When Should You Start Doing Facebook Ads
So many people ask me, when should I start Facebook Ads? Or Am I ready for Facebook Ads?
The short answer is yes and now!
Over the years, I’ve worked with entrepreneurs on budgets from $30 to multi-million dollar accounts. If you’re starting a business or trying to grow one, make sure you take the time to set aside a marketing budget.
Even if you’re just starting out and you are just trying to build your services with clients, you should think about setting aside something, anything a month and putting towards your ad spend.
Fact is Facebook Ads are getting more and more expensive. Cost per conversions are going up because more people are utilizing Facebook Ads so they’re going to increase their costs to get in front of your ideal audience.
This means converting a lead is going to be more money in the future than it would to convert them right now.
So starting right now and getting those people to like your page, follow you, sign up for your list, go to your website, etc means you are going to be further ahead than where you would be if you didn’t do any marketing. There are so many business owners and bloggers who say “I should have started building my list years ago”.
Yes there is organic traffic and building a business organically but that takes a lot of time and you could still be a year into your business and struggling to pull people in.
By creating a monthly marketing budget you are investing in yourself and your business but you’re also feeding people to you. They may not be ready to buy now, you may not be in the position to sell now but that lead is going to be cheaper today than it will be 6 months from now.
Most of you who have been following me for awhile know, I’m not a fan of boosting posts. However, and this is the only time I’ll be handing out this advice, for many people this is where they start out. And when you have a low budget and just want to put $30 per month towards ads, it’s absolutely fine to promote this way.
What can I promote out to build my audience, list, and clientele?
My biggest piece of advice I can give you is to be present. Do high-impact engagement posts. Do free trainings, Facebook Lives, etc.
Build that know, like, and trust value with the people on your Business Page. Promote in groups where your ideal audience hangs out (following group rules, of course).
As you see people interacting with specific trainings or you received a lot of feedback around a similar question, turn that into another training. Once people start interacting with your video/post organically, promote it out.
What should my funnel look like if I’m in the beginning stages of building my business?
Keep it super simple. You honestly don’t need all these fancy upsells and downsells right now. But you may need them in the future. For right now we’re focusing on building your email list with qualified leads.
Either way, I recommend using ClickFunnels because you have more control over each stage in your funnel and it’s ridiculously easy to setup and make edits.
A simple funnel looks like this –
Step 1: Nurturing and providing FREE value on your Business Page.
Step 2: Send people to your lead magnet/freebie landing page. Make sure you have pixels installed.
Step 3: Setup a weekly or monthly newsletter to continue communicating with your list.
And that’s it. Very simple, right?.
If you are wanting to recoup some of your ad spend, I recommend having an upsell on the thank you page. Be prepared that this is just there to help offset your costs and should be $7-27 ideally. Most upsells only convert 3% of the people who land on the page.
Why should I set up my funnel this way?
When you are creating organic, native content on Facebook and promoting it out, every person who interacts with your ad will become a warmer lead that you can retarget and continue talking to.
Giving them some value before even requesting they join your list means they are already building that relationship with you. They are going to be more willing to take that next steps because they know you.
Similar to dating. You wouldn’t immediately change your relationship status after just meeting someone. Marketing is about building that relationship, that 1:1 connection with someone.
What should my Facebook Ad budget be?
I recommend starting small. Ideal budget is $5 a day or more. However, some people who are just starting out only have a budget of $30 to spend per month. That’s totally fine too.
Look at your finances and see what you’re comfortable with setting aside each month. Know that there is going to be a lot of testing in the beginning before you find what offer/content your ideal audience wants, which audience you should be targeting, and what copy/graphic combo on your ad is yielding the best results.
As your business grows, so should your ad spend budget.
Why can’t I promote to a cold audience?
You absolutely can push out your offer to a cold audience. However, I do not recommend this unless you already have an established business with a good size audience of engaged users.
Most people starting out do not have this relationship built up yet so you need to build it up yourself with Facebook Ads.
Tip #1 – Do a training that will get you organic views. Get some social proof from people you know – this can be from groups, from friends, from business besties, etc.
Tip #2 – Always create content on a Business Page and never your personal profile. If you’d like to share it with people on your personal account that’s fine but the original should always be with your Business Page.
Tip #3 – Warm audiences convert the best so nurturing before asking them to join your email list will reflect a lower cost per conversion in most cases.
Tip #4 – Your main goal, even if you’re just starting out – BUILD an email list. Facebook Ads can help you do this.
If you’re wanting to understand more about targeting, what your offer should be, or how to streamline the Facebook Ad process so it’s less overwhelming, I recommend grabbing my toolkit. I’ve been adding to this toolkit for over 3 years and it’s packed with checklists, breakdowns, and an easy step-by-step process to help you setup high-converting campaigns.
Cheers!
Becky
