Facebook Lead Ads: How to Export Your Facebook Leads

What are Facebook Lead Ads?

Facebook leads are probably one of the best quality leads you can get due to Facebook’s amazing targeting options. Through Facebook Lead Ads, you can reach people who may be interested in your products or services and collect their information as they subscribe to newsletters, demo requests, and quotes, etc. By clicking on your ad, users will see a pre-filled form with their Facebook profile information and let you collect information such as name, email address, phone number, etc. They are added to your list once they click the submit button. Let’s look at how to export Facebook leads.

Why Should You Use Facebook Lead Ads?

To get low-cost leads (info like name, email & contact number), Facebook lead ads are the #1 option for any advertiser out there! 

By using Facebook lead ads, you can collect actionable information about Facebook users that can be used to build targeted audiences and serve ads more effectively.

However, collecting the information you need can be difficult. You need to convince someone to give you their personal data, so you should make signing up for your program as easy as possible.

The good news is that Facebook lead ads are optimized for mobile devices. In fact, 98% of all Facebook visits are via a mobile device which makes your sign-up forms as seamless as possible.

Leads can be downloaded easily. It only takes a few simple steps for you to download all the data from any Facebook lead campaign. As soon as the data is exported, you can approach these leads to build your business.

Export Lead Ads from Facebook Business Suite

Previously, you could access your lead ads library directly in the publishing tool, but now it has been moved to the Facebook business suite. From downloading leads to checking notifications, Business Suite lets you manage both your Facebook and Instagram pages in one place.

To download leads from your Facebook Business Suite, follow these steps:

Go to your Facebook Page 
Scroll down and click Publishing Tools
You will be directed to Facebook Business Suite
Click More Tools > Select Instant Forms
Your active leads will be listed under the Leads column in your Lead Ads Forms.
Choose the form for which you want to download leads and click Download.
There will be two options: 

To download the new leads that have been collected since your last download, click on Download new leads. They will be exported into a CSV file.
The leads you have collected over a specific period can be downloaded by date range. Choose the date range and update it. Export your leads to a CSV file by clicking Download.

Export Leads from Your Facebook Ad Manager

This method is great for those who also wish to export other metrics and information from their Facebook Ads, which are all stored in your Ad Manager.

Go to Facebook Business Ads Manager Page
Click on the name of your lead ad
Click on the Ads tab > select the row of your desired lead ad > Under the results column click On-Facebook Lead
Select either to download all your leads or download by date range only.
Click Download and it will be downloaded to a CSV/XLS file.

Alternative Method to Download Facebook Lead Ads Info

If you’re an active advertiser, then you already know there are many tools to manage ad campaigns. Luckily, there are also several tools that can be usedto download your lead ads from a Facebook partner such as OhmyLead. When it comes to downloading leads, this is the simplest method, especially if you want to avoid manually doing it every 90 days

In this case, sending the contact information to your CRM, such as HubSpot, Zapier, Integromat seems like the ideal approach. Through APIs, you can automatically retrieve certain information from Facebook, thus making it easier for you to collect these details consistently. 

Automation capabilities are available through specific apps that connect to Facebook Ads. If you’d rather link your Facebook leads to a CRM, check out Facebook’s curated list of providers!

In general, we recommend this last method to allow you to achieve the best results and minimize possible errors.

Syncing your Facebook leads to OhMyLead will allow you to send them your offer quickly before they become cold and no longer show interest.

You can manage the leads from your Facebook ads with Zapier by importing the contacts into your favorite CRM or customer relationship management software.

This guide will show you how to sync your Facebook Lead Ads with OhMyLead, one of the most popular CRM applications.

How to Integrate Facebook Lead Ads Using Ohmylead

You can easily set up your own Facebook Lead Ads directly on Ohmylead in 3 simple steps. This lets you qualify, capture, and track all your Facebook Leads in one place.

Click Add New Source
Select Facebook Lead Ads in the integration list

STEP 1: CONNECT

Connect your Facebook account with Ohmylead (To get started, you will need to connect your Facebook account to our system. If you want to make a great setup, you will need a Facebook business page and Facebook Lead Ads.

STEP 2: PAGE AND FORM

Select one of your pages that runs on Facebook lead Ads
Choose the form you’d like to connect
Be sure to complete all the fields to align your form with our database. You will then have all the answers and all the information on your lead interface.
Do not forget to check the box to import existing leads if you have some.

STEP 3: SETTINGS

Create a welcome email that will be sent to all new subscribers. 

Create a lead alert in your account so you’ll be notified whenever a new lead is received.

Complete the process by clicking “Finish”.

Don’t miss another opportunity and get instant notifications!

The post Facebook Lead Ads: How to Export Your Facebook Leads appeared first on 99 Robots.

TikTok Ads: The Ultimate Guide

TikTok Ads: An Overview

TikTok Ads are the wave of the future. Created originally as a platform for short-form video sharing in which users shared their videos of themselves dancing, performing certain actions, or sharing life hacks, TikTok has recently developed into an excellent platform for marketing and advertising.

Getting Started with TikTok Ads

If you are ready to start with TikTok Ads, you will need to create a TikTok Ads Manager account. Here are the steps to get started.

STEP 1: Create a TikTok Ads Login

Go to https://ads.tiktok.com/i18n/signup/ and create an account using an email address or phone number, verify the login information, agree to TikTok Ads T&C, and then click ‘Sign Up’

STEP 2: Create a TikTok Ads Account

Provide some basic information about your business, including

Country/Region where your business is located.Time Zone where your business is located.Business Name. Make sure to enter the same or closely related Business Name to your company’s legal name. If the ‘Business Name’ of your account doesn’t match the actual name of your business, your account won’t pass the review. Other than that, if you want to use TikTok for Business products like the TikTok Creator Marketplace or apply for ad credit programs, your ‘Business Name’ must be consistent with the one on your official documents.The currency you want to use in your billing.

Right after you’ve completed this page, then click “Register”. Make sure to set up the timezone correctly as you won’t be able to change it later.

STEP 3: Provide Your Business Information & Choose the Payment Method

You will be taken to a page to enter your business and billing information. Complete the fields with information about your company, including the street address, state or province, and postal code where you are registered.Make sure you pay attention to the company website box. Enter the URL of your company’s website in this format: https://www.tiktok.com/. To pass the account review, you need to submit a website that operates properly, contains all the required contact information, clearly promotes a product or service, and is relevant to what you want to promote.You can access these settings later by clicking the profile icon in the upper-right-hand corner and clicking “Account Settings.” Click “Account Info” under this menu to return to this page.Select your preferred payment method. Depending on your local market, you could choose between manual or automatic payments. Keep in mind that once you choose a payment method, you won’t be able to change it in a short time.

STEP 4: Submit Account Information

Upon completing the required fields on the “Account Setup” page, click “Submit” at the bottom of the page. After submission, your account information will be reviewed. During the account review, TikTok will verify your information against the industry policies and account policies, and this may take up to 24 hours.

TikTok Ads Account Review Checklist

To help you with the account review process, we’ve created a TikTok Ads account review checklist. Make sure to pay close attention as you won’t be able to run any ads until your account is approved.

Location & Type of Business 

TikTok will check that your business is: 

Located in a region where TikTok Ads Manager is available.It has permission to advertise its products on TikTok in your market.

Account and Business Name 

TikTok check the information you entered on your Account Setup page: 

There is no offensive language or incoherent text, such as “dsasaf421.”

Company Website 

TikTok check that the company website you added on your “Account Setup” page: 

Properly formatted URL, such as “https://www.tiktok.com/”   Mobile-optimized and functions properly Not a 404 or under-construction page Promoting something clearly, whether it’s a product, service, or brand Complies with local payment, privacy, and refund policies Contains no 3rd party website (such as E-Bay, Alibaba, or Amazon), personal website, or unverified social media account Does not contain any violent, pornographic, or illegal content Users do not have to provide personal information or download anything to access content Does not include any unlicensed products or logos 

Industry Qualifications 

Upon request, TikTok checks that: 

You can provide official documents such as a business license or professional certification The name on your official documents matches the name on your account and the company website. 

The Most Common Reason Why Accounts aren’t Approved

People don’t like rejection. Here are some common mistakes that cause accounts to be rejected:

The name you submitted for your business does not match the name on your website or official documents.

  You entered the wrong format for your company’s website. Here is how it should look: https://www.tiktok.com/.

There is no valid information on your landing page and no clear promotion of a product on your website.

Your market may prohibit the promotion of the products/services your business provides. TikTok doesn’t let you advertise for cigarettes, flamethrowers, or walrus tusks. Check out TikTok Advertising Guidelines to check that your products or services are in line with their policies.

Create Your First TikTok Ads

A TikTok Ads Manager ad is structured into three parts: campaigns, ad groups, and ads. Your first step will be to create a campaign, where you will specify your advertising objective, name, and budget. Use the following guidelines to help you set up your campaign.

STEP 1: Log in to TikTok Ads Manager

Log in to TikTok Ads Manager and click on the Campaign button at the top of the page. Click the Create button to begin creating your campaign.

STEP 2: Choose the Campaign Objective

It is important to consider your business goals before creating an advertisement. You need to select the right advertising objective for your campaign to get the desired results from your ads.

If your goal is to get more traffic to your website, for instance, you would pick a specific objective for traffic. Choosing a reach objective would be advisable if your goal was to reach as many people as possible with your new brand. 

All objectives fall under three categories: awareness, consideration, and conversion.

STEP 3: Determining Your Ad Budget

The campaign budget allows you to specify the amount you are willing to spend on advertising. Depending on the amount you set, your campaign will stop when it reaches the budget.

Campaign budgets enable you to better allocate your marketing budget, control your ad delivery, and measure ad performance. If you are not sure how much you will spend on a campaign, don’t worry – you can always amend your budget later or even create another campaign.

These are the budget choices available:

No Limit – There will be no restrictions on your ad delivery at the campaign level, and your budget spend will be determined by the budget you set at the ad group level. Daily Budget & Lifetime Budget – Your ad delivery will be limited by the daily budget or total budget at the campaign level. This means that your daily spend or total spend of all the ads within your campaign will not exceed this amount. 

There are many different packages available on TikTok to fund your advertising campaign. You can select either the daily budget or total budget option on your TikTok campaign website. For both of these options, the minimum deposit that you must make is a total of $500. 

At the group level, the minimum deposit for the daily or total budget is $50. You will be able to set up the pacing of your budget, as well. This means that you can choose to space out the budget evenly over the matter of whichever time you select. You may also opt to spend the budget as fast as possible during a specific time. For example, if your budget is $500, you may choose to pace out your advertising over a full year with one advertisement every month.

However, if you know that the second week of June is the busiest time for your industry, you can choose to have all of your advertisements for the year be done only in the second week of June. TikTok has over a billion viewers worldwide. These 15-second videos that you make in your advertising campaign can reach millions of potential customers.

STEP 4: Setting Up the Ad Groups

At the ad group level, you can define your Ad Group name and promotion type as well as placements, creative types, target audience, and budget.

Keep in mind that ad group names can only be maximum of 512 characters and there is an ad group creation limit of 999 ad groups per campaign.

Placements 

When you create an ad group, you can choose where you want your ads to appear.

Automatic placement: If you select Automatic Placement, TikTok will optimize delivery across all placements under TikTok Ads Manager. Select placement: If you choose Select Placement, you can manually choose where your ads appear. Blocklist (Pangle): To ensure Brand Safety, undesired media placements of Pangle can be added to Block List to help prevent your ads from appearing. However, this will decrease the reach of your ads. Blocklist using Pangle is currently only available in Japan.

Creative Type 

When Automated Creative Optimization is enabled, the system will automatically combine your creative assets (images, videos, and ad text), and deliver only the high-performing combinations. You can upload your creative assets when creating your ad.

Target Audience 

TikTok Ads Manager offers a variety of targeting options, including creating a custom audience or excluding a lookalike audience. Additionally, you can choose demographic and device options to narrow your audience, including age, gender, interests, operating system, and carrier.

Budget & Schedule

Choose the timing and budget for your ad in the Budget & Schedule section. Ad spend for the group will not exceed the budget, whether you set a Daily Budget or a Lifetime Budget.

Bidding Method & Optimization

Choose your bid process and optimization options here, as well as input your third-party tracking link to monitor the performance of your ads.

STEP 5: Create an Ad

Before you create your ad, keep in mind that there is an ad limit of 20 ads per ad group.

In this section you will need to:

Enter the Ad nameSelect Ad FormatEnter Ad Details

Choose a Thumbnail
Enter Text and Link
Preview the Creative

Add Tracking Links

When you have finished creating your ad, click Submit. You can then choose to add another ad. TikTok will review your ads before they go live.

TikTok Advertising Best Practices

Certain best practices can be followed to make the best TikTok videos. 

Video Format

The advertisement campaign should be formatted in the vertical format option, rather than the square format option or the horizontal format option. This gives the video a more professional look and makes it easier for the customer to view the video with ease.

Video Duration

Your video should be the correct length. This means that the total length of the video should be between 9 seconds and 15 seconds in total. This allows you to fit in the amount of content that you need to convey your message but does not overwhelm the viewer with too much visual information. This is the ideal amount of time that your video should take up.

Engaging Visual Component

Begin with a captivating visual. For example, your video can begin with a flash of your logo and bright colors. You can then follow this with the choreography that you have planned for your video. Overall, your video must start with engaging visual components.

Background Music

Background music will make the video far more engaging for the viewer and will also add a certain style to your clip. The music of the video can set the tone for the entire advertisement and you should choose something catchy. The music should be enjoyable for the viewer as much as the visuals are.

Video Caption

Some viewers simply will not have the patience to watch your entire video. In this case, you should have captions that are featured at the very beginning of the video including your name brand and calls to action. This will guarantee that even if someone does not watch your entire video, they will start to become familiar with the name of your brand and your brand’s reputation.

Some people remember words better than they do visuals and captioning is an ideal way to reach this type of audience.

Call to Action

Your TikTok video should conclude with a call to action. This may take the form of a button that the viewer can click on to be re-routed to your website. This button can also be a buy now button, directing the viewer directly to the purchase page of your website. A call to action is the essential portion of a TikTok campaign and should be used after the video, by all means.

How to Analyze TikTok Ads Results

To analyze TikTok results, follow these steps below:

Go to the Campaign section on TikTok Ads Dashboard then hover your cursor to the campaign that you want to check. Click on View Data. This will show you a bit about who has seen your video and how many of these views have resulted in clicking on your page.

You can even make a data chart of the visitor analytics for your page. Simply click on Campaign, then click on your date range to see how many people have clicked on your ad for that specific date range.

You may choose to hire a professional social media analytics service provider to gain more insight into the efficacy of your current TikTok campaign.

There are many different ways to analyze the data. Analyzing the data will also help you hone in on your target market. You may know that your target market is between 25-36 years old, but you may need more information about specifically who to target your advertising toward.

They will perform a TikTok ads review on the target market who is visiting your website after viewing your advertisement. Should this be the case, you may hire a social media analytics professional to determine more about which demographics favor your product the most. They may break this information down by nationality, geographic location, or gender, too.

5 Examples of Great TikTok Ads

For your reference, we have curated 5 examples of great TikTok Ads. Let’s check them out!

Nike

In their TikTok Ads video, Divicenzi makes an amazing shot in basketball. He goes for a slam dunk and makes it with flying colors, no pun intended. This is an engaging ad because the viewer is amazed by Divicenzi’s talents in basketball. He or she is also impressed by the overall aesthetic of the advertisement. The color scheme and the overall quality of the video are impeccable. The look is clean and crisp in its aesthetic.

Guess Jeans

Another excellent TikTok advertisement is one done by Guess Jeans. In their Tik Tok Ads, the hashtag #InMyDenim was first made famous. This campaign encouraged users to publish videos of themselves in old, worn-out clothing and then transform them into fine Guess brand clothing. Many users took part in the Advertisement challenge and it helped Guess to grow in terms of sales and profits.

It is important to look to famous successful TikTok ad campaigns to learn from the greatest when it comes to designing your campaign. You will want to look at TikTok ad examples from Guess, Fenty Beauty, Nike, and brand names for your inspiration. You can take notes of their strategies, as well as their aesthetics. You may choose to model some of your advertising campaigns after the more successful TikTok advertisers.

Kung Fu Tea

The Boba Challenge by Kung Fu Tea is the best way to execute the hashtag challenge. Simple yet entertaining, the challenge elicits genuine reactions, and it is unique to the brand and its products. Anyone can take part in it. Viewers are drawn to the video almost immediately since it looks like it could have come from your friends. The result? It becomes a viral TikTok ad!

Gushers

Gushers make hilarious and creative TikTok ads for its candy products. Their TikTok videos receive millions of views and lots of engagement. The very first TikTok advertisement of Gusher was viewed nearly 5 million times, which is an excellent start!

BMW

BMW released the hashtag #THE1Challenge in its 1 Series launch campaign in July 2019 to commemorate the launch of the new car. In collaboration with prominent TikTok influencers Falco Punch, Sky&Tami, and PatroX, it created videos showing them dancing with the cars. This hashtag has garnered more than six million views to date.

TikTok Ads Best Practices 

When designing your campaign, you should strive for the highest quality of video film. You should make sure that you are using a camera that is high-definition and ideal to shoot on either an iPhone or a high-end smartphone. This will allow you to obtain the greatest quality of film that you can capture. You will want to look at examples of ad campaigns offered by larger brand names. This will give you an idea of what it takes to run a successful ad campaign on TikTok.

What sets the best TikTok advertisements apart from the rest?

Engaging Content

The Guess jeans advertisement strategy mentioned above was effective because it required active engagement by the audience. Quality TikTok advertisements require audience participation. Another aspect of the TikTok video that makes it the most effective for advertising is the quality of the video itself. As discussed above, the video should be filmed with a high-quality camera that contains high-definition filming capabilities.

Feature Well-Groomed Participants

Additionally, the best TikTok video ad campaigns feature participants who are very well-groomed in terms of makeup, hair, and hygiene. When filming your TikTok video you should be dressed in the finest of clothing that is fashionable for contemporary times. Your makeup should be well done and your hair should be styled in a way that is appropriate for the specific video.

You should do your hair and makeup in a way that is relevant to whatever you are advertising. Should you be advertising sports clothing, then your hair should be in a casual ponytail and your makeup should be minimal. You can see an example of this in the Nike TikTok advertising campaigns. However, should you be advertising a makeup line, your makeup should be done very well in a bold fashion and your hair should be styled in a way that stands out as fashionable, rather than simple or sporty.

Perfect Duration

You need to keep in mind that your maximum time for the TikTok ad campaign is 15 seconds long. This amount of time can fly by quicker than you might imagine. For this reason, it is necessary to know exactly what you are going to do in your video ahead of time.

This will ensure that you act quickly enough to fit the necessary amount of content into only the short period of 15 seconds total. You should plan all of this out ahead of time and you should also rehearse your video outside of the TikTok application to ensure that it is timed correctly. Once you turn on the camera for your TikTok app, you should already have planned everything well in advance and be ready to perform your action on camera for a minimum 15 seconds.

Personal Expression

You should demonstrate through your body language and your facial expressions your enthusiasm for the product which you’re advertising. Part of the wonderful aspect of TikTok is that the focus is on one person who is acting in the video.

You will want to be very expressive in your TikTok video both with your gestures and with the look on your face. Viewers will be looking to see what your personality is in the video and how you are going to express yourself. They will want to know how you are feeling from the look on your face and your body language. You should demonstrate that you are high energy and enthusiastic about your product, using your mannerisms to indicate this.

TikTok is one of the most personal forms of advertisement that there is. The focus is on one sole participant and the viewer is truly looking toward the participant for entertainment. It is an up-close and personal version of the advertisement, that leaves the ability to reach the viewer not just to famous TV actors, but to the average individual.

Final Thoughts

Choosing TikTok for your advertising campaign is an excellent choice for reaching a wide audience, effectively and personally. A careful online process will be required for you to set up your advertising campaign. This will involve filling out a minimum budget. Your TikTok video will be set up carefully with sets and props.

As part of best practices, you will format the video vertically and time it for no longer than 15 seconds. Your video will ultimately need to be analyzed to determine if it is reaching the appropriate audience. A professional in the field of social media analytics can help you with this or you can analyze the data yourself.

As part of finding out who is most likely to be interested in your product or service, see what video has been clicked on the most. Make sure to use all of these tips to make your TikTok Ads campaign successful.

The post TikTok Ads: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on 99 Robots.

12 Most Useful WordPress Custom Post Types Tutorials

Would you like to learn more about custom post types?

WordPress allows you to create custom types of content. Besides posts and pages, you might like to add other types of content to your website, such as products, reviews, or recipes.

In this article, we will share the 12 most useful WordPress custom post types tutorials.

What Are Custom Post Types in WordPress?

Custom post types are a type of content on your WordPress site that are not the default posts and pages. Custom post types are often added to a WordPress site using custom code or plugins.

For example, you can create custom post types for portfolios, testimonials, and products. Many WordPress plugins also use custom post types to store data on your website.

How can you use custom post types on your WordPress website?

As the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners, we’ve written a lot about custom post types over the years. Let’s take a look at the most useful custom post types tutorials here on WPBeginner.

1. Decide Whether You Need A Custom Post Type

Before you start creating custom post types or taxonomies on your WordPress site, it’s important to evaluate your needs. A lot of times you can get the same results with the default WordPress posts and pages.

With the help of built-in categories and tags, you can sort your content in many different ways. For example, with pages, you can set up a hierarchical layout of content with child pages. You can also set up subcategories.

Using the default WordPress features makes content management easier in many ways. For example, a custom post type wouldn’t appear on your blog page or in your post RSS feeds.

After looking at the default options, you may find that you don’t need custom post types after all.

If you are unsure, then refer to this guide about when you need a custom post type or taxonomy in WordPress.

2. Create Custom Post Types in WordPress

Once you decide that you do need a custom post type, you’ll need to create it. You can do this with a plugin, or manually by using code.

The Custom Post Type UI plugin makes it easy to create custom post types and is recommended for most users. You do this from the ‘Edit/Add Post Types’ page.

Alternatively, you can add a custom post type by pasting a code snippet into your theme’s functions.php file. The advantage of this method is your custom post types won’t disappear if the plugin is deactivated, but it’s only suitable if you’re comfortable handling code.

To learn more, see our guide on how to create custom post types in WordPress.

3. Create a Custom Post Types Archive Page

Adding custom post types in WordPress has become very easy thanks to the Custom Post Type UI plugin. However, many beginners have trouble displaying them on their websites.

To add a custom post type archive page, you first need to make sure that archives are enabled for your custom post type. In most cases they are, but if not then you can enable them in Custom Post Type UI’s advanced options or by using code.

Now you can visit the custom post type archive page. Let’s say your custom post type is called ‘movies’ and you have SEO friendly permalinks enabled. Then your post type archive will be located at:

http://www.example.com/movies/

You’ll need to replace ‘example.com’ with your own domain name, and ‘movies’ with your custom post type name.

You can now add this archive page to your navigation menu. You can also customize it by adding a custom template to your WordPress theme or using a theme builder like SeedProd.

We show you how to do all of these things step by step in our guide on how to create a custom post types archive page in WordPress.

4. Add Custom Post Types to Your Main RSS Feed

By default, WordPress only includes your blog posts in your site’s main RSS feed. This means that your custom post type content won’t be visible to your main RSS feed subscribers.

You can easily include all publicly available post types into your main RSS feed by adding the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function myfeed_request($qv) {
if (isset($qv[‘feed’]))
$qv[‘post_type’] = get_post_types();
return $qv;
}
add_filter(‘request’, ‘myfeed_request’);

However, you can use a different code snippet to only include specific custom post types.

For more detail on both methods, see our guide on how to add custom post types to your main WordPress RSS feed.

5. Make a Separate RSS Feed for Each Custom Post Type

WordPress automatically generates separate RSS feeds for different archive pages of your website, including custom post types.

Let’s say you have a custom post type called ‘movies’ on your website. We’ve already seen that you can view all content created in that post type by visiting the post type archive page.

https://example.com/movies

To view the RSS feed, all you need to do is add /feed/ to the custom post type archive URL.

https://example.com/movies/feed/

Alternately, you can also view the feed by adding the post type parameter to your main WordPress RSS feed. For example:

https://example.com/feed/?post_type=movies

Now that you know how to access the RSS feeds for any custom post type on your website, you can use that URL to create links to your custom post type feeds.

For instance, you may want to display an icon or plain text link on the custom post type archive page, so that your visitors can easily subscribe to those posts.

To learn how to do that, see our guide on how to make a separate RSS feed for each custom post type in WordPress.

6. Include Custom Post Types in Search Results

By default, WordPress will never show custom post types in its on-site search results. That means your visitors may miss out on some great content, and you’ll miss out on extra page views.

The easiest way to include custom post types in WordPress search is with the SearchWP plugin. It’s easy to use and lets you search content that isn’t included in the default WordPress search.

To include custom post types in your searches, simply click on the plugin’s ‘Sources & Settings’ button. Here you can put a checkmark next to each post type you wish to include in search results.

You can also choose how important each custom post type is when displaying search results, and customize the search engine in other ways.

To learn how, see our step by step guide on how to include custom post types in WordPress search results.

7. Create a Search Form for Custom Post Types

You can also create a custom search form that will only show results from your custom post type. For example, if you have a custom post type called ‘movies’, then you can create a special movie search form that only returns movies in the search results.

This kind of custom search helps your visitors view more pages and spend more time on your website. This will give off positive WordPress SEO signals like lower bounce rate and increased dwell time.

You can create an advanced search form for custom post types using the SearchWP plugin. It allows you to create a second search engine that will only search your custom post type. You can then create a custom search form that you can add to your posts or sidebar.

For more details, see our guide on how to create an advanced search form in WordPress for custom post types.

8. Add Categories to a Custom Post Type

By default, WordPress categories can only be used to organize posts, not custom post types.

You could create a custom taxonomy to organize your custom posts, but what if you want to use the same categories you use for your blog posts?

The easiest way to associate your custom post type with categories is the Custom Post Type UI plugin. It adds a ’Taxonomies’ area in the settings for each custom post type.

Simply check the ‘Categories (WP Core)’ box and you will be able to use categories to organize your custom post types.

See our guide on how to add categories to a custom post type in WordPress to learn more.

9. Add Sticky Posts for Custom Post Types

The sticky posts feature in WordPress allows you to add featured posts. By default, it only works for blog posts and not for custom post types.

You can enable sticky posts for your custom post types as well by installing the Sticky Posts – Switch plugin. You simply check the box next to the custom post types that you wish to support this feature.

Now when you visit the admin page for that custom post type, you will notice a new column where you can make posts sticky.

All you need to do is click the star next to the posts you wish to feature.

These sticky posts will be shown on your WordPress home page. To display sticky posts on your custom post type archive page as well, you’ll need to add some code to your theme files.

You’ll find all the details in our guide on how to add sticky posts in WordPress custom post type archives.

10. Add User Submitted Content to Custom Post Types

You may want to allow users to submit content for custom post types on your site, such as movie reviews or recipes. This is an easy way of adding extra content to your site.

One way to do this is by giving users access to your WordPress admin area and assigning them the author user role. Alternatively, you can add a submission form to your website.

You can do that using the WPForms plugin. You will need the Pro version to access the post submissions addon, and the provided ‘Blog Post Submission Form’ template makes creating the form simple.

By default, user submitted posts are saved as ‘Drafts’ pending review. You can change the post type in the form’s settings so content is submitted to a custom post type instead.

For more details, see our guide on how to allow users to submit posts to your WordPress site.

11. Switch or Convert Custom Post Types

You may come across situations where you will have to merge or convert custom post types. For example, you may want to move items from one post type to another.

Simply install and activate the Post Type Switcher plugin. Upon activation, you should go to the custom post type admin page and select the posts you want to move.

When you bulk edit the posts, you will notice there is a new drop down menu allowing you to change the post type for that item.

You can learn more in our guide on how to switch or convert custom post types in WordPress.

12. Add Custom Meta Boxes for Post Types

Custom meta boxes allow you to add custom fields to the WordPress post editor screen. This way you can create additional input fields for your post types.

The easiest way to create custom meta fields in WordPress is by using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin. Simply click the ‘Add New’ button on the Custom Fields page.

After that, you should follow the on-screen instructions to create a group of custom fields to add to your custom post type.

For further details, see our step by step guide on how to add custom meta boxes in WordPress posts and post types.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn some cool tricks for custom post types in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide, or check out our list of tips on how to speed up WordPress performance.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 12 Most Useful WordPress Custom Post Types Tutorials first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Notify Users When Their Comment is Approved in WordPress

Do you want to notify users when their comment is approved in WordPress?

By default, WordPress doesn’t notify users when you publish their comment. This can leave visitors wondering whether you’ve received their comment, or whether you plan to publish it at all.

In this article, we will show you how to notify users when you approve their comment.

Why Notify Users When Their Comment is Approved in WordPress

Comments allow your website visitors to communicate with you and other readers.

They are a great way to get engagement and feedback, and can help build a community around your WordPress blog.

By default, WordPress puts all new comments into a moderation queue. You can see these comments in the admin area, but they won’t appear on your website until you approve them.

Comment moderation is the best way to keep discussions safe and spam free. However, by default WordPress doesn’t notify users when you approve their comment.

Instead, visitors would need to keep checking your site to see whether their comment has appeared. Most commenters will forget to do that. Sometimes, visitors may even assume that you’ve rejected their comment if they don’t get a notification.

By confirming that you’ve published their comment, you can encourage visitors to come back to your WordPress website. This is great for engagement and can create a more interesting and lively discussion.

With that being said, let’s see how to notify users when you approve their comment.

How to Notify Users When Their Comment Is Approved in WordPress

The easiest way to notify people when you publish their comment is by using Comment Approved Notifier Extended. This plugin is simple to set up and lets you send a custom email to your users.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin works automatically. Every time you approve a comment, WordPress will send a notification to that person’s email address.

If you want to change the email’s content, then simply click on Comment Approved in the WordPress dashboard.

You will now see the default email and all of the different pieces of shortcode that you can use in your message.

When it creates an email, Comment Approver Notification will replace the shortcode with real information. For example, it will replace [commentauthor] with the name the person typed into your WordPress website.

You can either type or paste any shortcode into the small email editor. You can also type in plain text, as you can see in the following image.

When you’re happy with how the email looks, you can simply go ahead and click on the ‘Update’ button.

Now Comment Approver Notification will send the new email to your users.

Email is an important way to communicate with your visitors, users, and customers. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to use an SMTP plugin to improve email deliverability and keep your comment notifications out of the spam folder.

WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market. It allows you to easily use any SMTP server to send WordPress emails safely and reliably.

To learn more, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending emails.

We hope this article helped you learn how to notify users when their comment is approved in WordPress. You can also go through our guide on how to create an email newsletter and our expert pick of the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Notify Users When Their Comment is Approved in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Try WordPress for Free Without a Domain or Hosting

Do you want to try WordPress for free without buying domain name or hosting?

Normally, you need a domain name and hosting to build a WordPress website. However, many users may want to give it a try before spending money.

In this article, we’ll show you multiple ways to try WordPress for free without domain or hosting. We’ll also talk about things to try in WordPress and making a live website.

Why Try WordPress for Free without Domain or Hosting?

Normally, you need a domain name and a hosting account to make a WordPress website.

A domain name usually costs $14.99 per year (often non-refundable) and web hosting starts at $7.99 per month (usually paid yearly).

Now that’s a significant amount of money if all you want is to try WordPress.

Unfortunately, the WordPress.org website doesn’t offer any free WordPress trial.

Luckily, there are still plenty of ways to try WordPress for free without buying a domain name or signing up for a hosting account.

Let’s take a look at some of the easiest ways to try self-hosted WordPress.org for free (no domain or hosting account needed).

Try WordPress Online with a Full Refund (unrestricted but requires credit card payment upfront)Try WordPress for Free on Your Computer (unlimited free WordPress development)Try WordPress with WordPress.com (modified WordPress experience with limited functionality)Things to Try in Your Free WordPress DemoLaunching Your WordPress Website

1. Try WordPress Online with Full Refund on Hosting

The easiest way to try WordPress online is by using a a WordPress hosting company that offers a risk-free money back guarantee (i.e full refund for up to 30 days or even 90 days in some cases).

The benefit of this method is that you get to try WordPress for building your website. If you like it, then you can make your website online with a single click (no extra work needed).

And if you don’t like it, then you can request a full refund from your WordPress hosting company.

For this method, you’ll need a credit card to pay for the WordPress hosting upfront, but if you don’t like it, then you can get a full refund.

Here are some of the largest WordPress hosting companies that offer a full refund policy:

Bluehost – offers free domain + web hosting with 30 day money back guarantee.Hostinger – offers free domain + web hosting with a 30 day refund policy.SiteGround – offers cloud WordPress hosting with risk-free 30 day refund policy.Dreamhost – offers free domain + WordPress hosting with 97 day refund policy.

All of the above hosting companies come with WordPress pre-installed, or they offer 1-click WordPress setup option.

You can quickly get started with any of them to try WordPress online risk free.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will show a step by step process on what this looks like with Bluehost which is one of the top WordPress recommended hosting provider.

First, you need to visit the Bluehost website and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Next, you’ll be asked to choose a plan.

We recommend starting with Basic since you just want to try WordPress. You can always upgrade your hosting plan if you decide to stay on Bluehost.

Now you’ll be asked to choose a domain name. Bluehost is currently offering WPBeginner users a free domain name and 72% discount using our Bluehost coupon .

However, if you register a domain name, then the company will deduct the domain cost when you ask for a refund. You need to click on ‘I’ll create my domain later’ option at the bottom to skip this step, so you qualify for a full refund.

Next, you’ll be asked to provide personal details and finalize the hosting package.

It is important that you uncheck all optional extra addons on this page.

Addon costs are non-refundable, and you are only eligible for the full refund of your hosting bill, not addons.

Lastly, you need to enter your payment information to complete the purchase.

Bluehost will now create your hosting account and will send you an email with instructions on how to access your hosting control panel.

From your hosting control panel, you’ll notice that Bluehost has already installed WordPress for you. You can simply click on the log into WordPress button to access your website.

Requesting Refund on Bluehost

Login to your Bluehost account dashboard and click on the Support icon. From there, you need to scroll down to the contact section and start a live chat session.

Once connected to a live chat agent, you can request them to issue a full refund and cancel your account.

Important: If you’re using a hosting company that’s not mentioned above, then please make sure to read and fully understand their refund policy before making a purchase. If in doubt, reach out to the hosting company by dropping them an email.

2. Try WordPress on Your Computer

Another popular way to try WordPress is by installing it on your computer. This is what many expert developers do for client websites.

This method allows you to try WordPress for free without buying any domain or hosting. You can install plugins, themes, and make a complete website on your own computer.

The downside is that your website is limited to your own computer and not publicly viewable over the internet, but you can always make your local website online using our tutorial later.

There are several amazing free software available that allow you to set all this up on your computer.

The easiest of them all is called Local. It allows you to easily set up a local WordPress development environment on your computer. It works on MacOS, Windows, and Linux.

Simply head over to Local website and download it for your operating system.

Depending on your operating system, the installation wizard may differ slightly. For MacOS, simply click on the downloaded package and then drag and drop Local.app to the Applications folder.

Once you have installed Local, open the app on your computer.

Then click on the ‘Create a new site’ button.

Next, you’ll be asked to provide a title for your website.

Simply enter any name you want to website for your demo site and click on the Continue button.

After that, you’ll be asked to choose local environment. For instance, which server software you want to use, which MySQL or PHP version to use.

If you are not sure, then you can simply use the Preferred options and click Continue.

On the next screen, you’ll be able to choose a username and password to access WordPress admin area of your local site.

You can also change the WordPress admin email, in case you need to recover your login info.

Click on the Continue button to finish the set up wizard.

Local will now fetch and install the latest version of WordPress and create a new local website for you.

Once finished, you’ll see your local website details. From here, you can click on the WP Admin button to access WordPress dashboard.

If for some reason Local doesn’t work, or you simply want to try an alternative, then you can check out MAMP (for MacOS) or WAMP (for Windows).

3. Try WordPress with WordPress.com (No Domain Needed)

Another option that you’ll often come across for trying WordPress is WordPress.com.

Before you do that, it is important that you understand how WordPress.com is different from a self-hosted WordPress.org website.

WordPress.com is a website hosting company and a publishing platform. Basically, you don’t need to install WordPress or take care of any website maintenance.

The downside is that you don’t get full control over the software running in the background. This takes away the flexibility and freedom.

WordPress.com have a limited free plan that you can try. However, it will be missing many features of a self-hosted WordPress.org website.

For more on this topic, see our detailed guide on the differences between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

In the recent years, WordPress.com has added a Pro plan that lets you install plugins and themes, but it is far more expensive than other WordPress hosting options that we have shared above.

Things You May Want to Try in WordPress

Now that you have created a free WordPress website, you are probably wondering which things you should try.

1. Creating Content in WordPress

We recommend you start with creating blog posts and making some must have pages for your website.

2. Choosing a Website Design

After that, you may want to choose a design for your website. There are so many free and paid WordPress themes that you can use. We recommend picking up a free theme and customizing it to make your own.

You can even install a free page builder plugin like SeedProd to experience designing your website with a drag & drop interface.

3. Exploring WordPress Plugins

The real power of WordPress comes from WordPress plugins. These are like apps for your WordPress website and allow you to extend website functionality by adding new features.

There are over 60,000+ free WordPress plugins available.

Following are a few must have WordPress plugins that you should try.

1. WPForms – It allows you to add a beautiful contact form or survey to your website. There is a WPForms Lite version that you can try for free.

2. All in One SEO for WordPress – It is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and helps you optimize your website for search engines. There is also a AIOSEO free version that you can try.

3. SmashBalloon – It is the best WordPress social media plugin that allows you to display content from your social media accounts in beautiful galleries and layouts. There is a free version of Smash Ballon for Instagram feed, Facebook feed, Twitter feed, and YouTube feed.

Need more plugin suggestions? See our full list of essential WordPress plugins that you can try on your free WordPress demo.

4. Learning WordPress Basics

Now if you are struggling finding your way around WordPress or just want to cover WordPress basics, then you can learn WordPress for free right here.

WPBeginner is the world’s largest WordPress resource site for beginners. We have been around since 2009 and have a massive library of resources for beginners.

The best place to start, would be our page on how to learn WordPress for free. There, you’ll find a step by step WordPress program divided into seven days of training.

You can also start with our free WordPress video series. That’s also a step by step program for beginners.

Once you have covered the basics, you can continue exploring WordPress Tutorials, check out WordPress glossary, or subscribe to our YouTube channel for a regular installment of WordPress tips, tricks, and how-tos.

Launching Your WordPress Website

Once you have tried WordPress, you may want to officially launch a live WordPress website.

To do that, you’ll need a domain name and a hosting account.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are the largest WordPress hosting companies and have agreed to offer WPBeginner users free domain name and a generous discount on hosting.

Once you have signed up, you can follow our step by step instructions on how to make a website.

Now, some of you may want to move the site you created on your free WordPress trial to your new website.

Simply follow our guide on how to move your WordPress site to new host. We’ll walk you through migrating your WordPress website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to try WordPress for free without domain name. You may also want to see our comparison of the best website builders on the market, or see our guide on how to add create an online store and start selling.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Try WordPress for Free Without a Domain or Hosting first appeared on WPBeginner.