You Can Now Buy Facebook Ads Within MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the best email marketing platforms available to businesses of all sizes, according to our extensive testing. One of the reasons we found MailChimp to be a compelling choice for email marketers is its exhaustive collection of out-of-the-box integrations with third-party applications such as Salesforce and Shopify. These integrations give marketers greater insight into their customer bases and campaign performance, helping them learn how to convert messaging to sales. Today, MailChimp is furthering that extensibility by launching a Facebook Ads product.
The product, which is MailChimp's first foray out of email marketing, is designed to help the company's 15 million users build an audience by using display advertising. A free add-on, the Facebook Ads product lets MailChimp users select a Facebook audience to target, budget campaigns, and track results data within the MailChimp dashboard.
The platform itself doesn't give users new marketing capabilities. Any MailChimp user could, theoretically, log into Facebook's Ads Manager and begin trying to reach a new audience. However, the integration lets MailChimp users manage the Facebook campaigns without having to leave the email marketing tool, and it lets them combine MailChimp lists with Facebook-selected audience segments. When you combine this convenience with MailChimp's existing customer relationship management (CRM) and e-commerce integrations, to name just a few, MailChimp is hoping to make its tool a one-stop shop for marketing professionals.
The Details
Starting on February 2, users will be able to build an audience by using Facebooks Ads in three different ways: by targeting a MailChimp email list, by combining the MailChimp list with a Facebook audience segment, or by targeting a Facebook audience segment alone. Minimum spend per day is $5, determined only by clicks, not by impressions.
For MailChimp, the integration of Facebook Ads gives e-commerce managers, one of its main user bases, an effective and alternative way to drive sales. Of MailChimp's 15 million users, the company says that 16 percent run e-commerce companies. This client base increased by 46 percent in the past year—a number that surely delights MailChimp's executives given that 46 percent of MailChimp's revenue comes from its e-commerce clients. Facebook Ads gives these retailers an alternative outlet to attract, engage with, and sell to more than 1.79 billion Facebook users.
Why We Recommend MailChimp
As an Editors' Choice email marketing tool, MailChimp was determined by our reviewers to be easy to use, feature-rich, and flexible. For example, MailChimp offers more than 20 email layouts and more than 300 email templates. The tool features an HTML editor that lets you design your own templates, a photo editor that lets you adjust and add effects to imagery, and comprehensive reporting that lets you compare which layouts and designs have been most effective at attracting the right audience.
MailChimp isn't a perfect tool, of course. Free plans don't include auto-responders, users can't immediately set up a paid plan, and reports don't update in real time. Additionally, MailChimp doesn't offer a money-back guarantee, free trials, or 24/7 phone support. And some of its competitors, such as Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, and co-Editors' Choice tool Campaigner have already been offering similar social media marketing products for at least the past six months.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.