Our DR Mower online store went live last week, but there have sure been some bumps along the road! Here are some of the best and worst moments in our social media experience.

Shopify Store Setup

Shopify store setup has been one of the highlights of our ecommerce experience. We've had outstanding support from our setup expert Andrew as we've personalized the template and the store structure is much stronger because of his help.

Before we started this process, I checked out  Shopify's blogs, forums, and guides and essentially put myself through Ecommerce University. This was, and remains a tremendous resource. Now that our structure is setup and I have to keep loading products, I'm focusing on the SEO aspects to make sure people can find us!

Google Adwords

I knew we needed to do some promotion to get our site noticed. Dan and I are active with social media for the shop - he likes Instagram and I've been active on Twitter for the last couple of years. But our website was pretty much static and hadn't been active for several years. A poor design and a website host that wasn't setup to easily update meant the the only traffic we've had to the site was for people looking for our hours or directions to the shop. So I wanted to promote our beautiful new Shopify site.

My experience setting up Google Adwords was great- easy for a newbie and I quickly was able to create an ad. I've since joined Jaxxy and have a better understanding of keywords, so I think my future ads will get better. But in the meantime, our website has seen an increase in traffic, so - success!

Facebook Advertising

While Google Adwords was easy, Facebook advertising has been a huge challenge. When I tried to use Facebook's ad manager on our Facebook page, I was told our account was disabled for not adhering to the Terms Of Service. As I had never advertised with them before, I was puzzled how we might have broken the rules. I filled out their online form, sent in a copy of my driver's license to verify my identity...and waited. I received notice today that our account was permanently disabled.  WHAT??

Facebook Disabled Account aka We're a Real Business!

So I did some research on possible issues, found an email address to request a review and sent the following email~

"Hello - I tried to set up an ad account for my business page. I'm the admin / owner of DR Mower Cochrane, a business page I administer under my email address char@drmower.ca. This is a brick and mortar business located in Cochrane AB and I have owned the Facebook page for a year, and am just increasing our social media presence now. I have never run any ads on Facebook previously and didn't successfully set up a new advertising campaign, so there is no way I could have violated Facebook's Terms of Service with ad content simply because no ads exist.

I set up an ad account using my name, my business credit card that is in my name, the business address matches the postal code on the credit card, etc. There is no issue with the Mastercard or information provided - all is legitimate and all tied to a physical business in existence since 2009, with a Town of Cochrane business license, Revenue Canada accounts, incorporated in Alberta etc. I've had this business credit card from BMO since the start of our business and never had any suspicious activity or issues with it.

When I tried to set up the ad account, it was immediately disabled. I filled out an online form and submitted it, along with a copy of my driver's license. I received confirmation today that the ad account has been permanently disabled for violating terms of agreement. There was no information on what might have been violated.

As outlined above - I am a legitimate business owner of a local business. Any of this can be verified. Our contact information is on the DR Mower Cochrane website. Try calling the shop 403 932-9984 or mailing us something. My husband Dan and I own the shop and one of us will answer the phone or respond to snail mail.

if you need something verified with regards to the business credit card, just let me know. I have a good relationship with the BMO where I hold my business account - i'm sure i can get a letter or something from the bank verifying I'm the credit card holder and it's a valid card.

You already have a copy of my driver's license. I can provide other identification or supporting material if required. Just let me know. But please get this fixed as soon as possible. We've launched our new online parts store - www.drmower.ca and I was looking forward to promoting the website as a local business via Facebook.

An internet search about disabled ad accounts on Facebook show issues that simply don't apply to my situation. I'm trying to promote a local, physical business and drive traffic to my shop in Cochrane and to my online parts store. I'm not selling anything sketchy or illegal and I'm not a scammer. We sell lawn mower parts and repair lawn and garden equipment.

I'm the business owner with a valid credit card in my name. I've owned the Facebook account for more than a year and have an active business page on it.

Please tell me what else you might need and I'll get it to you as quickly as possible but I'd appreciate it if you could get this resolved quickly.

Thank you, Char Smith, DR Mower"

Facebook Ad Manager Resolution

Facebook quickly responded and I was able to fix the issue quickly (well at least most of the issue). This is Facebook's response:

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Facebook <info+j3tgljt1.aeatjvzuij2nm@support.facebook.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: Policy Disabled Ad Account Help
To: <char@drmower.ca>


Hi,

Thanks for contacting us. This account has been labeled as a 'Gray Account' due to it having multiple logins.

Gray accounts have been deprecated. Due to policy and risk constraints we no longer support them. Please create a new ad account within Business Manager to continue advertising.

If you do not already have a Business Manager set up, you can create it here:

https://business.facebook.com/

Select 'Create Account" to get started! -------So I did!

That worked pretty well. It was a whole new portal but I was able to get an ad setup. The only problem is, I couldn't get it to manage Dr Mower Cochrane's Facebook page. I created a new page for the business - DR Mower Alberta. Not ideal as I lost all of our old posts and business reviews, but I've asked Facebook to move over our old page and I'm hoping they'll continue the good support and get us fixed up!

Now...onto SEO. Wish us luck!