is more likely to simply browse your website, and who is more likely to make a purchase or fill out the enquiry form (a conversion).

    if you want web traffic, ask for traffic. if you want conversions, ask for conversions.

    Ideas on How to Solve It:

    The most important step in creating any Facebook ad campaign is to define the objective you seek to achieve.

    Is it:

    • For awareness, so people know you exist, or to reaffirm your existence in the marketplace? (Brand awareness objective)
    • For engagement, where you want as many people as possible to comment, like or share your social media post? (Engagement objective)
    • To drive visits to your website so people read more about your services or a blog article? (Traffic objective)
    • To encourage visits to a physical store? (Store visits objective)
    • To encourage people to subscribe to your email list through a free download? (Conversion objective)
    • To prompt prospective customers to book a call with you? (Conversion or lead generation campaign)
    • To achieve online sales of your products or services? (Conversion or catalogue sales campaign)

    Without first getting clear on what is important to you, your Facebook ad campaigns might not deliver the results you’re after if you choose the wrong campaign objective.

    Secondly, if a ‘conversion’ objective is right for your campaign, make sure you have the other components in place to make it work.

    You’ll need to have the Facebook Pixel installed on your website, with a conversion event set up (e.g. ‘complete registration’ or ‘lead’) on the Thank You page, for example. This is how Facebook knows a conversion has occurred, and continues to try to find more people in your target audience who are likely to take that action. When you create your ad in the Ad Set level, you will then need to select the conversion event that matches your Thank You page.

    Also, be aware that it might not be the best option to optimise for conversions in your ad set. This is because the Facebook algorithm prefers to have at least 50 conversion events in the past week to know what these events look like.

    If you’re working with a low budget, or just starting tracking conversions, Facebook might struggle to find the right people if you optimise for conversions, and you could end up with a very high cost per click (CPC). Optimising for landing page views or link clicks might give you a better result, at least to start. You can then switch your optimisation to conversions later.

    Advertisers who set up the correct campaign objective and optimisation will have a greater chance of success with Facebook Ads, by attracting the right visitors for the right action.”

Sandy Sidhu
Sandy Sidhu is an accomplished ads specialist dedicated to problem-solving, analyzing results + making suggestions to the client based on their results. She loves all things technology + geeking out over Facebook ads & marketing strategies. She left the corporate world to pursue her own digital marketing business 12 years ago.
http://www.sandysidhumedia.com

  • Not Leveraging Lookalike Audiences

    – “When it comes to Facebook ads, one of the areas that leaves a lot of business owners scratching their heads is: targeting.

    While many know they can target based on interests, location, demographics and behavior, Lookalike Audiences are often overlooked.

    What Exactly are Lookalike Audiences?

    Lookalike audiences are audiences that are similar to a source audience that you provide Facebook.

    For example:

    • Email List
    • Customer List
    • Page Engagement
    • Website Visitors
    • Video Views

    With a Lookalike Audience, you choose a source audience and Facebook will do the rest of the heavy lifting and find more people like them, within the selected location and audience size.

    Facebook will then deliver your ad to the audience of people who look like your source audience.

    Things to Consider

    When creating your Lookalike Audience, you can choose the size of your audience.

    The smaller the size the closer it will be in terms of similarity to your source audience.

    Facebook recommends the source audience be at least 1000 people.

    A source audience must also contain at least 100 people for the country you would like to target in order to use it as a Lookalike Audience.

    Create a Lookalike Audience

    Here are some examples of Lookalike audiences that you can create:

    Email list

    Upload an existing email list and then create a lookalike audience off of that.

    Page Engagement

    You can create a custom audience of people who have engaged with your page and then create a lookalike audience.

    Page Engagement Lookalike Audience

    Value Based

    Upload your customer list and assign a value and let Facebook find people like your most valuable customers.

    Value Based Lookalike Audience

    Once you set-up your lookalike audiences, you can then use them in your ad-sets.

    Lookalike Audiences

    Ultimately, with Facebook ads, it all boils down to testing and looking at the data to determine your next move.

    While Lookalike audiences are still “cold” audiences, they take a lot of the guesswork out of targeting since Facebook is doing the work for you.”

Becky Hopkin
Becky is MD of Digital Gearbox, a specialist PPC agency. Our mission is to ensure the goals of our customers are being met, if not exceeded, through the implementation of our kick-ass PPC strategies. We exist to deliver results that our customers don’t have the time or knowledge to achieve.
https://digitalgearbox.co.uk/

  • Not Creating Segmented Retargeting Audiences

    – “Getting the Facebook Pixel installed on your website is a must-do before you run any Facebook Advertising campaigns. The pixel is a powerful piece of code that lets you measure, optimise and build audiences for your advertising campaigns.

    Many marketers, having installed the pixel, plan to run a retargeting campaign to push Facebook Ads in front of people that previously visited their website. This is a solid strategy; after all, where the average website conversion rate is just 2.35%, this means 97.65% of your website visitors are leaving without doing anything.

    When you’re investing time and money to drive traffic to your website, you really want to do everything you can to nurture those visitors to a point where they’re ready to convert. Retargeting ads to those visitors is one way you can do this.

    The problem is too many marketers simply set up a single retargeting campaign to target all of their past website visitors with a generic message, and they then expect this to draw people back.

    Whilst the mere reminder of who you are and what you’re offering might bring some people back to the site, for many this approach will be ineffective.

    Retargeting becomes much more powerful when you spend some time building segmented custom audiences based on things such as the type of product or service they viewed on the website and how far down the purchase funnel they got.

    This way you can better tailor Facebook ad messaging based on the type of potential customer you are speaking to, making it much more likely they will engage with the ad and ultimately convert off the back of it.

    You can build your own custom audiences in the audiences section of your Business Tools, and you can create audiences using criteria such as specifying certain pages the audiences should have viewed, the time spent on the site, the event actions they have taken, and how recently they have been on your website.”

Rebecca Perkins
Rebecca has extensive experience working with many different types of organisations - big and small - on their Google, Facebook and Instagram Ads campaigns. She loves using her analytical background and in-depth knowledge of the platforms to help businesses and charities get great results.
http://www.rebeccaperkins.co.uk

  • Not Testing Enough (Creatives, Copy and Audiences)

    – “When Facebook ads don’t deliver stellar results quickly, businesses often conclude the platform isn’t for them. But this is rarely the case. Sadly, securing tangible results from Facebook Advertising isn’t as straightforward as choosing an image, drafting an ad, picking a few interests, and watching the money roll in.

    You might get lucky, but usually it takes weeks, if not months, of testing to really optimise Facebook ad campaigns and to get the results you’re looking for, whether that’s sales, leads, donations, or something else.

    Solution:

    It’s a good idea to treat the first couple of months of any campaign as a data-gathering exercise: you’re getting valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t, and these can set you up for consistent returns in the future. As long as you have the Pixel correctly installed, the data you gather can also be used to build audiences that you can retarget in the future.

    There are lots of different variables to test: copy, creatives, audiences, campaign objective, placements, the inclusion of call to action buttons, different headlines. Don’t do it all at once! It’s important to have a strategy so that you can disentangle how each variable affects the results.

    How many audiences you can test comes down to your budget. With less budget, it will take you longer to get results. That’s fine, but I would advise not spreading the budget you do have too thinly across lots of different ad sets. It’s a better bet to test audiences concurrently and to draw conclusions that way.

    So what might a sensible testing strategy look like? Supposing you had a budget of £50 a day, you might want to test five audiences in five different ad sets. Within each of these, you could have three or four different ads. The crucial thing is to just change one variable at a time. So perhaps start by focusing on the creative – maybe testing a video, single image, and carousel – and keeping the copy, headline, and everything else exactly the same across all the ads.

    Once you’ve gathered enough data, you can then optimise where you need to, switch off the ads and audiences that aren’t getting good results, field in more creatives, switch up the copy, or whatever else you decide to test next.

    Sometimes there’s a clear winner that gets great results across all ad sets, but often the results are surprising. Different creatives appeal to different audiences and sometimes what’s been a surefire success for one account, won’t necessarily translate well to a different sector or product. It’s only by trying things out and analysing the results in a strategic way that you can really optimise your digital advertising campaigns.”

Amy Bliefnick
Amy is a digital marketer, technology enthusiast, and lover of all things personal development. After working for a marketing automation platform brand, she built her agency 511 West to help coaches and online course creators expand their reach and get more clients through Facebook advertising and funnel optimization.
http://www.511west.com

  • Not Using Video View Ads to Build Warm Audiences

    – “One of the biggest Facebook ad mistakes I see is advertisers driving new, cold audiences straight to a purchase page expecting people to buy right away. While this can work, it is VERY rare. There are many different components that go into making a campaign successful, and it just takes some testing to get it dialed in. It helps to think of it as buying data and information so you can make informed decisions.”

    In order for someone to want to buy from you, there must be some trust there – trust in you (the offer) and trust in themselves. To help them trust you faster, I recommend utilizing video. Video helps people to connect with you or your product faster than any other form of content.

    In Facebook Ads Manager, you can target your new, cold audiences (people who have never heard of you before), with a Video Views campaign objective.

    Video Views Campaign

    If you already have video content or you are doing Facebook Lives, you can easily repurpose them to run as ads.

    Once you have built up some views on your videos, you can create Custom Audiences of people who have viewed your videos for 25%, 50%, 75%, and 95%. You can also retarget ThruPlays, but those are either 15-second views or viewed to completion.

    The more people you have in the 50%, 75%, 95% views audience, the better as they tend to be “warmer” or more engaged with the content you are sharing. Especially if your videos are on the longer side, but provide a ton of value.

    To build these warm audiences, click on the menu icon in the top left, and then click on “Audiences”

    Build Audiences

    Click “Create Audience” and then click on “Custom Audience”

    Create Custom Audience

    Select “Video”

    Video Facebook Source

    Then pick which Video View percentage you would like to retarget. Again, the longer the warmer.

    Video Engagement Custom Audience

    Then click “Choose videos…” to pick the video ads that have the views that you would like to retarget.

    Choose Videos Create a Video Engagement Custom Audience

    Enter the number of days you would like to go back and retarget. The closer the warmer, the longer the colder. I recommend doing one for last 30 days and then another for 60,90, and/or 180.

    Name your audience, and click “Create Audience” – and you’re done!

    Now when you are setting up your ad set, you can select this custom audience to target as a warm audience who hopefully knows, likes, and trusts you better after watching your videos!”

Natasha Leonards
Facebook & Instagram ads strategist and social media manager. I love to work with small businesses to help them grow and build their customer base.
http://www.awesocial.co.uk

  • A New Pixel Needs to Be “Seasoned”

    – “The pixel is the piece of data generated by your Facebook ad account to place on your website. This tracks all of your website visitors and their actions on your website. When you have a new pixel installed on your website, it is worth spending the time and budget running a traffic campaign to “season” it. This then gives Facebook data to work with and saves money, as it means Facebook then does not need to work so hard finding the right people to serve your ads. 10k pixel fires is the optimum amount of fires to season a pixel.”

Jacob Malherbe
Jacob Malherbe is a Facebook marketing expert, helping law firms get the most from the social network. His company X Social Media LLC are working with 350 law firms doing direct response advertising for most Mass Torts Cases. X Social Media LLC has grown by more then 2,500 % over the last 3 years and spent 51 million on Facebook advertising in 2019.
https://www.xsocialmedia.com/

  • Changing the Budget to Scale a Campaign

    – “Scaling Facebook Ad Campaigns has always been difficult for most Facebook managers so here are some suggestions to do it right.

    The first rule of thumb is to never, ever just change the budget on a live Facebook campaign as a way of scaling the campaign. When you just do that, the algorithm that is trying to find the right people to show your ad to will get shocked and your campaign performance will go downhill fast — it will not be a good outcome.

    Instead, here are two ways of scaling Facebook ad campaigns that work:

    1) The first way to scale a campaign is to duplicate the campaign into a new campaign that would start up with whatever budget you want to run. Now don’t shut down the old campaign – just increase the budget on the new duplicated campaign to whatever you want to scale to cumulatively. The only risk with this strategy is again the Facebook algorithm, as the first conversions you get on the new campaign will determine that campaign’s outcome and if it becomes as successful as the original campaign. If you have started with good targeting then this should be an easy way to scale.

    2) The second way to scale is by using Facebook rules. Here you would set up your rules on which conditions need to be met for Facebook to automatically scale the campaign. You can set a target per objective (leads, Sales, etc.) and when the conditions are met FB will automatically scale the budget by your set % each day at 12.00AM. The timing is very important as that is when Facebook starts the new budget. So make sure that has been selected. The maximum suggested scaling with FB Rules is 10% every 24-48 hours at 12.00 AM (midnight).

    These are two time-tested ways of scaling your Facebook ad campaigns.”

Casey Willow
We are Casey Willow and Harry Boulton. The Willow-Boulton Group is an extension of ourselves, an ever-changing, ever-evolving structure of integrity that is representative of our passion and our ideal. Our goal is simple. We help people and their businesses reach their desired financial situation using Facebook Advertising, the best advertising platform to date.
https://www.willowboulton.co.uk/

  • Not Having a Big Enough Budget

    – “We’ve spoken with multiple brand owners who’ve been misled about the reality of creating an ROI Positive advertising campaign using Facebook Ads.

    We discovered that the best budget for building a reliable campaign is £5,000 or over. We reached this conclusion during the early days of our Agency when we were working with people who didn’t have an adequate budget.

    Luckily there is a formula you can use that can give you an idea of how your budget will perform against your industry-standard conversion rate and CPC/CPA.

    To structure your formula, you must first find out what your CPC/CPA average based on your industry is. You can find this information online or use previous Facebook ad campaigns you’ve run (I would recommend using the industry standards found online).

    The next bit of data you’ll need is your conversion rate and you can either use the industry-standard or use your website conversion, which you’ll be able to find on your google analytics or website hosting analytics page.

    Depending on the type of campaign you’re running, you may want to pick your conversion from either your website or your Facebook channel.

    The next piece of data you’re going to need is the revenue you’ll be making per conversion, for example, if you’re selling T-Shirts at £25 per shirt your revenue per conversion will be equal to £25. You can take this a step further, by incorporating your margin to get a figure on your profit per conversion, let’s say you’re selling the same T-shirts which cost you £9.80 to make and ship so your pre-tax profit would be £15.20.

    Now we have all of our data lets build a scenario and work through this together.

    First, to get this going you’ll have to decide on your budget, like most hopeful online brand owners you pick a budget of around £1,500 per month, not too low, but also not too high ‘just right’.

    CPC: As you are in the apparel niche, your CPC is around 70p before optimising.

    CPC means your Cost Per Click, so basically how much it costs you every time someone goes from your Facebook Ad to your website.

    Monthly Clicks:

    Your monthly clicks are the first part of this formula we calculate.

    This is the number of people who go from your Facebook Ad to your website/product page.

    To figure out our monthly clicks, we take our budget of £1,500 and divide it by our cost per click of 70p(0.70).

    £1,500/0.70 = 2,143

    Now that we have our monthly clicks we need to figure out how many of those clicks will turn into actual conversions on our site, as I said before you can either use an industry conversion rate or use one from your past data. For this example, we’ll use the industry standard of 4.11% for Apparel.

    Monthly Conversions:

    To figure out your monthly conversions, you take your monthly clicks and multiply them by your conversion rate.

    2,143 X 4.11% (0.0411) = 88

    That’s 88 purchases. Now let’s figure out how much that would be in terms of ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

    ROAS:

    To figure out the Return On Advertising Spend we must take your total number of sales and multiply them by your product price of £25 and then take your original budget away from that figure.

    ROAS = 88 X £25 – £1,500

    = £700

    £700 is the amount you’ve made in ROAS on this Campaign. However, we can take a step further by looking at your actual profit by factoring in the loss you make per shirt which is around 40%.

    So by taking 40% of £700 (£280) away from your ROAS we’re left with a pre-tax profit of £420.

    You spent £1,500 to make £420 😐

    But as I said we found a sweet spot. Let’s run through the same scenario with a budget of £5,000 and see what happens.

    We’ll be using the same CPC, Conversion and Product Price along with the same margin of 40%.

    Let’s start with our Monthly Clicks.

    £5,000 / 0.70 = 7,143.

    7,143 Monthly clicks. Let’s see how many conversion we’ll get with that.

    7,143 X 4.11% (0.0411) = 294

    294 Sales on your store. Now let’s calculate the ROAS.

    294 X £25 = £7,350

    £7,350 In ROAS. Nw let’s factor our margin of 40% to see what our pre-tax profit will be.

    £7,350 X 40% (0.40) = £2,940

    A Loss of £2,940.

    £7,350 – £2,940 = £4,410

    Let’s look at the noticeable difference between both budget models.

    The first budget of £1,500 produced a ROAS of £700, almost 50% of the original spend which turned into a profit of £420, 28% of the original budget.

    The second budget of £5,000 produced a ROAS of £7,350, 147% of the original spend which turned into a profit of £4,410, 88% of the original budget.

    This formula is in no way a sure way to predict your results, as for that we would need to factor in things like CTR, CPA, website bounce rate along with finding a way to quantify the success of your creatives.

    The reason I believe that everyone who is planning to use Facebook as an actual marketing channel needs to understand this formula is because people right now are walking around saying they’ll produce ‘X’ ROI on a £2,000 budget which genuinely negatively impacts our industry. This causes business owners to reject the idea of Facebook becoming an integral part of their online marketing strategy.

    Problems with This Formula

    1. This formula does not take into how good your creatives and copy are. Without testing, you cannot accurately quantify how making the banner, ‘Red’ or ‘Blue’ will affect your campaign.
    2. This formula cannot predict how the campaign will evolve.
    3. This formula is limited by not incorporating CTR and other Facebook metrics.
    4. This formula does not take into account how accurate your base targeting options are.
    5. This point ties into the evolution of your campaign, but you’ll also be unable to predict how well a retargeting campaign will do using the basic version of this formula.

    The main reason we recommend using a budget of £5,000 or higher is that you’ll have a lot more room to play with in terms of testing and changing the campaign variables to better suit your audiences online behaviour.”

Debbie Friend
Trained in Social Media Management and Facebook Ad Strategy, Debbie worked with award winning tech start-up Personalyze and at Mediacom London before moving to New Zealand. Debbie now runs Indie Advertising, working with SMEs in multiple global locations wanting to increase their exposure online with Facebook advertising campaigns.
https://indieadvertising.co/

  • Sending Traffic to Slow Loading Website

    – “One thing many smaller businesses should ensure before running any ads on Facebook and Instagram is that they have a fast loading website. There’s thought to be at least a 40% drop off from people clicking on ads and not waiting for a website to load. This is a massive waste of Facebook ad spend.

    If you optimise for landing page views rather than link clicks when driving traffic, any issues with website loading speed will usually become apparent. When looking at results, if link clicks massively outweigh landing page views it’s often a problem with the website.

    Often too many pop-ups or larger images than necessary can hinder loading speed and result in a loss of many potential customers. A healthy, speedy website is definitely a prerequisite for running Facebook advertising campaigns.”

Robin Brooks
Facebook Advertising Expert | Speaker | Driven Over £5M In Sales Via Facebook Ads | Messenger Bot, Product Sales and Lead Generation Campaign Specialist | Helping clients create strategy and structure across Facebook’s many products.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-brooks-b416a779

  • Using Facebook’s ‘Lowest Cost’ Bid Strategy Like Everyone Else

    – “Using Facebook’s ‘Lowest Cost’ bid strategy like everyone else – Having worked in Facebook Advertising for almost a decade, I see this mistake happen all the time.

    What is the Lowest Cost Bid Strategy? – It’s essentially Facebook’s default setting and the ‘auto bid’ setting where you search for all lowest-cost opportunities while spending your budget. Sounds good right? The only problem is everyone else is doing the same. Facebook is an auction after all.

    One of the greatest advantages of being a Facebook Ads Freelancer is that I get to see thousands of different ad campaigns and how advertisers manage them. One very common misconception that I come across is the use of cost controls. To my surprise, a growing number of large-scale advertisers use automated bids and refrain from using bid caps. Instead of setting bid caps, they limit campaign or ad budgets to “control” their cost per result.

    How to Solve This – Change your bid strategy from ‘Lowest Cost’ to ‘Bid Cap’. Start off by setting your stakes high, set your bid cap to twice the price of the conversion. As long as your targeting is on point and your creative is average or above, your Facebook ad will feature in front of the right people ahead of everyone else who is using lowest cost bidding. You’ve done it, you’ve broken free of the rest of the ‘auto advertisers’ out there and put your Facebook ad in front of someone who wouldn’t have seen it originally.

    Naturally, you aren’t out of the woods yet. You still need to monitor and optimise as you usually would, check frequency, competition and saturation, but you have given your adset the edge.

    Parting thoughts: Stay competitive, don’t follow everyone else and test, test, test.”

Mel Eilers
Mel is a super, switched-on Facebook Ads specialist and owner of Socially Sound. Specialising in sport, lifestyle and event brands, Mel uses data-driven decisions to get clients the most value from their FB budget.
http://www.sociallysound.co.uk

  • Not Excluding BOF from TOF and Confusing Your Messaging TOF/MOF/BOF

    – “Just a load of acronyms right? Yep.. but important ones, and ones you need to understand when running Facebook Ads. What do they stand for? Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel and Bottom of Funnel.

    TOF is your cold audience, people who have never heard of you and know nothing about what you do or sell. MOF is your warm audience, those who have heard from you, but possibly not bought/worked with you – yet. BOF is your hottest audience. They know who you are, have bought from you or worked with you before.

    The funnel works by pouring large numbers of cold audiences in at the top, taking them on a journey of your product/service via ads with the appropriate messaging. As they move through the funnel, they get warmer, creating your ‘hot’ audience at the BOF.

    Sales funnel

    Depending on your product or service, your sales funnel may be shorter, or longer. If you were running low-ticket e-commerce ads (products under £50) you may not use MOF. If, however you were running ads for a high-ticket coaching programme that cost £5,000 there would be more stages in your funnel to ‘warm-up’ your audience.

    Understanding your different audiences ensures they receive the right message relevant to where they are in their customer journey with you. If you don’t craft your message to where the recipient is in the customer journey, it can be confusing… and annoying!

    TOF_BOF

    Let’s say you are a loyal subscriber to a product. Purely for explanation purposes, let’s say it’s coffee. As a subscriber you receive 5 different coffee flavours/products to try each month. You pay a certain price upfront each month and it’s delivered to your door. This would make you part of that brand’s BOF audience – ie. you know the brand, you buy from them.

    Then say you’re browsing Facebook and you’re served an ad for one of those subscription boxes. It contains the same products as the box you’ve already received. It talks about all the great coffee flavours, talks about home delivery and provides brand credibility and – what’s this – they get their second month for free?!

    So, what’s the problem?

    1. Firstly, the brand is spending money on ads that are reaching existing subscribers. The imagery and the messaging is suitable for a TOF audience, but it’s being seen by a BOF audience – an audience that already knows you and buys from you. An audience that doesn’t need to know about brand credibility and/or home delivery – because they already buy from you. How do you stop this happening? If you want to attract new customers – and spend your budget wisely on Facebook advertising – you need to exclude your BOF audiences from your TOF ads. This will ensure your ads are only being served to potential new customers.

    2. The existing subscriber is seeing products it has already received. They don’t need to see these ads – it’s pointless and a waste of money. It’s also annoying – they are likely to just scroll on and totally ignore your ad, because it’s not relevant. They may also be seeing an offer that they were not privy to themselves – which could be annoying. As a brand, you need to nurture your BOF audience. Maybe serve them ads that showcase your brand’s other products – DPAs are good for this. Try to upsell them other products that they might be interested in – with a hook (discount code, one-time/limited-time offer). The messaging here, for example, could read: “As a loyal customer, why not try our exclusive range of coffee syrups? Currently only available to subscribers. Save 10% on your first order.”

    Build BOF loyalty

    Regardless of discounts/offers/hooks (which have their place at all points of the funnel), my point here is that the messaging you use throughout your funnel needs to be appropriate to the audience it is being served to.

    TOF of funnel (potential new customers) need to know why/how your products/services will help them, what pain points they answer. You need to make them curious about your brand, wanting to know more about what you offer and – importantly – your brand credibility.

    One of the keys to successful Facebook advertising is being able to serve your audience with the right ad at the right time. Once they have bought from you, they need to feel nurtured and valued as a customer. Here, the messaging needs to change. Add value, upsell, maybe create offers purely for existing customers. Serving the wrong message to the wrong audience or – as I also commonly see – using one message to serve all stages of the funnel, won’t do you any favours.

    Another of the keys to successful FB ads is planning. Plan your messaging, plan your images. Know your client avatars and write accordingly – and do all this ahead of time, so you can really hone your tone and attract the right people to your brand.”

Leah Mazur
Leah worked for Canada's #1 Facebook advertiser before starting her consulting business in 2017. She manages advertising campaigns for clients in a variety of industries including startups, mobile app companies, and online learning.
https://loopdigital.ca

  • Poor or Unclear Ad Messaging

    – “An engaging message and a clear offer are the most important things for effective Facebook ads.

    No one is going to stop to read a Facebook ad that’s not interesting, and if it’s not clear, they won’t take the time to try to figure out what you are offering.

    Spend time on your Facebook ad copy and visuals to make them communicate your message simply and clearly, and in a way that focuses on what’s in it for THEM.

    Your ad copy should include:

    1. An Engaging Way to Capture Attention in the Newsfeed

    The first sentence of your ad copy is crucial for catching interest from your ideal prospect. Don’t use this to talk about yourself. Find an attractive hook to pique interest.

    2. Messaging that Qualifies the Audience

    Keep your exact audience in mind when writing your copy so that they know it’s for them. If the right people don’t find it relatable, you could be attracting the wrong people. For example, if your Facebook ad copy mentions feeling broke but you’re selling a high-ticket item, you’re probably not going to attract people who want to invest the price of your product.

    3. A Clear Description of the Offer

    What exactly are you offering, and what are the benefits for the audience? Why should they care? I often use bullets in my copy to convey what’s included in an easy to read format.

    4. A Call to Action to the Next Step

    Finish with instructions for what you want them to do next. You should make it as easy as possible for them to take you up on your offer. For example:

    • Click to download the free guide
    • Start shopping today
    • Install the app to learn more

    This tip isn’t as straight-forward to implement as something more technical like a change to targeting or the pixel. But I truly believe that the messaging is where most advertisers mess up with their ads and where I’ve seen the biggest improvements to campaign effectiveness.

    You can be targeting the perfect audience, and have all your configurations set up properly, but without copy that attracts the right people and encourages them to take the next step, it’s likely your campaign will flop.

    If you want to really move the needle on your campaign results, focus on your messaging!”

Rose Taylor-Brown
Rose is the founder of Juno Six, a small boutique agency specialising in paid social media ads for e-commerce, experience and travel businesses. She also mentors on Emma Van Heusen’s Facebook Adcelerator training course and loves nothing better than getting stuck into Facebook's analytics, tracking and attribution!
http://linkedin.com/in/brownrosemary

  • Not Understanding the Power of DPAs in eCommerce Retargeting

    – “Personalisation and relevance are key to customer-centric marketing and, as consumers, we’re all looking for a great experience. So if your Facebook ads eCommerce retargeting strategy doesn’t include Dynamic Product Ads, you’re simply leaving money on the table.

    Dynamic Product Ads, or DPAs, are a very powerful tool to tailor your retargeting ads to each potential customer, and the best thing about them is that businesses both big and small are boosting their sales thanks to their potential for personalising at scale.

    How Do They Work?

    To be able to show the exact products back to people who have viewed them on your site, you first need to be set up correctly.

    1. You need a Business Manager account to run DPAs.

    2.You need to have the Facebook Base Pixel installed sitewide and need to make sure Facebook can track the key actions your customers are taking. As a minimum, you need to be tracking:

    • View Content – this will fire every time someone clicks onto a product page and will share information so Facebook knows which product has been viewed.
    • Add To Cart – these people are showing a higher purchase intent than just viewing products
    • Purchase – this is the action that, ultimately, you want your customers to take so it’s a valuable action to track. In the case of DPAs, Facebook needs to know who has already purchased so they don’t waste your money retargeting someone who has already completed their purchase within your desired retargeting timeframe.

    Tracking Key Actions

    3. You need to create a catalog which allows Facebook to connect to your website. A catalog is simply a container that holds all the product information from your eCommerce site, such as product IDs, price, descriptions, colours, etc. How to create the catalog feed will depend on the platform your store is built on and Facebook lists some integrations and information on creating the catalog for these. You can also upload products manually but it’s worth noting that you’ll have to manually update it when products go out of stock, and if your store has hundreds of products, this just doesn’t make sense.

    Create a Catalog

    Once you have created your catalog and connected it to your pixel tracking in Catalog Manager (under Events along the left side of the screen), then you should be good to go with your retargeting DPAs.

    Harnessing the Power

    Now you are set up, you create a Catalog Sales campaign and can go through your Facebook ad set up as normal, making sure to pull in the correct catalog at the campaign level. However, ideally, you do need to make sure you have a minimum of 750-1000 unique people in your retargeting audience to make DPAs work.

    Retargeting Audience

    Retargeting people with relevant products not only helps to remove barriers to purchasing – Did they just forget to check out? Did they need to consider the purchase for longer? – but it also helps increase the FOMO/desire for the product by putting it back in front of them and, combined with the right messaging, can help shoppers to get over the line to a purchase. Simply put, breaking down barriers to purchase is what DPAs do smartly and effectively.

    And with big enough audiences you can even take your personalisation further by creating DPA retargeting stacks to show potential customers the products they have looked at, at the right time, and with different messaging depending on when they viewed or added to cart. You could consider splitting your DPA audiences down and retarget them with a reminder message for days 1-3 post-viewing, trust copy on days 4-6 and an offer on days 7-10, for example, making the overall customer journey much more personalised to your potential customers.”

Sufian Asghar
I am a Facebook ads agency owner, and have been running ads on the platform for the past two years working exclusively with eCommerce brands spending between 10k-60k p/m on Facebook
http://szn-media.co
  • Not Giving the Facebook Algorithm Enough Control – “Many advertisers and brands make the mistake of not taking advantage of giving Facebook more control, this means using what is known as the Facebook Power 5 which are the following:

    • Dynamic Ads
    • Account Simplification
    • CBO
    • Automatic Placements
    • Auto Advanced Matching

    1. Dynamic Ads – The first step in allowing Facebook more control in order to get the best results for you (by using the millions of datapoints and years of learning that the algorithm now has which allow it to optimize ads better than humans can) is using dynamic ads. This allows Facebook to deliver the right ads featuring the right products to the right people based on their specific engagement with products or services in that specific niche.

    2. Account Simplification – Account simplification is one of the most powerful tools when running Facebook Ads, as fewer ads and fewer ad sets equal quicker learning phases and better optimization. Gone are the days where you need 20 or 30 campaigns in your Facebook ad account – simplifying the ad account will simplify your optimizations and make your life a whole lot easier.

    3. CBO – CBO refers to campaign budget optimization whereby instead of budgets being set at the ad set level, you can now set them at the campaign level. This means that in real-time Facebook will determine which ad sets in your campaign have the best chance of generating conversions and allocate spend that way throughout the day, allowing you to spend less time in your ads manager constantly tweaking things.

    4. Automatic Placements – Many advertisers and brands still use manual placements and the truth is, Facebook knows a whole lot better than you do – where to show your ads in order to get you results. By isolating placements and restricting Facebook you end up with a significantly higher cost per result than you would if you had chosen automatic placements.

    5. Auto Advanced Matching – Auto advanced matching allows for better data exchange between Facebook and your site in order to assign conversions to the correct source and allow you to make better data-driven decisions for your future Facebook ad spend.”

Sam Weber
Performance Marketing Consultant based in Melbourne, Australia that has helped grow over 2,000 small to enterprise scale businesses through Facebook and Instagram Ads.
http://weberdigital.com.au

  • Not Using User (or Influencer) Generated Content in Ads

    – “One of the biggest Facebook Ad mistakes I see advertisers making is not using user (or influencer) generated content in their ads.

    Especially at the bottom of the marketing funnel, UGC/IGC is pivotal in building trust with the audience.

    We often forget that people are on social media, primarily, to connect with their friends in an authentic manner.

    So why break up their consumption of content with a salesy, emotionless ad?

    Time and time again, across the thousands of Facebook Ads I’ve run, the organic-styled, iPhone shot creative of someone using the product or service significantly outperforms the more polished and production-heavy one.

    And not just for clicks.

    But quality leads and purchases.

    Don’t forget that it’s significantly cheaper (most times even free) to generate this content than the typical polished photo/video. So as well as reducing your marketing expenses it’s simultaneously lifting your revenue.

    Social media users today see through bulls**t – so show them reality.”

Terry Foster
Terry Foster is the founder of Terry Foster Consulting Services, which specializes in creating profitable digital media channels for small and minority-owned businesses. Terry has managed over $15 million dollars of ad spend on 10 different paid traffic channels, resulting in over $75 million dollars of sales for his clients.
http://www.terryfosterconsulting.com

  • Not Using One Ad ID Across Multiple Ad Sets

    – “This is one of those Facebook ad mistakes that is definitely overlooked by many – and it can be costly.

    When you duplicate an ad set in Ads Manager you will create duplicate ads BUT the Ad ID will be different. The problem with this is that it negatively impacts your social proof.

    You can verify your Facebook Ad ID’s by clicking on “Page Posts’ in Ads Manager. You then want to view ‘ad posts’. Take a look at an example I was able to dig up on a client’s account.

    Facebook Ad ID

    This is the exact same Facebook ad but it has two different ID’s.

    This means that each one will separately track its reach and engagement.

    It also means that you are losing out on an opportunity to garner more social proof by having all of the engagement tied to one ad.

    It is much better to have 1 Facebook ad with 100 likes than to have 10 ads with 10 likes. When people engage with your ad that is a positive sign to Facebook.

    As a result, your ads will be delivered cheaper. It is also easier to manage the comments on an ad if there is only one Ad ID.

    How to Win

    1. Create your “BASE” ad.
    2. Locate the post id of your “BASE” ad.
    3. Duplicate your ad sets, but afterwards, you will need to update the ad to ‘Use Existing Post’ and supply the Facebook Ad ID that you just created.

    Now all of the ads will be tied to the same Ad ID and your social proof will be amplified!

    If you would like to see me demonstrate this via a video then just click here”

Hunter Durham
Hunter Durham consulted with 100+ e-commerce businesses during his time at Facebook and many more since he left. He knows the ins and outs of the algorithms that power today's paid media platforms. Impact Industry manages budgets of over $2M+ annually.
http://impactindustry.marketing

  • Not Excluding Past Purchasers

    – “I’ve seen a lot of ad accounts consulting with 100+ businesses during my time at Facebook. My role was to coach my clients on how to spend most efficiently on the platform. One of the most common Facebook Ad mistakes I saw is people not excluding past purchasers from their customer acquisition campaigns.

    This Presents Two Problems:

    1. Facebook is optimizing acquisition campaigns off past customers, not new customers who are buying for the first time.
    2. It is hard to understand true acquisition costs because repeat purchasers are being included in your ad campaigns. And Facebook is really good at finding and attributing past customers.

    When I am conducting audits, it is always a difficult conversation with the client (or even agencies) when I tell them that their performance most likely is not as good as Facebook is reporting. I recently reviewed an account where customer acquisition costs were about 3X higher than they thought because proper exclusions weren’t being applied.

    How to Identify and Solve It:

    When reviewing performance, one of the very first things I do is break out Facebook’s reporting window into 1-day view, 1-day, 7-day, 28-click.

    Attribution Window

    What this does is allow me to see the breakdown of how Facebook is reporting the purchase event. If there is a large amount of view-through conversions, it may mean that too many past purchasers are being attributed to ad campaigns. View-through conversions are still important but too many likely means the results are skewed.

    From a campaign level, I generally set up 3 types: Prospecting (Top of Funnel/Cold Audiences), Retargeting (Middle of the Funnel), Loyalty (Bottom of Funnel/Retention). For my prospecting and retargeting, I exclude all past purchasers 3 different ways: CSV list from E-commerce platform, Custom Website Audience, and Email Service Provider.

    The reason I do it multiple ways is each type might have a separate match rate. Additionally, the pixel only collects data for 180 days. So if you have only excluded it with a 180 Past-purchaser audience with the pixel, past purchasers will be included after 6 months.

    Past purchasers are still a really important targeting audience in your Facebook strategy especially during sales and key times of the year. When I do want to target past purchasers, I put them into a separate loyalty campaign, that way I can break them out from my standard reporting.”

Paula O'Sullivan
Social Media Strategist, Facebook Ad Specialist, Founder of Possum Digital
http://www.possumdigital.com.au

  • Neglecting the Importance of the Headline

    – “The best Facebook Ad campaigns pay attention to ALL the elements of the creative, especially the headline text. This is the large, bold text directly under the image or video, and when written well, can help increase engagement with your ads.

    While this text is not the part of the ad seen first (especially on mobile), the headline copy is what can make someone ‘stop the scroll’ and really take a look at your offering. It’s a way of reinforcing your key message before the Facebook user moves through the rest of their feed.

    My top 3 tips for creating an eye capturing headline:

    1) Be Clear and Concise – This is not the place for long, flowing sentences. Get to the point, and fast.

    2) Inspire Curiosity – While I never recommend ‘clickbait’ type copy, you have around 5 words to grab their attention, so use them well.

    3) Tell People What You Want Them to Do – Give them a clear call to action.”

Annette Clubley
Annette has worked with literally hundreds of businesses on their web development projects, search engine optimising their sites or advertising their business on social media. She specialises in bringing her organic and paid search strategy experience together to reduce advertising costs and help your business grow.
https://www.marketingorganised.co.uk/

  • Ignoring the Impact of Relevance on Facebook Ad Costs

    – “Facebook introduced ad relevance scores in 2015 but I still find businesses that don’t know what it is or what to do about it when they find their Fcaebook ad has a low quality, engagement, or conversion relevance score. As a keen analyst, I find it extraordinary that a business will not take advantage of data that could help them improve adverts.

    relevance score

    So, what is an ad relevance score? It is a score between 1-10 that Facebook applies to an advert based on positive feedback (people liking, clicking through from or converting from an advert) and negative feedback (people hiding or reporting an advert).

    Facebook reports on your advert’s relevance score in Ads Manager, showing results for Quality ranking, Engagement rate ranking, and Conversion rate ranking. Note: Facebook ad relevance diagnostics are not shown for ads that have been served less than 500 times.

    Below average scores are split into the bottom 35% of adverts, bottom 20% of adverts, and bottom 10% of adverts. Average represents the 35th to 55th percentile and above average is above 55% of adverts.

    ad_relevance_scores

    Why Does this Matter to You and Your Business?

    “Put simply, the higher an ad’s relevance score is, the less it will cost to be delivered.” – Facebook

    You can see in the example above that a lower quality ranking has increased the cost per result by 2 pence. Across a larger campaign, this can make a significant difference. Making sure that your advert is relevant will reduce your advertising costs.

    Ideas on How to Solve It

    Thankfully Facebook provides a handy guide on how to fix it if your advertisements have a below-average score. Their advice is to focus on improving low rankings and move them up to average or better than average, as this has more impact than improving an already average ranking.

    ad relevance diagnostics

    If Your Quality Ranking is Low – Look at your creative assets to see how they might be improved, change formats and ensure no low-quality images are used. Fine-tune your audience to make sure they are your target market.

    If Your Engagement Rate Ranking is Low – Use eye-catching creative ideas to make people stop and look, and think about targeting an audience that you know will be interested in your product or service and engage with the advert.

    If Your Conversion Rate Ranking is Low – Make sure that you have a clear call to action for the advert and check your landing page to make sure that it is inviting and quick to load. Target a high intent audience like those who are engaged shoppers.

    “If your conversions meet your expectations, you may not need to adjust your ad.” – Facebook

    Finally, do not get hung up on it! If you have set an objective or goal for your advertising campaign (you have, right?!) and your advert is meeting that objective then in the words of Facebook ‘you may not need to adjust your ad’.”

Ali Wheeler
Ali founded her business, Society State in 2017 after working as a Marketing Specialist for 12 years across a range of industries. Today, Ali offers a ‘no fuss’ approach, delivering paid social management & training plus strategic social media, helping brands build engaged communities and drive business growth.
https://www.societystate.com.au/

  • Forgetting About Other Marketing Methods and Organic Social Media to Support Facebook Advertising

    – “If you’re relying solely on Facebook & Instagram advertising to sell your products or services – you’re in for a rude awakening.

    Plenty of clients come to me and hope that Facebook Advertising can make them millions of dollars, but one of the first questions I ask them is “What other marketing and advertising are you currently doing for your business – or planning on doing”?

    Many of them say “Oh I know I need to be posting on Instagram more” or “I don’t have an email list”, or “Other than posting on Instagram, nothing”…

    It’s then I hear alarm bells ring in my ears. You see, my most successful clients are those that have an engaged social media following, an engaged email list or have quality leads ready to target.

    In order to have successful social advertising campaigns, it is imperative that business owners don’t put all their eggs in the one basket. Facebook Advertising is a way to amplifying your other marketing efforts.

    Here are six other marketing ideas you can implement to support your Facebook & Instagram Advertising:

    1. Set up automatic abandon cart and system emails for your ecommerce store: this will automatically decrease your abandon cart rate, increase customer life-time-value and loyalty (hello birthday vouchers!)
    2. Develop a realistic cadence of marketing emails: regular marketing emails – providing opportunities for your audience to engage, interact and buy from you via your email marketing provides another touchpoint for your business.
    3. Regularly post on your social media channels: creating an engaged community online will support your Facebook Advertising efforts by creating custom audiences of engaged users to retarget with Facebook and Instagram Ads.
    4. Check your engagement rate on your social media: A great way to check your Instagram engagement is using Phlanx – it’s quick and easy, and gives you a good sense of if you need to improve. A good benchmark is around 1.6% (source)
    5. Set up Google Advertising: Google advertising can be an effective way of driving relevant, qualified traffic to your website exactly when people are searching for the types of products or services your business offers.
    6. Get a solid SEO strategy: This can improve your search ranking and website visibility – which has a flow on effect in driving more traffic to your website.

    The benefit of having an omni-channel marketing strategy, is all about optimising your audience size. If you are using Facebook & Instagram advertising with ‘warm’ audiences, and relying on your website pixel data alone – you’re limiting the number of custom audiences you can target. The time it takes to generate sales and conversions can take a lot longer – and you’ll also be missing out on creating killer lookalike audiences also!

    Here are three examples of custom audiences created from other marketing efforts – to get the most out of your paid social activity:

    1. Customer List: You can upload a list of customers who’ve interacted with your business. The most common is an email list, but it also could be an event list, or a list of leads from a market or exhibition (hello – real-world events). The benefit here is you can retarget them based on their prior interaction with your business and move them to the next stage of the sales funnel.

    customer list

    2. Video Views (from IGTV video): If you’re a regular video content creator, and uploading video to your social media accounts – creating a Video Views audience is a must! One of my favourites is creating an audience based on IGTV video views – some of the businesses I work with have thousands of people watching their IGTV video content, and being able to retarget them with conversion campaigns or website traffic campaigns is absolutely priceless!

    igtv video views

    3. Facebook Page: Creating an audience based on interactions with your Facebook page (or Instagram account) is one of the first audiences I set up for new clients. If they’ve got an engaged following on their social media – that is people interacting with organic posts, or previous Facebook ads – why not create a custom audience to retarget to. The options here are extensive, and based on varying levels of engagement including targeting people who’ve visited your page, right through to people who’ve saved your page or any post.

    facebook page audience

    Before jumping headfirst into Facebook Advertising, take a step back and look at your other marketing efforts and see what can be improved or turned on first.”

Aashay Shah
Aashay Shah is the Director of Kick Marketing, a boutique agency that focuses on helping businesses generate higher quality leads and sales through Facebook advertising.
https://www.kickmarketing.com.au/

  • Not Taking Advantage of Custom Placement Aspect Ratios

    – “No doubt, in today’s digital age, we are constantly bombarded with information and advertising with every swipe, click and scroll.

    That’s why it’s never been more important for your ads to stand out from the crowd and avoid blending in with the competition.

    The versatility Facebook provides throughout its vast network: Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network and so on, is truly powerful to reach a wide audience; however, this also presents challenges for business owners to have creatives that suit every placement that sits within each platform.

    Have a quick look below at some of the options available:

    Aspect Ratios

    Generally what happens is somebody may upload a single square image or video and then let Facebook determine the best placement for it.

    This is very easy to set up but sometimes your ad may look like this:

    Bad Example

    I completely understand that it can become costly to get custom aspect ratio’s for every placement and potentially inefficient if creative bulk campaigns.

    Where possible, these are the 3 custom placements I recommend to have different size creatives for:

    • Square (most placements)
    • IG Feed (1000px x 1350px)
    • Stories (1080px x 1920px)

    Have a look at an example from HBF Health below.

    HBF example

    The IG Story creative takes up maximum screen ‘real estate’ yet is simple and effective.

    Not many advertisers are taking advantage of the Stories placements which is why there is a massive potential to stand out in this placement currently.

    Since incorporating custom IG Feed and Stories graphics, we’ve found a significantly lower cost per lead or sale for those placements.

    Work with your creative team in getting a basic structure for these placements and you may be pleasantly surprised with the results they yield.”

Jamie Forrest
I help turn 'OK' Facebook ads results into Great results by identifying the SPECIFIC mistakes you've made and show you how to fix them.
https://www.healthyleads.co.uk/facebook-ads-audit/
  • Not Doing the Hard Work First in Understanding Your Customer Avatar – “When it comes to defining their customer clearly (if you don’t know who you’re selling to, it’s hard to speak to them in an appealing way) there are two related/intertwined ways that people get this wrong – and it can be lethal to the results of their Facebook ad campaigns.

    1. They don’t define their target customer at all in the first place, and just use generic language that (sort of) appeals to everyone.
    2. If they have defined an avatar, they’ve lumped everyone in together, to some amalgamation of all their customers.

    Generic Language Speaks to (and Disqualifies) Nobody

    Buying is first and foremost an emotional decision, and if we don’t trust the person selling to us, we’re not going to buy, so you need to show that you UNDERSTAND THEM, and UNDERSTAND THEIR PROBLEMS.

    How to Avoid Making the Same Mistake

    First, define all the different groups of people that buy from you. There should be at least 3, but if you’ve got loads, then just identify the biggest few.

    i.e. a massage therapy client had 3 main groups of clients – 30-45 year old mums, 40-60 year old business executives, and those recovering from injury.

    Each of these personas will have different opinions/goals/pains etc, so once you’ve done that, ask yourself the following questions for each one:

    1. For each one we want to know the basic demographics that define them:

    1. Age
    2. Gender
    3. Location
    4. Income

    2. Then the psychographics that relate to what you’re selling:

    1. What do they want?
    2. What do they care about?
    3. Who are their enemies?
    4. What are their dreams?
    5. What do they believe?
    6. What are their suspicions?
    7. How have they failed before?
    8. What are they afraid of?

    Then when you create a Facebook ad campaign, create it for just one persona at a time, and craft your message and your offer to match them.

    The same treatment might solve the problem for multiple groups, but saying “a back and shoulder massage can help alleviate pain and aid recovery from injury for anyone” isn’t half as powerful as saying “if you’ve been sat at a desk for 8 hours a day for the past 20 years, you’re likely feeling pain across your lower back and aches when you get out of bed in the morning…” because it talks to a specific person.”

Dorothy Illson
Dorothy Illson is the founder of Needle’s Eye Media, a full-service digital advertising agency. With an innate talent for data-wrangling and a holistic understanding of digital marketing, Dorothy leverages a scientific approach to help her clients grow. This allows her to profitably spend several millions of dollars each year on behalf of her clients.
https://www.needleseyemedia.com/

  • Not Understanding Facebook Fraud

    – “Have you been a victim of Facebook fraud?

    No, I’m not talking about fake clicks, duplicate traffic, or illegal data sharing…

    … I’m talking about CREDIT.

    Specifically, Facebook taking credit for conversions they aren’t responsible for.

    Here’s why this happens:

    Facebook’s default attribution window is 28-day click and 1-day view.

    It’s the 1-day view that matters here.

    Because when you allow Facebook to take credit for view-through conversions…

    It’s almost guaranteed to over-report.

    Remember: Your Facebook pixel is going to fire on every purchase – whether or not that person saw an ad.

    But when Facebook sees that purchase…

    They’re going to ask themselves “did we show this person an ad?”

    If yes, then they’ll take credit for the sale.

    Even if that person never stopped to read the ad or click on it.

    What You Can Do About It

    So, here’s a way to get a better idea of what Facebook is really responsible for.

    Go into Ads Manager > Customize Columns.

    In the bottom right corner, under Attribution Window, click on Comparing Windows.

    Then create presets to show you the 1-Day, 7-Day, and 28-Day Click.

    This will give you a much clearer picture of what Facebook has really contributed to.

    It will make your numbers look worse…

    But it will also give you better ammunition to scale the ads that are actually working for you.”

Suzanne Potter
Suzanne is an experienced Marketer, Social Media Manager and Facebook Ad Strategist based on the South Coast of England. Founder of Spring Marketing & Social, Suzanne works closely with clients to deliver strategy, implementation and training to help them connect with their audiences and grow their brand.
http://www.springmarketingandsocial.com

  • The Content Facebook Doesn’t Like in Ads – What to Watch Out For

    – “Bill Bernbach said “Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make”

    So, the question is, how do you make a good impression? A lot of advertisers will consider this question and think of the end-user, forgetting there’s somebody else crashing the party – the bots and moderators who will approve your Facebook ad before it even gets in front of your audience.

    So how do you write and design your Facebook ad so that it flies through the approvals process and starts delivering?

    One of the first things to remember is that Facebook ultimately aims to put the user experience at the heart of the platform. So that means it’s looking for ads that fit nicely into the users feed, attract attention in a positive way and don’t make the reader feel bad in any way.

    Where Do I Start?

    The first thing to do is to make sure you aren’t using any of the red flags that Facebook looks for when your ad goes to review. Some of them really are common sense – don’t swear, discriminate or use any type of sexual imagery or innuendo, but others are a little less obvious.

    Let’s take a look at some of the things to avoid in your ads and how to create some workarounds that will get your Facebook ad through the all-important approvals process.

    It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It

    Misleading or false claims are a big no-no when it comes to Facebook Ads copy, and rightly so. So that means no exaggerated claims, miracle cures, or talking about unrealistic outcomes within a certain time frame.

    This can make ads in the healthcare or weight loss space tricky, no more “7 Quick and easy ways to lose your middle-age spread!” headlines. Instead, tone it down and talk about “Tips to tone up”. It makes it far less accusing and isn’t going to make somebody feel bad about themself.

    It’s All About You

    Facebook doesn’t say you can’t put “you” in your ad copy. But you do need be careful about how it’s used.

    The problem comes when you write the Facebook ad copy in a way that makes it feel like the ad is directly targeting somebody and calling them out in a way that is against their advertising principles (and polite conversation).

    So, for example, you can’t write “Have you been declared bankrupt?” or “Are you single and looking for romance?”, it’s way too direct and has the potential to make the reader feel bad about themselves.

    Instead, try and craft your copy to call out your audience so that they relate to what you’re saying, but in a more general way; “Our financial products have everything you need”, or “Meet like-minded people online”.

    Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep

    Not many people realise that when you send your ad for review, Facebook also looks at a host of other elements, including the landing page you’re sending your traffic to. So if you’re advertising 67% off everything, but your landing page makes no mention of this discount, they will see it as an inconsistency and a sneaky way to drive traffic to your website. Not cool.

    That also goes for the imagery you use on the ad – advertising beautiful jewellery which actually turns out to be cheap, cheerful plastic rubbish once you hit the website will get you a red mark too.

    So, the upshot is that ads need to be as clear and transparent as possible, with landing pages to match.

    Strike a Pose

    How do your images look? It should go without saying that they should be clear, and in line with all the usual content restrictions. But the one that commonly catches people out is the 20% rule. This essentially guides the advertiser not to have more than 20% of the image as text as Facebook really likes an image to be an image.

    Although it’s not enforced as strictly as it used to be, it’s still worth knowing because it could be a reason why your Facebook ad is being held back or rejected.

    Mind Your P’s and Q’s

    It may seem trivial, but you’ll also be held back if your spelling, grammar or punctuation aren’t up to scratch. In fact, poor grammar falls under Facebook’s list of prohibited content.

    And don’t try and sneak in a swear word by replacing letters for symb*ls, as it’s a red flag to the bots and is highly likely to be rejected. Instead, make sure you check your spelling and grammar before the ad goes out to give yourself the biggest chance of success.

    And Finally

    This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the “don’ts” when it comes to Facebook ad copy, but it should give you a good start point. If you want to know more, a good place to look is the Facebook Business Help Centre pages where you can find the full list of guidelines and rules.

    And if you’ve done all this and your Facebook ad is still stuck in review, remember that it can take up to 2 days to get through the process. If you haven’t had any luck, there is a form here (https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/186912391909649?hc_location=ufi) you can fill in for help, or try duplicating the campaign and sending to review again – sometimes it speeds things up.

    So when you’re crafting your ads remember the golden rule that Facebook puts the user experience at the heart of the whole platform and make sure you avoid the red flags to help you run a successful campaign. Good luck!”

Yesim Saydan
Yesim Saydan is a Social Media Strategist and Growth Hacker, helping Business Owners multiply their Sales and Brand Reach - by using social media strategically and creatively. She is a Social Media Mentor at Google’s Accelerator, while running her own Social Media Consultancy. In addition, she has been invited to speak at various conferences worldwide.
http://www.facebook.com/YourSocialMediaExpert

  • Not Hooking Your Clients’ Attention in the First 3 Seconds

    – “We live in a world where the attention span of a human is less than the one of a goldfish! If you don’t grab your ideal clients’ attention the first 3 seconds, they won’t even watch the rest of your Facebook Ad and all your effort will go to waste.

    To make sure that we put this into context, let me emphasize that I am talking about the 2nd step here: How to optimize our Ads so they will be watched and engaged with as much as possible. The 1st step before that is to ensure that your Ads get in front of your ideal clients.

    To ensure that your ideal clients will see your Ads, you need pay attention to 3 key elements:

    • RIGHT TARGETING – Do NOT start a campaign based on Interests! (This should be your last resort after you have exhausted your Custom audiences and lookalike audiences)
    • RIGHT OBJECTIVE – Determine in advance what you want to achieve with your campaign. Facebook’s AI is incredibly smart. It will help you reach your goals if you tell it what to do.
    • RIGHT MEDIUM – This changes all the time. Right now Short video ads get the best results.

    Now that you have the first step taken care of, and we know that your Ad is being shown to your ideal clients, let’s talk about which Facebook Ad mistakes most Business Owners are making that waste their whole Ad budget:

    1. Starting the video with an introduction that is all about themselves or the company.
    2. Being very salesy, starting with a pitch.
    3. Talking with little energy.
    4. Making small talk.
    5. Being boring and monotone.

    WHAT YOU NEED TO DO INSTEAD

    Remember that you are not only competing with your competitor’s Ads and other FB Ads in general, but also the baby pictures of the friends of your audience!

    Your audience is NOT on Facebook to watch Ads. Actually most people hate them.

    It’s YOUR job to give them a reason to watch your Ad. And that’s why the hook – what you do in the first 3 seconds – plays a huge role. You need to have something at the very beginning of your Video Ad (in the case of a photo, then use something striking in the photo) that grabs their attention right away!

    How you ask?

    1. Start your video with a relatable question that talks about the pain of your ideal clients and hooks their attention right away. A great example of this is Dean Graziosi’s Ad, where he paid Larry King a HUGE sum of money to introduce him at the beginning of his Ad. Dean thought that he would grab tons of eyeballs, since Larry King had a huge following but the Ad flopped. Why? Because Dean was not famous then. Although he had created a great video, very few people watched the part after the introduction. The beginning of the video was this: ‘I am live here with Dean Graziosi. He is the Author of X, does XYZ.’ Why do you think that the Ad performed so bad, even when Dean used a big Influencer to market him? There was nothing that stopped the audience from the distractions in their lives, so they didn’t pay attention to the rest. But when Dean changed the hook – the beginning of his video – the Ad became a huge success. A tiny little thing that turned it from a Facebook Ad that almost no one watched fully to a viral one. What was that little thing? Instead of Larry King introducing Dean, Larry started off the video by saying: ‘Have you ever thought in your adult life that you would be further ahead by now?’ Do you realize how much more impactful that first sentence is? How it would make you stop what you’re doing and want to pay attention to what else he says in the video? We can all relate to that question.
    2. Talk about the RESULT you can help visitors achieve in one sentence. Don’t go into a sales pitch or your lengthy story yet. People don’t want to buy a pill. They want their headache to go away. Give the audience a one-liner, where they can see that you have the solution to their pain.
    3. Provide social proof. This may be a result you helped many people get or even just one person in particular that makes a strong case: ‘John lived his entire life with claustrophobia, not even leaving his apartment. And yet after 1 month of trying our X Formula, he is skydiving’

    After grabbing their attention with a burning question that occupies the minds of your ideal clients and a sentence that ‘indirectly’ says shortly and sweetly how you are an expert in this topic, introduce yourself and tell them your personal story of transformation.”

Brian Meert
Brian Meert is the CEO of AdvertiseMint, a Hollywood based digital advertising agency that specializes in helping successful companies advertise on Facebook. Advertisemint has managed millions of dollars in digital ad spends in entertainment, fashion, finance, and software industries.
http://www.advertisemint.com/

  • Showing the Same Facebook Ad to a Person More Than Once

    – “If users see the same Facebook ad more than once, they scroll past it because they’ve already seen it and know what it’s about. This hurts your Facebook ad quality score. To solve this, you need to build segments around four areas: top funnel, middle funnel, bottom-funnel, and customers.

    The top of the funnel is the first introduction to a customer. Once they interact, they are moved out of this segment. For this stage of the funnel, create an ad that is mysterious, that leaves them wanting for more information. Apple and Tesla are amazing at this.

    The middle of the funnel is for users who have been to your website or engaged with your posts in the last 10 to 180 days. These are users who know about your business. Use tools such as Dynamic Creatives to create ad variants that answer questions about your business, such as the way the business works and the benefits to users. Feature testimonials, reviews, blog posts, holiday sales, and more.

    Next up is the bottom of the funnel. Here are users who have been to your website in the last 10 days. Focus on running Dynamic Product ads if you’re running an e-commerce store and focus on creating ads that answer one of the five P’s (product, price, placement, promotion, people) for why people should purchase. If you run a larger e-commerce store, you can use Amazon’s approach and set up multiple ad accounts and business pages for each category of your store. Set your bid caps to 5 to 10 times your target CPA — this will allow your customers to see multiple carousel ads of your products per day. You’re now bringing your shopping experience to the customers.

    Last up is your customers. Make sure not to forget about them. Leverage your data on lifetime value and create ads that offer customers first dibs on a sale, share exciting news or feature customer reviews. Everyone likes being on the winning team. There is no such thing as a perfect Facebook ad. Focus on creating a variety of ads that appear at the right time and help build a stronger relationship with your customers.”

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing

Best Landing Page Builder: 63 Paid Traffic Experts Vote

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated May 25, 2021

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no added cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Best Landing Page BuilderGenerating targeted leads is vitally important for practically any business and landing pages play a major part in the process. The difference a well optimized landing page that is perfectly designed for your target audience can have on your company’s revenue can be staggering!

Now managing and optimizing landing pages used to be reaaaally tedious. You’d have to code the page from scratch, and 3rd party analysis tools were rudimentary at best, so optimizing was more guesswork than anything. But thankfully this is 2021, not 2003. You no longer need to be a coding wizard or be crazy talented at design (although it does help!), as there are now lots of different solutions available that allow you to deploy battle tested, attractive landing pages extremely quickly (sometimes within minutes), and then provide you with the toolset to analyze how your audience engages with them.

Anyhow, it’s that fact that you have “all these options” nowadays that leads us on to the question that we’re addressing in this post…what is the best landing page builder in 2021? Now I’m no expert on building landing pages, so I got in touch with over 60 PPC and SEM pros that are. They build and optimize landing pages pretty much every day, and have been doing so for years. We asked each of them to recommend the best landing page software they’ve come across, allowing them to put forward up to 3 options, and we’ve published the results and what they had to say below.

So whether you’re a novice looking to create your very first landing page or you’re an experienced paid traffic marketer thinking of jumping ship, then this article should give you a number of very good options to investigate further.

Best Landing Page Builder in 2021: How Our Experts Voted

Landing Page Builder# of Votes
#1. Unbounce40 Votes
#2. Instapage17 Votes
#3. Leadpages13 Votes
#4. ClickFunnels11 Votes
#5. Thrive Architect8 Votes
#6. WordPress6 Votes
#7. Elementor5 Votes
#=8. HubSpot3 Votes
#=8. Wix3 Votes
#=9. Wishpond2 Votes
#=9. Lander2 Votes
#=9. Convertri2 Votes
#=9. Beaver Builder2 Votes
#=10. MailChimp1 Vote
#=10. Divi Builder1 Vote
#=10. Visual Composer1 Vote
#=10. Landingi1 Vote
#=10. Weebly1 Vote
#=10. Kartra1 Vote
#=10. Google Site Builder1 Vote

In total there were 20 different landing page builders mentioned during the course of our survey, but as you’ll see from the table above, Unbounce, Instapage, Leadpages, ClickFunnels and Thrive Architect took home most of the votes between them. So they’re the LP solutions that we’re going to hone in on.

If this were a race, Unbounce would have won it with more than a few lengths to spare. It got over double the amount of votes compared to its nearest rival. Why was that? Well fact that Unbounce has been around since 2009 should tell you something. I don’t know about you, but it always gives me that extra bit of reassurance from the get-go when something has stood the test of time like that. Also, given how many extra votes it got, you might be surprised to learn that it’s by no means one of the cheaper landing page builders either, but as they say, you get what you pay for. With this product you get access to a lot of professional, heavily tested templates, an intuitive drag and drop editor, solid A/B testing – all the standard stuff you’d expect – plus a few really cool features like dynamic text insertion to increase relevancy (great for conversions), AMP pages for speed (not on the base plan though!) and a fabulous customer service team and community that is proactive rather than reactive. If you’ve got the budget, you won’t go far wrong here.

Instapage was the next most recommended landing builder and it’s all about ease of use and speed. The interface is super simple and there’s virtually no learning curve unlike with Unbounce, making it a suitable choice for small business owners and novice marketers alike. While it doesn’t offer the same robust feature set (popups are a noteworthy omission) or level of customization as Unbounce, you won’t have to write a single line of code and can setup and deploy stunning landing pages using one of the many attractive templates quicker than it takes you to finish a cup of coffee.

Leadpages was another option that received strong support, and is another landing software that has a more lightweight setup (compared to Unbounce), but is easy to get acquainted with, and has one very attractive feature: its price point. A basic plan can be nabbed for as cheap as $17 per month, representing great value for money, and a solid choice if your landing page needs are pretty basic.

Now ClickFunnels is a somewhat different beast in that it’s not a dedicated landing page software. As the name suggests it can be used to setup complete sales funnels in addition to your landing pages, and offers you access to a whole world of possibilities, such as upsells, downsells, onetime offers and much more. In terms of creating landing pages it’s very easy. Drag and drop. It just makes sense and won’t take long to pick up. Having said that, a few experts mentioned lack of customization being a weakness, and if you don’t need to create sales funnels, all of those extra features are just bloat that you’ll be paying extra for every month.

Finally, if you’re using WordPress then Thrive Architect is a plugin you might want to investigate. It’s the only one of our top 5 landing page builders that isn’t a subscription based product, costing a onetime fee that’s cheaper than the price of just one month for most of the other options we’ve spoken about. That’s a big plus if you’re counting the pennies, but still want to create great landing pages. It offers you lots of templates, works great on mobile, and when combined with other plugins produced by Thrive Themes makes for a pretty powerful marketing suite.

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • How to Optimize Your Landing Pages for Google Ads Campaigns
  • Facebook Ads Mistakes: Insights from 45 Experts

TL;DR

1) If you have at least some experience with landing page builders, need access to a superior feature set to optimize for conversions, and are prepared to pay a little more (this is not the cheapest option), this is what our experts recommend:


2) If you’re new to landing pages and/or ease of use is a priority, and you need to be able to deploy quality landing pages quickly, this may be the best landing page builder for you.

3) If you’re on a budget and need to make your money go as far as possible, these are two affordable options that represent great value for money (Leadpages is a cheaper monthly subscription than most, and Thrive Architect is a WordPress landing page builder this is available for a one-off fee):

4) If you need to create sales funnels in addition to your landing pages or are likely to in the near future, check out this one:

Read What The Experts Said: Landing Page Software Picks Explained

Below you can read exactly what each expert had to say when we reached out to them to ask for their top landing page builder recommendations. They each explain their choices, some in great detail, and share a lot of really valuable insights into this software. We hope you find it helpful!

If you already have one or two options in mind and want to read what industry pros are saying about them, use the filters below to easily jump to the relevant content.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • Beaver Builder
  • ClickFunnels
  • Convertri
  • Divi Builder
  • Elementor
  • Google Site Builder
  • HubSpot
  • Instapage
  • Kartra
  • Lander
  • Landingi
  • Leadpages
  • Mailchimp’s Landing Page Builder
  • Thrive Architect
  • Unbounce
  • Visual Composer
  • Weebly
  • Wishpond
  • Wix
  • WordPress
Mathew Court
Mathew is responsible for SEO & PPC within Auto Trader’s Non-Car Division, looking after everything from Tractors to Vans. Auto Trader is the UK’s leading digital automotive marketplace, serving over 13,000 automotive retailers.
https://twitter.com/courtmathew
  • HubSpot – “Hubspot is a content influencer/leader so nobody will be surprised to see them as one of my choices.

    You can build a landing page in minutes by using the easy drag and drop tool. You can also build contact forms. A/B testing is easy, create smart content and get detailed analytics from your marketing campaigns.

    The Hubspot landing page builder is powerful in terms of the advanced features you get. As such, the price point is higher in comparison to other landing page builders.”

  • Lander – “Lander is great for beginners, again utilizing a simple drag and drop editor, you can create a beautiful landing page in minutes.

    The simple layouts are clean and useful, and like other great landing page builders, it offers A/B testing and integration with other marketing tools.”

  • Instapage – “The interface is by far I feel the most user-friendly, and again utilizes a drag and drop feature. You can again build a stunning landing page in just a few minutes. The customizable templates are fantastic, and they offer something fantastic for any type of landing page.

    Like the other tools, you also get advanced analytics, split testing and integration with other marketing platforms.”

Andrew Percey
Andrew Percey holds BS/MS degrees in computer science from MIT. He has over 15 years of experience in corporate marketing and PPC advertising. Andrew has helped more than 100 businesses and MIT startups to succeed with Google Ads.
https://www.prometheusppc.com/
  • WordPress – “WordPress is obviously much more than just a landing page builder. However, it’s still what we use for most clients because of its ultimate flexibility. The reason you want a landing page is to capture leads or drive sales, and doing that *well* requires precise visitor tracking and conversion tracking (forms, phone calls, chats, etc.), especially if you’re paying for that traffic, such as through Google Ads. We’ve run into so many problems in the past with various dedicated landing page builder sites not being able to accommodate full visitor and conversion tracking that we’d rather just stick with what works. WordPress always works. In addition, if the client’s site is already built on WordPress (and most are), then this approach leads to landing pages that are fully integrated into the website from the get-go, and that are maintainable through the same interface, without any additional work.”
  • Unbounce – “If WordPress isn’t on the cards for some reason, or if you need certain special landing page features, then Unbounce likely has the solution. When using Google Ads, for example, one great feature of Unbounce is the ability to dynamically change certain keyword text on the landing page depending on which keyword triggers an ad. This can help increase landing page relevance both for the visitor and for Google, which can result in higher Google Ads quality scores. One big downside of Unbounce, and of most landing page builders, is that if you decide you’d like to integrate the landing page into your website platform later there’s extra work required, and sometimes it can be extensive.”
Spencer Wade
The product of a diverse professional background, Spencer Wade is the solutions-oriented Principal Strategist at Lift Conversions – a Google Partner digital marketing agency he founded in 2014. Today, Lift Conversions has locations in both Chicago, Illinois and Westminster, Colorado.
www.LiftConversions.com
  • Instapage – “This is the ideal landing page builder for small businesses – especially those without a tech expert on the payroll. You can design incredibly effective landing pages in no time and publish them to your website without any particular coding expertise. It integrates directly with WordPress, builds great mobile pages, and has a decent analytics suite to assist you in bettering your performance. All in all, it’s the best bet for those looking to create custom landing pages without paying a developer.”
  • Unbounce – “While Instapage may be easier to use – particularly for those without an in-house developer – Unbounce is still the landing page builder that we use for our own agency clients. Unbounce seamlessly integrates with most of the marketing tools you’re already using and delivers outstanding results at a very fair price point. If you’re serious about search marketing then Unbounce is the landing page builder for you.”
Matthew Clarendon
Ozymandias is a premiere digital marketing agency specializing in Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Advertising, and Social Media Marketing. We use proven strategies, and data driven decisions to drive insane results for our clients while simultaneosly maintaining a human, 1 to 1 relationship with our clients and their businesses that larger agencies lack.
https://www.ozymandias.agency/
  • ClickFunnels – “Overall I’d recommend ClickFunnels. There is a reason they’re the biggest and most ubiquitously known landing page builder; it’s because they’re the best. Russell and his team know what they’re doing and know what’s going on with regards to online marketing and all its facets, and the software really shows it. Simplicity is one of the first things that comes to mind with this software for me, being able to understand how to use the platform from the get-go is a plus with their drag and drop builder, ready to use templates, and tons of tutorials on how to integrate any possible third party software are reminiscent of using an iPhone for the first time where everything sort of “just made sense”. Another big plus is the ability to split test in real time all variations of your landing pages and entire pages themselves, so you always know what’s working best. The downside of ClickFunnels is its pricing, with the cheapest plan costing $97 per month; however you can get a 14 day free trial on its site or from everyone promoting their affiliate link. Consider using ClickFunnels if you have a nuanced funnel to setup as you can go really in-depth with this software using upsells and shopping carts and more, rather than just the need for a landing page/optin page to be followed by a basic thank you page. Bonus points for having GDPR ready features for anyone operating in the UK and everywhere else sooner or later. ”
  • Elementor – “Next, if you’re on a budget and looking for a free landing page software, I’d recommend using Elementor (if you’re using WordPress). Offering a lot of the same features as companies like ClickFunnels, like pre-designed templates to give your landing page a professional appearance and drag and drop editor. Some caveats I will include is I have found it can fall short when it comes to support. It can occasionally get finicky with other WordPress plugins, and I’ve had problems before trying to alter tags for SEO purposes. Elementor is a great software if you’re trying to save your pennies, just know you might run into problems here and there.”
  • Leadpages – “I would be remiss in not at least mentioning Leadpages in this article. This software comes in a lower price than ClickFunnels at $25 per month, while retaining a lot of the same features, which will satisfy many of the needs of marketers reading this article. With tons of templates that are easy to build and modify, mobile responsive designs, payment processors, webinar integrations, and marketing automation, Leadpages an easy choice for many looking for an in-between.”
David Szetela
David is Owner and CEO of digital advertising agency FMB Media. His two books on PPC advertising have helped train a generation of marketers. He hosts a podcast called PPC Rockstars, and was recently judged one of the top 25 PPC experts worldwide by PPC Hero.
http://www.fmbmedia.com
  • Unbounce – “I’m a big fan of the tool Unbounce. The user interface is clean and easy to navigate. The ability to run concurrent experiments really helps improve conversion rates significantly and as quickly as possible. Two thumbs up!”
Philip Armstrong
Marketing director, with over eight years' experience working in SEM, devising successful marketing strategies for clients.
http://optimiselab.com
  • Unbounce – “I would recommend only one choice for best landing page builder: Unbounce. Unbounce allows you to quickly and easily set up attractive landing pages. The landing pages have in-built A/B testing functionality, are extremely fast loading, and most importantly – they’re very effective at converting visitors into prospective customers!”
Mirena Boycheva
A digital marketer with 5+ years of experience, specialising in pay-per-click advertising and website conversion rate optimisation. As an owner of a small agency for PPC services, my mission is to help SMEs to grow by advertising on Google at a reasonable price. Hence, I also consult my clients for best landing page builder platforms.
www.leadvertisingsolutions.com

As a digital marketer, when visiting a website, I look for three main things: user navigation, clear steps to conversion and a great experience. Building an engaging website is the core of driving sales through a website. Before mentioning my top 3 landing page builders, I’d list the features that I’m usually looking for when choosing a platform to build my website. My clients often don’t have any developer skills, yet there is still a way to create an astonishing website, which will help them engage the visitors with easy user navigation panels, as well as impressive animations, menus and forms, which won’t cost them a fortune.

The criteria I have selected in order to choose the best landing page builders I am recommending to my customers are the following:

  • A variety of customizable templates available for any type of business
  • Extra tools for creating animations, images, shapes
  • App centre or plugins to help with any other type of activity I’d like to offer my visitors – such as a service calculator, price list, location map, forms for submission, pop-ups
  • From a digital marketing perspective, analytics tracking is a must for any landing page builder I use
  • Automatically adjusting the desktop version to a mobile-friendly version

All 3 landing page builders I’ve selected fulfill the criteria mentioned above. They also are very easy to use offering a drag and drop interface, where all elements are editable.

  • Wix – “Offering more than 500 different themes with professional designs and layouts, suitable for any type and size of business. It also has available a lot of widgets and apps to integrate within the website interface. Wix is extremely easy to use and the customer support is very reliable for anything that you might struggle with. The drag and drop interface can help you create a website very fast and it is also automatically adjusted for mobile devices.”
  • Weebly – “Recommended for small businesses predominantly, Weebly offers a tidy interface, which can really help you create your website faster. It is the easiest landing page builder, which non-tech savvy people would find it best for. Only 70 themes are available. However, while Wix has focused on the volume of themes, Weebly’s focus is on the quality of those. Weebly offers many more apps to integrate, although there is no browser option to search by type and name.”
  • WordPress – “WordPress offers the best variety of features, plugins and themes for people with some coding skills. But even if you’re not tech savvy, WordPress could still be a good choice. It may require some technical know-how in order to use its full potential, but this is not a must whatsoever. You can still work with pre-existing themes, there are plenty of those that you can use and easily adjust to your needs. After all, let’s not forget that this platform is the most popular CMS. With more than 50,000 plugins, WordPress is the number one CMS to use for websites and landing pages that are more complex.”
Laura Moore
Laura is a strategic social media marketer with expertise in paid social for small business. She helps businesses to generate leads and increase sales with Facebook & Instagram ads.
www.laura-Moore.co.uk
  • Leadpages – “There are so many options out there when it comes to landing pages, but I now only use and recommend LeadPages.net to my clients.

    I am not one for over complicating the issue, so I love how easy Leadpages is to use. Everything is customisable, and it will even pull in the brand colours from your website, so you don’t have to worry about finding hex codes etc.

    As a Facebook ads strategist, it’s really important that I can track what’s happening on my landing pages, so being able to add the Facebook pixel is key for me. Leadpages makes it really simple to do that so I can track website visitors and create custom conversions for my ad campaigns.

    The ability to add integrations such as Stripe and Zapier is also really important for my clients and Leadpages offers plenty of choice.”

Jeroen Minks
With over 10 years experience in marketing, Jeroen helps businesses to get more results out of their online advertising budgets.
https://www.vazooky.com.au/
  • Instapage – “Instapage is my go-to platform to build quick and easy landing pages.

    Instapage provides hundreds of customizable templates that you can use to build your landing page. You can also create a page from scratch. The drag and drop function makes it easy to create sections on your page and add your own personal content.”

“There are also a couple of other tools I’d recommend. These aren’t landing page builders, but rather focus on the optimization side of things.”

  • Optimizely – “Optimizely is more of a landing page testing tool, which is great if you want to test different landing pages that mainly get organic traffic. It allows you to create different goals and see how well your variations are performing across all of them. You can also set up multi-page testing, which might come in handy if you want to include several steps of your funnel into 1 single test.”
  • Google Optimize – “Google Optimize works quite similar to Optimizely. The standard version of the platform is even free! As it’s a Google product, it seamlessly integrates with Google Analytics and Google Ads.”
Bhupinder Bhogal
Working with companies in a variety of niches for the past 10 years on PPC & SEO campaigns.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhupinder-bhogal/
  • Instapage – “The ease of use here was a huge plus. I found this to be the easiest to work with in terms of layout, adding/removing elements, even using custom html, this was a better performer. I believe this has been put together by Wix so expect a good UI and simplicity – which it does deliver. A good one for novice users.”
  • Leadpages – “Leadpages was one that was chosen for its pricing and also features. This at the time of using Leadpages was one of the only ones that used dynamic text replacement features, which were needed by me. It was also the best in terms of the number of sessions that you pay for. A nice library of customizable templates. Using the system was a little clumsy at times. Setting up subdomains was a bit of a pain. That being said it was a good cost based solution. There is a WordPress plugin, which makes publishing a little easier, however if you aren’t using WordPress, publishing is a bit of a pain.”
  • Thrive Architect – “Used specifically for WordPress installations, I found this to be much better than some of the other WordPress page builders. There is a nice library of templates. Playing around with elements on different devices is a piece of cake. This plugin also allows for dynamic keyword insertion, which is a very powerful feature, especially for PPC landing pages.”
Kaspars Brencans
Senior PPC Marketing Expert in Chicago with 8+ Years of Experience - Specializing in Google and Facebook Ads. Believes that PPC without CRO is like wedding without music. Optimizing PPC accounts based on actual ROI, rather than vanity metrics.
https://bestppc.marketing
  • Unbounce – “In short, we have tried multiple landing page builders & as an agency that heavily relies on landing pages – we’ve found unbounce.com to work best for our needs.

    We love unbounce due to very simple reasons:

    • Their UX is very user friendly, so implementing design files into a landing page format is pretty easy
    • No matter what type of a landing page we create, google’s pagespeed insights has never been lower than 90/100 for mobile (nearly 100/100 for desktop every time)
    • They have a very large community that experiments with their code, so finding scripts to make landers more interactive is very easy
    • They have an insanely fast response time on customer support & the CS is not just there to take notes, but they, for the most part, are able to find answers for you instantly
    • Last, but not least – they allow you to create client sub-accounts

    >> While we usually don’t give our clients access to their landing pages due to several reasons, we do have cases where we work with companies that are very technically inclined & they want to set up webhooks / email / CRM integrations on their own, so this is very convenient.

    I know, I’m talking Unbounce up like it’s the best thing since sliced bread; but while it’s a great tool – there are still a few flaws in their system:

    1. While the tool analytics sections shows landing page form submissions & conversion rates – that is a VERY vague insight on the actual test results. The analytics does not reflect results based on device type; there is only 1 goal available, aka – they offer very limited data insights. To conquer this issue – we build each landing page on a different URL, and then we implement optimize.google.com redirect tests to paint the full picture based on Google Analytics data.
    2. There is only 1 time zone available in the whole account, and it can’t be changed.
    3. Mass script implementation is available, but it’s based on domains – not specific landing pages you’ve created.

    As you can see – if you’re ok with saving some serious development time coding each landing page, but understand that there will be far more work to do as far as setting up tests, analyzing data, etc…. This is the right tool for you!”

Mike Nelson
Mike has a diverse online background, with most of his time having been spent in online advertising. He has appeared in major SEM publications including Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Certified Knowledge and more.
http://four15digital.com
  • Unbounce – “Unbounce is probably the most popular landing page builder on the market. It requires little to no coding experience, integration with 3rd party tools (like Google Analytics) very easily, and allows for a/b testing. AMP pages are also available, which shows Unbounce is keeping up with modern best practices. In the past, Unbounce may not have had many templates, but now they’ve expanded to a few dozen, which should be plenty for most teams’ needs. And, the platform is super affordable – you can’t go wrong by starting out with Unbounce!”
  • Instapage – “We’ve been so happy with Unbounce, we haven’t explored many other options. One that’s on our radar, though, is Instapage.com. This platform is more enterprise compared to Unbounce, for those who need these features, particularly website user personalization. This may work instead of a tool like the Marketo or Hubspot landing page builder for b2b advertisers, and could also replace the need for Optimizely for all advertisers.”
Richard Conduit
Richard Conduit lives with his wife and son in Liverpool in the UK. Richard is the Founder and Managing Director of 2 UK Ltd companies, GC Digital Ltd, a successful Digital Marketing Agency that runs Social Media Ad campaigns and Aeon Software Ltd a software company who’s flagship software is Contact Gorilla. Richard is also a ‘Featured Expert’ in Funnel Magazine and guest on the ‘Conscious Millionaire’ Podcast with millions of listeners. Richard has spent millions of Advertising Dollars for his clients, generating amazing ROI’s up to 15:1 creating life changing incomes for his clients.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/facebookadexpert

Each landing page builder below will allow you to build:

  • Landing Pages
  • Squeeze Pages
  • Sales Pages
  • Video Sales Pages
  • Checkout Pages
  • Thank You Pages

…plus a lot more too.

  • ClickFunnels – “ClickFunnels is a great place to start. It has some great points and some not so great points, so, here we go…

    Firstly it is really good for beginners. If you have never built a Landing page then ClickFunnels could be the perfect place to start. It has a drag and drop set up that allows you to easily (once you’ve got the hang of it) build a landing page within a few minutes. You can set up split tests really easily and setting up the flow of your funnel is easy too. You can integrate a lot of other platforms with ClickFunnels and so pretty much any autoresponder you use is there, so you can gather your list quickly and easily. It is a basic system that does work and the biggest selling point for me is the additional training on offer (at a price) from the marketing master Russell Brunson who owns the platform. It has a 14 day free trial and if you go for the lowest cost set-up ($97 per month) then you get the landing page builder and that’s about it, but if you go the extra mile ($297 per month) then you get an inbuilt (albeit limited usability) email autoresponder and an affiliate platform all built into your account.

    Now the downsides. Although ClickFunnels has a huge following, it is mainly down to the marketing skills of Russell and his team. The platform is quite restrictive when wanting to build your landing page exactly how you want. Although it has templates for you use and get you going, you do need to pay for the top performing ones.
    The biggest issues for me though are the number of glitches in the software. Sometimes things don’t save when you want them to. Sometimes the system goes down and the worst thing is the page load time. It. Is. Slow! Which let’s be honest, is a pretty important thing when running traffic to a Landing Page. The other thing is that if you’re looking for a platform with great customer support, look elsewhere.”

  • Convertri – “Convertri is my go-to place for building Landing Pages and is the brain child of the genius Andrew Fletcher.

    Why is this you may ask and what is Convertri?! Well, Convertri is a landing page builder very similar in a lot of ways to Clickfunnels and all the rest, however, it does have amazing plus points.

    Firstly, as a platform, it is so flexible that sometimes, especially if you are not used to building landing pages it can be a little too clever in that you can place anything you want, anywhere on the page, a bit like Photoshop. For me, this is great and allows me to build amazing looking, clean landing pages that convert. Talking of clean pages I once had a client that wanted me to duplicate everything she had in Clickfunnels and build it in Convertri too. Purely by accident, I ended up at some point with both landing pages together next to each other on one screen and the difference in clarity was astounding! Convertri just looked clearer, crisper, less fuzzy, nicer somehow. It does have it’s annoying bits like the way you add something new on the page, and when you go into mobile view it is all the way at the bottom of the landing page and you have to shuffle things about a bit. It does not put it in the perfect mobile friendly state, so you have to mess about with that and split testing is not as easy…

    But, and this is a massive but, it is quite simply the fastest loading landing page builder on the planet. End of. It is so fast I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it. Also, it has never, EVER had any downtime at all. None of the others can say this. It is also well priced beating the others with cheaper monthly costs.

    Convertri also has a 14-day free trial and then has three price ranges. Standard $53 per month, Pro $58 per month and Agency $166 per month. Customer support is amazing and for the sake of taking a little bit of extra time getting to grips with building landing pages in it, Convertri is the one I would recommend.”

  • Kartra – “Kartra is an all-in-one platform and is brought to you by Andy Jenkins and Mike Filsaime of Webinarjam and Everwebinar, and Frank Kern.

    As an all in one platform, you can imagine that it does basically everything you need to build out any marketing funnel you can think off. It does email marketing campaigns, it builds landing pages and funnels, it hosts videos, gives you the ability to have a helpdesk for your funnel and does everything you want to complete the customer journey in one place. But what about the landing page builder?

    Well, you can choose from a lot of templates again and it is a drag and drop platform again. However with Kartra, although the pages look really good, it is not the most intuitive landing page builder. Once you get the hang of it it is very good and the landing pages do look great but I thought it had a steep learning curve.

    Some of the best bits about it are that it has a lot of functionality that the others simply don’t have such as animations for certain components and very pretty sections that you just don’t get with other platforms. The bottom line is that you can build extremely good looking pages with Kartra if you have the time to learn everything the landing page builder has to offer. Couple this with the other integral parts of the platform and it is easy to put together landing pages and tags and triggers that build up a well working funnel.

    It has had some bugs though and although I haven’t experienced any major problems myself, I do know people that have.

    Kartra pricing starts with a $1 for a 14-day trial and then the packages range from Starter at $89 per month to Diamond at $699 per month. Although this might seem a lot, if you add up all the costs of email autoresponders, video hosting, helpdesks and everything else that Kartra has, then it’s not bad at all.”

Oliver Ewbank
Oliver Ewbank is an award winning paid media specialist based in London. His digital insights have been featured in a variety of publications, including BBC News, PPC Hero, Wordstream, SEMrush & Virgin Entrepreneur. A guest speaker at Google, Oliver has run paid media projects for eBay, Koozai & Feefo.
https://www.reeyap.com/

“When it comes to converting paid media, I think Unbounce and Leadpages are the best tools.”

  • Unbounce – “I particularly like working with Unbounce as you can scale large marketing campaigns by using Dynamic Text Replacement (DTR). This helps to personalise the content on the landing page which always boosts your Conversion Rate.

    https://documentation.unbounce.com/hc/en-us/articles/203661004-Working-with-Dynamic-Text-Replacement”

  • Leadpages – “If you’re not very technical and want a tool which is easy to use then Leadpages is perfect. The drag and drop feature and range of templates make A/B testing painless.”
Steven Johns
Digital Marketing Consultant at Door4. 13 Years’ Experience in the Marketing Industry
https://door4.com
  • Unbounce – “Having used a number of SaaS providers over the years, I was somewhat sceptical about trying another web builder tool. Online landing page builders are great if you’re happy to select an option that looks and behaves a certain way and are not too fussy about detail. Select a template from a library, change the copy and images and you’re good to go. They definitely have a place.

    Where it gets tricky with these online tools and templates is if you want to dig a bit deeper, maybe apply your own UX and Brand. One can end up spending hours and hours reworking or hacking someone else’s code to fit your requirements, only to be frustrated by the end result. You’ll wish you’d started from scratch with your own code and design or employed an expert to do it for you.

    Having been disappointed by other providers, we’ve consistently had our basic needs met by Unbounce.

    Pros

    • Drag and Drop interface
    • Simple to set up
    • Good documentation (although you do need to sign up separately to your account)
    • Easy to set up desktop and mobile viewports
    • Can add custom Javascript and CSS*
    • Lots of 3rd party integrations to plugin to (we used Zapier)
    • Custom fonts
    • Builder interface is responsive
    • Custom domain
    • Easy to set up A/B testing

    *This is a big pro. Being able to add custom code raises the bar as it allows the creator to bring the landing page to life and is only limited by their imagination.

    Cons

    • Preview can be quite slow
    • Initial dashboard is quite busy
    • Form confirmation can be a bit clunky

    Overall I was quite pleased with Unbounce. It’s intuitive and quite customisable. From a design/dev/UX point of view, I’d definitely recommend it.”

Tony Chopp
Founder — Claim Your Space — PPC Experts
http://www.cysppc.com
  • Beaver Builder – “We love Beaver Builder on WordPress. It’s easy to use and priced right. Depending on your use-case, likely at least half the price of something like Unbounce or LeadPages. Both of which are totally solid products by all means. But if you’re working in WordPress, Beaver Builder is really just a joy.”
  • Visual Composer – “Visual Composer is also solid. Especially because you can swap out headers and footers. Which can be really important for PPC landing pages, where we frequently want to reduce or remove navigation options.”

Sometimes we need a bunch of landing pages or tons of variations, or something really custom for a project. These guys are really great as a full-service, ‘we’ll build your landing pages for you’ option: landingpageguys.com. We’ve also used them for custom landing pages built on Drupal or other less common CMS platforms.

Laura Hanlon
CEO of Pink Leopard, a boutique marketing agency specialising in Facebook and Instagram advertising. Laura and the team build and run super successful advertising funnels for a range of clients predominantly in the fitness, health and beauty world.
http://www.pinkleopard.co.uk

My favourite landing page builder is Clickfunnels, which I switched over to a few months ago and highly recommend. I also recommend Unbounce, but really it depends on what you’re using it for and your experience with building landing pages.

  • ClickFunnels – “ClickFunnels to me is really easy to use and if you’re a landing page novice, then it will take you no time at all to become familiar with it. Templates are really simple and it’s hard to go wrong really… the only thing that does irritate me is that you can’t click an “undo” button if you make an error! (ClickFunnels please add this feature if you happen to be reading this 😉 !) It’s also super easy to integrate with other apps and CRM’s.

    If you’re a little more advanced and need a lot of customisation then Clickfunnels may not be the best option for you.”

  • Unbounce – “This was one of the OG’s in the landing page builder world, and is arguably still one of the best. It’s pretty intuitive to use, has an easy drag and drop editor and is great for A/B testing. One of the only downsides to Unbounce is that it’s quite expensive for the more premium plans, but I would still highly recommend it.”
Anton Hoelstad
Experienced Digital Marketing Consultant
https://antonhoelstad.dk/
  • Unbounce – “I really like the flexibility that Unbounce provides in their landing page builder. You have many options of A/B-split-testing the designs.

    One of my favorite features is that you can create dynamic headlines from URL parameters. This makes it possible for you to change the headline by adding parameters like ?h=Add+Your+Headline+Here.

    From working with Google Ads (AdWords) for the past 8 years, I’ve used this quite often. It helps me split-test different USP’s – and even more important – to optimize the Quality Scores, get cheaper clicks and more bang for the buck.”

Andre Couture
AdFractal is a turnkey digital marketing agency focused and passionate about getting our customers real world results. We build digital bridges between you and your customers.
http://www.adfractal.com

Few online marketing campaigns are complete without a well-crafted landing page.

It’s the “what’s next” for your prospects when they visit you. It addresses why they chose you and what you will do to solve their problem. It’s key for conversions and turning clicks into customers.

Web pages can, however, be time-consuming to build with no shortage of bells and whistles to include in them. There’s also no shortage of landing page builders out there too and the options can frankly be overwhelming.

As an online marketing agency, we’ve compiled a short list of what we feel are some of the contenders for the title of “best landing page builder” and why we feel anyone can use them with little fuss right out of the box.

  • Unbounce – “These guys are one of the industry leaders for a reason. It’s just so easy and intuitive to build a great landing page with it. They have tons of templates to pick and choose from, and has one of the best A/B testing tools in the market, which is HUGE! It’s loaded with lots of integration, features, and add-ons. The only downsides are the price point and learning curve. While not the cheapest option out there, it is one of the best. You’ll need a little bit of time to get used to it, but once you do, you’ll marvel at the full features you have at your fingertips. Even large agencies use them which says a lot. ”
  • Instapage – “Sometimes you just want a landing page up and going without having to figure too much out. That’s where Instapages can be your savior. It’s all about instant use. Fast loading pages that can be set up and run in as little as a few minutes. Amazing for beginners and small businesses with great and easy to read analytics reports to see how it’s running. Now for the downsides… Because of its emphasis on instant pages, they don’t have as many features as the rest. There are also no pop-up options and A/B testing isn’t included in their basic package. If you just need a simple landing page builder to get things up as quick and simple as possible, you’d be hard pressed to find anything better.”
  • Lander – “Let’s face it. Price can often time be the deciding factor when choosing anything and that’s why Lander made our list. Their prices are very low, but they still have some rich features. All packages include standard A/B testing (did we mention how HUGE that is?), Facebook landing pages, easy drag-and-drop creation, CRM and email marketing integration. Sure, it may not be the best editor around or have the most features, but it’s still a bargain for the price.”

“You really can’t go wrong with either one of these options. Just always keep in mind your user experience and conversion flow first. Now go and convert those leads!”

Vita Tzenov
Vita has been a expert in SEM for over 15 years. She specializes in helping B2C and B2B companies grow their Google Ads accounts to reach more users, increase conversions and improve CVR while maintaining ROI targets.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitavaysman/
  • Instapage – “Instapage is an end-to-end solution for building personalized post-click landing pages at scale. Build. Personalize. Experiment. Win.

    They have the most comprehensive suite of tools available for fast landing page implantation for small or large projects. You can A/B test portions of your landing page, create personalized experiences and really build around your audience segments. This is the tool I use almost exclusively.”

Kevin Redfern
Director of Your Digital Marketer | Google Partner | PPC Agency
https://www.yourdigitalmarketer.co.uk/
  • WordPress – “My favorite landing page builder is a little old school and can be more complicated, however I love using WordPress landing pages with a custom built theme. You can really match the look and feel of the site and customize every aspect of it to fully suit you.”
  • Unbounce – “Unbounce was great fun to use and was easy to implement. I loved how it had readymade styles / templates which you could change to suit you. Alternatively you could start from the ground up and really make the landing pages your own.”
  • Instapage – “Instapage has great integration features, however the available styles / themes were not as extensive as Unbounce, in my opinion.”
Mark Neale
Head of Paid Marketing at Adtrak, with a specialism in paid media advertising and lead generation
https://www.adtrak.co.uk
  • Unbounce – “Unbounce was one of the first landing page builders that I got to experiment with and I have to say this is my first choice when looking to build PPC landing pages.

    The software has a simple interface using drag and drop features, built in support for Google fonts and can be integrated with a large number of apps.

    Reasons why I love Unbounce…

    • Nicely designed templates
    • AMP ready
    • Works with WordPress via the Unbounce plugin
    • Can add video backgrounds
    • Speed orientated so you can get good speed scores in Google
    • Huge support community, if you need to find the answer to something, chances are it’s there!”
  • Landingi – “Landingi has a well thought out interface, easy to drag and drop elements onto the page. Moving multiple items is no problem as multiple selection is available.

    Reasons why Landingi rocks!

    • Over 200 templates
    • Icon library, reducing the need to import your own icons
    • Great reporting dashboard for lead generation
    • Competitive pricing compared to other landing page builders”
Bill Cutrer
As the agency owner of Seapoint Digital Bill brings years of experience in Inbound Marketing to help a wide variety of clients reach their online marketing goals of driving more traffic through SEO and Search Engine Marketing as well increasing lead conversion.
https://seapoint.digital
  • HubSpot – “While landing pages are only a component of the suite of marketing tools integrated into the HubSpot marketing platform, it’s the ability to utilize the additional tools that make their landing pages effective. For users that have been identified by having their devices cookied it allows for dynamic text to be delivered based on a variety of user behavior and demographics to target the most effective message to the user.

    The platform also has robust measurement tools to track submission rates and traffic volumes to compare various landing pages across your site as well as the ability to A/B test variations in one landing page.

    The design tools are easy to use as well to build landing pages quickly and a Hubspot subscription comes with Shutterstock built into the dashboard for ease in selecting image assets for your project. HubSpot also has a vibrant community of designers and developers in their marketplace, making it easy to find professional templates for most landing pages at low-cost options including many free versions.”

  • Leadpages – “For a low-cost option Leadpages is a powerful platform for building landing pages and progressive forms. With over 200 templates and a number of integrations to connect to your CRM and other marketing tools, it is a great platform to build off of. The platform also has a Facebook and Instagram ad builder to combine your landing pages into a seamless social media marketing campaign.”
Adam Robinson
With over ten years experience in online marketing and media, I am now the senior PPC specialist at Marketing Signals.
https://www.marketingsignals.com
  • Unbounce – “Without a shadow of a doubt, the landing page builder of choice that’s our go-to is ‘Unbounce’. It may not be the cheapest, but with PPC competition increasing all the time, I think it’s imperative not to skimp on arguably the most important part of any digital campaign; the landing page.

    I have found the drag and drop functionality remarkably easy to use, which considering I am to design what Piers Morgan is to rational, respectful discourse is no mean feat. For those who are even less impressive with their design skills, there’s a plethora of templates to choose from.

    The best thing about it for me is the ease with which you can duplicate and edit your landing page. This makes absolutely acing PPC when it comes to reducing CPC’s and improving account performance a doddle.

    I prefer having a landing page for each specific keyword I am targeting, this way the relevancy of the ad and keyword match up fantastically. As you can imagine, with some accounts having hundreds of keywords, this could become a nightmare. By duplicating and amending your landing pages slightly, you can continue that relevancy throughout the journey.”

Stuart Donaghy
Senior Digital Marketing Professional with over 7 years industry experience. (2 in Australia, and 5 in the UK) Technically skilled in Web Design, Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO), Advanced Pay Per Click Campaigns, Brand Management & Digital Consultancy. Visit my LinkedIn Profile for more information.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartdonaghy/

Landing Page Builders… Love ’em or hate ’em, they have an essential place in the digital architecture of online marketing. Directing customers with specific needs, to bespoke landing pages highly improves all aspects of the web moment – from visual/brand perception, to time spent on page, right through to interaction rate and convertibility.

The following is a collection of what we feel are the best landing page builders out there at the moment:

  • Instapage – “Instapage is speed. Speed saves money. Saving money makes money. Yes it is limited in its abilities from the box, but with a creative take on the content this is forgotten. The analytics reports are first class and we would recommend this as a good choice for beginners and middle weight users alike. There are some limitations on the entry level option, such as a/b testing, but this can be forgiven when you consider a landing page can be live in minutes with the templates provided.

    A feature, however, it can’t be forgiven for missing is pop-ups… a necessary evil in the industry; the omission of this is a concern. Overall a great option if volume of landing pages, and speed are a major factor, but definitely worth spending extra for the higher tier packages if you’re a more experienced user with advanced requirements.”

  • Wishpond – “Speed does save money… but being cheaper means you never spend it in the first place. The cost of this package is greatly reduced from the other options considered here. Coupled with the fact you can have unlimited landing pages per subscription. It has all the basic automated marketing features and pop-ups, but lacks in the ability to customise landing pages to the same detail as the other two options considered here. Though the editor is basic, it redeems itself by the fact it is more than just a landing page builder. It is also ideal for social contests & competitions amongst other things – A feature most other landing page builders simply don’t have.

    No, its not a dedicated Landing page builder, but when you weigh up the cost and ability with the extra functions and growing network of users… it seems like a great deal for beginners and entry level users.”

  • Unbounce – “If what you are looking for is a great industry accepted landing page builder, with a/b testing options and a flexible editor, you won’t find a better product that covers these requirements. Reflecting this standard, is the price… being one of the most expensive solutions on the market today, though it reminds us of the old phrase “you get what you pay for”.

    Unbounce involves spending a fair bit of time making yourself familiar with the interface, and to be blunt is really not the ideal solution for a beginner or basic user. All in all it still remains the go-to industry standard for this niche.”

Conclusion

To review, the landing page builders listed above are all capable and each is more weighted to a specific user type, marketing style & budget available.

However if you could only pick one, the industry still seems to direct you towards Unbounce. Though if you are a first time user taking this option, be prepared to face a steep learning curve before you can build real confidence with it.

Designing a brand new website, from scratch, is often suggested too easily without considering LP Builders, as typically a new site, re-design or adjusted navigation can, in many cases, solve the need for bespoke landing pages. We feel it’s important to weigh up the options, think ahead for the future, and ensure your decision is a cost effective one, whilst maintaining the integrity of the project/objection.

Unbounce, for us, is the leading and preferred choice when it comes to building high quality custom landing pages geared towards to interaction and quick conversions. At CornellStudios.com we take great pride in producing high quality, beautifully designed, landing pages & websites for clients all across the UK with a real emphasis on conversions.

Lisa Cash Hanson
Lisa Cash Hanson is an award winning inventor of a baby product called Snuggwugg, an author, television personality, and digital marketer who's been featured on WSJ, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Steve Harvey, Fox news & More. Her clients include fortune 500 business owners and non profits.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacashhanson/

“There are three landing page builders that I love. Any one of these landing page builders would do a great job for your business. I will differentiate one, however, based on the community that is behind it. It’s vital to remember that a landing page does one thing well: focuses visitors’ attention on what you’re promoting, with a single call to action (CTA) that brings money or leads right to you. Your landing page is like your salesperson. A shoddy salesperson means a lack of sales. It’s the same with your landing page.

Here are my three top options:”

  • ClickFunnels – “I love ClickFunnels primarily because of the community behind it, the brilliant templates they offer it and also all the training that Russell Brunson provides. If you love marketing there is a lot you can learn using ClickFunnels. They also provide a huge range of funnels already preset for you to drag and drop. It’s fairly simple.”
  • Instapage – “Super user-friendly and very easy to design. They offer pricing that anyone can afford.”
  • Leadpages – “I like them for the same reason I like Instapage. User-friendly and very cost effective.”

“All three landing pages offer free trials so I would try them out and just see which platform you prefer. But I’ll leave you with this: No landing page will make money for you if you don’t build it 🙂 So go build that landing page today an let me know when it’s live! To your success xoxo Lisa”

August Noble
August Noble is a Marketing & Advertising consultant focused on helping people grow their businesses with Facebook Advertising.
https://www.augustnoble.com/
  • Unbounce – “Which is the best landing page builder for you…that’s going to depend a lot on what type of business you have and what you’re looking to accomplish. That being said my favorite by far is Unbounce.

    Unbounce is extremely easy to use, cost-effective, and is great for creating custom landing pages to send your paid traffic to. It has a simple drag-and-drop editor, integrates with most email marketing providers, and gives you the ability to fully optimize for mobile.

    One of the biggest things Unbounce did for our internal team was save our designer’s time by not having them handle requests to make small changes on our landing pages. With Unbounce (instead of custom builds in WordPress), our paid media team could make most changes themselves and only go to our designers for larger projects.

    There’s a few other landing page builders out there that offer similar features, but I haven’t found any of them to offer the same level of design quality and flexibility of Unbounce.”

William Boston
Has helped Realtors, Dentist, and other local professionals increase their online presence and boost their client intake with Adwords, Facebook Marketing and other paid traffic modes.
https://redshift-media.com/

“The best landing page builder…that depends of course on what you intentions are.

How familiar are you with WordPress? Are you willing to scale a learning curve in order to save money? Do you already have a website?”

  • ClickFunnels – “I would say in general if you need longer funnels that require multiple landing pages, integrated A/B split testing, scarcity count-down timers, webinars and all the bells and whistles at your disposal to maximize your conversions, then ClickFunnels is a good option because it will save you time. With probably the simplest UI and setup on the market, ClickFunnels makes it super easy to setup your funnels without too much fuss. However, starting at $97 per month and with a very generous affiliate program (40% recurring commissions from any sales that are made via your affiliate links!), I am naturally skeptical of anyone who swears by them and think it is a bit overkill if you’re just running traffic to a couple of landing pages for a local business.”
  • Leadpages – “If you don’t have your own website, Leadpages is a very easy-to-use alternative. It has a drag and drop editor, hosts your landing pages on its own servers, and handles delivery of digital collateral (e-books, pdf guides).. At their basic level you only pay $37 per month to get unlimited landing pages or you can pay $79 per month to get their built-in A/B split tester, one-click list opt-ins and the ability for people to join your lists via text messages.”
  • Thrive Architect – “My favorite, the WordPress plugin Thrive Architect is only $67 for lifetime updates + $19 per month if you want premium features such as opt-in forms, A/B split testing, Scarcity/CTA’s, integration with all the email marketing automation platforms and a buttload of conversion-focused themes for webinars, squeeze pages, sales pages, course and coming soon pages. Sure, you could just use a free tool like Google Optimize to conduct your split tests but the themes alone make it worth it.”

Regardless of your choice, there will be an initial learning phase to contend with before you get your bearings. If like myself you’re working in an agency-type environment and the business doesn’t already pay for a landing page service, you’ll want to take all of these factors into consideration to get the most possible value for your client’s money.

In any case, whether you’re creating a long-form sales page, setting up a webinar, or building your email list, you can’t go wrong with any of the above options.

Laura Phillips
Online marketing consultant with a focus on organic optimisation and paid search.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauradoesseo/
  • Unbounce – “I’m a strong advocate of Unbounce for landing page creation and testing. It may feel a little complex to start with, but once you have the mindset it becomes quick and easy to use. The template gallery of tried and tested landing pages is very useful, as is the ability to share and send your landing page designs. The drag and drop facility is simple, and you can create your own branded templates to work from. Unbounce can be integrated with a wealth of other platforms, including WordPress in one click, and your own domain, using your URL. The fast, mobile-friendly landing pages are well optimised for search. Unbounce is a great platform for any company size (including small businesses), unlike many landing page platforms which are aimed at only the biggest in their field. There’s no free version, but Unbounce does offer a 14 day free trial, competitive pricing and great customer service.”
Michael Goldman
I run Different Gravy Digital, a Digital Marketing Agency that specialise in helping businesses with their online paid advertising across search engines (Google, Bing & Yahoo) and social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram). We offer; competitor & keyword research, campaign creation, landing page optimisation, full monitoring & reporting.
https://differentgravydigital.co.uk/
  • Wishpond – “Recommended for beginner marketers.

    Wishpond makes it simple to capture leads and customers from your landing page. There are over 100 mobile responsive landing page templates to choose from – so there’s bound to be a design and style that suits your brand.

    It’s a seamless drag-and-drop editor, there’s no need for design or programming knowledge. You can add popups, welcome mats, slide-in pop-ups and opt-in bars with ease so you can maximise your conversions.

    Price: $49 – $199 per month”

  • Unbounce – “Recommended for intermediate marketers.

    Arguably one of the best landing page builders in the game, Unbounce has been designed with one purpose alone: to generate conversions.

    It’s designed to enable marketers to launch customised and branded landing pages which maximise conversions. The tool features a highly responsive drag-and-drop editor, an array of stylish templates, valuable A/B testing and CRM integration.

    It’s one of the best all-round landing page builders. You pay more to get more – the advanced customisation is great.

    Price: $79 – $399+ per month”

  • HubSpot – “Recommended for advanced marketers.

    You’re probably not shocked to see HubSpot on the list. HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales software that supports businesses in attracting traffic, generating conversions and turning those conversions into customers.

    You can choose from their built-in library of mobile responsive landing page templates that are optimised to push conversions, or you can build your own landing page from scratch. Add forms optimised for completion in just one click and automatically alter content based on the visitor who is viewing your landing page.

    In terms of advanced features, HubSpot is certainly one of the very best landing page builders you can find. But the price does reflect the complex nature of the software.

    Price: depends on what model you go for, expect to pay around $655 per month.”

Jon Maher
Jon is CEO of Esper Inbound, the hybrid PPC/CRO agency with a sixth sense for marketing. Jon knows PPC & knows it well. Some say too well... because it's all he talks about! Get on his good side by telling him a hotdog's a sandwich, or follow his twitter.
https://www.esperinbound.com/
  • Unbounce – “Without a doubt, Unbounce is the best landing page builder, hands down….

    I’ve been using Unbounce for the past 5 years for all of our clients. It’s powerful, easy to use and packed with powerful features. The ability to A/B test on the fly with confidence levels pre-calculated is essential for Conversion Rate Optimization efforts. All of that is great, but as an agency the ultimate reason we stick with Unbounce is their support staff and active community. You’ll never be left in the dark when asking questions or if you require additional development support..

    Unlike other landing page builders, Unbounce allows you to create landing pages beyond what you can do with most drag and drop design platforms. The pages have full CSS stylesheet capabilities and rather robust scripting abilities. Their team is always rolling out new stuff too! A few key features I can think of are sticky bars, pop ups, AMP pages, script manager and so on.

    An example of the platform’s more advanced design capabilities would be Rollovers, or images that change based on browser interaction.

    Here’s an example of a Roll Over effect we created for one of our clients.

    Roll Over Effects (Made In Unbounce by Esper Inbound)

    Of course, if you’re not a designer there are tons of templates to choose from as well as more to be purchased!

    We’ve built some beautiful custom landing pages on Unbounce for our clients too, just see for yourself below.”

    Juic Wireless Charger – Landing Page Preview:

    Juic Wireless - Landing Page Preview (Made In Unbounce by Esper Inbound)

    Coast Flight School – RTP Landing Page Preview:

    Juic Wireless - Landing Page Preview (Made In Unbounce by Esper Inbound)

Darren Davis
Darren Davis is the founder of AdCaffeine, a Florida-based PPC agency that's out to help companies grow.
https://adcaffeine.io/

This article is not about goal setting & integration, but those play a huge part in picking a landing page tool. So before you go choosing one, you need to know 2 things…

1. Know the specific kind of actions, goals, outcome you want to achieve.
2. Have a list of your business/marketing tools, so you know if they integrate well with the landing page tool.

Are you looking to:

  • Drive ebook downloads?
  • Collect more email addresses?
  • Warm up traffic for an Ecommerce sale?
  • Educate or sell your traffic with a sales funnel?

Then, once you know your goals, take a look at your stack of marketing tools:

  • How or does it integrate with your CRM?
  • How or does it work with your email marketing tool?

Nowadays, landing page creation tools have out-of-the-box integrations for big-name applications like Salesforce, Zoho, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Slack, etc. However, you’d be surprised sometimes. So don’t get caught off-guard by assuming an integration is available.

Now that we’ve gotten past that, here are my top recommendations:

  • Unbounce – “…for the all-around win. ?

    To anyone in the CRO & PPC space, Unbounce is a household name. The company is a landing page optimization leader and pioneer that’s helped marketers convert traffic better since 2009.

    Unbounce-Homepage

    Overall, Unbounce does exactly what you’d expect from a top-tier landing page builder:

    Makes building great landing pages fast & stupid simple to do – and you don’t have to touch any code. Like other tools, it is a drag-and-drop builder which makes it incredibly simple to place what you want, wherever you want. ?

    Unbounce Stupid Simple

    They also have tons of beautifully designed templates to pick from for inspiration in all kinds of industries too. ? Also, they include the ability to run A/B tests. ?‍?

    Unbounce Testing

    When you need to check integrations, Unbounce has you covered. Just search their library and find out if they connect to your favorite marketing tools. So far I have not yet run into something I cannot connect directly to or use Zapier for.

    Unbounce Integrations

    Because Unbounce is the best tool out there, it isn’t the cheapest. But it doesn’t break the bank either. Plans start at $79-99 per month and go up from there. While there’s no free version, they have a 30-day free trial to try it out.

    If you’re an agency that manages multiple clients as we do…Unbounce was built with you in mind! They’ve made managing multiple clients very easy – as an agency you can create client sub-accounts with their own integrations and subdomains. If you ever part ways from a client, it’s easy to export the Unbounce landing page and send it to them ~as well they can use~*to be used* in their own account. It’s also a bonus to the client because it cuts a cost to them by doing business with you.

    Other than that…

    There are other great landing page creation tools out there; they just pale in comparison to Unbounce when we’ve tried them out.”

Edith Ghervan
We are an award-winning, Google Premier Partner agency providing a range of high-quality internet marketing services with a strong focus on client ROI and ethical best practice service delivery.
https://www.ignitionsearch.co.uk
  • Unbounce – “We exclusively use Unbounce to build all of our landing pages and we’d happily recommend it to pretty much everybody. Our main reasons for using their platform are:

    Ease of use – You can quickly and efficiently put together any kind of landing page you can imagine. Creating something great looking and functional using the options within the landing page builder is easy, and if you have a bit more technical know-how the possibilities with JS and CSS are literally endless!

    Community & Support – There is an awesome community of Unbounce users, who work together to solve problems and figure out new ways of doing things in the platform. Ask for some feedback on a landing page you’ve built and you’ll always get loads of really positive and helpful advice. If your issue is account based, the Unbounce support team are always there to help, we’ve never had an issue they couldn’t solve.

    A/B Testing – A must for any landing page set up, and the main reason we use Unbounce. Again, Unbounce provides for marketers of all levels, from simple ‘version A vs version B’ testing to ‘what exact percentage of my traffic would I like to go to variant F?’ testing – the capability is there.

    We love Unbounce and recommend that you check it out!”

Grant James
Grant James is the CEO of Lead PPC, a digital advertising agency that specializes in generating leads for franchises, dental offices, and law firms.
http://www.leadppc.com
  • Unbounce – “As an ad agency, we use Unbounce for all of our landing pages. It is best for groups that run ads on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other advertising networks. It allows you to create and split test landing page variants. It is not ideal if you need navigation on your pages, which is why it is preferred for paid ads only. It can be a little pricey.”
  • Leadpages – “If you are an information marketer, coach, consultant, or like linear funnels that get people to incrementally purchase products from you, Lead Pages is for you. It is similar to Unbounce, but tends to be used more by people who do a lot of email or affiliate marketing, as opposed to PPC.”
  • WordPress – “If you need landing pages, but you want to preserve your existing website structure, we recommend just using WordPress. You may need to use a theme that is very simple or even install a separate WordPress instance under a sub-directory or sub-domain, but for a lot of people WordPress works fine, and it’s free.”
Nathan Pabich
Nathan is the Director of Paid Media at Digital Third Coast in Chicago. He's been running PPC and Paid Media ads for 13 years.
https://www.digitalthirdcoast.com/
  • Unbounce – “I’ve been using Unbounce for three years, both for my agency’s marketing needs and for our clients. Unbounce has become my favorite tool for landing page needs.

    The set-up is easy, even for non-technical people. The design interface is intuitive and allows anyone to create a serviceable landing page, choosing from a vast number of customizable templates in the platform. For our landing pages, we worked with our designer and we were all very pleased with what he was able to do to take our design further. He gave positive feedback on the design environment as well.

    The Unbounce solution resides on a subdomain of your site, so it’s not locally hosted, which allows you to link Unbounce to virtually any CMS you run. All in, it’s an affordable and easy solution when you need landing pages outside of your main site/CMS.”

Tiago Faria
Tiago is a digital marketing consultant and ex-Googler, focused on helping local businesses gain visibility on Google so they can get more calls, more contacts, more visits and, consequently, more business.
http://www.tiagofaria.pt
  • Thrive Architect – “It is the only landing page builder any small business needs. Why? Because it is the most complete marketing tool one can have (Thrive Themes has a ton of marketing plugins that are specially made for direct response marketing), and it is extremely easy to use.

    Additionally, Thrive Architect is by default mobile first (so you don’t have to worry about responsiveness, and can easily edit both dekstop and mobile versions), it has one of the best customer support teams I’ve seen in the business (they solve every issue within hours), and it has nearly 300 landing page templates that you can easily customize to your own liking.

    And finally, it is affordable! At only $67 (one time payment), you get more than you get from other overpriced landing page builders. If you choose to also grab all of their other powerful plugins, it’s still a mere $228/year membership fee (again… NOTHING in this industry…).

    Combine it with Thrive Leads, and Thrive Optimize, and you’ll have a beast of a tool for almost nothing!”

Chris Stott
Client Director responsible for strategy and client happiness at PPC Geeks
http://ppcgeeks.co.uk

“Well designed, and conversion optimised landing pages are certainly essential for well executed PPC campaigns (or any marketing campaign for that matter).

The two landing page options we like are:”

  • Unbounce – “Easy to use (maybe not as easy as they claim, but easy none the less). There are a few things that are really useful as an agency. Firstly, we can run our own landing pages on a sub-domain so no need to deal with or mess around with a client’s main website. Alternatively, they have a WordPress plugin to load your landing pages onto a site, which makes implementing them into many client sites very easy. Secondly, we can do split testing very easily. Recently Unbounce has been adding some great new features such as popups, sticky bars and AMP pages for improved page speed.”
  • Beaver Builder – “In a former life, I used to be a WordPress Developer and run a web design company. I’ve seen WordPress go through many iterations and tested hundreds of plugins. Without a doubt, Beaver Builder is unparalleled for ease of use as a landing page builder, enabling you to create and edit landing pages of pretty much any design incredibly quickly. With features such as global rows to share and update certain parts of multiple landing pages all at the same time, it really is a dream to work with. Admittedly, it does mean you need at least some WordPress competence to get it up and running. Also, it lacks the split testing features of Unbounce and you’ll need another form plugin to capture leads, but really you can build a very capable, easy to use and cheaper landing page solution for your site (and your whole site) if you go this route.”
Trevor Stewart
CEO & Founder of Let's Get Optimized, Canada's best SEO Company - CEO & Founder of DealerGeeks.ca & DealerInside.com - Google Gold Product expert
https://Letsgetoptimized.com

Looking for a game changing Landing page builder for your current project? Here are a few things that you maybe trying to accomplish with your LP:

  1. Conversion focused LP to convert PAID traffic
  2. You are looking to use this as a static web page and wish to earn traffic
  3. You are looking to put your first web page up and start learning the online world

This are the 3 main reasons that we are ripping around online routing through the gazillions of landing page builders trying to make sense, yet the more you look the more you lose hope…I know!

  • Unbounce – “Looking for a conversion monster then Unbounce is your best bet. Oli Gardner and his team have been ROI focused for over a decade. They understand conversion and assist in better conquest acquisition. Pros – Great pop ups, Templates and A/B testing.”
  • WordPress – “You are looking to use this as a static web page and wish to earn traffic. This is where I see too many mistakes made! If you are looking for a page that will build authority and stand the test of time then page builders are not the way to go… Page builder = Wigetized Short code that translates into a web page that uses a drag and drop editor. These are not the best solution these days when it comes to crawl-ability. They actually drive Google nuts for the most part. Also the fact that you pay monthly makes this choice wrong for the “pay-as-you-go” page builder. If you want to rank, go with a modern CMS like WordPress… This way it may cost a bit up front yet you eliminate the monthly and you are in a better machine to compete in your space.”
  • Wix – “If you are just looking to have fun and see something that you will be proud of then any type of Wix type will make you pull out less hair to get what you want. Just don’t invest to much in the marketing of these sites.”
Laura Egocheaga
Laura is one of the most sought after Facebook ads consultant that specializes in scaling profitability for e-commerce and brick and mortar clients in the US. She is a best selling author for her book “The Small Business Guide to Social Media Marketing”. Laura owns and operates Tampa’s Number 1 Growth Hacking Performance based marketing firm: Divibe Tech.
http://www.lauraegocheaga.com

I got my start in marketing as an affiliate marketer. Which back in 2011 meant that I needed to learn how to code to be able to put up simple landing pages to collect data.

(Be thankful you don’t have to go through that now)

Depending on your tech skill level I have 3 of the best landing page builders you could ever need in your life.

  • ClickFunnels – “If you’re a complete newbie and have no idea what you’re doing I HIGHLY recommend clickfunnels. Russel and his team have created so much content around how to properly build landing pages, it’s ridiculous. Anyone from no experience to all the experience in the world can benefit from clickfunnel’s simplicity.”
  • Elementor – “Now this is actually one of my favorite landing page builders if you have a WordPress CMS. Super simple to play around with if you are familiar with a tech background. Maybe take some CSS classes before hopping on this plugin.”
  • Instapage – “Super useful tool that lets you create landing pages that are on-brand. Integration to your website is seamless since it requires no code. Not my favorite, but it works.”
John Williamson
An analytical and entrepreneurial-minded math nerd, digital marketing expert, and usability enthusiast, John is the SEO Manager for The Brandon Agency, catalyzing client growth through SEO, PPC, UX, CRO, and content initiatives. He is passionate about delighting users and customers through ethical, intuitive, human-centered, confidence-inspiring design and engagement.
http://theoptimizingblog.com
  • Unbounce – “Arguably a household name when it comes to landing page builders, Unbounce features a user-friendly, point-and-click/drag-and-drop page builder. I think Unbounce is the oldest, original landing page builder. The platform supports split-testing, 100+ integrations, AMP, and more. It doesn’t necessarily have a steep learning curve, but I would say it is an advanced tool and not really for beginners. Unbounce also stresses conversion rates – the whole point of landing pages – rather than simply just building an attractive page. Perhaps most notably, all these great features come at a cost, as Unbounce is probably the most expensive option in this space, especially if you’re creating a large amount of landing pages or needing sub-accounts. Unbounce is likely more suitable for larger agencies and organizations. Ironically, Unbounce’s entry-level plan is $99 per month if you choose monthly billing, but it does not include some crucial features and integrations you’d probably want like AMP, client sub-accounts, Marketo and Salesforce integrations, and more. Their next step up is $199 per month if billed monthly or $159 per month if billed annually.”
  • Instapage – “Instapage would be my second choice, a slight step down from Unbounce. As its name implies, Instapage offers speedy landing page building. Like Unbounce, is has a drag-and-drop builder; it is not quite as robust as Unbounce, but is making leaps and bounds with constant additions and improvements. There’s little to no learning curve for Instapage. Again, it is not as robust or customizable as Unbounce, so naturally it is slightly cheaper. It has about 40 integrations compared to Unbounce’s 100. Be sure to check each for which specific integrations you need. At the time of writing, their “Core” business plan is $129 per month for monthly billing, $30 more than Unbounce. The price drops to $99 per month if you choose annual billing. I would argue Instapage is suitable for both beginners and experts alike, depending on which plan you opt for, particularly individual bloggers and small businesses looking to get some sleek landing pages up in the shortest amount of time.”
Kim Giroux
I advise agencies, established and emerging brands in Digital Marketing. My hands-on, partnership level approach means I can uncover more ways to increase your acquisitions, faster.
http://kimgiroux.com
  • Unbounce – “I’ve used a handful of landing page creation tools for clients, but have found one of the easiest is Unbounce. The platform is fairly intuitive and user friendly, which means that someone such as myself (who is not spectacularly gifted at design) can whip up new landing page iterations quickly. Tracking implementation can be a bit tricky for some clients, but in my experience the customer service team has been helpful for times when we’ve become stuck trying to resolve an issue.”
Thomas Jaskov
Thomas Jaskov is a senior SEO Expert and Google Ads (AdWords) consultant at Jaskov Consult ApS. He is the author of
https://jaskovconsult.dk/en/

Having spent more than 10 years helping clients (ranging from multinational corporations to small businesses) with SEO, Adwords, Google Analytics and Conversion Rate Optimization, one thing I have found that is very important for the success of a client’s online marketing campaign, is their landing pages.

A good Landing Page Builder is therefore something worth considering, when you have to look at ways to improve the conversion rates of your marketing campaigns.

  • Unbounce – “One of the best Landing Page Builders I have come across is Unbounce. The Landing Page Builder from Unbounce has a ton of great features. You get 100+ great (and modern) looking and stylish landing page designs, sticky bars and various pop-ups. I can definitely recommend Unbounce if you are more serious about building a great landing page. The price is not on the low end, but you pay for a quality product, which is worth the investment.”
  • Instapage – “Another contender for best Landing Page Builder is Instapage. The price for Instapage isn’t high, when you look at all the great features you get. It is definitely a great investment, if you are looking for a serious Landing Page Builder. You get more than 200 templates for great looking landing pages, and lot of very useful features. Another great thing about both Unbounce and Instapage is, that you don’t need any software developer skills to build landing pages that look great.”

There are many other Landing Page Builders on the market, even free ones, so when you select one, it is important, that you first look at your needs. Both Unbounce and Instapage are not free products. But you get great value for the money, and most important of all, you get something that works really well and is very easy to use.

Eric Farmer
Eric has 10+ years of digital marketing experience focusing heavily on PPC and SEO. Eric is currently the Director of Paid Social at BestCompany.com and runs much of their lead gen efforts.
https://bestcompany.com/
  • Unbounce – “I’ve personally had great success with Unbounce, specifically with driving traffic from Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. Two benefits I almost instantly experienced were lower CPCs due to higher landing page relevancy and higher conversion rates. The higher relevancy increased my quality scores which directly affected my CPCs. And as for the conversion rates, I created tested multiple page variants, which enabled me to increase conversion rate over time. I would also recommend Unbounce for the following reasons: built for both DIY marketers and big brands, LP creation is incredibly nimble and quick, and the data you can acquire from A/B testing can drive real results. I will say I saw more success using Unbounce for lead generation than with e-commerce–it was much harder to build landing pages for e-commerce.”
  • Instapage – “This platform is great for PPC marketers. It’s so much better when marketers can have control over the post-click experience which is exactly who Instapage is designed for. It’s the perfect balance between template-based LPs and custom LPs and almost anyone could build a landing page in 30 minutes or less. One of the coolest features is the dynamic content replacement because it customizes the text and images on your landing page based on the visitor! With such a personalized experience you’re bound to see an increase in conversion rates, which is why we’re doing all of this, amirite? If you’re building landing pages for clients I do recommend setting the expectation early that the pages are not 100% customizable and at the end of the day you are limited by what the software can do. This way you’re all on the “same page”–pun definitely intended.”
Bryan Butler
Bryan has been in Paid Media for 10 years and is the Director of Paid Media at Portland SEM Agency Searchlogic. He specializes in enterprise B2B & B2C Lead Generation and E-commerce clients. With a focus in indirect path to purchase sales funnels, we help use paid media to bridge the gap between Sales and Marketing in the Demand Generation Funnel.
https://searchlogic.com/
  • Unbounce – “At Searchlogic, we rely on GCLID and KPID data passthrough to be able to help our clients connect the digital dots. I have found that often times websites have issues collecting the correct cookie data or URL variables, which causes a lot of problems with CRM integration making offline conversions impossible to track. This is a huge issue with high dollar SAAS companies and other high CPA lead generation focused companies. We have found that by using Unbounce, we are able to use the Hidden fields in the Unbounce forms to capture and transfer the GCLID/ KPID values into the proper CRM. The best API connection is Salesforce, which a rich API connection that allows for a fairly seamless connection. This connection can be leveraged in Offline event tracking in Google to allow for a 90-day offline lookback window or a longer window in certain 3rd party tools. This type of connection is pivotal in an indirect path to purchase buying funnel.

    We have also found that Unbounce’s dynamic keyword insertion features are great for hacking paid media quality scores and increasing landing page conversion rates. We will often time leverage the location data or service level data to dynamically optimize the landing page content with a URL parameter that will insert the intent variables. This allows us to turn as a headline like “LLC Registration” into “LLC Registration in California”

Ventsislav Vasilev
Ventsislav is a marketing professional with over 12 years of work experiences in SEM, SEO, Google ads, Facebook ads, Google Analytics, Youtube, Wordpress and etc. He works at Optimum Media OMD Bulgaria as a Senior Digital Media Manager.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ventsislavv
  • WordPress – “It is a powerful CMS that you can build a landing page, website, magazine or ecommerce website. You can use WordPress for free on wordpress.com or invest a small amount of money and buy a domain name and hosting.

    The new version of WordPress comes with the Gutenberg builder https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (easy to use WordPress content editor). In case you want to amplify the webpage features you can install a custom theme or plugins for free or you can buy premium ones. WordPress is a really good and flexible platform but you will need some technical skills to be able to make use of all its features.”

  • Google Site Builder – “This is the perfect solution for people without any technical experience. There are a bunch of free landing page templates that you can manage with a drag-and-drop creator in real time. All templates are mobile responsive.

    Also, you can easily integrate google products to the webpage (documents, analytics, maps and etc.) You can use it for free with a Google account or you can buy your own domain name.”

  • Wix – “This is one more platform to create landing pages that are stylish without any technical skills. There are over 30 free templates. You can manage the content though its “drag-and-drop feature. All templates allow you to create mobile responsive landing pages. There’s a free version or you can subscribe to a paid plan (prices start at 4.50 euro/month)”
Bruce Chant
Bruce has over 12 years' experience in SEO. In recent times he was Account Director of one of Australia's largest & most awarded Digital Marketing agencies, before returning to work for himself. Bruce still gets a buzz out of seeing ranking rise and businesses grow through organic search.
https://brucechant.com.au

When it comes to landing page builders you can either find yourself saving time or ADDING a stack of time if you head down the wrong path. I have 2 favourites.

  • ClickFunnels – “If you are looking for do-it-for-you environment you can’t go past clickfunnels.com. The biggest benefit to this service is in its name; it’s not just about the landing page, but about the funnel BEHIND the landing page that will get you most bang for your buck. It’s pretty easy to use (drag and drop) and you can integrate with your favourite email marketing + list building tools.”
  • Thrive Architect – “My other favourite go-to is Thrive Theme’s Thrive Architect. It is a plugin for WordPress that enables you to transform any theme into a landing page that does EXACTLY what you want it to. Use their templates or design your own, Thrive also have list building tools and conversion elements you can make use of. What I love is that Thrive Architect works seamlessly in the WordPress environment and so can be used with very little additional ongoing cost.”
Mark Sceats
Mark is the Head of SEO at SureFire Search, a New Zealand search agency he founded back in 2002.
https://www.surefiresearch.com/

Landing page builders are perfect for marketers who need to maximise the performance of their websites as quickly as possible. The drag and drop interfaces and templates of landing page builders means that marketers with minimal technical skills can easily build great looking conversion focused web pages. Furthermore, most have built in A/B split testing functionality, plus integration with other marketing software such as email services, CRMs, and marketing automation solutions like Hubspot and Marketo.

Most landing page builders are SAAS services and whilst they fundamentally do the same thing, there are certainly differences in price, the range of features provided, ease of use and the number of integrations available.

  • Unbounce – “Personally, I like Unbounce which is has some pretty sophisticated features and is easy to use. However, a drawback is that it’s comparatively expensive compared to other services such as Leadpages.”
  • Thrive Architect – “Landing page builders like Unbounce, Leadpages and Instapage are SAAS services, meaning they have ongoing subscription fees which can get very expensive over time. For that reason, an alternative I’m a big fan of is Thrive Architect for owners of WordPress websites. This premium WordPress plugin is a drag and drop page builder that makes building web pages very easy for people without design or coding skills. And like those SAAS service it includes conversion-focused landing page templates, which can be easily customised. Simple A/B testing can be done using the Thrive Optimize plugin. Whilst it’s by far the easiest WordPress editor I’ve used, it’s not as easy to use as most SAAS landing page builders. That said, it’s way cheaper and unlike SAAS services, the landing pages built with it won’t disappear the way they will if you cancel your SAAS subscription.”
Nick Schulaner
Digital Marketer and WordPress Web Developer
http://nickschulaner.com/
  • Leadpages – “Personally, I use Leadpages almost exclusively simply because it meets my clients’ needs (most of them just need simple funnels with a lead magnet and opt-in form). I recommend most people try Leadpages first because it’s cheaper than Clickfunnels and you can always switch to Clickfunnels later if you find that you need the extra bells and whistles.”
  • ClickFunnels – “The only reason Clickfunnels isn’t at #1 is that, while it IS a great landing page builder, not everyone needs to build full multi-page funnels. To me, it doesn’t make sense to have a bunch of features unless you’re actually USING them. The drag and drop builder is a little more intuitive than Leadpages, but not significantly.”

“If you have a limited budget: Go with Leadpages first and switch to Clickfunnels if you need more features.

If you have a bit more money OR need a fancier and more complex funnel: Go with Clickfunnels”

Jonathan Stec
Online marketing expert with over a decade of experience working with national and local brands.
https://firestormsem.com
  • Unbounce – “Unbounce has been around for quite some time and is fairly easy to setup and integrate into a site. They have plenty of templates with a drag and drop interface, making it mostly painless to build landing pages. However, this simple interface can be limiting so more advanced edits will require more time. Additionally, we have noticed that Google Ads does not like Unbounce and that Quality Scores suffer, despite the landing page loading fast and being as relevant as you can get. Regardless, this is a good solution for those wanting to get up and running with A/B split tests quickly.”
  • WordPress – “There is a universe of options to choose from when it comes to WordPress, allowing you to choose what works best for you. Not only do you have the built-in landing page builder, but there are a number of plugins that you can choose from. The best part is your landing pages will perform great in Google Ads (from a Quality Score perspective, if done right) and can even gain some Organic footing. We by default recommend WordPress for our SEO clients.”
  • Custom Built – “Sometimes the best route is to have it done internally. The reason being is that you control it 100% and have essentially no limitations. This can be a time/resource drain, but in the long run can prove the most useful as you will have control of the landing pages and they will be “independent” of anything going on with your site (or you can integrate them and make them a part of your site structure to add content and relevancy to your site).”

“Just remember that the whole point of a landing page is to help grow and improve your business, so don’t let the decision of what and how impede that. Pick something that works best for you and test it, gain some data, and adjust if necessary.”

Vincent Tobiaz
CEO of SEO Smooth. Working with websites since 1998 and Digital Marketing since 2005 for businesses from small ones up to Fortune 500.
https://www.seosmooth.com

“It used to be just a few years ago that website builders were absolutely frowned upon by all developers due to the bloated code and scripts slowing down a website and even breaking other functions. Divi and WP Bakery, formerly known as Visual Composer, were notorious for this. Then came higher-heralded page builders such as Beaver Builder, Elementor, being lightweight and much more functional. Now even WordPress itself has a page builder built-in with the Gutenberg editor.”

  • Elementor – “If I were to recommend any of them, I have to go with Elementor. Elementor & Gutenberg have the ease of use and is fast loading and lightweight on both the end-user-facing side and also the editor-facing side. They both don’t butcher your inner pages and force you into a walled garden like Divi, nor are they as bloated as WP Bakery. However, Elementor gives you much more control of your page designs, simple clean options, as well as more powerful features like a pop-up builder, sliders, and carousels for instance.

    The widgets you can put into blocks on Elementor and WP Bakery number greater than Gutenberg. However, with Gutenberg block plugins and WordPress bringing them into their own separate repository, that part of the gap may close. One of my favorite things about the Elementor builder is the Google Maps block – with this one all you’ve got to do is type in the name of a place and it gets it correct, no need for iFrame code, address or anything else and shows the exact business.”

Vincent Iachetta Jr
15+ years of experience in Digital Marketing, Owner & President of Peppermonkey Media, LLC a Google, Bing & Amazon Ads Certified Partner. I've successfully managed $20+ Million dollars in PPC ad spend across 100's of client campaigns and in varying verticals and industries.
https://www.peppermonkeymedia.com

“If you love PPC like me then your favorite part of a campaign is the moment you “flip the switch”, turn on the traffic and flood the funnel you built with fresh users.

“It’s alive, It’s ALIVVVEEE!!!”.

Really what we want to know is, “Did all that damn time and energy we invested researching, developing and building our crazy funnel creation pay off?” The faster we can build and test a landing page or funnel the faster we can hit pay dirt. Like John C. Maxwell said, “Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.” And I agree.

For me, one of the things that always slows me down is building landing pages. Do we need a landing page? What’s a landing page? Well, it’s a single website page built with one goal in mind. Some of the most common goals for landing pages are filling out a form, making a phone call or purchasing a product. They each have their challenges, but for local clients such as the law firms we manage, we more often than not are simply trying to get the user to either call or fill out a form.

The difficulty of building landing pages might be obvious, but it is two-fold (Design & Coding). I’m not saying I can’t do both, I’m just very particular with high expectations, and while I have experience working with design and code I’d prefer to spend my time as we mentioned earlier; testing the final product. So if you’ve ever gotten stuck and spent hours trying to position an element exactly where you want on the page across multiple screen sizes then you can relate and I feel your pain.

“Nobody’s got time for that!”

With that said here are my top 3 for “best landing page builder” that will help you speed up the process so you can “flip that switch” and bring your funnel to life!”

  • ClickFunnels – “This is my first choice when it comes to quickly getting up a landing page that you plan on building out into a full funnel by integrating with One Time Offers, Upsells, Downsells, Email Marketing Automation and more. Even though many people think of CF as only a “Funnel” building tool, the visual builder that is used to create the pages is pretty user-friendly and not as restrictive as some other landing page builders that limit access and functionality control. With CF you have access to the header and footer code to add scripts such as a “Dynamic Keyword Insertion” script or “Dynamic Number Insertion” script from Call Rail. On top of all that, the marketplace has some great funnel templates that you can buy and start sending traffic to in minutes with only minimal customization required.”
  • Leadpages – “I’d argue this is my second choice. You get a lot for what you pay and their lowest plan is quite affordable. I also really enjoy their user interface. It’s clean, simple and surprisingly fast. It has a ton of templates you can use and modify as you see fit, and some ability to integrate with 3rd party tools. The downside is it does have limited functionality and if you were looking to convert to a funnel at some point, it would be difficult. But for throwing up quick lead gen style landing pages that you can split test fast and for a good price, then try Leadpages.”
  • Elementor + Google Optimize – “Elementor has been making waves as a visual builder, and it’s my favorite visual builder. It’s available for a very reasonable yearly fee, runs on everyone’s favorite CMS in WordPress and is constantly being improved upon. It has a good number of templates built in, the UI is great and the responsiveness is fast when making visual edits. What is missing is the ability to split test natively in the inside of the software like the other landing page builders. That’s easily overcome with something like Google Optimize. Google Optimize is free, built and recommended by “Big G” itself. When these are combined they could be a solid 1-2 punch for your PPC campaigns.”
Jamie Hallitt
A freelance marketing consultant specialising in marketing strategy for professional services firms.
https://jamiehallitt.com

Having used a range of landing page builders for clients with hugely contrasting budgets, I’ve been fairly well-exposed to the challenges of choosing a landing page builder.

My view is that there are a lot of terrible free and cheap platforms, a small handful of fairly average platforms and perhaps 2 or 3 extremely good platforms. The one that I will always come back to and keep using is Unbounce.

  • Unbounce – “Why Unbounce? Well, it has many features that you would expect to pay a fortune for on other platforms, it is much easier to optimise and edit mobile versions than the cheaper platforms and the whole setup of client accounts, custom URLs, results tracking etc. is one that I’m very comfortable with as someone with less web development experience than most.

    Another favoured platform is Instapages – again, very easy to use; in fact, I actually prefer the UI of Instapages to Unbounce. I also think some of the templates are better than Unbounce.

    However, Instapages can’t compete with Unbounce’s customer service, which is second to none – they once sent me a bunch of free Unbounce t-shirts, purely because they liked the humour of one of my client’s landing pages – and Unbounce also has a number of integrations that are ridiculously easy to implement and make it so much easier to manage whole campaigns with accurate results tracking and marketing automation.

    So to summarise, if you like free t-shirts, a decent UI, flexibility of design, ease-of-use and nice clean templates, use Unbounce.”

Amber Ooley
Amber Ooley is the digital marketing manager at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency. She loves crafting highly-optimized content and solving problems. When she isn't focused on keywords, you'll find her on an outdoors adventure or reading a good book.
https://thriveagency.com
  • Unbounce – “I’ve used Unbounce on many occasions to create landing pages. It isn’t really built for beginners, but if you have any experience working with website content editors, I’m sure you’ll pick it up pretty quick. There are plenty of templates to use or at least start from, so you’re not having to build anything from scratch. I love the A/B testing features and the ability to track form fills and clicks — because if you don’t have the juicy data to support your campaign then what’s the point?”
Cody Jensen
Cody Jensen is the Founder & CEO of Searchbloom – an award-winning search engine marketing agency, specializing in search engine optimization. Searchbloom partners with executives, business owners, and brands to help them take their search marketing presence to new heights.
https://www.searchbloom.com/

“When it comes to lead generation, your landing page is one of the most important components. In my opinion, custom coding is the best option because you have no restrictions. Building landing pages in this manner requires design and development experience, as well as a deep understanding of conversion rate optimization (CRO) best practice. You can/should pair this landing page with CRO platforms such as Visual Website Optimizer, Optimizely, or Google Optimize to run many different tests including, heatmaps, recordings, A/B tests, and multi-variant tests. If you have the resources and traffic volume to combine a custom landing page, as well as CRO this would be my first option.

With that said, many business owners and marketers will not have the time, expertise, or resources to run a custom campaign like this. If that’s you, don’t worry about it. There are many easy to use landing page builders that can/should be used in lead generation. These ‘out of the box’ builders are perfect for those who want to begin their campaigns quickly without having to spend additional time and resources on a custom landing page. Most of the best landing page builders include a drag and drop editor (WYSIWYG) and even come with templates which already incorporate CRO best practice. They are fairly simple to set up on your domain or subdomain and can even connect with common content management systems like WordPress.”

  • Unbounce – “My favorite is Unbounce.com for many reasons, but primarily because they are one of the most mature having been in business since 2009 and because they have been doing this for so long, you reap the benefits of their intuitive software, 100+ conversion-focused templates, built in integrations, and the ability to split test variations (among many other things).”
Dresean Ryan
Dresean is a Marketing Director by day and SEO Consultant by night. He can be found on his YouTube channel at YouTube.com/dreseanr
https://dreseanryan.com
  • Divi Builder – “In my opinion, Divi Builder is the absolute best landing page builder bar-none. Divi gives you the functionality of all other page builders but also allows you to use it to build a beautiful website. With Divi, the possibilities are endless. You can setup funnels, you can build beautiful websites, and you can do so much more! The best part about this? You can do all of this without writing a single line of code. What also separates Divi from the competition is that, when you purchase Divi for WordPress, you don’t have to pay for it on a month by month basis. There’s also lots of plugins that you can integrate Divi with that further enhances the experience you get with it.”

“Some honorable mentions are also: Unbounce and Leadpages. I’m so amazed by Divi though and recommend that everyone use it!”

Michal Mihalick
We are able to improve the bottom line of any company that deals with customer support - by replacing the repetitive tasks with AI-powered conversational chatbots.
https://mediapakt.com/?utm_source=expertssay
  • Convertri – “We have switched all our landing pages to Convertri over a year ago and it was a great decision.

    Convertri is an incredible page builder for landing pages and sales funnels. It has even built in e-commerce features so it can accept payments directly.

    But it excels in two features over almost any competitor out there:

    1. It is incredibly fast.
    2. It is optimized for mobile.

    We all know what happens when a site takes too long to load or if it is not optimized for viewing on a smartphone. The visitors drop off and the page gets penalized by Google.

    The infrastructure and the code that Convertri uses is incredibly fast. Its speed is on par with the biggest e-commerce sites. This is fantastic for conversion rates, particularly on mobile where every millisecond counts.

    These are the results of one of our landing pages. There was no optimization done whatsoever:

    Convertri Speed

    Convertri also has hundreds of amazing templates to choose from. This makes things easier when starting out with the website design.

    I can recommend Convertri for digital marketers and small/medium companies for building their landing pages. Convertri is also suited to digital agencies that create sales funnels for clients. With Convertri there is no need to get involved in the hassle of hosting and optimizing websites for speed, nor looking after the security.

    What Convertri is not ideal for:

    • It would be cumbersome to build multi-page websites with Convertri.
    • There is no automated menu system with dynamic menus and dropdowns.”
Jesse Witham
Founder of SearchMarketingAgency.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewitham/
  • Unbounce – “I think most web designers know about Unbounce. They have amazing templates, along with plenty of features and tools. The editing tools specifically are probably the best out there. I have recommended Unbounce many times in the past couple of years. It’s not very cheap though, so beginners might want to look elsewhere.”
  • Leadpages – “Leadpages is probably the best solution for the money. The starting price is low and the features are still rich. They have a great editor, but certain customizations and templates are not always free. For $25 a month, you can have one of the best drag and drop landing page builders on the market.”
  • Instapage – “Instapage is my favorite landing page builder at the moment. Although it’s not as cheap as Leadpages or as robust as Unbounce, this is the best choice for beginners and experts alike. The build process is lightning-fast, and the editor is very easy to use. I also like Instapage templates the most, and they have over 100 of them included in the monthly price.”
Mike Murphy
Mike has over ten years of experience running paid advertising campaigns on the internet. His combined experience in lead generation campaigns and Ecommerce advertising gives him a unique advantage when it comes to building landing pages. His best practices in UI/UX and CRO also go a long way.
https://www.redolive.com/
  • Mailchimp’s Landing Page Builder – “If you don’t need to feed your contacts into CRMs or other systems this could be just the beautifully simple, capable landing page builder you’ve been looking for. It has only been out for a couple years, but is an option that should not be overlooked. A free landing page builder coupled with free email marketing automation tools (and free base Mailchimp account even) make this a very powerful platform. MailChimp will also host it for free on an https://mailchi.mp/custom-slug url. Their landing page builder is similar to their email builder and comes naturally. If you want to host it on your own domain you’ll need to fork out $99 / year, which is still a fraction of what most other builders cost. If nothing else, this is a great medium to get your feet wet in email collection and email marketing automation. Learn what you can and expand to a more robust solution if needs be!”
  • Leadpages – “Leadpages is an inexpensive option, with monthly plans starting at just $17 per month. This is with a 2-year plan. They also have annual plans and monthly. While there’s no free version, you can try it for free for 14 days and it has many, if not more, of the same tools, integrations of other landing page builders that cost 5x as much (or more!). Want to run A/B tests on your landing pages? You’re in luck, it’s included. Want to use pop-ups or sticky bars/announcement banners across the top of your landing pages? Also included. If you need integrations that free landing page builders don’t offer, this is the next option to try.”
  • Unbounce – “It seems that every marketer out there has at least heard of Unbounce, if not used it extensively. They are one of the pioneers of standalone landing page builders and have templates that are tried and true many thousand times over. Their robust set of integrations and tools make this one of the best solutions. Paid annually, you can get started for $79 and even run A/B tests. The drag and drop builder is intuitive and quick. They offer a free 14-day trial to see if you’d be interested in continuing. If you want AMP functionality, you’ll have to update to the middle plan which is $159 per month on annual plans.”
Georgy Bickerdyke
Founder and marketer delivering comprehensive strategies to drive online leads and traffic, improve conversion rates and deliver tangible results for clients.
https://glsco.co.uk

“I’ll start off by looking at the best landing page builders from my personal experience.

With these three landing page builders, you will be able to create all kinds of pages such as; sales pages, squeeze pages, membership pages, webinar pages, course pages, confirmation pages, and much more. Most importantly, with minimal time and coding skills required.”

  • Thrive Architect – “Thrive Architect is a landing page plugin that allows you to create and customize conversion focused landing pages – fast. You get landing page templates at your fingertips so you can build out new pages very easily. These templates are designed in themed sets, so you can build out an entire sales funnel that fits together visually. Integrates with major email marketing CRMs.”
  • Unbounce – “One of the early adopters of landing pages. Unbounce offers one of the easiest ways to build and test custom landing pages, website popups and sticky bars. Improve your post-click conversion rates and launch more campaigns, fast.”
  • ClickFunnels – “Great tools for designing simple landing and sales funnels, easy 1 click “up-sells” feature and much more with support from a great community. Only problem is that customisation is really limited.”
Chris Foerster
Chris Foerster is a digital marker who specializes in helping businesses succeed with their online marketing. With over a decade of experience he has mastered a number of marketing tactics that help companies improve their online visibility.
https://www.madcatsmedia.com

I have my 3 choices for best landing page builder below.

  • WordPress – “This is just my preference, but custom WordPress templates are most ideal for me when building out a website. If you already have pages that continue to rank and convert well, I feel like these are ideal pages to have a template page within WordPress (or whatever CMS you use). There are a number of landing page creation tools out there that can help you create a custom page from scratch very quickly. Using a tool to customize content page by page is great when it is needed. However, when global updates or redesigns are in the works, it might make it difficult to streamline a website that made every other page unique. It may also give an inconstant user experience if you go overboard. In extreme circumstances you might feel like you are visiting a different website every time you visit a new page. ”
  • Instapage – “If you need a landing page created quickly, a custom WordPress template isn’t always the best option. Using a tool like Instapage is one of my next favorite choices. This can help to quickly launch a quality landing page in a short amount of time for a reasonable cost. For landing pages that convert well, you might want to consider building out a custom WordPress template that can then be used for new pages. The best part about a tool like Instapage is the template option. I recommend choosing a template that is as close to what you want then to start customizing rather than beginning from scratch. This will save you time and help to ensure that your layout and design flows. ”
  • Unbounce – “In my opinion Unbounce has similar features to Instapage, but the template options look more professional/polished. It is a bit more expensive, but there are conversion features such as pop-ups and A/B testing that give them a competitive advantage over a number of other tools. Unbounce also integrates with WordPress, Zapier, and I imagine several other platforms.”
Jeremy Bolton
Jeremy is a digital marketing specialist with over 5 years in the industry and runs an agency in Warwickshire. He specialises in design and development of websites, lead generation campaigns and SEO.
https://tymedia.co.uk/
  • Thrive Architect – “Thrive Architect is a powerful and highly intuitive WYSIWYG WordPress editor plugin. Whatever type of page you want to make, from product pages and lead generation pages, this software can achieve it. It has a brilliant user interface and a host of great features, from flexible layout options to hotkeys for when you want quicker actions. Thrive Architect also has device-specific styling for greater customisation to your pages and you can view the responsive designs in the builder itself, whether it’s a tablet or mobile view.

    The beauty of Thrive Architect is that it can help you create any type of page using drag and drop, making it easy to design impactful landing pages, but without the need for a designer to build your pages for you. These elements don’t need to be contained as there are no sections, so it provides more flexibility than some other landing page builders. The downside, however, is that it doesn’t come with any free options, so it’s probably not the best option for budget-conscious marketers. But it’s still cheaper than a lot of page builders on the market and the value it provides more than offsets the cost.

    Thrive Architect is a must-have landing page builder that replaces the need for dozens of different plugins by providing conversion-focused elements which are in-built. From countdown timers to customisable buttons and lead generation forms, there are plenty of elements that are designed to increase growth within your business and get more leads. For anyone who’s serious about building profitable pages, Thrive Architect is one of the best tools for achieving online success.

    Pros:

    • Inline text editing
    • Device-specific responsive views
    • Incredibly flexible in terms of layout options

    Cons:

    • The properties panel is overcrowded and not as well-organised as it could be
    • Can on occasion be a little buggy”
  • ClickFunnels – “The goal of ClickFunnels is to save marketers time and to achieve what would otherwise require a lot of technical skill or a range of third-party applications. In that regard, it’s a brilliant piece of software to have in your arsenal. ClickFunnels brings all of your marketing tools into one place, making it the easiest way of selling practically anything. Gone are the days of using multiple tools – you can think of this as more than just a sales funnel and landing page builder, but also as an e-commerce platform.

    It has a great selection of features including template editors, reporting and organisation tools, and integration functionality. There’s also no need for a website, as the landing pages are hosted on ClickFunnels’ servers but it’s easy enough to insert them into your own site if you want to. Using this software removes the need for plugins and provides marketers with a professional-looking landing page that enables clear focus on guiding prospects through a multi-step journey. One of the main benefits of using this tool is that it includes sales funnel templates that allow you to pick the funnel that best matches your requirements, whether that’s selling an e-book or marketing a subscription service, to accelerate success. What’s more, you know they’ve been thoroughly tested for best results, so you remove the trial and error element of building a landing page.

    This intuitive software gives you everything you need to sell and promote products online, but without the need for various tools and hiring developers. The templates in ClickFunnels are positioned in sections so the elements can be dragged and dropped wherever you need them to be – while there are other landing page editors that are more flexible, ClickFunnels still allows you to achieve virtually any design and is a useful tool to have on hand once you have mastered the interface.

    Pros:

    • Great community support for users
    • Wide range of features
    • Intuitive and easy to use

    Cons:

    • Some of the features may feel a little superfluous
    • Hosted on ClickFunnels’ servers, so if they go down, so does your landing page”
Justin Herring
Justin Herring is the Co-Founder at YEAH! Local, a boutique SEO agency. Having been personally burned by SEO companies in the past he decided to open up his own agency focused on “Results”. After seeing how the industry operated for many years, he knew there was a niche for marketing companies who actually did what they said.
https://yeah-local.com/

“There are lots of great landing page builders on the market, but I only like to use ones with ease of use, that provide templates, and have no monthly recurring payment.

The two landing page builders I use every day are:”

  • Thrive Architect – “This landing page builder is great because they provide you with enough templates so you don’t need to start from scratch and enough flexibility to help you create gorgeous landing pages that convert. Also, it is just a one time fee and then if you want support you can pay for it yearly.”
  • Elementor – “If you want a free landing page builder, then I would start with Elementor and use their templates. I don’t think it is as easy to use as Thrive Architect, but is a perfect solution for someone just starting out that wants to build one or a couple of landing pages. They offer front end design so you can see exactly what you are changing as you do it.”

“Either of these options is great so check them out and just get started.”

Bob Rustici
Internet Marketing Professional & PPC Expert at Centrus Digital
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bostoninternetmarketingexpert/
  • Unbounce – “Starting my landing page experience with unBounce, much like the other landing page builders, it offers simple creation of the pages. You can create great looking landing pages using templates with simple modifications, and yet there’s a lot of flexibility for adding more advanced features or such as multi form call to action pages. If you’re a PPC expert and understand the value of the Google quality score, one unique feature you’ll like is dynamic keyword insertion (not of the ads but on the landing page itself). This feature alone, has saved my clients lots of money on their ad spend. They have an ideal balance between simplicity and full feature web page development tools, and you can even create a micro website that is SEO friendly.

    One other feature I’ve really enjoyed is their annual call to action marketing conference held in Vancouver, Canada. A great conference that will generate new ideas on ways to expand your ideas.”

  • Instapage – “Much like unBounce, Instapage offers a starting service that is ideal for building landing pages for both simple and complex needs. They do offer a more enterprise option for landing pages experts who have come to realize it’s not just a simple page creation, but a solution to understanding to addressing a customer journey. For example, you can have complete customized information blocks where the web copy, imagery and experience is customized based on the actual customer segment.

    If you see yourself as being a landing page design firm in the future with advanced capabilities, this could be a great option for your organization.”

  • Leadpages – “ Another important feature set that all of these landing page builders have is A/B testing. And the ability to integrate with email marketing or CRM systems. Since Leadpages is a well established solution in this area, they have extensive and well tested integration capabilities there.

    An important aspect to remember about landing pages, is that the information just doesn’t stop after the visitor hits the submit button; a successful strategy is integration with other marketing automation tools..”

Filed Under: Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Recent Posts

  • Why Use Shopify? 26 Pros Share Their Thoughts
  • Best CRM for Small Business? (We Asked 41 Industry Pros)
  • Best Instagram Scheduler? What 83 Instagram Marketing Experts Say
  • Best Shopify Themes? We Asked 58 Experts What They Think
  • The Best Ecommerce Books? (27 Ecom Pros Share Their Favorites)

Recent Comments

  • John Ratnakar Nalli on The Best Professional Video Editing Software? Here’s What 116 Pro Editors Said
  • Justin Rains on Best Ecommerce Platform for Small Business? Here’s What 78 Industry Pros Think
  • Eric McRoy on Running a Company Remotely: 25 Experts Tips to Set Your Business Up for Success
  • Chris Herbert on Best WordPress Page Builder? 85 WP Pros Have Their Say
  • Chris Herbert on Best WordPress Page Builder? 85 WP Pros Have Their Say

Archives

  • July 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • October 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • June 2018

Categories

  • CRM
  • Ecommerce
  • Email Marketing
  • Remote Work
  • Search Engine Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Software
  • Video Editing
  • Web Design/Development
  • WordPress

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Purchase the Genesis Framework

All of our themes are designed for the Genesis Framework. You'll need to purchase Genesis in order to use our themes.

Purchase Genesis →

Become an Appfinite Affiliate!

Looking to earn some money? Join our Affiliate program and earn 35% of every sale you refer.

Join Now →

Recent Posts

  • Why Use Shopify? 26 Pros Share Their Thoughts
  • Best CRM for Small Business? (We Asked 41 Industry Pros)
  • Best Instagram Scheduler? What 83 Instagram Marketing Experts Say
  • Best Shopify Themes? We Asked 58 Experts What They Think
  • The Best Ecommerce Books? (27 Ecom Pros Share Their Favorites)

About WhatSayTheExperts

We provide recommendations based on the opinions and knowledge of industry experts.

Want to Get Involved?

If you'd like to contribute to WSTE, don't hesitate to get in touch. We don't bite!

Connect With Us!

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2018 - 2021 · WhatSayTheExperts.com, All Rights Reserved.

Cookie Use

Visits to this website are tracked anonymously using cookies. To confirm you acknowledge and are happy with this, click the button to close this box, or go to our privacy policy to find out more.