The Cost of 155 Subscribers in 24 Hours – How to Automate List Building

In the course of about 24 hours, my friend’s email list grew by 155 people.

Actually, I’m sure it grew by a whole lot more than that. This small biz owner is doing a lot of different things to grow her list before the cart opens for her product launch in a couple weeks.

But I know about those 155 new subscribers because I made them happen. They found her site and opted in as a result of the Facebook ads that we’re running. Facebook tells me exactly how many people “converted” and how much it cost to bring each one of those people onto the list.

Guide to Facebook Ads
Click the image to get your free guide to list building with Facebook ads!

(Yesterday each conversion cost $0.64 on average. In the spirit of full disclosure, the numbers for this campaign weren’t this good in the beginning. It took me a couple days to find the targeting sweet spot, but once we hit it, the cost per conversion dropped almost by half. The average cost per conversion over the lifetime of the campaign is $0.84.)

THIS IS IMPORTANT: everyone’s ads will have different results. Even mine can still be a LOT more expensive than a dollar per sign-up. So make sure you keep reading and do the math!

Neither my friend nor I even looked at her ad account yesterday. The ads ran completely on autopilot, and the list sign-ups came in on their own.

By the time my friend opens the cart for her current product launch, she should have around 1000 new people on her list that cost her about $1,000.

To figure out if paying for Facebook ads makes sense for your business, you have to run the numbers. It’s all about your conversion rate – Tara Gentile gives a great explanation of this math in her post, Sales is a Numbers Game: Are You Adding to the Number That Counts?

Think about this: if you spend $100 to bring 100 people onto your list, and 2 of those people buy your $300 product, your ROI is $500. Even if only one of them buys, you still net $200.

Make sure you do the math for yourself – looking at your conversion rate is crucial in making this decision. One thing is true for all businesses, though: the more expensive your product, the more paying to build your list makes sense.

Ready to try Facebook ads to build your list? Grab my free guide to setting up your entire campaign here.

If you’ve tried list building with Facebook ads before, let us all know how it went in the comments below! If you weren’t happy with the results, tell me why and I’ll see if I can help you tweak the campaign for next time.