Dee Deng Discusses Facebook Video Advertising

Dee Deng, the head of growth for Right Hook Digital, graced the Affiliate World Asia stage in Bangkok last December 2018. In his post-presentation interview with Benjamin Yong, he shares some of the tips he talked about onstage on harnessing the power of Facebook video advertising.

This video, “Dee Deng Discusses Facebook Video Advertising” first appeared on the AWC Facebook Page.

AWasia Interview with Dee Deng, Head of Growth at Right Hook Digital

Introduction

Dee Deng:

Hey what’s going on. My name is Dee, I am the Head of Growth at Right Hook Digital, an ecommerce growth agency.

Number of Videos or Video Series

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Hello, today, I’m going to share with you one of Facebook’s secrets. If you have ever scrolled through your Facebook news feed and you’ve ever seen this person with a charming smile, that person is right behind me. Sharing all the top tips on how to run an ecommerce business, doing videos and stuff, thank you so much Dee Deng!

Alright, so first question. How many videos or video series that you actually do before getting them to close? Including the webinars.

Dee Deng:

So first of all, I’ve never tried a webinar, actually. So I’ve never actually seen an agency do a webinar before. Like I’ve only seen a webinar and then course or a webinar and maybe some kind of “done with you” stuff.

So we’ve never tried going to webinar, but in terms of videos or video series, it differs from topic to topic and it’s not something we try to architect too much. It’s more like this week I’m going to put out one video, next week I’m going to put out another video, and I’ll just put you through the funnel and I’ll let the data tell me when is the right time to get you.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ So for that reason, there’s no standard protocol? Like this client needs three videos, five videos, it’s all going to be played by ear?

Dee Deng:

Correct, correct. So, let’s talk about say, videos for ecommerce products. So if your ecommerce product, if you are selling say for example, maybe a skin cream. Maybe you want to watch a few more videos to believe that my skin is not going to go bad before I buy your cream, but if I’m selling you a fidget spinner, maybe only one video and you’ll buy straight away because maybe the price is not so high.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ It differs from client to client?

Dee Deng:

Yeah, differs from client to client and differs to even our own funnel. Very different too.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ That’s good to know.

Strategy When Expanding To New Verticals

Benjamin Yong:

?️ So how do you change your strategy when expanding into new verticals?

Dee Deng:

So it really comes down to research. So many people want to skip research. People want to skip research.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Yeah because they want fast results right.

Dee Deng:

Correct.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Especially like a lot of these guys they’re posting screenshots on the groups showing how much they do every day and they create this false illusion that “I can just go in, run some traffic, and just get this result.”

Dee Deng:

Correct. Because that’s a sexier story to tell right. It’s not sexy to say, “Oh, I failed again today. I tried another funnel, I failed again today.” So whenever going into a new vertical the first thing to do is to understand the vertical. For example, whenever you go to Thailand, maybe you should study a bit of Thai so that the taxi driver doesn’t try to cheat you. So you have to prepare first so that you don’t get cheated later, but it’s just boring because it’s like studying for exams.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Right, at least you can foresee what’s going to happen next.

Dee Deng:

Correct. So research, spying, looking at other brands, all that is so, so, so important and then you get to see what they’re doing if they’re spending a lot of money on it, then something must be working right for them.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ But I think it’s like a common thing, especially in ecommerce, where everyone is just copying each other.

Dee Deng:

Yes.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Right, so in that case, is there any advice that you can give to these people if they are still doing this? And do you think this is going to work still when it comes to 2019?

Dee Deng:

I’m so happy that you asked that question. So happy! If you’re watching this right now and you’re copying someone and you’re saying, “Oh why am I losing?” Then maybe you don’t deserve to win.

So let me ask you something. You’re sitting in an exam room right? And I’m the smart guy. I’m going to sit next to the A-student and I’m trying to copy him. I can’t copy 100% ’cause his arm is here, maybe his head is writing. So I won’t be able to copy everything. So I’ll always be behind. He studied. He did the research. He understands the process. He will always win.

So in 2019 – don’t get me wrong, copying is great, you have to use it as inspiration and not as “the lazy student who didn’t study and I want to sit next to the smart student”, right?

Benjamin Yong:

?️ That’s a very good tip.

Infusionsoft

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Okay, next question. Why are you using Infusionsoft for email?

Dee Deng:

If you’re watching this. I’m only using Infusionsoft for email because–

Benjamin Yong:

?️ And this is the affiliate link.

Dee Deng:

Yeah, actually no affiliate link. Because my business partner chose Infusionsoft, I was stuck with Infusionsoft. I was stuck with Infusionsoft! CRMs are such a beast to build right, and because it’s so big it’s hard to update, I understand that. I understand how hard it is to update, but ugh. The only reason why I’m using it is because I was stuck with it.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ And do you actually manage it or is it like your partner is the one managing it?

Dee Deng:

So we go in and manage it almost together. Split it up a little bit. So a lot of our internal marketing, we still do for ourselves ’cause I want the best marketers working for our marketing. So we’ve got to back ourselves right?

Top-Of-Funnel Content

Benjamin Yong:

?️ How much time do you focus on top-of-funnel?

Dee Deng:

Right, so we spend a lot of budget and time working on top-of-funnel type content because that is what keeps our new audiences coming in. So if you’ve never met me before, I’m going to spend most of my time trying to entertain you or trying to figure out what is going to excite you to maybe learn more about us right? So most of the budget is there.

What we do is the people that have shown interest, we then get to retarget them but I have to try hard in a different way because it’s a bit more technical, it’s a bit more like how do we retarget them? Who do we retarget? What type of content? But thinking about fresh, new stuff to feed the top-of-funnel for cold audiences that’s what we focus on.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ So let me sum it up, it’s more like you want to deliver content that can engage the audience and eventually build out a relationship with the audience and eventually when you try to  retarget these people and try to show them the product and services then that’s where the conversions happen.

Dee Deng:

Yes, sir. Absolutely and if you’re running an agency, that’s even more important because I want you to feel like you’re my friend before you even try to call us. Through the videos. Right?

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Yeah, yeah that’s true. Very good sharing from Dee Deng.

Industry Selection and Strategy

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Okay, next question. How do you differentiate your strategy depending on the industry, because apparently some industries they are a lot more competitive compared to others.

Dee Deng:

Yes. Absolutely. Depending on how competitive it is, then you have to do more preparation right, or have more money, or have some type of – it’s not necessarily owning the strategy. It’s also the resources that you can put into the strategy.

Let me give you an example, I know it sounds a bit weird but if you’re going to the olympics, how many years do you have to train before you want to go. Do you know what I mean? Like, many years before you go to the olympics! But if you only want to go, so that’s a competitive, competitive world-class industry, for example, where it’s very competitive. Then you need the best coach. You need the best training. You need the best supplements. You also need to be 100% focused. That’s the strategy.

It sounds very boring because it’s like so obvious but it really is. So if you’re going to something very competitive, do you have the right amount of money to get all the celebrity influencers to maybe be the voice for your brand to start? If it’s not so competitive, it’s like going to your local soccer game. You don’t need years and years because it’s not a big, competitive place. So you can do a little bit and succeed a little bit. So that’s the strategy. It really comes down to preparation.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Preparation, yeah. So in other words, what you are suggesting is that for guys that are just getting into the game, do not go after the really, really competitive industries.

Dee Deng:

Unless your uncle is super rich.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ You’ve got a big chunk of money. Because there are guys who have been spending years, they’ve got a lot of experts, they’ve been like focusing on this industry for years, doing the SEM, SEO, the branding, paid traffic, stuff like that and for you to compete with them it would be literally impossible.

Dee Deng:

Exactly. It’s like your army versus their army. If you can only afford 4 people in your army, and you want to fight an army of 4,000 people, you’re kind of screwed, right? But you have to be smart, you have to then try all the little things or go to fight some other army.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Right, sorry to interrupt because I think a lot of guys when they start to pick what niche they want to go into when starting their ecommerce business, often they would want to go into the niche that they think is big enough so that they can make a lot of money. Do you think this is a wrong mindset?

Dee Deng:

Yes. I think it’s like a moth to a flame. When the moth flies closer to the flame, it’ll eventually burn and die because it cannot handle the heat. It’s not ready yet. It’s not there. So in that type of way, if you see that all the gurus or whoever is talking about “Oh this industry is whatever” you might be too late. So you have to go and figure out, study it, treat it like you’re studying a subject or studying a field and that’s really the best way to then have the right mindset and go, “I want to win but I don’t want to just photocopy”.

Advice For Ecommerce Businesses in 2019

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Any advice to our friends that are just getting started in the ecommerce business and also what do you think 2019, what will be the scene on Facebook and also what’s ecommerce going to be like?

Dee Deng:

So for any advice for anyone starting out, I would say, one, really prepare yourself. Understand the game that you’re playing before you play the game. That’s really, really important. Also to just reach out to people. Before I got so lucky to be here with you, I was nobody. Like a year ago, two years ago, but I would message people that would speak on the stage and ask them for help and some of them were super generous, they actually helped me.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ In fact, 14 months ago you were just an ordinary guy like everybody else.

Dee Deng:

Exactly. That’s number one, and for next year, 2019 Facebook and all that, you can see already the trends. They’re being very strict about people that don’t care about Facebook’s audience. I met one guy the other day, I feel so bad for him. He’s in the dropship game, his average shipping time is 4 months, bro.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ 4 months? Oh my god.

Dee Deng:

His page score, killed him.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ That’s not going to work well on Facebook.

Dee Deng:

It’s not going to work well anymore. They really want to clean up shop, but if you study you’ll know those things. So that’s why you have to prepare yourself and run a legitimate business. Be in it for the long game.

Benjamin Yong:

?️ Right. Thank you so much. You shared a lot of useful insights.