I have had my store for 2 years now - www.bear-tees.com. I have started from 0 just by myself. Finally have good design, got fb ads working and all was going great. I have like 3-4 sales per day with 10-20$ budget in fb ads. I was starting to scale things.
On 24th of September my facebook and meta business account got hacked. I woke up and my password was changed, my admin in meta business was changed, my email etc. After spending 2 hours I regained access to facebook and META business. But before that I was witnessing the hacker using an ad from mine and editing it to spend on his ads. All in all, he created like 10-12 ad sets and ads with budget of 2000$. My threshold is 400$. In the mean time I was talking to META support and they could not do ■■■■■ In the end once the threshold of 400$ was reached the account was disabled and the hacker lost interest. At the end of the day I gained full access and deleted his data, email and everything. But my ad account remained disabled with a spenditure of 400$.
I immediately contacted FB support, made screenshots of everything and told them how much the hacker has spent on ads. I thought, oh well this will be resolved within 3-4 days. Nope…Days were going by and I was not receiving any feedback or update. After 2 weeks I decided to log in another case. Only to be told the internal team is working on it and I will be updated once it is resolved. OK! 1 more week…nothing…I started logging case after case only to get scripted replies from META support. 0 updates. And like this, now it has been more than 2 months, my account is disabled, the money spend by the hacker are not refunded, I have logged more than 50 cases, talked to even more representatives only getting the same answers and fake promises. My business is falling apart. META seems not to care. And I have spent 12k dollars on ads in the last year and a half. They dont give a ■■■■ about loyal clients.
My question for people here is: i am ready to invest but how can I get sales without facebook or instagram. For my nice I think Google ads are not appropriate because I am selling clothing with cool bear designs and there are not many people targeting it. The same holds true for SEO. Email marketing does not work as I have like 1k subscribers and they cannot bring enough sales. So I am begging anyone who has some insight to write me with a suggestion or a solution. For me META is the biggest SCUM monopolistic ■■■■ that has ever existed and I want everyone to be aware of that!!!
I am very sorry to hear that this has happened to you. It must be frustrating to not get a solution for weeks and weeks, but the support just doesn’t seemed to care. I have experienced something of a similar sort (not a hacked account but something else), where my business is failing and the platform just doesn’t seem to care.
I checked your site and you have some really cute and cool designs going on. Since this is a visual product, perhaps Pinterest or Tiktok can be alternative platforms to try out? If you do start Pinterest ads, please beware of click bots (better to install some reCaptcha) to make sure the traffic is real.
I hope everything works out for you eventually. Sending good vibes and best wishes.
I’m truly sorry to hear about the challenges you’ve faced with your Facebook and Meta Business account. It’s disheartening to see such a significant impact on your business. I can imagine how frustrating it must be dealing with the lack of support and resolution from their side. I have checked you website and you have very cute designs. Pinterest and Tiktok can be a very powerful alternative since your product focus on visuals.
You can also look into alternative advertising platforms such as Google Ads or Bing Ads. Even if your niche seems specific, you might find untapped potential and a different audience on these platforms.
Collaborate with influencers in your niche. Bear-themed clothing might have a specific audience, and influencers can help you reach potential customers authentically. You can also explore partnerships with other businesses or collaborate with local stores to expand your reach.
Also, regarding your website, I’ve noticed the absence of a support system. Integrating a support ticketing system could prove highly beneficial for your website, as it provides a structured and efficient way to manage customer inquiries. For a cost-effective solution for your store, consider MooseDesk. This customer service app/ticketing system is equipped to implement the recommendations mentioned earlier. Feel free to explore MooseDesk, and if you decide to give it a try, reach out to our 24/7 support team. We’re here to assist you in enhancing your user experience.
Here are my recommendations for your store. I genuinely hope everything falls into place for you.
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Thank you and wish you all the best moving forward!