Episode 090 - Small But Mighty: Unpacking SMB Ad Strategies w/Stephanie Smith

Unpolished MBA

Stephanie Smith, the owner of Social by Steph and founder of Simmy, shares her journey from being an engineering major at Georgia Tech to becoming an entrepreneur specializing in paid social media ads. Stephanie gained early experience in Facebook ads while working at a startup that was one of Facebook's first data partners.

Some Topics Discussed Include:

• Budget Constraints: Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have smaller budgets compared to large corporations, limiting their advertising scope. Despite smaller budgets, SMBs can still employ best practices from larger companies to make the most of what they have.
• Budget Realism: A budget of $500 a month for advertising is considered unrealistic and ineffective, especially for e-commerce brands. For a million-dollar e-commerce brand, a daily ad spend of $40 to $50 is recommended, sustained over three to six months for effective testing and learning.
• Learning Curve: Small budgets don't allow businesses to gather enough data to make informed decisions. Stephanie likens this to a Netflix algorithm that can't learn your preferences if you only watch one movie a month.
• Cost of Inefficiency: Running ads incorrectly can be 4000% more costly than if you know what you're doing.
• B2B Strategy: For B2B companies, the focus should be on sharing thought leadership content rather than direct lead generation.
• Creative Responsibility: Most small businesses don’t realize this BUT they—as Clients--are expected to provide the creative elements like images, videos, and copy, while the ad specialist focuses on running and optimizing the campaign.
• Analytics and Optimization: The real skill comes in understanding the data, spotting trends, and optimizing the campaign accordingly.
• Stephanie has developed a new tool called "Simmy" to allow businesses to manage simulated ad campaigns, enabling them to learn best practices without risking real money.

AND MORE!

Small But Mighty: We’re Unpacking SMB Ad Strategies during this episode with Stephanie!

Become an Unpolished MBA Guest: https://unpolishedmba.com

Follow Stephanie Smith

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieasmith1/

Companies: Social By Steph https://socialbysteph.com/ ...and Simmy—COMING SOON!

You can also reach Stephanie [email protected]

Follow Monique Mills

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/

Bio Website: https://moniquemills.biz/

TPM Focus - Strategy Firm for Startups and SMBs: https://tpmfocus.com/

Become an Unpolished MBA Guest: https://unpolishedmba.com