Last month, Chicago startup DigitalGroundUp announced that it was collaborating with Facebook to teach small and medium-sized financial services companies how to effectively advertise on Facebook. Next week the company expects to bring in beta testers to use the product and launch the service in full-swing in the near future.
It's the first service that is designed specifically for smaller financial services companies to learn how to better understand Facebook advertising, said DigitalGroundUp Founder Reva Minkoff.
"All of [Facebook's] resources are designed for the really, really big spenders, like the fortune 500 plus companies," Minkoff said. "And so what happens with that is there really isn’t anything there for the small and medium-sized companies who are actually in the most dire need of the resources. They probably don’t have an agency. They don’t necessarily have a marketing team. They are very concerned about [return on investment] because every dollar counts."
DigitalGroundUp's series of courses teaches financial services companies everything from industry-specific advertising regulation information, to more general Facebook advertising techniques like cost-per-click bidding and increasing mobile engagement. The courses are free for the first 30 days and then cost $99 per month for the subscription. Before the collaboration with Facebook, Minkoff said DigitalGroundUp has worked with more than 350 people across 250 different companies. Now with Facebook directing users to DigitalGroundUp, she expects upwards of a thousand users to sign up for the service after one year.
"There are so many really cool features that Facebook advertising has to offer that most people just don’t know of," she said. They've never heard of them before. And you wouldn't if you weren’t keeping your nose to the ground. And a lot of them are extremely powerful ... It's a way to learn, 'Hey, here are the best practices. Here's how you can use this. Here's what this is. Here's what this means' without spending $5,000 and have it all go out the window."
The company worked with Facebook’s Global Vertical Strategy Team on the free collaboration. Facebook sends users to DigitalGroundUp, and the company teaches businesses how to better spend its money on Facebook advertising.
"It's a mutually beneficial collaboration," Minkoff said. "It helps us both reach our goals. It's an ideal situation."
Founded in 2012, DigitalGroundUp has been teaching companies the best practices in Facebook advertising, search advertising, display advertising, SEO, and site analytics. Minkoff said her goal is to work with other providers and engines like Google and Microsoft to expand its offerings of courses.
"I want to make digital marketing something that anyone can do," she said. "That's really important to me."
