Let’s face it: Facebook ads for beginners can be a bit overwhelming.Everybody talks about Facebook ads, but if you want me to be honest with you….not everyone understands what they’re talking about. Which is exactly why it’s important to invest in some education before DIYing a Facebook ads campaign or hiring a Facebook ads specialist or agency to help you advertise your products or services.
In this episode of the Talk Copy to Me podcast, I asked Facebook ads expert Jody Milward to demystify Facebook ads for beginners. She talks us through knowing when the right time is to implement an ad campaign and helps us understand the different campaign options there are and why we’d want to use each in our business. This episode on Facebook ads for beginners is a must-listen if you’re interested in reaching more leads and growing your business.
Understanding Facebook ads for beginners should be simple. Here is what Jody and Erin want you to know
How to determine when the right time is to start using Facebook Ads in your business
The role testing plays in Facebook ads
What brand awareness ads are and why they’re important to your business
What some of the best campaigns are for Facebook ads, and why they’d be helpful in your business
How to prepare your website before you start with Facebook ads
Why it’s so important to know the Facebook ad policies before doing any advertising
Words that Facebook might not like in advertising campaigns
Why we do and do not do competitor research (and how to do it well)
How to know how much to spend on ads
How to know when it’s time to start ads before a launch, event, etc.
How to know when it’s time to offload the Facebook advertising to a service provider or agency
Other podcast episodes and resources mentioned in this episodes:
Quotes about Facebook ads for beginners from Jody and Erin
“You can start testing, because that’s what Facebook ads are — you are always testing.” – Jody Milward
“Even if you’ve got really successful ads that ran a week ago, they may not be so successful this next week, you may increase the budget, and they may not do so well. So it is always testing, always getting the data back. And again, that’s the great thing with Facebook ads, we get relatively real time results.” – Jody Milward
“The first place to start is going [to read the] Google Facebook ad policies. You need to make sure you are compliant.” – Jody Milward
“We do competitor research to see what we like, what we dislike, what’s working and what’s not working. We do not do competitor research so that way we can copy anyone.” – Erin Ollila
“One of your competitors might be someone who has a huge marketing budget…they might be doing the same type of thing [as you are], but are way farther along in their business. And if they have a larger amount of money to play with, they’re going to get different results than you.” – Erin Ollila
Jody’s homework assignment for you is to practice writing headlines
Try to write 50 different headlines for your next (or first) Facebook ads headline. Come at it from different angles. Really try to explore the different ways you can speak to your audience. It’s going to get tough at some point, but keep pushing through all of the 50 headlines to see where it takes you.
“I’m what I like to call an ‘accidental entrepreneur’,” says Jody Milward. “Like many women, I didn’t want to return to a 9-5 office gig after having kids. So I started my first business as a Private Investigator (obvious choice, right?). But, after 9 years, 7 figures in revenue and much government red tape, it was time to move on, and I stumbled into the social media and paid traffic world.
From my first client in 2014 making $12 per hour to generating over 7 figures in revenue 6 years later, I’ve lived and breathed digital marketing as a freelancer, sub-contractor, in-house, agency owner, consultant, speaker, educator and mentor.”
Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform – and even transform – its intended audience. She graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and went on to co-found Spry, an award-winning online literary journal.
When Erin’s not helping her clients understand their website data or improve their website copy, you can catch her hosting the Talk Copy to Me podcast and guesting on shows such as Profit is a Choice, The Driven Woman Entrepreneur, Go Pitch Yourself, and Counsel Cast.
Stay in touch with Erin Ollila, SEO website copywriter:
Learn more about Erin’s VIP Day options if you’d like to learn more about how you can hire her to audit your overall marketing
Here’s the transcript for episode 039 on Facebook ads for beginners with guest expert, Jody Milward
NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.
SPEAKERS
Jody Milward, Erin Ollila
Erin Ollila 00:04
Hey friends. Welcome to the top coffee Timmy podcast. Here we empower small business owners to step into the spotlight with their marketing and messaging. I’m your host, Erin Ollila. Let’s get started and talk coffee. Hello, friends today we are here with Jodi Millward. And we’re going to talk to you today about Facebook advertising, which I know is such a hot topic and confusing at the same rate. You know, there’s a lot of opinions, a lot of thoughts and things have certainly changed in the past handful of years when it comes to Facebook ads in general. But I don’t want you to worry because Jodi is here, and she’s going to help us figure that all out. What you might not know about Jodi, though, is that prior to specializing in ads, and working in her current business, she actually used to be a private investigator, which I think is so much fun. So Jodi, tell us what made you change from investigating to ads?
Jody Milward 01:09
Hey, Erin, well, first of all, thank you for having me on your podcast, and I’m excited to share it Facebook ad world to your audience. Now that transition from PII to Facebook ad strategist, you know, well, you know, it’s a natural career progression, isn’t it? Right? I was unclaimed money. So I was checking people down with banks and insurances have handed their money over to the government, and people don’t know about it. So it was a like a Robin Hood situation, getting it from the government back to the business owner up to the owner. But you’re getting a letter that saying, hey, there’s money that’s belonging to you, I don’t know, I’ve got a few emails along those lines as well. And so it just got there was more scams that were happening, of course, people, you know, were concerned sometimes, and they would send their information off to the police. So we’d had the police ringing me up, and you know, had to go and get interviewed by the police and, and the government was bringing in more and more red tape. So it was just like enough had enough of these, I was looking at other opportunities. And I had a couple of business partners, and we got into, like on weight loss products online. And from there, I saw like, I just loved how Facebook can help not only businesses to grow and scale, because anyone can get on there and do Facebook ads, but also was people like me, who became a service provider to run Facebook ads for people. And that’s, you know, I coach people to be ad managers all around the world now. So I just love that opportunity of like building businesses and also creating businesses.
Erin Ollila 02:42
So I know so many service providers and small business owners or online business owners that I work with, and they all ask me questions, you know, like, what do I do when it comes to advertising? A lot of the times it comes from my clients that I’m working on full website, copy projects with, you know, we’ll talk about like, well, what comes next, when they have to make a decision of how they’re going to bring people into their business? The idea of advertising is something that’s interesting. Is there a certain point in time where someone can say, okay, yes, this is a clear path for me right now, I know, advertising is a right approach to what I should be doing in my business. You hear Luke
Jody Milward 03:23
that? It’s a great question. And I would say it comes back to what your goals for the business may be. Like, I believe that any business can be in investing in some brand awareness ads. So that’s where and especially with Facebook, we’re keeping people on the platform. And these ads can just be done for $1 a day. So actually have a strategy I call the client attraction code, where it’s a $10 day holistic strategy that goes over three months, okay, and you can run that all for $10 a day. So that’s getting you out there, and I’m getting a bit tired of hearing it, but it’s that know, like and trust factor, right. So you are getting seen in people’s newsfeed the first time they see you isn’t an advert to come over and buy something or come and sign up for something, and can be a video that is educating your ideal audience, it is showing them that you are the authority in your niche and getting them to engage with that. And so then you retarget them with other content pieces, getting out in the newsfeed that brand awareness just for a few dollars. Like if you don’t have $10 A day $5 You can get started with $1 and start getting in front of your audience at any business I think can do that. That can also then help you identify messaging you look at the data then and see if people stopping to look at this. Are they watching the whole video? If you do have a link in there, it doesn’t need to have a link or a call to action in that content piece. But if there is are people clicking on it, so that’s going to also help you to okay my message is in messaging is on point. The content in this video is on point or if it’s not I Okay, let me try something else a new video, or it could be the same video, just different copy in the piece. So you can start testing because that’s what Facebook ads are, you are always testing, even if you’ve got really successful ads that ran a week ago, they may not be so successful this next week, you may increase the budget, and they may not do so well. So it is always testing, always getting the data back. And again, that’s the great thing with Facebook ads, we get relatively real time results, I would say to anyone, they can start testing, get out there with $1 a day. One of the big things to do though, since you’re talking about websites, is to make sure that even if you aren’t running ads, if you’re not ready for ads, go on create an ad account, get a Facebook pixel, and install that on your website so that if people are coming to your website, organically through your organic social media posts or being on people’s podcasts or speaking at events, they’ll be going into your Facebook custom audience of people who have visited your website, and you will be able to either retarget them at some point, you can retarget website visitors for the last 190 days. Or you can even create a look alike audience of the people who have been to your website. So even if you aren’t running ads, get your pixel installed there, you can do those engagement campaigns. And then also, if you do have something for people to opt in for, or if you have a great blog post that you are at least wanting to send traffic to test those campaigns, the traffic campaign, you know, $10 a day on a traffic campaign, you should get a few clicks it and again, it can see is the messaging and in the copy of my ad resonating with people are people clicking on it and make your decisions from there. Or if you’re wanting people to buy or opt in for something, then a conversion campaign and just start testing and getting the data through. If you have an offer that has already been selling like you know, either organically or via other sales channels, great, you know, it’s validated, you know, people want it. So then it’s just a matter of getting the data in from Facebook with those ads, different audiences as well. And seeing, you know, eventually getting to a point where it is getting the metrics that you want for it to work how you want it to.
Erin Ollila 07:21
Now I love that you actually said both of those things that you said, because you started off talking about how anyone can really do Facebook ads, you could just do it to build some brand awareness. And those would be like one type of ads. And you ended by talking about conversion campaigns and how if you haven’t, you know, even if the offers new or tested, there was the would be to make conversions. So would there be any more different types of ads besides brand awareness and conversion that people could consider?
Jody Milward 07:49
Yes, so I have a system where I they’re all magnets, right? Because we have our lead magnets that people opt in for to get people onto our list, right? So then that’s our conversion campaign we’re on because we want people to convert, then we also have like what I was talking about with those $1 campaigns, those I would use an engagement campaign and a video campaign, right. So I would have the video in both of those objectives, the engagement objective and the video objective, because when you’re building up a video audience, but to sometimes the engagement campaign can work just as effectively if not better than the video in the video campaign. So that’s what I call a content magnet, and a video magnet for those two campaign objectives, then we’ll also have a read magnet. So that’s where you would have a traffic campaign. And you just want to send people over to your blog post. Okay, so if you’re just wanting to get traffic, people may convert them, they may, if you’ve got an opt in there, they may click on it and opt in. But typically, that’s not going to an audience who is likely to convert, they’re likely to click on a link. Now a note on traffic campaigns. When you select a traffic campaign, it will default to the natural none other priority optimization of link clicks, which is we’ll send it to people who are likely to click on a link. You want to change that to be optimized for landing page views, okay, because we actually want people to land on the page, not just click, otherwise, you will have 100 people click 50 people drop off. Okay, they’re not waiting for the landing page. So optimizing the landing page. So that’s a read magnet, then we’ve got our Lead Magnet, a conversion campaign where they come over and opt in. And then another one that I like to a lot of people will have like a low ticket offer the 27 or $47 offer. And I call that a purchase magnet. And with that that’s a conversion campaign as well. But instead of optimizing for like the lead standard event, like someone just opting in, you optimize it for purchases. So for people We were more likely to purchase, because then Facebook sends it out to that kind of audience. This is these are the people that are more likely to purchase. So typically those five objectives as objectives, campaign objectives in Facebook that over all my years of running ads I’ve never used. So but they’re, you know, conversion content, our engagement, video, magnet and traffic reach campaigns are also fantastic. And that’s what I also have, like in the client attraction code. They’re great for retargeting, because, as it says, is to reach, it’s just going to go out to your audiences, you know, as much as possible, but you set a frequency on those ones. So that you say, Okay, I want this led to show once every five days. So people aren’t getting hammered with the same ad day after day after day. Because when you create a 30 day audience that to retarget, they’ll see your ads all the time. But with the frequency option on reach campaigns, you’ll just say show this once every five days. And so you just pop up in the newsfeed every now and then. So yeah, the campaign objectives that I use and recommend,
Erin Ollila 11:07
all of that was so helpful. I feel like that in itself could even have been an entire episode, all those different types of ads. But let’s pretend you’re a small business owner, and you’ve never written a Facebook ad before in your life. And there are so many options to click on that Facebook Ads Manager. Where do you suggest people get started? Is it a Google Doc? Where they dump all their thoughts? Is it within the ads manager testing and playing around? What’s that first step someone should take if they want to kind of dip their toe in the Facebook ads? Water?
Jody Milward 11:41
Oh, that is a great question. Okay, first place to start is going Google Facebook ad policies, okay, you need to make sure you are compliant. So often I’ve seen in groups to help my baseball game account is disabled, because they have not looked at the policies and they’ve just gone to type something in and I work in the coaching and digital course space. So there’s a lot of coaches who help coaches, and they think it’ll be, you know, make $30,000 months and you know, red flag, you know, get rich quick schemes. So you need to make sure that you’re familiar with the policies, because as soon as you start typing a word, into ads manager into the little section that says, What’s the body of your ad, Facebook is looking at it. And you can get a notification straightaway saying this is not compliant as soon as you’re typing it in. So I’d hate for people to just go, I’m going to create a Facebook ad and they jump in there and then accounts disabled, because that’s just not fun. So look at the policies be very familiar with those, what you can say and what you can’t say, or so, images, what images you can use what images you can’t use. Now, it’s not just what’s in your Facebook ad, it’s also what is on the page that you are sending them to. So for example, med spas or cosmetic surgeons, you know, they’re talking about weight loss, or you know, surgery and stuff, even on their page that they’re sending traffic to if you’ve got before and after images, their Facebook’s not gonna like that, if you’ve got income claims, their Facebook’s not going to like that. So you need to make sure that your landing pages also compliant. So that way you start looking at those things. Now, direct response, we love direct response copy, that’s awesome. However, Facebook doesn’t like it so much one of the words to you got to be careful with using in fact, well, there’s a lot of words, but one when it comes to direct response is you. Facebook doesn’t like saying you in our ad copy too much, because you’re calling out the person rather than talking about your product or program or offer. So you’ve got to watch that one as well. So there are a few places to start. Then with regards to that. It’s like okay, now you know what the policies are. You’re familiar with the words, you know, what’s on the landing page. What I like to do is like, look at what people have actually said. So what customers have said, what clients have said, Why have they purchase from you? What led them to you what was their pain points? Because we’d like to follow, you know, as you would know, there’s your copywriting formulas. One of them is the past pain agitating solution. So if you’re going, where do I even start, then that’s a great place to start, what is the pain point agitated a bit, and then present to them the solution that you have to be able to help them. So there’s different kinds of things. So like if you’re wanting people to convert and opt in, that is a classic kind of, you know, framework to follow. If you aren’t doing those brand awareness campaigns, then you might just have photos so so if you’re a coffee shop, you could have photos of people, you know, sitting at a table enjoying their Sunday morning coffees. And that could be in your retargeting stuff and it could be saying like we love you know, such and such has been coming in every Sunday for years and you love making her, you know, double maca chai latte, come in and see us, you know, this weekend, okay? So stories are also great in Facebook ads, keeping it social, your Facebook ads don’t have to have these graphic design images, I love to have what we would call native images in our ads. So it could be just like a selfie, it could be behind the scenes. So again, putting different content pieces in and getting the data of how things are engaging, is going to be great. But yes, your policies, your landing pages, making sure you’re all compliant. Looking at what then as you’re actually making your copy, what have customers actually said, looking at the past framework, or if it is like a $27 product or, or something that doesn’t require much thought you can use what we would say the slight copy, stop, look at and purchase. So sending people straight over. So it’s nice short copy.
Erin Ollila 16:08
Yeah, that is so valuable. And you know, a lot of the times I get the same questions like well, what do I say, especially for the people who are doing it themselves. Or I would actually even say the people who are hiring it out because I don’t write advertisements. So a lot of the times I’ll recommend my clients go to different people, but because there’s already a trust built between myself and them, you know, from the projects we’ve done together, they want to kind of strategize with me. So they’ll talk like, what should I say? What should I do? And I think the key here, which will just sound like a broken record, and honestly, at this point, I should just change the name of my podcast to this is It depends, right? It depends on your needs. It depends on your goals, it depends on your audience, it depends on all of these things. But the beauty of what we’re sharing is, while I hate to say that there is a type of template there are you can learn a lot from your competitors, you can learn a lot from what other people are doing, you know, the PHS as a copywriting template is definitely one so as AI da and and that just is those are general copywriting templates. They weren’t for many different things. Advertising is one in particular. It’s funny though, because you know, while I almost just said any copywriting template, any copywriting advice is helpful. You saying that the word you in Facebook ads not being helpful is kind of the opposite what I would have just said, because most of the time in copy or content, we want to make that connection, we want to bring in the word view, I guess, based on your explanation why it’s kind of a hindrance on Facebook says like, you know, pump the brakes there. But it is very important to learn from like why we’re having this episode, it’s important to learn from people who are doing it or have done it successfully. So you don’t make those mistakes. But in general, see what people are doing. Actually, let me ask this question, is it valuable to see, while you can’t see the back end of what competitors or other people have done, when it comes to ads? Is it valuable to look and say, Oh, are they getting commented on? Are they getting liked? Are those vanity metrics? Or are they helpful to see if ads are working?
Jody Milward 18:08
Great. Okay, so there is a feature with Facebook is the Facebook ad library. So you can see whoever is running ads, you can actually go to the Facebook page itself. And on there, there is really the B whether you’re on desktop or mobile, you might have to go to the About section of the page. But there is the page transparency section. And if you look in there, it’s you know, is this page showing ads, yes or no. And then you can click on a button and it will take you there. Otherwise, you can go to the Facebook ad library and then put in just Google that you’ll get there. And then you can put in the actual page name. And you can see if they’re running ads. And with that, then you’ll see when the ads were launched. So good indicator, if they’re working well is if they’re running and they will launch some time ago, then they’re typically getting some good results and have a look at them. So yes, looking at those vanity metrics can be great. Because it can be a good indication of like when people I’m engaging with this, go over and you know, have a look at the page and what’s going on. So do that kind of work. And that’s where it’s great like especially if one of your competitors you know has a big budget because they’re spending money on copywriters and all the data and all that kind of information so for there is someone who is like that, then go and check them out for sure. We never copy we never plagiarize, but just get the inspiration. Look at Oh, okay, she’s talking about this kind of pain point. I hadn’t thought of that. But yeah, and just get ideas for different hooks and different angles. And then also Yes, pay attention to like, is there a particular framework that they are following with this? You might see okay, oh, yes, this is where she is talking about the pain points at the start. And here are the pain points throughout it and this is how she’s introduced the solution. So yes, check out the Facebook ad library.
Erin Ollila 19:52
I love that and I really like what you said about competitor research because I think that this is something that is so poorly explained or just not explained at all in the marketing world, we do competitor research to see what we like, what we dislike, what’s working and what’s not working, we do not do competitor research so that way we can copy anyone. Because again, every business is different, right? You know, you can take the same approach someone else takes and it fail miserably. Because the smallest shift could be different in your business. Or it could be as simple as, like you mentioned, you know, one of your competitors might be someone who has huge, a huge marketing budget, and you have, they might be doing the same type of thing, but way farther along in their business. And if they have a larger amount of money to play with, they’re going to get different results than you. So everything affects advertising. But we look at our competitors. So that way, we can see these things, get those gut feelings adjust, strategize. It’s not about copying, it’s not about, you know, trying to do what other people are doing, it’s really about using the data and the qualitative information that you get, and making decisions for yourself on their own and their own regard. But let’s shift gears very slightly. So you’ve given us great ideas of different types of ads that we can run and how we can start doing some research into creating our own copy or creating our own ads in general. But what do you think the importance is of both visual and written branding and messaging, when it comes to making Facebook ads actually be successful?
Jody Milward 21:28
So yeah, this is, like I said, I always like to test like, native imagery, and also like your graphic design on brand, you know, and this is where I like a coach a lot, and managers, and they’ll be clients, like, Oh, she, you know, they’ll get them these beautiful branded photos, where it’s been all the Photoshop, and, you know, all the graphic design wording and everything on them. And, you know, and then we’re looking, and we’re looking at the data, and it’s like, well, these just aren’t converting, we’re not getting the click through rate, right, we’re looking for typically, like a 1%, click through rate, and they convert, you know, click through rates up, point 4.5. It’s like, let’s look over on their Facebook page, and, or even their personal profile, and see what people have been clicking on and engaging. And that’s where I like to look at as, as a source go, Okay, let’s try this image, it might be an image of her with the kids or, you know, having a picnic or whatever it may be. Let’s try pulling that in. So while there may be images that aren’t, you know, specifically branded, and look sort of on brand, other images that you can incorporate in can be what works, and at the end of the day is like, Well, what do you want here? Do you want your ads to work? Or do you want everything to be like this, it’s all very strategically put together here is its own brand and this whole point, whereas we’re on social media, right? This is where we need to be social with people. And this is what people are looking for, people will scroll through, and they’ll stop and look at an image because they might think that it’s a friend of theirs rather than an ad being on brand 100%. And there’s more ways to do that than just with a visual image. And then you know, like, your copy is also going to be on brand. And I think again, this is where it’s great to have that personality in your copy that’s going to shine through that is going to reflect your brand, rather than something that is just like here, it is very stagnant that anybody could have written.
Erin Ollila 23:22
But when we talk about personality and copy, it’s also knowing how you want to speak in your business. There is no wrong nothing wrong with being someone who is willing to call out the things in their industry that stink and be bold in that way. Or someone who is willing to lead with pain points. And there is also a shift in marketing for people who are acknowledging that pain points are a thing of the past, let’s have a little bit more empathetic marketing, marketing that’s not trying to put people down let’s build them up. So figure out where you are on that scale. How you want to speak up within your business is one way that you don’t even have to think about messaging when it comes to Facebook ads because so long as you are consistently being that same brand voice and tone you it can work anyway whether any sales, copy, ad copy, marketing copy in any way, shape, or form. So I kind of think that’s the one place copywriting has it easy. If you know who you are within your business and how you want to show up. Just be consistent when it comes to that. And that’s such a good point about visuals as well because you’re right, I would say for the most part I am not stopping to read or click through sponsored posts that are that seem very much business like right I’m the ones I pay more attention to and I actually catch myself and I’m like, Ah, man, this is a sponsored post right? are the ones that quote unquote, trick you into it. You want to show up like you said, like a friend like being social on social media. And this is a place where I think it’s important to really point out if you are a business and your pay using ADS, there’s a difference between income real answers and paid advertisements, right? Like influencers are going to go down that route of the like picture perfect influence that they have. But that’s not necessarily well known. That is absolutely not what what consumers want from the businesses they do business with, if a business has influencers, you know, influencing their products Cool, great, like consumers just have segmented in their brain, when it comes to what businesses show up online, like this is how I’m going to consume content from the businesses. This is what I want to gain trust from businesses. And this is how I want to consume content from influencers. And they’re two different things. So showing up social, I think, is the best approach to really saying that in the way that a consumer is going to see an ad and not automatically reject the ad that’s in front of them, shifting gears away from copy a little bit. And again, this is a tricky question, how does someone sit down and plan their budget? Obviously, one, they should know their own finances? But is there an approach to someone who’s just starting with ads to figure out how much they should be spending towards the ads that they’re putting out?
Jody Milward 26:06
Oh, Luke, again, great question. And it depends on the campaign objective, like we were talking about earlier, you can get that brand awareness going for just $1 a day. And then that’s your top of funnel going out to your cold audiences. And then you would say, Okay, now retarget, people who have engaged with my page or watch the video, you know, and then that would be another dollar a day, so $5 a day, you can get started there. However, a $5 campaign budget a day for a conversion campaign where you’re optimizing for leads may not go very far at all, because it depends on the niche, right? There are some niches if your business to consumer, like for example, if you’re selling art lessons or something like that, then $1 a day, or sorry, $5 a day, you could get leads for $2 a day still, okay, that would be excellent. Whereas if you’re a business coach, and you know, you’re teaching women entrepreneurs, it might cost you $6, for a lead. So if you’ve only got a $5 a day budget, you’re not going to get a lead each day. So your conversion campaigns, they’re the red hot ones, that’s the most competitive ones, you’ll have high costs there. So if you if you need to look at your goals and say, Okay, I need to get, say, 100 people on my list this month for my list building goals, you may have some data that says this many percent will convert, okay, so looking at your numbers and your goals, so say 100 people on my list. So if it’s going to cost me, for example, $5 to get someone to opt in, then that’s 20 people. So then let’s look at the math of that. So 20 people are opting in. So if you need to get 100 people on your list, then that’s five, lots of 20. Right? So that means I think it is $500 that you will need to spend to get 100 people on your list. So then you’ll go okay, and break that down over the month, then. That’s however much that might be $15 a day. So you need to look at what your overall goals off.
Erin Ollila 28:10
Yeah, I think it’s I think that I mean, I don’t want to throw easy because math and easy had never been in the same sentence for me. But in some ways, it feels easier to set a budget for Facebook ads, when you have a conversion event like you know, you want to bring in X number of sales. Or you want X number of things to happen. But when it comes to just, I know you kind of answered this a second ago when it comes to general brand awareness. If you’re at that starting point where maybe you can’t afford to do the full ads campaign for conversion. You just want to start to grow your list a little or build that brand awareness so that you can do those look alike audiences and things like that. Would it be just kind of set like, here’s my budget, here’s my goal. This is what I know I can spend, let’s see what happens from it. So I can now start to gain data about how to move forward with ads in the future. Or is there a general approach to like, Oh, this is a really good amount you want to spend if you’re just starting out for brand awareness and not a conversion event.
Jody Milward 29:06
Okay, so brand awareness, then I would be saying do your $10 a day. Actually, you will build up to that if you already have an existing audience. If you’ve been going for some time, then you can fill up like that 90 Day retargeting window. If you aren’t just starting out, then you will just start out with $5 a day because you wouldn’t have your 60 days and your 90 day audience to retarget you will just add them on as you know, 30 days after you’ve started $310 typically $300 A month is perfect for like your brand awareness campaigns. If you’re doing conversion campaigns, or you can start at a minimum of $10 a day, you would just have one ad set that you would just be targeting with that. Okay, so one audience you’re targeting. If you can go to $30 a day, great, then you will get data even faster, and you’ll be able to make the decisions of like my people and clicking on my ads. People like adding to my landing page and they’re not converting, I need to do work on my landing page. So $30 a day will get, you know, help you get results and data back even faster. Yeah, that
Erin Ollila 30:09
was that was a great question, I think a great answer to the question because it made me think of something else that often also doesn’t get discussed. And it’s timeline planning, right? I know this answer does vary, but I think when people don’t think about is how much further back that they need to start doing things in order to achieve what their goals are. So I would assume just like when it comes to sales, copy, or websites, or any of these things, that with advertising, you also really need to kind of backtrack a bit to be able to get that data. Is there a general like if someone has a sales specific goal in mind when it comes to advertising? Let’s pretend they’re going to launch a program? Is there a general timeline of when they should start advertising prior to the end of their sales? Period?
Jody Milward 30:56
Oh, okay, great question. launches, in particular, are interesting, as an ad manager, we will often have people come up saying, I’m launching a product in two weeks. And so I need to get some ads going. And I say, okay, you know, the analogy of like, when’s the best time to plant a tree, you know, like, so many years ago, one of the ad managers in my community, just a few months ago, racked up two launches, where they both did over like $2.4 million, from about 250,000 in adspend. And she had been working with them, she’s worked with them for some time over the years, it does their launches every year, but they start three months out. So that’s a best case scenario, like three months out, getting the Audience List Building, and you’ve got this whole system in place. If you don’t have that, if you aren’t going, Okay, I’m launching in six weeks time, then I would start out again, with some brand awareness, putting those content pieces out and building up an audience that then you are retargeting to opt in when it’s closer to your launch time. So say if you’re doing a webinar, you know, you typically would do your webinar ads, like 10 days out, whereas if you are just doing, you know, like a an SLO, a tiny micro offer $37 $47 product, you can just do a conversion campaign that straight to a sales page for that. So there’s no particular wanted to just call traffic going to it and then retargeting, you can like, yes, there is always a section of that audience that is ready to take action and purchase straightaway or opt in straightaway. But there is a huge section of the audience that is not at that place that is ready. And so that’s where if you can get in front of them, then continue to nurture and retarget them. I mean, if you’re have a limited budget, you can look at those people who are engaging with your posts, go over and have a look at their personal profile, send a friend request, like their post, start an organic conversation like in messenger saying, hey, you know, thanks for you know, your comment about XYZ and you know what your ad was telling me? Have you ever had experience with blah, blah, blah, you know, and just starting conversations with people making it very organic.
Erin Ollila 33:05
Two episodes, I think that people might really want to listen to if they are trying to plan ahead for any launch would be the episode with ash Chow about pre launch marketing. And the episode again, I already mentioned this with Jess Haney where we talked about sales funnels because we you know, we talk about this in full one, you know, is how when do you plan to tree like, yeah, you need a lot of time to do this and time people never factor in. So if you haven’t factored in your time, here’s the best possible, quote unquote, sheets that we have to maximize the success you have. But number one, if you follow any of those sheets, the key thing you need to do is take all of the information you learn at this round, and know that you have to take that data and make better decisions next time because it’s always a learning experience when it comes to ads or sales like you, you take what you have you build on it, and you get better over time. Is there a specific time that someone would go and know that they’re ready to offload their ads, like hire a service provider or an agency to do their ads for them if they’ve been doing it on their own?
Jody Milward 34:09
Oh, that’s awesome. Um, look, I think typically, you need to have about $5,000 a month available for three months to be able to outsource. A reputable ad manager will be charging at least $2,000 a month, and there likely would be a percentage of ad spend as well on that. And then that gives you $100 A day in ad spend. Okay, so $3,000 a month for your ad spend. So $5,000 a month I think is a decent amount at a push. You could you know say okay, I’ve got 2000 ad spend a month or possibly 1500 But any less than that. It’s like he really diluting the results of your ads because you’ve only got $50 A day budget. Okay, so there is and I know so many of my ad managers and mice have had people come to us, they, they just want you to do it, I want you, I don’t want to worry about ads, I don’t want to do it, I just want to pay you to do it. But they’ve got $20 A day ad budget. And so it’s really, you know, a point for them where it’s like, I’m sorry, but you really need to roll up your sleeves, and learn how to do ads. And there are managers that have coaching programs so that you can watch some training, you can get their eyes on your account once a month, once a week, which is fantastic. You’ve got someone to partner with you to help, you know, discern what the data is saying and make the next steps, you know, and then you’ve got to really allow for three months, because you know, you’re going to launch your ads, you’ll start getting data back, and then you’ll be able to say, Okay, this copy hasn’t worked. This is working. Let’s do this, this test this audience seems like the landing page isn’t converting so well. Right? We’ve got 100 people through the webinar, what’s the results now telling us? What’s the data telling us? How many of those people are opening their emails, all of these bits and pieces, because ads are just one part of our marketing strategy. So it’s like, okay, let’s bring them in, and then start getting the data. So you really need to be prepared for that timeframe, and that kind of budget. And I believe
Erin Ollila 36:12
so our conversation was so great, thank you so much, if someone is getting started with this, and you could give them any little piece of tidbit of information to do for like a little homework assignment, when it comes to ADS, what would you give them,
Jody Milward 36:25
one of the things you might have got a certification program for advantages, and we do a lot of copywriting and all of those, and one of them is the fat 50 brain dump. So when it comes to writing headlines, it can headlines is so important, people are going to look at the creative, which is the image or the video, and then they’re going to have a look at the headline. So the headline with a great hook is so important. So we do affect 50 brain don’t just write 50 various kind of headlines, because otherwise you can just think of one it’s in your head. And I’m going to type this one in, do a brain dump, work at different angles, use imagine, as a starter use something with the number in the thing. Well, you know, five days till what’s the urgency in the headline, but Fuki brain dump for headlines? Yeah, that’s
Erin Ollila 37:11
great. And if you go through the process, you’re gonna find at some point through that 50 headline process, you’re gonna be like, Oh, my gosh, this is awful. I can’t think of another thing. But I guarantee you, those early headlines you come up with will not be the headlines you choose for the ad, you will probably come up with the headlines when you’ve done the real work. Next question. If you could connect with anyone in this online business world, who would it be and why?
Jody Milward 37:36
Well, I would like to connect with business owners who are or entrepreneurs that are well established in this online business world, and who actually have a lifestyle, there are a few that I know. And then there is a lot I know, who are just still in a constant hustle, because online doesn’t sleep. So it’s like really connecting with those mentors, those business owners who have got a bit of a team together, who have got their multiple marketing strategies all together, and and are at a place where they are enjoying that sort of time freedom lifestyle that a lot of us get into this online space for Okay,
Erin Ollila 38:18
so final question. This is the one I always come up with on the spot. And sometimes I don’t know if the pressure is more on me or on you before I do these questions. What is one piece of marketing advice that you’ve heard in your years of being a business owner that you don’t agree with?
Jody Milward 38:33
Gosh, I gotta say, the one that comes to mind straightaway, so it sort of roll with is throwing rocks, right? It’s like, you gotta throw rocks at the competition. And that, no, that doesn’t sit well with me, right? Even though there will be things that you’ll read, and you will just want to get that’s not right. And you just want to get that sort of you know, that you just want to go that’s wrong, that’s wrong. However, you know, we’re all on a journey. So it’s, you know, showing grace and I think there’s a lot better ways than just throwing rocks, throwing people under the bus, to prove your point to sell your products and make you the, you know, the better option.
Erin Ollila 39:11
I love that. And I don’t know if that’s something I would have popped my head right away. But it’s funny when you mentioned that I think of one of the very first webinars I ever attended myself as an online business owner. And that was a law that was like in the early days of webinars. And I remember them saying, oh, yeah, like if you see your competitor, do something, like take a screenshot, like, like film a video and stare like I’d never do this. And I remember thinking like, why why would we do that? Like, as a consumer, I would be super turned off by that, you know, so I yeah, I love that I was a great answer. And I wholeheartedly agree with you like the best way you’re gonna show up in business and show off to the people who you want to show off to is being the best expert you can possibly be. Not by comparing yourself to the People who are also out there, thank you so much for being here today. It was so helpful to hear your insight on Facebook ads. And I really think people are going to be able to, you know, start on the best foot possible, like start prepared and excited to test things out in their own businesses. So thank you.
Jody Milward 40:16
It’s been a pleasure. I’ve had so much fun geeking out talking Facebook ads. So thank you, Erin.
Erin Ollila 40:26
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Top copy to me. If you enjoyed spending your time with me today. I would be so honored if you could subscribe to the show and leave a review. Want to continue the conversation, head on over to Instagram and follow me at Erin Ollila. Until next time friends
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