Learn why starting your Facebook ads right before a launch is a big no-no, just like rushing off in a cold Michigan winter without warming up your car. I discuss the three major pitfalls of last-minute ad campaigns and how they can lead to high stress and low profits.
I share a better strategy for using Facebook ads effectively to ensure your launches are smooth and successful. Plus, I touch on why nurturing leads well before your launch can save you a lot of headaches and boost your profits.
Learn why starting your Facebook ads right before a launch is a big no-no, just like rushing off in a cold Michigan winter without warming up your car. I discuss the three major pitfalls of last-minute ad campaigns and how they can lead to high stress and low profits.
I share a better strategy for using Facebook ads effectively to ensure your launches are smooth and successful. Plus, I touch on why nurturing leads well before your launch can save you a lot of headaches and boost your profits.
Hey there and welcome back to another episode of the art of online business podcast, and you know, september launch season is coming up and that's super busy season for ads managers Like me. Each season I see two scenarios unfold for online course creators that I serve. One is high stress and with lower profits than they could have had, and the other is with lower stress and higher profits. I got an analogy for you, and we all know this one. Let's say you're in Michigan and it's in the depths of the winter and you have a nice car that you believe is worth taking care of. Would you go out to your garage and start up that engine and then go driving two minutes later? The nicer the car is, the bigger the no, never right. Everybody's saying don't ruin your engine like that. So we know that you got to start an engine and let it warm up for a bit. Right, otherwise it's not going to perform as best as it could for you. You're not going to be able to eke out that performance and you could do damage to your car's engine. Well, it's just exactly the same like that for your Facebook ads, and I see this unfortunate scenario unfold, and so in this episode I'm going to explain to you the three reasons. You don't want to wait until the last minute before a launch to start running Facebook ads, and I'll tell you what happened.
Speaker 1:
Back in March, I got an email. I get these emails often, but I got an email from a potential client saying they had a launch coming up in April. This email came in on March 19th and they said they wanted help with their launch ads and asked if I could support. And so I responded to their email with some concerns that I had, expressing my willingness but also some reservations. Primarily that, yes, there were only two weeks between when they emailed and when they needed launch ads to go, or when their launch started. That meant ads would have needed to start right away.
Speaker 1:
But, more importantly, there's three things that happen when you just have this start-stop mentality with Facebook ads and try to turn on ads right before a launch. Here's the first thing. If Instagram and Facebook ads are going to be part of your strategy, then that start-stop behavior it's really bad. It leads to higher lead costs for you because meta likes it when you're running ads continually when they see an account history of ads. Running accounts tend to have better performance with Facebook ads. It's just. It's just facts.
Speaker 1:
Many ad managers will tell you the same Number two high lead costs happen because, with a two week launch window and a high ad budget, because you're bringing in all these leads until your launch right, if that's the only time that you turn on Facebook ads, you are sacrificing the time that it takes to test audiences thoroughly and get to an audience and a combination of ad creative and ad copy and messaging that yields you the lowest lead cost possible for the highest quality lead. This testing is best done with a lead magnet in between launches or with a self liquidating offer, you know, direct to sales low ticket offer with an order bump and an upsell in between launches, so that we hone your ads and your ads targeting so that, when launch time comes, you can get the most qualified leads and the best performing audiences. Yes, we can simultaneously, and I'm speaking for all ad managers but me. I can simultaneously during a two-week launch period, if you haven't run ads for, like the past four months. Yes, I can test and I will test multiple audiences at once and multiple ad once and multiple ad creative and multiple ad copy, as I should. But is it as efficient to do that in a two-week period with a $10,000 launch budget? Absolutely not, absolutely not. Those things take time. Good things, quality things take time. It's just like in college. I was never a a last minute crammer and scientifically they say that you might be able to cram for an exam last minute and your brain can retain it maybe for a day, but the true learning is not there long term.
Speaker 1:
So the third thing is we're in a trust recession and I'm seeing with my clients this shift that's happened in 2024. And quite simply, what we notice is, while in lead magnet, bringing in leads, but people are sitting through cold leads, are sitting through the launch, warming up and then maybe deciding to trust you and do business with you on the second or third launch that they've sat through. And so what we've tested and then done as a result is moved the more of the budget, if you will to lead magnets, to lead generation before launches, because this trust recession is just now. There's tons of people doing what you do. That's just facts. No matter what you do online, unless you're a very special unicorn, there's tons of people doing what you do and it takes longer to build trust because we've all got great Instagram accounts with cool, funny meme ads and great educational value and YouTube channels that just serve our audiences and so our customers.
Speaker 1:
Now our potential clients have just heard a lot and, given what's going on in the economy right now, given we're in an election year and it's just, people are taking longer to make a decision to give their trust to someone, which means that my clients have seen better results putting more of their ad budget towards their lead magnet and doing the tried and true method of nurturing those leads to build trust, and rightfully so. Are they the right person to help them? Yes, they might have. They do have an offer that converts, meaning that they can help their clients. But their clients need time to decide. Do values align? Do they really want to learn from this person? And that takes budget shift towards leads, not last minute launches. Those days are gone, friend. Here's the takeaway If you're looking to start ads management, because your launch is coming up this launch season and your launch converts and you'd like to increase your launch ad budget and not have the extra stress of trying to manage it yourself or just like throwing all those money towards leads right before your launch starts, plus, you'd rather be getting ready for your launch and focusing on the other areas in your business, then click the link in the show notes below and apply for ads management now so we can look at your ad strategy, get your ads machine going for you and do our due diligence my due diligence with your leads magnets and make sure the testing is done right, as it should, so that your launch engine is well oiled, warmed up and I guess your ads engine is well oiled and warmed up and running great when your launch comes.
Speaker 1:
That way, you're not in the dead of a Michigan winter trying to start up your launch from scratch, because we all know how that ends up. And if you're running your own ads and you have a launch that's converting and you would like a more sophisticated launch structure that does a better job because I have experience managing launches that does a better job converting your leads or your cold audience or your warm audience into leads. By the way side note, folks with an email list you're like why would we retarget our email list with ads? Because they're already warm? Yeah, they are already warm, but did you know that usually no more than 3% to 5% of your lead magnet will ever register for a launch?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that means if you have a launch goal of 500 and your email list is only like 1,000 people, then 3% to 5%% of a thousand, that's 50 people max of your thousand person email list.
Speaker 1:
That means if you have a 10,000 person email list, max 500, you know, unless, unless your email open rates and everything, your audience loyalty is way off the charge. But on average, if you need like 500 people to register for your launch and you have a 10,000 person list, okay, but that's still 5% and that's a rosy number of people on your list will sign up organically for a launch. So we gotta target your list with ads. That way we can hit the launch numbers that make sense for your conversions, so that I guess what I mean to say is we can hit the launch registration numbers that make sense for the percentage of people that convert in your launch, so that you can serve the right people and a large enough number of people with the gifts and talents and knowledge that you are blessed to have and meant to help them with in a way that's profitable for your business.
Speaker 1:
And all that little rabbit trail was to say that if you're at the point where you're still running your own ads and you want launch ads that work better for you. There's a different link in the description below and that is a one-on-one coaching link where you can get my eyeballs on your funnel and on your ads so that we can tweak it and you'll know where to tweak it so that it will convert the best way possible in its current state, or a slightly tweaked state for your business, and that your ads can run in the right way so your business can bring in leads and convert into people who you are meant to serve. That's all for this episode, until the next one. Take care and be blessed Bye.
