The Art of Online Business

DON'T Start Facebook & Instgram Ads Until You Watch This

• Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie

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If you’ve been wondering whether it’s the right time to run Facebook and Instagram ads, this episode will save you a lot of money and frustration. 

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I break down two common situations where ads are almost guaranteed to be expensive and ineffective... and what to do instead to grow your list, test your messaging, and set yourself up for profitable campaigns later. 

Learn simple, organic strategies I recommend to my own clients, plus a reminder that ads are a skill that take time (and sometimes money) to master.



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Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:

Speaker 1:

Hey there, this is gonna be a chat like over matcha tea. If you and me met at a business retreat and you were like Quajo, I've been listening to the podcast and I was thinking about asking you about starting Facebook and Instagram ads and I would ask you some questions. But, most importantly, if you share anything in common with the two people that I'm going to share about, then you probably should not start Facebook and Instagram ads Not never, just not right now. And so recently, two folks have DM'd me on Instagram it's Q-U-A-Y-J-O If you wanna DM me and ask too but they both were interested in running Facebook and Instagram ads. One has a offer and she wanted to build her email list and, at the same time, test this new offer.

Speaker 1:

And if you're in this situation where you have a new offer and it's maybe sold some or not at all, you're launching it from scratch. For example, you are working with like a curriculum designer and you're creating a new offer and it's going to launch soon and you want to use Facebook and Instagram ads to first build your email list for the next two or three months and then launch your offer first time ever in a launch like a webinar. I would say, hmm, probably not a good time to run Facebook and Instagram ads. And here's why. Here's why Building your email list with Facebook and Instagram ads is great in and of itself if you already have a proven funnel, let's just say a way of taking somebody down the journey from being a lead to actually being your customer and getting or client and getting great results from the program that you offer. Launch a course is not a good bet Because, while you may get great people onto your email list I don't doubt that with Facebook and Instagram ads but what I do doubt is, before the thing the program, the coaching offer, the course has sold, there is a lot of messaging between here and way over there. When that course is going to sell. That needs to be tweaked and adjusted. And would I wager your hard-earned money on getting leads now for a launch that's going to happen with a program or course or offer, dear course creator, that hasn't been launched yet? No, I would not.

Speaker 1:

What about the second scenario? You have have an offer, some people have bought it, but if we're being honest, it's the beginning stages, as in it's taken a lot of let's call it hand-to-hand DMs and combats to sell less than 10 of your offer and maybe some family has bought it too. Could we use Facebook and Instagram ads here? Probably not, because of some other factors. Is this you? Your email list is fledgling Like we're talking grandma and grandpa, mother, brother, sister got on the email list to support you in your new venture.

Speaker 1:

You might have a course already, or you might also have tons of success already as a professional, in whatever space you're in. Let's say, you're a psychologist who serves business owners right and helps them break through, so to speak, so they like break through their mental stuff so they can actually go and grow their business. Right, and you're great at it in real life and venturing into the online space. But your Instagram account and this is completely not throwing shade on folks with small Instagram accounts here's the reality, though Like your Instagram account, like has almost no people following, like a couple hundred, right, and your email list? It's also below a hundred. You know 75 50 folks and your website, while it's there and it looks great, hasn't had a lot of traffic.

Speaker 1:

This isn't not the time for you to start Facebook and Instagram ads, because this is the hardest time for your business, because it's still growing, and so spending money on Facebook Instagram ads to bring leads to your business at this stage is going to be the most expensive. Couple of reasons would be because the Meta's algorithm doesn't have a bunch of warm audience data, warm audiences being your Instagram, your Facebook followers, your website visitors, your email list subscribers. It doesn't have a lot of warm audience data, warm audiences being your Instagram, your Facebook followers, your website visitors, your email list subscribers. It doesn't have a lot of warm audience data to optimize off of, to learn from. And then also, your messaging is at a while.

Speaker 1:

You're an expert, possibly, at delivering transformation, your messaging, which is just what you can do, but, spoken in terms of your future clients' needs and what is really ailing them mentally at the moment surrounding the problem that you are an expert at solving, your messaging still needs to evolve some. That's not me casting judgment, it's just what I've seen. You know, it's very typical that we'll be good at something that solves a problem, but that problem might have five pain points or five frustrations that stem from that problem, and not all those frustrations will prompt somebody to take a move and fix that problem. Equally, maybe there's one out of five that really will, I guess really will trigger. Now I don't want to say trigger, because I don't like triggering, that makes me think of kind of poking at pain points on purpose but I mean one of those five will really move somebody off the fence to fix this problem rather than still entertain the problem right.

Speaker 1:

And so at this stage in your business it's going to cost a lot of money with ads to prove out that messaging and you just don't wanna do that. And this is what I would say to you if we met up at a business retreat and you asked me about running Facebook ads at any of those stages. Now, if those what I just said like, if you identified with those or they, sound familiar, here's the good news, because I used to coach online course creators in funnels, not just Facebook and Instagram ads and you know how to construct their teams and all this great stuff right. So here's the good news is you can use and there's tons of folks that teach this, but you can use organic strategies or strategies that rely on your time to grow your email list with the right kind of person Before you ever start Facebook or Instagram ads. You can still sell your course.

Speaker 1:

One great thing is you can test messaging. You can post organic Instagram Reels or videos, if you will, of the vertical kind, to your Instagram account and you can let the algorithm work on your behalf. And I know you might be like oh, quajo, the algorithm is against me or I've been shadow banned. I post content and nobody watches it. I get very few views, quajo, what's going on here? It's not the platform for me, no, it's the platform for you.

Speaker 1:

You just got to remember that Instagram wants people's eyeballs to stay on the platform or on videos as long as possible, and so if the content that you're making isn't attracting eyeballs, it's not that Instagram doesn't like you. It's most likely that the angle that you're presenting that content from needs to be changed. Remember, we talked about pain points. Well, one pain point, but five different frustrations. Well, take your content and kind of go and plug in one of those other frustrations to your content. It also could be the video skills need to level up a bit, and we all go through this same process.

Speaker 1:

It's been so hard for me and, after you know, in my other business, back when I taught Chinese, I was telling my daughter yesterday because she's fascinated with YouTube channels right now, nine years old, and she wants her own channel so she can be YouTube famous and and she's like dad, you had a YouTube channel and you had 20,000 subscribers. Well, first she asked me how many subscribers. I was like 20,000. I think it's 21,300. Not that anybody stopped counting when it all came crumbling down due to getting stuck outside of China during the pandemic, but that's another story about me and my family and so I told her it wasn't easy and I showed her that I had to create 345 videos, I believe, on that channel and that, out of the 345 videos, only like one video got more than 100,000 views I think it was like 100,044 or something like that and then the next video didn't even have over 100,000 views and the like 20 most popular videos. By the time you get to the 20th place, it was like down around 20,000 views, which isn't so so much for for YouTube once you got a good thing going, and so what I want to say is you can test messaging with your Instagram reels and see what starts to pop off, so to speak, with views, see what starts to get you comments, and then you know that you're starting to hit upon messaging that's resonating with potential ideal clients or customers surrounding the expertise that you were put on this earth to deliver.

Speaker 1:

Another great way to grow your email list that I don't see a lot of people doing in the beginning, because we kind of me included we get in our heads about this is find other folks that serve the same niche that you serve in a complimentary, non-competitive way, and collaborate with them by simply reaching out. And this is better. It's easier to reach out to somebody who is about at the same stage as you business-wise right, you can guesstimate these sort of things but reach out and say, hey, we both serve this niche, let's grow together. I have my lead magnet, you have your lead magnet. Why don't I promote your lead magnet to my email list with like a three-part series and you promote my lead magnet to your email list with like a three-part email series, and then we'll basically just swap lists and grow.

Speaker 1:

Or you know what? We're both at about the same level in Instagram, land of followers. Why don't we do some content together? I'll promote you, you promote me, or I'll just give you shout outs in my Instagram stories. You know, at the top there's collaboration. At the top there's collaboration. At the bottom, there's competition. I've done this and it actually works quite well. You know people that have over 20,000, over 30,000, 100,000 subscribers to the email list. They do that too. Those are two great strategies. Actually, the email list cross promotion strategy is one that's very powerful and much easier to do than figuring out the video equation for social media.

Speaker 1:

It's just that you gotta get over, if this is your fear of reaching out to people, and understand that other folks on the internet, if they're the right kind of folks want your success too, and you also could accelerate that process by just going to in-person events. I, in an effort to and along the journey of growing my facebook and instagram, you know, boutique ad studio decided this year to go to more in-person events, and it's been fruitful. But before I actually arrived at the in-person event, I had to choose, and I also have gone to some events that have been great, but I've gone to some events that haven't been so good, so I had to spend that money on a plane ticket, and then I also had to go there and open mouth, open business. I had to talk to people, right? I also had to learn to talk about my business in a way that attracts other people, and so there's all of these reasons that I could have been scared. Well, actually, the whole thing is scary, although I love meeting new people, you know, learning new skills on meeting new people and then it's like, oh, but I have to get this right, you know, in order to grow my business. And you know, there's so many points where you know I could just shrink up inside and turn around and go home, because I'd really enjoy just being at home here in Mexico driving remote control cars with my son anyways, or playing board games, my favorite being Dominion or Ticket to Ride. Dm me on Instagram if you like playing those board games too, but I enjoy playing those with my wife and and you know, me and my daughter we're making this cool new YouTube channel together. I could do those things. Those are easy. I don't have to go through rejection or stumbling over my words to do those. This episode is pretty much done right here. Go and do those things. Grow your business that way first.

Speaker 1:

Don't lose money unnecessarily on Facebook and Instagram ads Now. Even when it is time for you to run ads and maybe you're going to reach out to me right now, fine, great, I'm down to talk but even when it makes sense for your business to be running Facebook and Instagram ads. Most likely you'll go through some period or some phase where you do lose money. It's not a quick fix. I always say Jesus saves Facebook and Instagram ads. Do not. You're guaranteed. Even if you listen to my podcast and all the good YouTube videos that I have about Facebook and Instagram's ad strategy, there's still a time where you will lose money.

Speaker 1:

I can guarantee that you will lose some money for a bit of time because it takes testing and it takes learning the skill before you become good at it. So I just want to throw out that disclaimer. I am an ads manager, yes, but I have not been your ads manager probably not yet. And just because I teach strategies and you learn all the right strategies doesn't mean they'll work right out the gate for you, because you have to take them and apply them to your business's unique situation. But it is Absolutely worth it once you get to that stage and you may never get to that stage there's folks who have Businesses that do so much revenue off of just what we'll say are non-paid marketing strategies.

Speaker 1:

Either way, there's the mountain. It's time to start taking some steps up into the foothills because once you get to your first peak, so to speak. You're able to serve more people. Your family is blessed because you got more revenue coming in. You're more fulfilled because you are doing what you were meant to be doing here on this earth during your lifetime, and more people are happy and lives are changed because they're going through the transformation that you could provide for them. Until the next time you hear from me, take care, be blessed and we'll see each other in the next one. Goodbye.

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Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie

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