Your Guide to Facebook Live Shopping

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that live shopping is an amazing way to sell items while engaging your potential and returning clients in real-time. Well, guess what? Facebook knows this too…

2020 has seen a seen acceleration in live entertainment (and live shopping) in the states. This is another step to making it normalized, and that will always be a good thing for social sellers.

Facebook has now given us the ability to tag products on Facebook and Instagram for years, so it only makes sense they’d provide that option to users in lives as well.

As an agency focused on fast growth for social sellers, we heavily utilize the power of Facebook ads, simply ignoring this change would be irresponsible.

It’s our job to look at it and figure out how to best use it for our client's number one goal which is increases in monthly revenue. That’s exactly what we do below!

What are the positives for social sellers here?

Besides normalizing live selling/shopping, which we think is a great long term thing. FB Live Shopping is just another option within Facebook to take advantage of. It’s not a competitor, it’s something that feeds the system.

It’s also a feature that we think will naturally have increased organic reach and get rewarded in the Facebook ads auctions. That’s all extra important heading in Q4 as every advantage matters. In fact, right now we’re seeing FB live shopping posts have an average of 25% lower CPM’s (cost to reach 1,000 people) compared to other forms of live shopping.

You can also push all the interaction back to your website so the transaction takes place there. This keeps all your sales in one place and is huge for shoppers that utilize a cart and want to keep sales in one central place.

Sounds cool. How can I work it in for Q4 and beyond?

While we can’t say 100% what will work and what won’t (we simply need more testing here), we certainly have some ideas….

IMPORTANT: We do NOT see this being a replacement to your live sales via CommentSold. Users know and love that platform, and the app experience is one of a kind.

However, we do see this used in a few ways to help you get the most of every feature Facebook puts out and every dollar you spend.

Use this as a way to feature specific products, typically around content that would normally be shorter videos or images. In addition, use it as a way to create more buzz before big mega sale days and huge drops.

• Feature a few items or sneak peek looks as a “pre” live before your big CommentSold live. This is a strategy people use to boost reach and it works. Doing a Facebook Live Shopping sneak-peaking a few items for your huge new arrivals launch coming up just makes sense.
• Think of it as a way to do your fit videos. It’s a perfect way to get people back to the site shopping heavier stock items you want to push. These ads typically link to your website anyway so it’s a natural replacement here.
• Use it in feature outfits of the day and daily deal items that you want an immediate lift on.

How do I set it up?

The first thing to do is set up your commerce account. This is basically the new Facebook Shops. That said, it is not required.

You can also manually add products and their corresponding links just before going live.

If you haven’t set up a commerce manager, you can follow the fairly straightforward walkthrough process here:

https://www.facebook.com/commerce_manager/onboarding

Important note: When setting up your commerce manager, you’ll want to connect a product catalog. This becomes important when you start going live on Facebook. If you don’t have this setup, feel free to comment below and I can walk you through it.

*If you’re a current client, your product catalog is set up and you’ll connect it when you walk through Commerce Manager set up.*

Check to see if you have a product catalog here: https://www.facebook.com/products/

Navigate to your product catalog and create a product set of the products you want to feature in the live by searching them by product name. Make sure to name your product set something you can easily remember like “live shopping (date)”

[Ok, so now you’ve got commerce manager set up and your product set good to go, you’re ready to go live with FB shopping!]

Here’s how to go Live with Facebook Shopping:

1. Go to the “create” section of your Facebook page and click LIVE (you can do this on your mobile device as you’ll be recording the live there)
2. Select the LIVE SHOPPING tab and then hit the button so you turn on live shopping. If you don’t see it at first, move around the window and you’ll find it.
3. To feature products from your CommentSold store, select “products from the shop”
4. Select the product catalog you created in step one
5. Add a title and description to your live video and when you’re ready, click Go Live.
6. Click Feature under the product as you want to show the items. To feature a different thing, click on Stop featuring then Feature under the new product. (you can have someone do this from the computer as you are live on the phone, just have someone with business manager access navigate to the live post, open up the live video, go to the live shopping section and hit feature)
7. Once you’re live finishes, click End Live Video. The live will now be on your Page’s timeline so viewers can return to the video for reference, discover it for the first time, or use it in an ad campaign!

https://youtu.be/BWbUpkDSmTU

How do people order?

When clients click on the featured product they will be redirected to the product page for your CommentSold or Shopify website.

Best Practices

• Try a test run first. Make sure to change your privacy settings so that only you and the people you choose can see the test live stream. This will get you comfortable with how to use it and feature products.
• Dest it with shop the looks, fit videos and sneak peeks. Don't use this as a replacement for your large lives.
• Educate your users as soon as you join the live that this is a different way shop.
• Use it to feature certain items as exclusives only available on these Facebook lives by adding them just before the live.