Are Facebook Ads worth it in 2023? With Aggie Meroni

Whenever you consider running ads, you worry - what if you just lose money? How much should you spend? What should be in your ad? What if no one buys what you’re advertising? In this episode, with ads specialist Aggie Meroni, you’ll learn about how to run profitable ads without spending an arm and a leg. 

Aggie Meroni is a Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest Ads specialist. She is the founder of WhiteBee Digital and the host of the Freelance Ads Podcast. 

“You have to think about the context of people scrolling. The dog’s barking, the kids are fighting, the oven dings. People aren't a hundred percent focused on their phones. So, you need to capture that attention. You need to do something that will stop them in their tracks.” (18:01) 

6 ways to start creating profitable Facebook and Instagram Ads (tune in for more tips):

1. People buy from people: if it’s possible, show your face in your ads. 
2. Even if you run ads, you still need a strong personal brand:  “the market is not saturated yet, so that is good. However, if you don't have a strong personal brand or you don't have an audience to sell to, it's extremely hard to have a profitable course.” (04:20) 
3. If people don’t want your product/lead magnet/service without ads then they probably won’t want it when you run ads either. You have to validate what you’re putting out before investing money on it.

Links

Aggie Meroni WhiteBee Digital 

The Freelance Ads Club

The Freelance Ads Club Podcast

Leave a podcast review and WIN 1:1 ads coaching with Aggie Meronie:

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2) Share the episode/podcast on one of your social media channels

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Closing date: 31 January 2023

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Transcript

Are Facebook Ads worth it in 2023? With Aggie Meroni

Rosie Parsons  0:00  
Today we welcome social media ads manager, Aggie Meroni. I'll be asking her for all her tips on running profitable ads on Facebook and Instagram, and what mistakes we should look out for. So hi, Aggies. lovely to have you with us. It would be great if you could introduce yourself and what you do.

Aggie Meroni  0:18  
Sure. So my name is Angie Meroni, and I run a business called WhiteBee Digital. I'm a specialist in social media advertising, particularly Facebook ads and Instagram ads known as meta ads now, and I also support brands with their Pinterest and Tik Tok advertising as well.

Rosie Parsons  0:38  
So what would you say what the most common mistakes you see people make when they're running ads.

Aggie Meroni  0:43  
So there are quite a few things to trip advertisers up. So I'd say it's definitely not easy. If you're having a goal on your own. The first thing that people struggle with, and it's completely understandable is actually navigating the system that is meta. So I kind of see it as a bit of a Frankenstein the whole system, it's one of the oldest ad platforms on social media. And you can tell when you use it, because you feel like there are lots of chunks have just been bolted on as systems evolved. So a lot of advertisers call me in for support in how they can actually set themselves up once they've had problems. Yeah. But to be honest, since iOS 14, the biggest, which is for people that don't know, it was a big privacy update that happened in April 2021, which meant that users could opt out of having their data tracked when they're on their mobile devices, apple that is, so lots of advertisers are still using tactics that worked before the updates. And since then everything changed, which is not helpful at all. So I'd say something that lots of people don't take into consideration is the thoughts that you need to put into your campaigns. So what is What's the objective? Like what you're trying to achieve from your ads? Is it that you're building an email list? So you need people to sign up? Is it that you have a service you want people to book onto so or maybe it's a workshop, maybe you've got a course, if you're selling products, maybe you've got a certain product range? You know, maybe you've got bestsellers, you want to sell more of those. So being really clear about what you want to achieve, then having a think about okay, well, how much can I actually afford to spend? Unfortunately, you really need to invest in your ad budget, it's not the days of putting £5 a day are gone, unfortunately. So being able to calculate your costs is important. And then having a think about what what imagery and videos do you have. So this is different depending on whether you're selling products or service. So for example, selling products, and I usually work product based businesses, it will be do we have studio shots? Do we have shots of people using our products, like actual customers? Do we have flatlays views, if you're a service based business, maybe you are your business, you are the face of your business. Something that works really well is videos of yourself talking to the camera, which I know a lot of people like apps, but these are awful. Honestly, people it's like buy from people. And so if they can see who they're buying from, if they get a good feel from you, if you have subtitles on your videos, all that kind of thing can really help you achieve your goals when you're advertising. And these are things like really simple things, I think, just little tips that can really help improve your performance.

Rosie Parsons  3:51  
Hmm. Wow, loads of great information there. And it got me thinking. So you're saying like, think about your objective? What would you recommend that people's objective should be like, can we just if we've got a course to sell, can we just like push it out there to a cold audience? Like what what should we be doing?

Aggie Meroni  4:07  
So this is actually really interesting, and it's something that is growing markets. And I know you're like building and cautious though I've released many courses is that the market is not saturated yet, so that is good. However, if you don't have a strong personal brand, or you don't have an audience to sell to it's extremely hard to have a profitable course. Now, this is something that people are becoming more aware of and course creating courses are starting to include in their syllabuses as well. How do you actually get people about your first answer an amazing way to do this, but you need something called a funnel a sales funnel. If you're selling a course for £1000 or $1,000, for example, It's really unlikely that someone that doesn't know you is going to invest £1000 from seeing your ad. So you need to do something called warming up your audience. So this is the process from taking someone from having no idea who you are having no idea what problem you solve, to getting interested in, you might be doing a bit of research going on your organic social profiles, maybe they'll join your email list. And then they'll become a raving fan of yours and buy the things that you're selling. So that is effectively what your sales funnel is. Now, a lot of people will say, a common funnel that people use is they will have something called a lead magnet. So they might have a free resource, they might have a guide, they might have a mini pre recorded video, they might have a live masterclass that they're promoting.

Rosie Parsons  5:57  
So if, for example, we had a course, just saying like I might be launching a course, is very interesting to me as well. And like, can we just launch a course straight to a cold audience? Or is that going to work.

Aggie Meroni  6:10  
So in my experience, this never works. And the reason for that is, you need to have some level of trust with your audience, for them to have confidence that what they're investing in with you is worth the money. Unfortunately, at the moment, there are a lot of bad courses out there. So it's really important. And this is something that is being taught more and more by people that teach you how to create online courses is how to build an audience. So you have people to sell your course to, because there's no point creating something no one wants or no one's going to buy. There's something called a sales funnel. And this is a process where you take someone from having no idea who you are to discovering you being intrigued enough to do a bit of research on you maybe checks your organic social profiles, might check out your website, maybe you've got a blog, or YouTube channel, whatever it is, however else you'll present organically, they'll kind of start following you and getting to know you. And then they'll be intrigued enough to maybe join your mailing list. Maybe you'll do like a free webinar or that you'll have like a download they can have. And then as they get to know you that trust is built, they can see the value that you offer, they can see that you can solve their problem, and then they will invest in your course. So I have had course creators approached me and they'll have £1000 course or £1500 course, zero followers zero email list, and I think I'll just run some Facebook ads, and I'll make my millions, unfortunately, it doesn't work -  if it did, everyone would be doing it. Right. Otherwise, I'd be like, yeah. It is a long process. But it's totally doable. So you need to kind of think backwards. So you have your course or you have your idea for your big ticket item. You think, okay, these are the problems or this is the big problem that I'm helping people with. And then you kind of take bites backwards from there. So it's like, okay, how do I call out to people that I want to buy this course, like who are the people that are going to be interested. So you'll have an idea about who you're targeting. And I'd say the more specific the person, the better. And the reason for that is your ads and all your marketing need to talk directly to that person. Because now that's marketing is not as good as it was. So your ad copy and your ad creative. So whether it's a video, a static image, stop motion, video, whatever it is, that needs to call out to the person that you're wanting to talk to. So the most common way that people start nurturing that audience is to get their email address somehow. So if your Creator I mean, one of my consultants, you consultancy clients, actually a product based business, but she specialises in course materials for anatomy students. So her net to collect email addresses is a free chapter from one of her anatomy guides. And it's absolutely a it's probably the cheapest leads. I've seen anyone get for like two years that's literally flown off. Well taken on Wow. So and that is so niche. It's so specific. I mean, there's only a very small population of people studying anatomy, whether they're sort of physio Yeah. And doctors, you know, it's very, very specific, but that is why it's working because, you know, people are seeing that is for me, I know exactly who the audience is. And it's a topic that is Maybe the most problematic area of anatomy. So they're like, Yes, I need that I will check my knowledge that I'm really shooting during me that this is going to help me or products. So once people sign up to that email list, they start an email nurture sequence, so they get their free chat a couple of days later, it's like, how did you find your chapter? What did you learn? Or, you know, was there something surprising to you in the chapter, and then there might be some review about the materials. And then there's an offer. So you can get this bundle you know, as as a thank you for joining our community, you get this percentage off the bundle of materials. And then you know, the next team, I can be like, refer friends, where you can have like, no upsell them. So this is the next thing you can buy from us. If you really enjoyed your bundle. Not only have you got someone, not the really important people that you want to speak to so your ideal customers or clients in your on your email list, you've given them a quick win. That's usually the whole point of you know, them giving you your email address. The one thing I would say, and this is something that's probably changed since lockdown, really, everyone was a bit green behind the ears when locked down happens, you know, we were signing up to all the webinars, we were downloading all the free stuff, everyone was like, Yeah, I just want off. Now everyone's like, there's a lot of crap out there, like, I'm going to be really silly. But what I want to, you know, give in return from my email address, because you know, as a as receiving end, as soon as I sign up my thing, my inbox is going to be full, like every day or every day or every week, I'm gonna receive something from this person. So people are becoming a bit more switched on. So that's why you need to be so clear about who it is you're serving and what is going to help them. I think before it was probably you had first mover advantage, and you could probably like scoop on the low hanging fruit. And if you had a kind of well thought out structure or plan, you could probably do really well quite quickly, especially with us. Yeah, now you need to be like, Okay, I need to be really clear. And this is why your audience building is really important as well, because you can keep polling your audience, ask them what they need, what are they struggling with. And then you can just create the things that they need. So that's another

Rosie Parsons  12:19  
and I guess, by having having the email addresses as well, that's really good. Because like on LinkedIn, recently, posts were getting hardly any views because they were updating things, and everyone was freaking out. So I suppose when you've got people's email addresses, you know, whatever happens to your platforms, if you suddenly get kicked off Instagram or something, through no fault of your own, at least you can still contact your people.

Aggie Meroni  12:41  
Absolutely. And this always makes me laugh. I mean, not laugh, it's not funny, but it's kind of predictable. But every now and again, Instagram suddenly throws loads of people up their accounts, their accounts get deleted, everyone's really distressed. This is not new. This happens all the time, I'd say at least every six months, there's like a massive glitch on the social platform. And, you know, businesses that have been building their only presence online for like 510 however many years, even one year, you know, they've you've put your blood, sweat and tears into getting an audience and suddenly it's gone overnight. And then it's a scary time. Because if that's the only way you have to communicate with your audience, but could actually be the end of your business, because you have no way to reach them anymore. And I don't want to say this in a way to like scare you. But you know, your email list is your asset. You own that information. You know, social media is kind of rented land in a way. Yes, it's great to get free exposure, but you don't own it. So you're at the whim of Zuckerberg, who does own it? So definitely, yeah, it's a really good point. Like why you should invest time is actually one of my personal goals for my business, like shirts invest more time and resource and I will actually be running ads myself to build my email list next year.

Rosie Parsons  14:01  
Hmm, brilliant. So like, I don't know about other people. But I certainly have ended up wasting a lot of money on Facebook ads before things that haven't worked, like not turning things off. When they when I thought they were off. How can people not waste money on on Instagram or Facebook ads?

Aggie Meroni  14:19  
So first of all, and this is like a mistake I see often. And I don't know, like if this relates to a lot, Rosie, I'm just saying like, from my experience. Yeah. Yeah, people are too quick to advertise. So especially all this applies to product based businesses too. So I always say you need to have your lead magnet working for you organically. So are you promoting it enough on your social media profiles? Are you doing stories, reels, whatever it is to try and get people to sign up to your email list. If you're realising that people just aren't taking the bait and they're not signing up to your thing, then you have a problem. and add to that problem. So I would say, Are people organically interested in what you're what you're offering? Same product based businesses? Are you selling things without ads, because if you're not selling things organically, maybe you don't really have the product market fit. So maybe it's not something people need a once. And again, if you run ads, you're not gonna make any money either. Because the ads just put your thing, whether it's a downloadable, whether it's a product in front of people, if they don't have a desire for your thing, that no matter how good your ads, you won't sell that thing. So it's a practice.

Rosie Parsons  15:40  
How would you say like, how do you know whether it's your actual product that's sort of not resonating with the audience, or just the way you're describing it? I suppose is that testing it? I suppose maybe.

Aggie Meroni  15:51  
So, you know, if, and this is something that I'm doing myself at the moment. So with your email list, and this is something that's just personally working for me as a service based business, I have the ideas and the night about things that I could serve my audience with in my email list. And then I will literally just put Instagram stories. And so this week, I'm doing this series of emails, and I list every day, what I'm going to write about, or this is the problem that I'm going to be solving on email this week. If you want to get that information, here's the link to subscribe, and I will get away. So I will know what messaging is getting people to sign up. I will also be tracking testing, that people are actually able to sign up so that you know the integration on my websites and my email systems working because sometimes I'll get messages from people. I've tried to sign up and I didn't receive anything. And I'm like, thank goodness, I feel like I did that without ads. Because I've actually had it was actually from another ads manager was running ads. So I thought I'll sign up. So free beaks actually sounds really interesting. And the freebie never came. Yeah, that integration and automation is broken, which is such a waste of money. So I would definitely make sure that your automation is that your integration is working. And then once you have that running well you're like, okay, the tech is fine. I've tested different angles to get people interested in my free thing. Okay, I'm getting signups now is the time to test and maybe try some ads. So yeah, I would test like the testing thing. I know, we you know, one of the things you wanted to ask me was like, what should you test when you run ads? Yeah, the unhelpful answer is you can test absolutely everything when it comes to ads. How do I know that people don't have infinite resources? Infinite time. So my approach, personally, is I think about the psychology of ads. So when someone is scrolling aimlessly on their phone, which they do, like so much every day, if it's like 300 feet a day or something, people are scrolling mindlessly. And you have to think about the context of people scrolling so the dogs barking, the kids are fighting the ovens dings on you know, it's never people aren't 100% focused on their phone. It's very much something that's happening when you want or even watching TV something you're doing what Yeah. So you know, I need to capture that attention. I need to do something that will stop them in their tracks. This is the difference with social media advertising, it's not that you're definitely going to sell from the ad you need to stop them. They look and then they click so that's the whole point. Yeah, stop the scroll. So it's like right what can I do can have clashing background in the in the image, I can have a moving element in the image. So if you only have photos or only have static imagery, in Canva, you can add moving elements so maybe you've got some sparkles or arrow text rolls in or something like something just to catch the eye. That's a really good tip. Yeah, no, you're a massive colour fan like me. And of course, bright colours are the one when it comes to social media advertising. Something that branding strategist will absolutely hate me saying you don't have to be on brand. Okay, so you can colour in there that isn't strictly your palates. Remember it's just all about the panache you need to have some kind of contrast whether it's a geometric shape in the background or some kind of contrasting font and background something so looks a bit jarring on the on the on the screen. That can be enough yet faces as well what having a human face. So if you're a service provider, something that's worked personally for me when I run ads for my own business is me just talking to the camera. right about what it is that I'm giving away with subtitles always have titles on your videos that always gets best engagement because people are just nosy as well. They just like, why is she doing what she talking about? You know, I'd say with that though be be prepared to get trolled. So, oh, really, you have to be caught you do put yourself in a vulnerable position when you promote yourself as your business. Yeah, definitely people that love to just put negative comments on the ads. And I do speak to founders who get really upset by this and take it really personally. To have a bit of standardly. Yeah, you have to have a bit of a thick skin. It comes to that because you are putting yourself out there. And there are loads of keyboard warriors out on Facebook, unfortunately. But just stay strong. Like be confident in what you're selling and what you're offering and just delete the comments.

Rosie Parsons  20:55  
Can you delete them? So other people don't see them? Yeah, block and delete? Yeah, great. Something

Aggie Meroni  21:00  
that can be good, though, is, first of all, if people are commenting whether it's positive or negative, it is actually bringing your ad cost down. Because Facebook see that as engaging. Your ad is resonating with people. So they'll show it more. Some people will use it as an opportunity to ask questions. So definitely keep an eye on those comments, because it can actually help you make a sale. So yeah, this is why you know, if they need clarification on something, those answering those questions can actually help your bottom line. One thing have definitely helped my mindset about it is if someone is trolling you, and being very unpleasant, it reflects worse on them than it does on you. Because people

Rosie Parsons  21:44  
people don't do that.

Aggie Meroni  21:47  
They would never did, they would never say those things to you face to face, is because they're anonymous online that they feel confident enough to do that. So you can either be very sickly sweet and kill them with kindness, sometimes people vile, so they're racist, or you know, homophobic, things like that. They do not deserve a time. That's just a delete and block situation. I won't even waste on that. Yeah, for product based businesses, a thing that can really upset founders is when people question the quality or the cost of products. But I see that something that you can turn on its head to actually sell why and explain why you do charge what you do. Okay. And the quality of products as well. So sometimes it's an opportunity to kind of

Rosie Parsons  22:35  
Yeah, I guess I've got to try and not get too defensive. Take it too, personally. And it's hard.

Aggie Meroni  22:40  
I mean, your business is your baby, isn't it, and if someone starts attacking it, it's like the mama bear. But I think how you how you handle those situations actually reflects your brand as well. So some people have a playful response. Some people are very formal, and like, you know, email us at this address to address your concern, you know, how you respond really, like reflects back on your brand as well. So that's something

Rosie Parsons  23:08  
Yeah, definitely. And you say so like, say imagine people are clicking on it, they're interested in your freebie. But how would you make sure like, if you're selling out, you're ultimately hoping to sell a higher end course? How do you make sure that the people clicking on it can are actually like the kind of people that can afford it and don't just want the freebie,

Aggie Meroni  23:27  
that's a challenge. But there's no way about that. I think it's actually a numbers game. So I believe that people might not be ready or might not be able to afford it in that moment. That does not mean not buy from you in the future. So especially in high value, products, high value course, it's not unusual for people to not buy from you for a couple of years, because they really need to see the value of what you're doing. So you've probably seen these multi millionaire course creators and they have very aggressive launches. So your inbox will be inundated with three or four times a day with like sending emails. Yeah, they'll have a live launch over a whole week and they will make seven or eight figures from that launch. Realistically, are that like you know, people just starting out on course creation don't have the resource. Yeah, time for those launch. People have whole teams behind them. They have like, you know, shooting auctions, all this kind of things big business. Starting out. Yeah, it's very much having the personal touch. So someone that I have bought courses from her DMs are always open. You can you know, if you have any questions about any of her launches, you can just ask her direct questions, which is good. I think that's a nice touch to reassure people. And also when you're a course creator, having social proof. So your ideal customer it's kind of like a debated topic in the course creation wild, but whether you should do beaters, if you've never done a course, yeah, you can if you have a smaller course that you get people on, just so that you have some kind of reviews, so you can share to say, this is exactly what I needed solve my problems. It was digestible. You know, Rosie was a great teacher, she did everything. Clearly, I felt comfortable the whole way through and supported those kinds of reviews will reassure people in the future, that that's a worthy investment. It's harder to do something with no reviews, or no past clients or customers. Yeah.

Rosie Parsons  25:38  
So you were saying about doing beta testing? Would you get like a smaller group of people to kind of do the course first and then give you feedback? And hopefully get some nice reviews that way?

Aggie Meroni  25:47  
Yeah. So that's personally what I do. And it works well for me, not only because they're more forgiving, so things could go wrong, and they probably will go wrong the first time you run something. So things might load, maybe your zoom links, not right, or, you know, these little niggles that happen to the best of us, if those those happens with a smaller group, and it'll probably be a very warm audience that will want to sign up with you that first time. The feedback they give you will be shared with love so that, you know, they'll say yeah, wasn't quite right. But we really love the course maybe next time try this or, you know, it wouldn't be less of a personal attack. And it'll be more collaborative. Yeah, helping you grow. Yeah. And how you do 2.0, like your next version of the course. Yeah, you'll be tweaking materials. So there'll be things up as you teach the course. And you'll think, oh, okay, I need to add a slide just to cover that, because we went into that in a bit more detail than I expected, or questions come up, and you'll think, oh, okay, I didn't realise that that was such a big problem, or that we needed to explore that a bit more. And this is kind of the advice I give people that want to go evergreen, you should run your course, like six or seven times live first, because you will understand, okay, all the all the problems, you'll see all the questions, you'll also see how people learn because people learn in different ways some people like to write, so you can do a view only version of the slides. Some people learn best with video with subtitles, some learn best without subtitles, some people need a transcript, that's very overwhelming and deal with the first time you run something. So just getting feedback. I'm building that in that can really help you. And also, you know, I think you need to launch things a few times to really understand what messaging works. So once you know what people are, it's because you said this that I signed up, or it's because this person, do a review. And I really respect that person. I thought they really must be a good course. So you know that you're going to use that messaging and that review the next time you launch and it will just slowly build up there. Yeah, then you have like a watertight products when you go evergreen.

Rosie Parsons  27:58  
Yeah, that's great. And I suppose that's like, it's similarly for people that aren't doing a course, but have got a service or a product, like having beta testers and inviting people at reduced rate to experience your offer, or your product in exchange for feedback is going to be a great way to get reviews and to improve improve your service, isn't

Aggie Meroni  28:18  
it? Yeah, absolutely. It's custom kind of like customer feedback, but you're getting paid to do it. I noticed something that a lot of people do is they will launch a course before they've actually finished creating it, which slightly works really well. For some people, some people can't deal with the stress of that thinking, Oh my God, I don't have anything to give them. But it would be really good because you give them the concept of the course you break down what you're gonna be covering each week. And then before each week happens, you send them a questionnaire. And so to be honest, btw, you need to complete every week for me, and then you can tailor it. And then it's pretty much about having that minimum viable product. So it doesn't have to look perfect. It doesn't, you know, it can be very simple. But it's the transformation that you're going to help people achieve. That is the most important thing. And then if you do run it again, and again, you can kind of invest in designers to sort out the look of it and get everything edited nicely. But I think the first time, it's very much the results that you're going to be able to achieve for people and then you just polish it as you go.

Rosie Parsons  29:21  
Yeah, that's great. That's really good feedback. Brilliant. Okay, so why don't some ads seem to work initially really well, and then they start becoming less effective over time.

Aggie Meroni  29:31  
So this is common. And this is why people struggle so much with the ongoing management of ads. So Facebook will find the low hanging fruit at first. So there will be a pool of people at the beginning who been confined straightaway for you. So it might be people that you've engaged with your accounts before. Maybe it's people that match your email list. Maybe it's people that have been on your websites, or people that are very similar but they found two people that have had that behaviour to your business or to you. After that initial pool of low hanging fruit, it takes a bit of time, like learning time for meta to find people for you. But that that's that is just how it is. And there'll be peaks and troughs. So you might have an amazing run on the ads. And then suddenly, the ads stopped working. And it can happen overnight. And this is what people get scared about ads.

Rosie Parsons  30:26  
Yeah, you must be thinking, Oh, great. It's working. I'm gonna be a millionaire. Suddenly, oh, no, oh, my dreams.

Aggie Meroni  30:35  
This is something that ads managers freak out about too. Okay, so this is not just people that do this alongside everything else in their business. Ads managers also are on edge all the time, okay to make sure that they're watching and they know what to do, which I guess is the difference. So ads, managers usually have a backup plan. So they'll always be testing different variations on ads, they'll have probably a list of audiences queued up ready to swap out. The way I do it. So that I'm not panicking is I will have a plan of what as creatives I need. So I need two videos, I need three static images. Can I mix and match that into a carousel? Is there something that worked really well, organically? Was there a post that I got loads of interactions with? Can I make that into an ad? So I'll have the imagery in one bucket or the videos of creatives, then I think what messaging we're having, like, do I have a few reviews? I can add? Do I have any PR mentions? What kind of problems? Am I going to be agitating in that ad and then solving so people know what I'm helping with? Or, you know, is it something they don't really need, but they really want? So, you know, for example, if you're selling jewellery, no one really needs jewellery, but it's just so nice. You just wanted it right? So how do I have that aspirational copy to make people really want that thing. And that's the same with a service that people might not necessarily need the service that you have, but it will really help their lives make it better. So you know, it's not a life saving service. But you know, maybe it'll just make their quality of life better, maybe it'll free up some time for them. So they're not always feeling stressed. Or, you know, they could look after their kids on a Friday evening. But you know, it'd be great to have a babysitter, you know, it would just make give them some breathing space for one evening. So you know, you'd have to kind of think about, you know, what the benefits are, and literally list that in your copy and have it as options or power. So your if your ad suddenly stops, you're not thinking sugar, I have nothing to swap him. You know, the head of Facebook, basically,

Rosie Parsons  32:49  
yeah. Brilliant. And how long did ads generally keep working for if an ad is working? Well? Do you just leave it up indefinitely? Or do they have like a shelf life.

Aggie Meroni  32:59  
So this is annoying thing about meta, your ads could run really well, if you have one of these unicorn ads, which just performs brilliantly, no matter what you run against it, that could run for months. And I've known brands where they've had one ad, which has literally built their business in a year. And but that is unusual, that is written ads can just stop working. And that is really annoying. It could they could literally work for like a week, and then they burn out. And that is unfortunately more. So it. This is why since I was 14, it's really important to have lots of creative assets ready, some something some brands are producing, like 10 or 12 different creatives every week. That's the kind of volume you need to. Yeah, I mean, if you're selling products can be that high. For service based, it really can just be that you have different videos that you've been recorded for yourself with different messaging or different hooks different backgrounds. So you can literally have the same scripts, and just record yourself in different places. So maybe one day, it'll be like, you know, you might do it at your desk, or you might do it in your living room or your kitchen. It's got this gallery wall behind you though, so there'll be visuals for people, so don't get bored. So that can just rejuvenate your campaigns.

Rosie Parsons  34:20  
Oh, that's great. Very nice tips. Thank you. So you're talking about like the updates that I os 14. And I did it is still the same thing where we've got pixel and then it then follows us around the internet. Because what's your thoughts on that? Is that still a thing where we can like see something on Facebook and then suddenly we were on Pinterest that comes up and we're on google it comes up and we're like stalking me.

Aggie Meroni  34:44  
So if you have an Apple device and you've opted out having your data tracked, you will not be tracked around the internet. So you know your Facebook pixel will not pick up that you were there and that you went to the website. But if you're If you're advertising on Pinterest, and you have the Pinterest tag set up, that won't impact you as much that you might be retargeted. So you just have to there's right, different things work in different ways. One thing, which I think is really misunderstood, is people really panic about being tracked online, I would say that your mobile device probably has more information about you than maybe Facebook does, just because it's on you all the time, like people like the Apple know who you're sleeping next to at night, they know where you're going every time. They know you more than I do. There's a lot of data that is tracked on you. The one thing which I think is important to remember as well is any data that is tracked on your pixel is hashed. So people don't know like Facebook doesn't know that that data relates to you. They just know it relates to your device, right? So you know, they'll never say, Oh, John Smith at this address, likes Lamborghinis and ice cream going to this park. It's not that Facebook doesn't data. And if anyone ever hacked in, they would never know that they just see you as data points. So that's like quite a weird thing to think about. When it comes to data track do

Rosie Parsons  36:17  
you recommend people with if you're running ads that you do try and try and appear like on LinkedIn and Pinterest and Instagram? Or is it too much to appear in every place that people are going?

Aggie Meroni  36:31  
I think it really, really needs to be clear on who you're speaking to, like, what is the what is the objective, if you have a limited budget, I would just go all in on one. LinkedIn is a lot more expensive than Facebook and Instagram. And I'd say it's probably more targeted to b2b. So there are lots of, for example, you might be a wholesaler, or you might be wholesaling. So you might want to speak to bigger brands that would buy wholesale from you. Or if you're a service based business, you might so for example, if you're a coach, depending on who you're targeting, so if your coach targeting exhausted mums, I would probably target them on Facebook and Instagram. Whereas if you're a coach that's being stressed CEOs, you might do some kind of supportive guys as a lead magnet on LinkedIn for a month or two and see how that works. I think as well, I have a long term view when it comes to running ads. So it's something that ideally you'd have switched on all the time. So you'd have just a budget allocated to that in your business. With Facebook ads, I'd say the minimum you'd be spending is 10 pounds a day. So you'd have 300 pounds a month, just have those ads ticking along. And having really, really strong automations and email sequences, sort of nurturing people after sign up. In that sense, it isn't as labour intensive, doing it that way. But it's more the mindset that it's an investment that's going to be ongoing, and making sure that you've done that planning. So it's not always an investment, you know, that people once they sign up, they get certain emails that sell them things. So they cover the cost of what you're using to get them into your email list.

Rosie Parsons  38:24  
So talking of investment, thinking about having ads managers, like what sort of budget are we talking about to have somebody manage ads for us.

Aggie Meroni  38:34  
So the costs are very different, I would say I'd be very dubious of anyone who's charging you less than about 750 a month. And that could be with or without VAT. The reason for that is because it costs a lot to train to be an asset manager. And they can make you a lot of money as well. So the investment is worth it. Obviously, I'd say that because I'm in ads manager that'd be the minimum investment really. And that's probably for the lower end budget. As you spend more on ads, your ads manager fee will go up. So it's relative to what you invest. And they usually have a three month minimum contract just because of that longevity that you need with ads, the more you spend them, the better your results should be.

Rosie Parsons  39:20  
And what kind of price point should people think that is worth like? Well, how to phrase it. So if somebody is selling a course for 100 pounds, is it still worth getting an ads manager or is there a certain price point where it's becomes more beneficial to get an ads manager you're more likely to actually make a profit

Aggie Meroni  39:41  
so when it comes to courses, you need an ecosystem of products. So what you're what typically happens when you run ads for a course for example, is you'll have a ads that runs through a free thing or maybe a really low ticket masterclass, make like 10 pounds or seven pounds Do something like that. And that shouldn't offer the cost of acquiring that person when they sign up. So effectively, that ad is free to run. And then as they as you give them the confirmation page, you've got the upsell. So it's like, Oh, if you know, to help you with this masterclass, here's the workbook and an additional tutorial, blah, blah, and that's 17 pounds. So now you've made 27 pounds from that person, and it's profitable. And then once they do that thing, oh, did you know we've got this extra course for 250 pounds, and then you know, you sell them onto the 1000 pound course, or if they don't want the 250 pound thing, you've got something that you can sell them to for 97. So when you have this ecosystem in place is suddenly a lot more compelling, but they will make a profit on their ads. So yeah, you're just running something to 100 pound products, people aren't that likely to actually spend 100 pounds straightaway, especially even 100 pounds, the 1000 pounds is still big amount of money, if you don't know who that person is. Yeah, sure. 17 pounds is is pretty awesome. $10. So we're always seem to be in dollars, these ads seems to be something that people spend without really thinking. So seems to be like a magic number, like, oh, boy, this thing for $17. And then you get relentlessly targeted by emails and ads again. But that's. And once I think, and this is why organic testing is really important. So if you're getting people to buy by the seven pound thing, or the 10 pound thing, upgrading 17 pound thing, and then buying something else, you know, you're ready for ads, because people are doing being paid in your world. Yeah. And then that's once you have that, that organic side nailed. That's when you bring in the ads manager, right? That's yeah, that's good to know. A lot of ads managers will ask if you have a tested funnel before they will work with you. Because they don't want to waste money. It's really stressful as a manager for you to not make sales for your client, because they're obviously nervous because they're losing money. You're stressed as an ads manager X, you're doing everything you can, but it's just not Something's just not working. Like there's a leak somewhere. Things that people are falling off, and you're making that money back that you that you wanted to.

Rosie Parsons  42:24  
Oh, wow, that's amazing. Oh, this has been really interesting. I've got I got so many questions, but I think that that'll probably be enough. And, yeah, we'll probably have to like do us a part two at some point. But that was really helpful. Thank you very much for spending this time with us. And for all your knowledge that was been really interesting. So one last question, which was, have you got like, if people are interested in learning more about Facebook ads? Have you got any resources and things that you can share? Sure.

Aggie Meroni  42:52  
So if you're not sure if you're ready for ads, I do have a freebie. So I will give Rosie the link to that you can put it in the show notes. If you lose your face because you've doubled in the past and you're really keen to build your email list. I've just released a mini course on how to actually build that campaign in your ads manager. And it's only 49 pounds. It's like a real and it because it's the simplest type of campaign you can run and you can just run it forever. So that's something just yeah, great next year to get that email list built up. And if you want to check out my blog, it's on my website as well. So I will give you the link to that as well Rosie.

Rosie Parsons  43:31  
Brilliant. That's great. Well, thank you very much. Thanks, Rosie. Thanks so much to Maggie for all her great insights today. If you'd like help from Aggie in running ads, then you're in luck. She's given me a fab prize of an hour long one to one with her worth 185 pounds for one of you lucky listeners. To be in with a chance of winning. What you need to do is to subscribe to the podcast, leave a rating and share the podcast on your social media. When you've done that email a screenshot of your share to me at Rosie at Rosie Parsons photography.com with the subject line adds competition by the 31st of January 2023.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai