Be Realistic with Facebook Ads

Be Realistic with Facebook Ads

I’ve taken course after course on Facebook ads.  I consider my education and training an investment in my business.  I want to stay on top of all the (constant) Facebook changes for my clients and my students. (And boy-oh-boy, do I LOVE learning about Facebook ads.) Yes, I’m a rare breed.

I’ve been at this Facebook ad game for a while, and I’ve come to one very big realization that is essential for you to know.  (Time for a little tough love from Laura.)

Running Facebook ads is a process.

If you meet someone who tells you that they can get you X results in a week, run…and run fast. Is it possible to get results in a week? Sure. You can get some, but don’t expect it.  It’s very rare that you nail your audience, image, ad copy, headline, and landing page in the first shot.  

So, testing becomes a big part of this process.  If you’re running your ads for a few days and aren’t seeing the results you want, put on your Sherlock hat and use the stats to tell you where the problem may be. Numbers don’t lie. Make a change (ONE CHANGE), run the ad for a few days, and revisit the ad to see if it made a difference.  If it has, great!  You’re on the right track.  If it hasn’t, look at the stats again, make another change, and repeat.

You have to be patient.

I know it’s easier said than done. I’m far from patient, but if you are going to spend your hard-earned money on Facebook ads, you better be all in and understand that paid traffic takes time.

It goes back to relationships.

If you’re starting with an ice cold audience of people who have no idea who you are, you need to warm them up.  Did you go out on your first date and ask the person to marry you? No way. They’d think you were a little cray cray.  Marketing is the same way.  You need to warm your audience up by leading with great value before the ask.  Going back to my original point, this takes time. If you’re not willing to be patient and spend a decent amount of money on ad spend, then you should not be running ads.  I don’t mean to be harsh, but I’ve seen this over and over in my business from potential clients telling me that they want to make money by using Facebook ads to sell a product. (“Great,” I think!) Then, in their next breath, they say it has to happen in a month and they have $200 to spend on ads.

Face palm.

So, what’s a realistic amount of time before you can really nail your audience and see some real results?

3 months. At the very least.

And how much money should you spend on ads?

It definitely varies based on the goal of your campaign, but I would say at least $500 a month. You could spend $300, but you’re then limited to a number of images and audiences you can test.  Without testing, you’ll take a longer time to nail that perfect audience.

So my friends, really think long and hard about how committed you are to using Facebook ads to grow your business and accept that it will take time.  

Slow and steady wins the race.

Want to learn more about Facebook ads? Join my group The Facebook Ads Classroom.