When it comes to running Facebook ads, you have 2 options:
➡ pay $1000-$4000 for an “expert” to run your ads, or
➡ learn to do it yourself.
Let’s do a little math to see what kind of an ROI you can expect from both of these options:
1. You pay someone to run your ads for you.
Let’s say you find a nice, semi-experienced Facebook ads consultant to run your ads. They only charge you $1500 for the entire launch. (This is basically the LEAST you’re going to pay for someone who actually knows what they’re doing . . . at least they say they do.)
- Cost to outsource ads: $1,500
- Investment in ads: $1,000
- Price of your course: $500
- Average cost per new subscriber from ads: $2.00 (This is in an ideal world, but lots of people pay way more.)
- New leads from FB ads: 500
- % of FB ad leads who buy your course: 1%
- Revenue from FB ad leads: $2,500
- Your profit after paying for the ads: $1,500
- Your profit after paying your ad consultant: $0
Ouch.
Let’s change things around, imagining that you’re running your OWN ads.
- Investment in ads: $1,000
- Price of your course: $500
- Average cost per new subscriber from ads: $3 (because hey, it took you a little longer to nail down your most successful audience + creative + landing page, etc.)
- New leads from FB ads: 333
- % of FB ad leads who buy your course: 1%
- Revenue from FB ad leads: $1,666.67
- Your profit after paying for the ads: $666.67
See? You actually make a profit on your campaign! But . . . you might think: “why would I burden myself with such a huge task just to make $666.67?”
Because return-on-investment can’t be measured in just ONE launch (or one month of an evergreen funnel).
Let’s say you go to relaunch again in 6 months. You’ve learned a TON about what worked and what didn’t in your previous launch, and you’ve improved everything about the sales funnel, from the opt-in to the promo emails to the testimonials on your sales page.
Here come the numbers again:
- Investment in ads this time: $2,000
- Price of your course: $500 <–but it’s probably time to raise the price, don’t you think?
- Average cost per new subscriber from ads: $2 <– maybe your leads are even cheaper!
- New leads from FB ads: 500
- % of FB ad leads who buy your course: 2% <– damn, you doubled your conversion rate!
- Revenue from FB ad leads: $10,000
- Your profit after paying for the ads: $8,000
See how much more money you can make from the same investment in ads? I am dead certain that the second time around, it’ll take you way less time to put together and monitor your ads. All you need to do is modify your best performing ads from the first round, do a little duplicating magic in the Ads Manager, and voila! Facebook ads are so. much. simpler this time around.
There are things in MY business that I dream about permanently outsourcing. (Writing sales copy, for example.) I fully intend to have a dedicated copywriter on my team one day, so I can focus on other things that I don’t completely DREAD.
But here’s the thing: if that copywriter flakes on me, calls out sick, or suddenly stops being effective, I won’t be left in the lurch. I’ll be able to SEE if the quality of her work is starting to go down. I’ll be able to pick up the slack in the case of an emergency and still write DECENT enough sales copy.
Ever read something like this? “I hired someone to run my ads, and it was a BUST. Complete waste of money.”
I see people posting about this in Facebook groups all. the. time. And I always wonder: does this person know WHY the ads didn’t work? Did the consultant not know what they were doing? Or were there problems with the offer/the copy/the audience/the tracking?
Most hugely successful business owners will tell you that, at the very least, you need to have a BASIC KNOWLEDGE of Facebook ads when you eventually outsource it. That way you can evaluate that person’s work and not blindly trust them when they say things are going great.
Unless you’re consistently launching $2,000 products in your business, the economics of outsourcing Facebook ads don’t usually add up in your favor. That’s because you have to spend money on your ads *and* the person running them. The cost of the consultant cuts DEEP into your profits (not to mention all the other things you’re spending money on in hopes of having a successful launch).
I’d much rather see you spend your money on a copywriter for your sales page or a marketing strategist to help you plan out your launch, instead of blowing it on an ad consultant who’s probably going to implement the exact strategy I teach in Absolute FB Ads. Click here for more info and to join us today!
I’ve seen ads linking directly to sales pages…
Does this convert well?
I know you talked about this in your webinar.
I just want to be clear.
Is it better to lead people to the optin even if they already know you?
Or it’s ok to lead them to the sales page from the Ad?
Hi Malaika, if you want to run ads that lead to a sales page, I highly recommend you target people who, as you said, already know you (e.g. your fans or subscribers). It’s not impossible to sell with ads that target people who aren’t connected to you somehow, but no, those ads don’t convert that well.
Hope that answers your question!
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Yo Claire, just wanted to let you know, your writing in this blog post is funny and easy to read. Thanks for the laughs :)
Claire, again, you nailed it!
I am a Facebook Ads Consultant so it’s a bit hard for me to say that you are entirely right, however… you are!
“But in most cases, they haven’t taken the time to test out paid advertising. They don’t have an idea of whether or not their audience is one that responds well to Facebook ads. They don’t know their landing page’s conversion rate. Most often they’ve never launched this product or service before, so they have no idea whether people are going to get excited about it and buy.”
I had back to back clients that wanted to launch their new products without knowing if it would work on FB, since they are way too busy (Creative type persons) they asked me to do the job. Boy, I have worked SO hard at making the ads working and… it didn’t! Their audience is just NOT on FB! It happens and that’s normal but I find it hard to tell a client that their audience is just not there.